Big cat should’ve been left to live out its 1 life
I guess it takes several officials of the state Game & Fish Department to snare, trap and kill Arizona’s only jaguar.
What brave men.
Even if he had failing kidneys, he should have been left in the wild.
Everyone involved with the capture and killing of this animal should be fired.
Keith Jones
Genetically modified food too hard to digest
I do not want my food, soil or water sold out to companies like Monsanto! (Genetically modified organisms) are not safe for people or other living things.
They are the Frankensteins of corporate greed. HR 875 – introduced by Rosa DeLauro, whose husband works for Monsanto – would define GMOs only as “safe” food under federal law.
We must stop the corporate takeover of the very food that sustains us, and of the agricultural practices that sustain family farms and the earth itself.
Laura Carroll
Sahuarita
It seems Obama Dems tax, apology exempt
Your April 4 edition had two very interesting articles.
One stated that Fannie and Freddie are planning to give bonuses of more than $210 million. (Is “more” a secret word?)
These organizations lost more than $100 billion last year! Both companies have received billions since the takeover.
Then you reported that Lawrence Summers, one of President Obama’s top economic advisers, collected roughly (another tricky word, “roughly”) $5.2 million from a hedge fund and was paid $2.7 million in speaking fees.
Disclosure forms show that many of Obama’s top aides earned generous salaries, investment income and fees for delivering speeches and serving on boards.
I was surprised no one wrote objecting to these articles. So I’m left with two conclusions: Being an Obama Democrat means you don’t have to pay taxes and never have to say you’re sorry.
S.M. Beaumont
AIG lent as fall guy to trip up run on banks
Everyone uses insurance – life, home, auto or hazard.
Premiums sent to the company are not stored in a vault; they are invested in many ventures – railroads, airlines, cruise ships or office buildings.
Insurers would never have enough money to pay claims without these investments.
When the housing fiasco took place, the government was not worried about the people; it was concerned about the banks.
It is easier to go after AIG (which insured the mortgages) than to go after the banks, scaring people into making a run on banks.
So AIG became the focus and took the pressure off Congress, which passed the laws allowing this to happen.
AIG has many other businesses making millions of dollars.
The people running them work for bonuses only to keep the company going (as approved by Congress).
Congress could not let AIG just go bankrupt, leaving all the pressure on them.
Banks now would rather hold the bad assets than take money from the government. This, of course, reduces the money they have to lend.
Roy E. Messer
Legalizing drugs would calm border violence
The border violence has one cause: drug prohibition; not U.S. demand for drugs.
We have lots of demand for the drug caffeine, yet we have no crime associated with it for one reason.
It is legal.
Kirk Muse
Mesa
Capitol crunch: Cut gov’t fat in lean times
Conservatives and libertarians who think government has gotten far too big, intrusive and expensive should view the current financial crisis as an opportunity, not a burden.
I have been active in political affairs for more than 40 years, and never have I seen another time when the public was as willing to reduce the size of government in order to avoid a tax increase.
Rather than bemoaning our plight, we should remind people that government has only one legitimate purpose – to protect our individual liberty. If we cut it back to that function, we could easily meet all our needs and have a tax decrease, not an increase.
On the state and local levels, the big money is in education and transportation, both of which are ripe for privatization.
Another way for governments to save money – selling assets – may offer a significant monetary benefit only one time (from the sale price), but these sales might also offer longer-term, smaller benefits because they get government out of managing whatever asset is sold (the forest, airport, water company, park, etc).
Why not use this crisis as an opportunity to launch a new era of liberty?
Roy Miller
Phoenix