Saturday, July 28, 2007
Take a look at crimes Clinton pardoned
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Take a look at crimes Clinton pardoned
If Sanford Gross (July 16 letter to the editor, "Wrong plus wrong still equals wrong") doesn't know anything about the "other 139 people" President Clinton pardoned on his last day, why does Gross bother to berate President George Bush, who he "hoped was above such an obvious display of cronyism?"
Among the other 139 were people convicted of income tax evasion, the sale of cocaine and as much as 1,000 pounds of marijuana, mail fraud, forgery of U.S. Treasury bonds, bank fraud, armed bank robbery and using a firearm during a felony, destroying U.S. mail, conspiracy to effectuate the escape of a federal prisoner, and the list goes on.
Then, there were the FALN nationalists whose sentences, when they were convicted in 1980 and 1983, ranged from 35 years to 105 years.
Also, let's not forget about Clinton's brother Roger, who was pardoned at that time.
Now, Gross knows a little more of the other 139 people.
Evolution is a fact and a theory
Richard Carr Sr.'s July 20 commentary "Troglodytes, unite" resembles an elaborate joke.
First, Gregor Mendel was a geneticist, not an evolutionary biologist.
In castigating evolution, Carr is thinking of Charles Darwin, who modernized biology by clarifying natural selection and descent with modification -- principles that today guide all aspects of life science, from the development of antibiotics to agricultural innovations to the breeding of domestic animals.
Also, Carr misunderstands the term "scientific theory," conflating it with "wild guess."
A theory is a set of explanatory statements about the natural world that attempts to relate established facts. Evolution, then, is both a fact and a theory.
Carr asserts that evolution lacks factual support, but his claims regarding the evolution of new species and the fossil record hearken to a mind unencumbered by knowledge and determined to ward it off at all costs.
Many who share Carr's faith have welcomed the knowledge they believe their creator wants them to embrace.
That Carr, an educator, cannot is further testimony to the ramshackle state of the American public's relationship with science, both as a means of progress and something to celebrate for its inherent delights.
Guns do, too, hold down crime rates
Sabina Thayer (July 22 commentary, "Guns = less crime: Equation doesn't hold up") says that her self-proclaimed right to not be shot surpasses my constitutionally protected right to have a firearm to defend myself, my wife or my children from being shot, stabbed, bludgeoned, raped, kidnapped, molested or otherwise physically harmed. I don't think it does.
The pro-gun mantra of "more guns equals less crime" is supported by the bulk of the evidence from academic research by scholarly men like Dr. John Lott and Dr. Gary Kleck. I doubt this will change.
On the other hand, the gun-control mantra seems to be "more gun control equals less crime," or more accurately "more sheep equals kinder, gentler wolves."
So far, gun control has provided mass murders in gun-free zones, gun bans that disarm law-abiding citizens and allow armed criminals to attack whomever they will, and soaring crime rates. It is a phony, feel-good policy with most unfortunate, and usually irreversible, consequences.
Although carrying a firearm does not guarantee that an assailant will not harm you or anyone else, it most assuredly provides an effective alternative to the phrase, "Please, don't kill me."
Reader will miss the Spectator
Part of my early Saturday morning ritual is planning the limited amount of television I watch. I go through the Spectator and circle what I feel might be worth watching during the week.
It is a shame The Roanoke Times has decided to stop publication of the Spectator. How do you know readership of it is down?
Someday these Goth teens will have clout
I cannot believe that Roanoke would step on the rights of young adults.
The rich, old, white people who run this city are scared by the Goth teens at Valley View Mall, so we have to ban the kids from the mall.
These kids harm no one, but because they hang out in groups and look weird, we have to punish them because they frighten the adults.
Because the adults are the ones with the money, their wishes are more important than the rights of kids who have no money.
