Relationship philosophy cracked

This is in response to Mr. Smith’s March 29 letter:

How telling that an intensive study of “personality and marriage,” conducted by an embittered male divorcé, would yield conclusions such as this little gem: women, busied by “hair appointments, socials” and other “deviatory” activities, drive their husbands to “sexual starvation.”

And how predictable that the author of such a study would then extrapolate that the reason why wives stand by their scandal-ridden husbands is because they feel guilty about their own deviations.

First off, universalizing either gender in such terms is never prudent because such “conclusions” are invariably erroneous. Second, trivializing (and falsely representing) women’s lives and relegating their existence to sexual objects by saying that their husbands married them purely for sex is a reflection of an uninformed and inhumane gender paradigm.

Statements like Mr. Smith’s are atrociously degrading to all women on the face of the Earth. Furthermore, he managed to portray men as Neanderthal lechers who are motivated chiefly by their carnal instincts and who are incapable of taking responsibility for their own immoral actions.

Though it may be too late for those who have subscribed to Mr. Smith’s marriage and/or relationship philosophy, I would hope that my generation continues to discern the ridiculousness of such antiquated notions that have long since been debunked.

P.S.: Women who are forced to work in prostitution do not “thrive” — just like other sexually abused, exploited and ruthlessly demeaned human beings around the world do not thrive. Perhaps what is thriving is the number of men financing the ultimate degradation of women and children via the sex industry.

Kirsten White
Mount Vernon


Cow died from eating broken glass

We lost a pretty little heifer yesterday. Her belly swelled from internal bleeding and her mouth was cut up. She had eaten glass from a broken beer bottle in her pasture.

Every day, passing cars dispose of their “open containers” by throwing them out of the window. We try to keep the glass picked up but can’t always find it all. You might think that cows are pretty dumb to eat broken glass hidden in the grass, but, in my opinion, the guy who threw the bottle into the pasture in the first place was the idiot.

So for those of you who drink and drive and need to dispose of the evidence, please consider the collateral damage to livestock, and find another solution. It’s not that difficult; you only need to be smarter than the cows. Thank you.

Mindy Coslor
Sedro Woolley


Bush, Ho Chi Minh commonalities

Any commander in chief who authorizes torture should be immediately impeached. Many of us vowed to never be taken prisoner if we were shot down during our 100-mission tour over North Vietnam. We decided that we would rather die than be treated like a terrorist and tortured by the enemy.

I fought for our country for 25 years to ensure our freedoms, and many of my fellow fighter pilots paid the ultimate price for this freedom. Now, we have an administration that condones torture and spies on Americans. Our military combatants have been abused in Iraq and now they have a president who advocates the use of torture.

Lt. Bush avoided combat by hiding behind his family name and connections in Texas — never had to worry about torture. Now, Bush is further abusing our military combatants, as the enemy will have no qualms about returning his torture methods.

It is difficult to distinguish the difference between Bush and Ho Chi Minh when it comes to torture and abuse of the military.

Lt. Col. Val Ross Johnson, USAF (Ret.)
Anacortes


World nearing a new beginning

In my understanding, our world is in an ending which is also a beginning, and has been for several years — the first of its kind since it all began.

This ending and beginning are taking place simultaneously, planetarily and interwovenly.

I sense that the beginning is commencing to emerge out of the ending (which we are reading and hearing about daily), so that the former will become more obvious with time by way of this sign and that — taking us toward peace on earth, while the events of the latter will cease to occur.

This is, without doubt, the most interesting time to be alive.

Leland Mellott
Mount Vernon


Iraq war unleashed devastation

Politicians and pundits continually talk about the war in Iraq in terms of America winning or America losing. Isn’t it at least a bit sickening to speak of an invasion that has caused the death of as many as 1.2 million Iraqis as if it were a sporting event?

In 2006, a study by John Hopkins researchers indicated that more than 600,000 had died due to the war at that time. Since then, studies by Iraqi researchers and the prestigious British polling firm Opinion Research Business have concluded that between 1 million and 1.2 million Iraqis have perished due to the war and the resulting Sunni-Shiite violence. These studies are ignored by our media and dismissed by our politicians. We deny the facts to calm our consciences.

But if we continue to view the war and the death of such a massive amount of innocents in a simple-minded and self-absorbed manner more suited to a baseball exhibition game or a scratch-off lottery ticket, we will not bring anything productive to Iraq; we will never, ever do anything good in this country in which we have unleashed such unthinkable devastation.

Bob Hicks
Clearlake


Liberals’ chickens home to roost

Observing the chaos on the political landscape and the unraveling of the liberals, there is only one conclusion to this mess: Their chickens have come home to roost.

Gary Helm
Burlington


Warming? Who are you kidding?

Fellow Skagitonians, take note.

Divine Revelation has settled it, with this week’s unusually cold weather and late snows! Clearly, this proves that they were dead wrong — those arrogant scientists, secular humanists, pesky evolutionists, Al Gore and his liberal Democrats, and others of that troublesome and fear-mongering ilk — about their pernicious myth of global warming and climate change.

At last, we have some solid and persuasive evidence to settle the argument and end the debate.

Bill Burley
Mount Vernon


We agree on concept of choice

Regarding Martha Williamson’s March 29 letter: Now I get it. We do agree on the concept that we have a choice — “chance to either believe or not.” It’s what we attribute that choice to that we differ on.

You presume that choice is given exclusively by your god; a deity of a belief system which is most often perpetuated through impression upon the psyche of a defenseless infant. While I attribute that choice to my own natural ability to think, free to include or discard the influence of superstition, free to consider all that may be within as well as beyond the confines of your Bible.

You do realize that I have read John 3:16-18, right? You included it in one of your previous redundant letters. And it’s not too hard to find such information, as the dogma of Christianity litter all of American society and can easily be stumbled upon throughout the Internet.

However, if you have just a wee dash of that John 3:16-18 left over, why not give ’er one more shot, Martha? As they say, the third time’s a charm. Who knows, you may just be successful in pulling me into the mental confines of your Bible after all.

If and when you do succeed in your effort, I’ll be sure to announce my born-again status right here in this Saturday Soapbox forum, though I’ll recommend you not hold your breath on that one.

Patrick K. Goff
Sedro-Woolley


Warming doomsayers are lying

We face an economic disaster that could be worse than any most of us have ever seen. The cost of food has doubled or more because we’re converting food stock into a horrible substitute for gasoline. By now you should know how insane this has become.

For years, the environmentalists and assorted others have caused endless destruction in our lives. Today, it appears they have control of our lives as never before. Let’s review this global nonsense with the Kyoto Protocol, made up of subscribing nations that shut out those with far different views.

For almost eight years, Bush has been the butt of snide comments for not signing this notorious accord, comments which ignore the fact that Clinton refused to sign, too. Ninety-five senators also said no. Bit by bit, the fright freaks have won over the minds of those who will fall for anything.

Last year, one of the few who still had a clue, Bush, caved in, too. This crowd also got a slim majority of the not-so-supremes of the court to list CO2 as a dangerous pollutant. Saner minds today said, “Hey, not so fast. There simply isn’t enough evidence, and lots of questions, not to mention the radical ruin of our economy.”

Have you any idea what this idiotic act means for all but those who are getting rich? Make no mistake, too many today don’t care a whit about the results to America and, yes, the world.

If you don’t know squat about this disaster in the making, find out all you can about carbon dioxide.You can’t live without it; it is essential to every living thing. If you have a speck of good sense, you can know this is a deliberate lie and scam.

John Hammons
Anacortes


Wackos destroying Dem Party

Somebody throw my old pal Tom Montgomery a life preserver. His party is disintegrating so fast that he’s thrown himself into a self-created sea of fantasy, as illustrated by his March 29 Saturday Soapbox letter. He doesn’t swim so well there.

His fantasy conversation between Karl Rove and President Bush was cute but completely devoid of the intelligence he usually uses in his letters. Let’s nurse him back to reality.

 Social Security was doomed the day it was created and started it’s final death spasms the day the babies boomed. That was long before either of the Bushes (or Clintons) arrived.

 If anyone sent Fox News a copy of the ranting Rev. Wright, it was Hillary, not Karl.

 This sleazy attempt to discredit John McCain’s war record shows obvious desperation in the leftist camp. Only the lowliest liberal wacko would suggest that having a father and grandfather as admirals was anything other than a huge honor.

Of course, Mr. Montgomery’s letter was a fantasy conversation between two men he considers evil, so he can make these sleazy accusations and still pass himself off as an honorable American patriot.

Somebody tell me, what was wrong with Joseph Biden? I’ll answer that. He had no act for the wacko circus. He isn’t black. He isn’t a woman. And he isn’t gay. All the Democrats needed to do to take the White House was to get Joe to announce that he was secretly a gay atheist with socialistic tendencies, and bang, Hillary/Obama never happened.

I would have voted for Joseph Biden simply because he could have been smart enough to tell the liberal nuts what they need to hear, to get them to do what we need them to do.

That’s reality. Welcome back, Tom.

Jerry Hansen
Burlington


Three-strikes law nabs wrong folks

Back in 2001, the Washington Sentencing Guidelines Commission had recommended removing second-degree robbery and some forms of second-degree assault from the list of offenses that trigger life imprisonment under the harsh three-strikes law. To date, nothing has been done. These offenses are the most common causes of life imprisonment under this law.

The voters approved of this law in 1993 after being told that “by aiming at three-time violent offenders, (it) targets the ‘worst of the worst’ criminals.” Now very few people would consider second-degree robbery or assault as the “worst of the worst” crimes. Those guilty of horrendous crimes are serving this same sentence and surely this punishment was meant for them, the truly “worst of the worst.”

How can we condone incarcerating people for life for low-level offenses? How can we condone the expenditure of $1 million in tax dollars for each of these life sentences?

Cheryl Onstad
Anacortes


Vehicle accidents change lives

Four years ago, my son was involved in a car accident. A young girl ran a stop sign, and he hit her. Not only was this accident her fault, she was under-insured.

She was not injured but my son suffered a significant neck injury, which eventually resulted in having to have two surgeries. This accident has affected his life negatively in almost every single way — physically, emotionally, financially, work-wise, hobbies, you name it.

Here’s my point. In the past 10 days, I have seen four people run stop signs and three people run red lights. Here’s the best example: I am driving the first car sitting at a red light in the intersection. The car behind me pulls into the left-turn lane, runs the red light and makes a right turn in front of me.

I am asking people to stop and think. Do you want to change someone’s life forever because you can’t be bothered to stop or obey a simple traffic law? These little antics and shenanigans really aren’t cute and can have devastating consequences.

Gerine Voegtlin
Mount Vernon