Several questions
Mr. Sanchez’s letter ( DRC, July 14) stated that mandated health insurance is fine. I disagree. He says that we have to carry car insurance. Not if you do not own a motor vehicle.
We are Medicare patients and carry supplemental insurance to help pay what Medicare does not. It is very expensive and our Medicare premiums and Part D are deducted from our Social Security checks. Any raise in a Social Security check does not include the costs of energy or food when the percentages are figured for cost of living. Not all doctors accept Medicare.
If you contribute to a health savings account, one trip to the emergency room can take $11,000 to $13,000. How much money can you contribute each month, affordably, to cover such a charge?
If Obama Care is so great, why are those in office exempt? Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Holder and cronies are exempt. Are they better?
Why won’t Harry Reid bring the congressional bills to the floor of the Senate? Why don’t Obama and Reid want a budget? We have to live with a budget. Our government doesn’t?
Terry Roberts,
Denton
Guilt on the grid
Recently, the subject of global warming was mentioned. I don't really know about that, but I can suspect if we humans are the culprits, maybe we should do something to cut our electrical use rather than investing in increasing power to satisfy our demand. How many of you have wet clothes in a mechanical dryer right now as you read this? Does this make sense in Texas in the summer?
For years my mom and dad used a solar powered clothes dryer to good effect. It was portable and made many trips across America as we followed my dad’s military career. It was accompanied by a Silvertone radio and a Sunbeam percolator, which they still use. Look around your house and see what you have plugged into the outlets. The point being, if you are putting a burden on the grid, look in a mirror and see who the real guilty party is.
John Harazda,
Denton
‘Political football’
All the space center south of Houston gets is a fake to display. ("Fake shuttle, real arrival", DRC, June 2)
Every astronaut went through this facility — from Day 1. They trained and became proficient. The dedicated flight controllers trained with them in simulators and kept them safe during space operations from Mission Control at the Manned Spacecraft Center — later to be named the L.B. Johnson Space Center.
Is there anyone who believes the snub is not political retribution? I can think of three places the actual shuttles should reside: Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Fla.; Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.; and Johnson Space Center. The best-known is JSC, where the flights were coordinated.
The Houston mayor put it succinctly: "We don't need an artifact to remind us of the space program. We've lived the space program. Our neighbors are, and our history is, the space program."
Running into an astronaut, or his family, on the street, or at Laredo's Too, was not a big deal. There was a feeling of community. There was a common goal. Everyone had a purpose — and a contribution. Those were the golden days of space exploration — be it ICBMs or watching the first man set foot on the moon. And then watching a successful splashdown.
Larry Jambor,
Denton
Tax it and they will come
All of my rental properties were appraised at higher values this year, one even at a 42 percent increase. The appraiser said that the economy was getting better.
For whom? The local government, perhaps, but certainly not for the let-them-eat-cake group such as I. And now a tax increase?
I have always had the impression that Denton was a moderate to conservative city; however, this has the odor of a local-government-orchestrated Obama-liberal, economic policy. Phew!
John Thorngren,
Shady Shores
Perpetual fluctuation
Reference Jim Stodola’s latest missive (DRC, July 16): As Ronald Reagan said during one of the debates, to the then worst president we’ve had in modern times, which in six months time will be replaced by Barry Soetoro, “There you go again.”
That missive of yours was one of the worst and ridiculous ones you’ve ever penned.
I view several cable shows with location taping in the northern latitudes. This past winter season’s shows revealed the floating ice is thicker and has drifted significantly further south. Meanwhile, on the land up there, this is the coldest winter they’ve experienced in over 20 years.
The global warming whackos 40 years ago were the same people, and political left-leaning organizations, who claimed we were experiencing global cooling thanks to all the jets flying in the upper stratosphere. Since that time, the number of jets has grown exponentially, yet that same crowd is now claiming it’s getting warmer?
Yes, it’s true in 2012, we’ve experienced one of the warmest winters in the lower latitudes, but was that the case in 2011?
What I have written briefly reflects my credo that the atmosphere has changed, is changing, and will change, until eternity, and there’s very little that can be done about it, except for the ones who have made a fortune perpetrating a hoax.
Roger T. Horrell,
Denton
What’s with the Duke?
James Penton wrote an interesting letter about literacy (DRC, July 19), but I am really amazed that he considers high school students' lack of knowledge about John Wayne a sign of their inability to absorb information.
I wonder how many people have learned about John Wayne by reading about him. We might expect students to know about Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, but what on earth is the importance of knowing John Wayne? John Wayne??? Have I missed something here?
Elinor Johansen,
Denton
