03 - The Unger Memorial Library - MyPlainview.com

Page 6A - Sunday, January 3, 2010 - Plainview Daily Herald http://www.MyPlainview.com
Plainview Daily Herald
http://www.myplainview.com
Plainview Daily Herald
A Unit of of The the Hearst Corporation
Published afternoons (except Saturday and and Sunnday) Sunday) and Sunday Mornings. Mornings
296-1300 – 820 Broadway P.O. Box 1240 Plainview, Texas 79072
Sandra Aven Kevin Lewis
Publisher Editor
Sandra Aven, Publisher Danny Andrews, Editor
James Thomas, Publisher Emeritus
MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
“If all printers were determined not to print anything
‘til they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be
very little printed.” – Benjamin Franklin
Letter to the Editor
Upset at humane society
To the Editor:
So much good (exists)
here in Plainview, so what’s
the problem with the Humane
Society?
My family and I moved
here in the summer of 2008
and have loved being a part
of this community. We have
been active in your Christmas
parade, Pray Plainview
where we met with many of
your locals to pray for our
country, and also supported
your tea party. There is so
much good here, and so I
am very surprised that the
humane society here is so
lacking.
Now, I know they do some
good but let me tell you why
I make this bold statement.
I love animals and offered
the manager of the humane
society here to pay for a photo
of one animal to be put in
paper to help with its adoption
and even offered to help
pay the $75 fee if someone
should want the pet. I was
told that they already have a
system (the Herald provides
space for Pet of the Week
as a public service) and was
refused of any assistance.
I told my boss at Amigos
about it the next day and he
said he wasn’t surprised because
they offered to give
the Humane Society 10 large
bags of dog food, ripped on
top from shipping, and they
refused it.
I think they are in need
of much community service
since they are only open 1-2
hours per day, and having
worked at a humane society
and having family members
who have volunteered at
them, I know you can’t fi nd
homes for pets operating so
few hours per week — not
seriously anyway.
But what happened this
past week takes the cake,
and I would sadly not put
any animal in this shelter because
of this incident.
I found our 20th animal in
over a year and called the humane
society and told them,
as I have always, and said if
someone comes in looking for
this well-cared-for dog, that
had no collar, to please have
them call me, and to confi rm
Well, it is that time of
year when most of us have
unwrapped all of our gifts,
eaten too much ham and
pumpkin pie, and started
to think about making a
New Year’s resolution.
We’ve been spending time
refl ecting and pondering on
what aspects of our lives,
personal or professional,
we would most like to improve.
But today I have a recommended
New Year’s
resolution for all of my fellow
Conservatives across
the country — one that has
nothing to do with losing
weight, quitting smoking or
reading more. Instead, it has
everything to do with saving
our country.
I am resolving to work
with party activists, candidates,
elected offi cials,
organizations, donors and
conservative voters across
the country to fi nd those issues
and ties that bind us as
Republicans rather than revert
to the internal attacks
that will set back our party,
and our nation, for decades
to come. I am resolving to
move forward, and I hope I
can count on each of you to
join me!
Next year is critical to our
political efforts. The 2010
midterm election will give
Republicans an opportunity
to reconnect with voters
across the nation and set the
MSNBC tactic: In other words . . .
Irritated at the bumps on the road
to the Democrats’ Thousand-Year
Reich, liberals are now claiming that
Republican Sen. Tom Coburn requested
a prayer for the death of Sen. Bob
Byrd during the health care debate on
a recent Saturday night.
Here is what Coburn actually said:
“What the American people ought to
pray is that somebody can’t make the
vote tonight. That’s what they ought
to pray.”
After reporting Coburn’s remark,
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank added:
“It was diffi cult to escape the conclusion
that Coburn was referring to the 92-yearold,
wheelchair-bound Sen. Robert Byrd (D-
W.V.).”
Contrary to Milbank’s claim, I fi nd it extremely
easy to get away from that conclusion.
In fact, I’m a regular Houdini when it
comes to that conclusion. That conclusion
couldn’t hold me for a second.
There are a million ways a senator could
miss a vote, other than by dying. Ask Patrick
Kennedy. At 1 a.m. on a Sunday night in the
middle of a historic blizzard in the nation’s
capital, I don’t think the fi rst thing that came
to anyone’s mind was death. More likely it
was: “Last call.”
Milbank was employing the MSNBC
motto, “In Other Words,” which provides
the formula for 90 percent of the political
commentary on that network. The MSNBC
host quotes a Republican, then says “in other
words,” translates the statement into something
that would be stupid to say, and spends
the next 10 minutes ridiculing the translated
version. Which no one said. Except the
host.
Also, by the way, Sen. Coburn did not
“go to the Senate fl oor to propose a prayer,”
as Milbank reported. He was giving a fl oor
speech in which he used the turn of phrase,
“What the American people ought to pray
is . . .”
Inasmuch as liberals want to talk about
anything but their plan to take over one-sixth
of the American economy, let’s talk about
health care!
Democrats tout Medicare as their model
for a government-run health care system,
bragging about what an extremely popular
government program it is.
Medicare is tens of trillions of dollars
in the red. It is expected to go bankrupt by
2017. In order to pay for Medicare alone,
the government will either have to cut every
other federal program in existence, or raise
federal income taxes to rates as high as 77
percent.
Medicare is like a $500 hamburger: I assume
it’s good — it had better be — but no
one would say, “THAT’S A FANTASTIC
SUCCESS!”
Until 10 minutes ago, the liberal argument
for national health care was that it wasn’t
fair that some people — “the rich” — have
access to better health care than others.
stage for an even stronger
2012 cycle. But before we
get distracted by our future
hopes for the White House,
we have much work to do.
With 36 governorships up
for election and the everimportant
state legislative
battles that will help shape
the future political landscape
through redistricting,
our efforts are only just getting
under way.
That is why I am resolute
in my conviction that we can
no longer afford to wage the
type of attacking and bitter
intra-party battles that
have weakened our ability
to coalesce as a party in opposition
to the wasteful and
damaging policies coming
out of Washington.
That is not to say that
we should not engage
in spirited primaries
in an attempt to put
forth the best candidates
for the general
election. What
it does mean is that
once a Republican
candidate is victorious
in the primary, all
Republicans should
give them their full support.
Moreover, this support must
not stop after the ballot has
been cast.
The days of “not conservative
enough” or “too
conservative for me” should
be erased from our political
vocabulary once the primary
process pro is complete. At that
stage, stag we must join together
to help h our candidates win
elections elec and begin the criti-
cal job of stopping the fl ow
of liberal policies coming
out of Washington and numerous
state capitals across
the land.
The challenges ahead are
too great for us not to make
this resolution together. For
if we fail, I fear our nation
will pay a hefty price —
In liberals’ ideal world, everyone
lives in abject poverty and stands in
long lines, but we all live in the same
abject poverty and stand in the same
long lines — just like in their beloved
Soviet Union of recent memory! (Except
the commissars, who get excellent
health care, food, housing, maid
service and no lines.)
Instead of being honest and telling
us that their plan is to make health
care worse and more expensive —
but fairer! — liberals have recently
begun claiming that providing universal
health care will actually save money.
Overnight, they went from wailing about
basic human needs being “more important
than bombs” to claiming: “Our plan will
be cheaper!”
Hmmm, I didn’t make any notes to debate
the manifestly insane points. But I’m pretty
sure that extending full medical benefi ts to
30 million people who don’t currently have
them — 47 million once the federal health
commission rules that illegal aliens are covered
— will not be less expensive than the
current system.
You can say — mistakenly — that the
liberals’ plan is more compassionate. You
can say — also incorrectly — that it will be
fairer. On no set of facts can you say it will
be cheaper.
Democrats keep citing the Congressional
Budget Offi ce’s “scoring” of their bills as if
that means something.
The CBO is required to score a bill
based on the assumptions provided by the
bill’s authors. It’s worth about as much
as a report card fi lled out by the student
himself.
Democrats could write a bill saying: “Assume
we invent a magic pill that will make
cars get 1,000 miles per gallon. Now, CBO,
would that save money?”
The CBO would have to conclude: Yes,
that bill will save money.
Among the tricks the Democrats put
into their health care bills for the CBO
is that the government will collect taxes
for 10 years, but only pay out benefi ts for
the last six years. Will that save money?
Yes, the CBO says, this bill is “defi cit
neutral”!
But what about the next 10 years and
the next 10 years and the next 10 years after
that? Will the health care plan continually
pay benefi ts only in the last six years
of every 10-year period? I think their plan
assumes we’ll all be dead from global warming
in a decade.
Also, I note that the Democrats claimed
it’s urgent that we pass ObamaCare by
Christmas, but the bill doesn’t get around to
paying out any benefi ts until 2014. Poor uninsured
chumps.
In other words . . . Democrats are praying
for the death of Bob Byrd!
(Ann Coulter is a columnist for United
Press Syndicate in Kansas City.)
A New Year’s resolution resolution for for Republicans
Mallard Fillmore
that they got this message. I
never heard back from them.
I kept good care of this dog
while your wonderful newspaper
ran an ad for a found
pet, and KKYN helped to announce
it as well. We made
posters and hung them in the
area where we found her. We
even took her door-to-door
for six days, and on Saturday
afternoon I fi nally let go of
the idea of fi nding her owner
and gave her to a very nice
home.
That evening I got a call
from a lady who said she had
seen this ad in the paper and
thought the dog was hers. She
had contacted the humane
society but they didn’t have
her. I guess it was at that moment
that I felt that the Plainview
Humane Society let
her down and me down but
mostly the dog down for not
trying harder to reunite owners
with their pets.
I think this shelter needs
our public help. They need
to stay open longer hours
and have people who will
manage the shelter with love
and devotion to connecting
lost animals to their rightful
owners. They need staff that
will contact inquiries more
readily, too. And most of
all they need to embrace the
community and allow them
to help them to care for these
most cherished and lost animals
without being so hardnosed
about it.
Kudos to KKYN and the
Plainview Daily Herald for
their sincere efforts to put
lost pets back with their
owners, and I hope the humane
society tries harder in
the future.
My advice to pet owners
is to put collars with your
phone numbers on your pets
so when they get out the
fi nders can return them to
you. My advice is to let the
humane society know that
they need to be more accessible
and more warm to those
who are shattered by the loss
of their family pet and try
harder to reunite them and
to accept help from the community
more graciously.
G.L. Carpenter
Plainview
Letters to the Editor should be addressed to: The Plainview Daily Herald,
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OPINION
Ann
Coulter
Mike
Reagan
hopefully not an irreversible
one.
So as we approach
this new year and refl
ect upon 2009 and
think of ways to improve
our situations
in 2010, I ask that my
fellow Republicans
join together to have
a respectful debate
during our upcoming
primary process and
then give their full support
to our selected nominees
even if there remain some
philosophical differences.
I know this is the approach
my father personally took
and I cannot think of a better
beacon of light than his
legacy to help us once again
fi nd our way.
Have a safe and prosperous
2010!
(Mike Reagan, the elder
son of the late President
Ronald Reagan, is chairman
and president of The
Reagan Legacy Foundation
— www.reaganlegacyfoundation.org.
Look for Mike’s
books and other information
at www.Reagan.com.
Contact him at Reagan@
caglecartoons.com)
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Page 6A
Merry
Christmas,
al-Qaida style
It was puzzling to read opinion
pieces in liberal newspapers
like The New York Times
and Newsday
lamenting the
Christmas Day
al-Qaida attempt
to blow
up a Northwest
Airlines jet.
Most of the
liberal press
agreed: That
was not a nice
thing to do, and
those terrorists
should stop the
Bill
O’Reilly
attacks this very minute. But
no actual solutions to stopping
terrorism were put forth by the
progressive press.
Of course, 23-year-old Umar
Farouk Abdulmutallab, a loser
from Nigeria, was not exactly
007 in executing his mission.
That might speak to how badly
al-Qaida has been downgraded
by aggressive measures
put in place by the George
W. Bush administration.
Now, the al-Qaida agents
of slaughter are smuggling
explosives in their underwear
instead of trying to hijack the
entire plane. Instead of being
handed over to the military,
this Umar nitwit will be tried
in civilian court so the world
can understand that the U.S.
justice system really, really
works. Like the world cares.
Apparently, Abdulmutallab
was trained in Yemen —
the same Yemen that on Dec.
20 accepted six Guantanamo
Bay detainees. That’s another
puzzling deal. In the fall of
2007, the United States sent
two other Gitmo terrorists to
Saudi Arabia for “rehabilitation.”
Now one of those guys,
Said Ali Shari, is reportedly a
top al-Qaida commander in —
wait for it — Yemen! As the
Church Lady once said, “How
convenient!
I am beginning to think we
are in the “Twilight Zone” in
this country. The liberal press
screams all day long about
closing Gitmo and providing
civilian trials for captured
foreign terrorists. Then when
an overseas terrorist almost
blows up 300 innocent people,
the press goes, “Gee, that’s
not acceptable.”
Also, everybody except Al
Franken knows that Yemen is
an al-Qaida stronghold, but the
Barack Obama administration
sends six incarcerated terror
suspects to Yemen? Paging
Rod Serling.
This would be laugh-outloud
absurd if lives were not
at stake. I mean, why don’t we
just close Gitmo and send the
misunderstood inmates there
directly to the mountains of
Pakistan? Why delay the process
with stops in the Arabian
Peninsula?
I’m surprised at CIA chief
Leon Panetta. He surely understands
that countries like
Yemen are chaotic cauldrons
of violence where terrorists
openly roam. Leon, why are
you sending Gitmo bad guys
there? Help me, I’m trying to
understand.
Most Americans, I believe,
have little idea how dangerous
the jihad really is. If they did,
the Obama administration and
the liberal press could never
get away with the lunacy that
is now under way. The latest
al-Qaida fanatic may have
gotten tangled up in his underwear,
but some other killer
will do better down the road.
And don’t be surprised if he’s
from Yemen.
Your Opinion
(Your Opinion presents reader
comments on stories appearing in the
Herald. These comments and more
first fi rst appear on the Herald’s Web site site,
www.MyPlainview.com)
Story: One arrested in
drug raid
“Thank you to the narcotics
offi cer who works very hard
to take drugs off our streets!
It is so nice to know that we
have someone who is doing all
they can to keep drugs out of
town and away from our kids.
Too bad we don’t have an entire
narcotics division. As for
‘Dopehead,’ your times coming
buddy. He will fi nd you
one day and we’ll be reading
your name in the paper in jail
reports. Hope you enjoy your
upcoming cell out at the county
jail.”
Author: happy
• • •
Story: Picking up the pieces
“I hope things get better
for this single mom. Drugs
are such a huge problem in
Plainview. Instead of opening
up a ton of liquor stores,
money should be invested in
rehab programs and family
counseling centers.”
Author: marcia