Merit pay

Current performance reports at Amer­ican Airlines shows the airline achieved an “on-time” standard only about 67 percent of the time, placing at the bottom of the heap.

Top executives, several weeks ago, re­ceived bonuses worth millions of dollars. The compensation was supposedly based on company performance, consistent with compensation at other carriers.

Since the company performed poorly, why not cut executive compensation by 67 percent?

Executives will continue to be paid in millions of dollars, well above the executive poverty level, but will come a little bit closer to what they are really worth.

Walter Ahel,

Argyle

Nuts’ dream team

I’m expecting Obama to heal the sick, raise the dead and walk on water the way you socialist, left-wing nuts go crazy with every word that spews out of his big mouth.

The left-wing nut media turn into little schoolgirls whenever they interview him, and I just can’t figure it out. I really can; I just pretend I can’t.

The other day I heard the fresh princess of Bellaire, Will Smith, say that now when he visits other countries he isn’t ashamed of being American because Obama is running for president. Well, fresh princess, who made you filthy rich for doing what you love to do? Think about it, you left-wing idiot.

I knew there was always a reason I never liked this creep and never have watched any of his stupid movies and never will. I have never and will never give a big fat hairy rat’s behind what other countries think about this wonderful country.

I have a suggestion for you liberal nuts: Why not have Barney Frank run as vice president with Obama? What more could you liberal nuts want? Talk about the liberal nut dream team!

Robert Davila,

Valley View 

Simplistic logic

Publish or perish?

Some professors “found that for every 10 percent increase in gas prices there was a 2.3 percent decrease in auto deaths.” They state that “gas prices are causing driving declines.” (“Study finds ‘silver lining’ in pricey gas,” DRC)

Does it take a college professor to determine that reducing the number of vehicles on the road would result in a reduction in accidents — and consequently auto deaths?

Doesn’t this sound like it would have made a good grade-school science fair project? Would it take a rocket scientist to extrapolate to the limit? No vehicles: no vehicular deaths.

And that if the price of petrol keeps going up, no one will be able to afford it? Then there will be no vehicles on the road, except perhaps horse-drawn wagons.

Larry Jambor,

Denton

Real patriots

I encountered a love-it-or-leave-iter recently. I told her that I do love my country. She said, “Then show it.”

I have shown my patriotism. During the Vietnam War, I voluntarily entered the military service for six years and served a year in Vietnam as a volunteer! Most of Bush’s chickenhawks dodged the military.

And God bless all of you left-wingers and right-wingers who did serve and are serving.

What’s more, true patriots show their patriotism by speaking up when something is wrong; and something is wrong. I won’t go into it all but our Constitution is being violated left and right.

More than 4,100 men and women have lost their lives and 28,000 wounded in a war based on four lies: a war with the very few getting very rich, a war that professional economists say is going to cost us $3 trillion in actual costs, a war we can’t afford.

In the meantime, more than 438,000 people have lost their jobs here since the first of the year.

The Labor Department says that if we count people who have given up looking for jobs and those who have had to take part-time jobs, the unemployment rate would be 9.9 percent, not 5.5 percent.

Top FDA officials give themselves $35 million bonuses while protecting us less.

The summer arctic ice may disappear, not 20 years from now as earlier predicted, but this summer, as heat absorbing surfaces uncover. 

Jim Stodola,

Denton

Good coaches

I very much enjoyed Mr. McDonnell’s feature on coaches Bean, Adams and Peden [Page 1B, July 5]. I was fortunate to have played for coach Bean in the early-to-mid 1970s. Time has flown by, but those days are still vivid in memory of a fine coach, teacher, mentor and friend.

Dwain Bean was and is a fine man. He cared about all of his students, and we all cared about him. I’m sure coach Bean would be the first to tell everyone he was not the only one on a staff of coaches who put players and students first and foremost in their plans for success.

These other fine men were Ken Garland, Bill Carrico, Bill Peteet, Jerry Hutchins, Billy Ryan, C.H. Collins, Kerry West and Jack Howell. I know I’ve left out some names due to space requirements, and I apologize for this.

The city of Denton has been fortunate to have these men instruct our children and have them in our community for the past 40 years. Thank you!

Tim Woolsey,

Denton

Big Oil’s greed

The revelation that the oil companies already have access to thousands of acres of territory offshore that they are not exploring for oil, exposes for all to see another of the frauds they are practicing on the American public and the rest of the world.

They are hoping that they can exert enough pressure on the public that they can break the environmentalists’ defense of the last two areas where they don’t have carte blanche to do anything they wish:  ANWAR, and East and West coasts. (The other major fraud is their failure to build refineries, thus keeping gasoline supplies artificially low and driving up prices).

In their greed, they are willing to ruin the U.S. economy and threaten world stability, all in the name of their already obscene profits.

Ads I’ve seen recently expose a related transgression being committed against the American public: automobile companies advertising SUVs that get an amazing 20 miles per gallon! With complete connivance of the oil companies, the automobile companies have built an appetite among the American public for over-sized gas-guzzlers, vehicles far larger than 95 percent (admittedly an estimate) of us need in our daily lives. I can’t imagine a more unholy alliance.

T. Jervis Underwood,

Oak Point