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What cloud has Will been sleeping upon?

In his Jan. 21 column "Frank's capitalism plus," George Will wrote, "The Fed's stunning conquest of inflation since the early 1980s." Huh? What cloud nine has he sat on these 20-odd years?

Since September 1986 when I retired from Virginia Tech, I've depended upon annuity income (not indexed), whose purchasing value fell 50 percent in Alan Greenspan's two-decade chairmanship. Conquest, indeed.

The Federal Reserve has assumed two tasks, both promoting a false prosperity:

n Creating "slow" inflation, making debts easier to pay for those with incomes that rise with inflation (as Will's has, no doubt, making inflation easy for him to ignore).

n Adding to the supply of ready money for people to borrow. Recently, the Fed has been creating money, it's estimated, at roughly $1 trillion per annum (nearly 10 percent of the gross domestic product).

Although the dollar's value yo-yoed a bit during the 19th century, in 1913 what it would buy was close to what it had been 100 years earlier. Since 1913, under the Fed, its value has fallen to just a few percent of its former worth.

DMV sets threshold low for proof of insurance

I read with interest Marty Philpott's Jan. 16 letter to the editor "Didn't DMV require insurance payment?"

All a person has to do is check the box indicating a vehicle is currently insured (even if it is not) and they will be given tags for a vehicle, whether they have a driver's license or not.

I have questioned this practice in the past and was told a person can get tags for a car even if they are not a licensed driver because they may have someone else drive for them. The person can be a habitual offender and get the tags, allowing them to get back onto our roads and endangering everyone in their path.

On the other hand, my son was unable to replace an expired photo identification card, even with his old one, a Social Security card, birth certificate and his check stub, including his home address on it.

There is something wrong with this picture.

Protect our superior culture

I have always heard that the "beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name." So, why does your editorial staff use the word "racist" or "bigot" to refer to Rep. Virgil Goode when he appears to be "ethnocentric"? That is what most Americans should be.

Specifically, in regard to Muslim countries, take away the oil and what do those countries have that advance freedom, science, the arts, etc.? I see, in many cases, cultures that have not advanced to modern times.

As for Rep. Keith Ellison using the Quran for his swearing-in, why didn't he do it in private and keep quiet about it? It was meant to create controversy and to defy the traditions of our culture.

I think our culture is superior to other cultures, and it should not be constantly under attack as it is today. Yes, cut back on immigration until the new immigrants agree to accept our culture and not institute counter-cultures that oppose our customs, our traditions, our language.

If an immigrant wants to practice his native beliefs, he should do so privately. If he does not wish to accept our culture, perhaps he should stay in his native land.

Such shallow thoughts from a congressman

In his published statement in reaction to the president's speech, Rep. Bob Goodlatte has once again demonstrated his inability to understand the situation (Jan. 24 news article, "President asks Congress, public to keep the faith"). He said, "I'm against amnesty."

How absolutely profound. Someday I would like to see a positive, original proposal from him, if at all possible.

Why do we keep this guy in office?

Assessments don't reflect reality

Kudos to Dave Rettinger from Salem (Jan. 20 letter to the editor, "Rise up and protest property assessments").

He is right on about all home and land owners on fixed incomes, including myself, getting tabbed for outlandish assessments on their property.

Social Security only went up 3.3 percent. Yet most assessments have gone up in the 9 percent to 15 percent range.

Just because someone has paid an outlandish price on a piece of property in the vicinity of mine doesn't mean that mine should jump up in value to be close to theirs.

Let's all rise up and protest the high valuation of property assessment to the commissioners of revenue. It takes more than one or two to write in about it.

Tell lawmakers to oppose car title lenders

Virginians are already struggling to eliminate payday lending, a form of predatory lending legalized in 2002. Those making payday loans prey on the most vulnerable among us, those living from paycheck to paycheck.

These individuals often find it impossible to pay their loans back at the two-week, 15 percent interest rate. So, they pay a constantly increasing annual percentage rate, and a $300 loan can end up costing the borrower $800.

Now, making a bad dream into a nightmare, the Car Title Loan Act of 2007 has been introduced in the state legislature. This would allow car title lenders to become predatory lenders too, able to charge as much as 360 percent APR.

We do not need businesses in Virginia that practice usury. If car title lenders want to operate in Virginia, they should be allowed to charge a maximum of 36 percent APR.

How many among us would willingly pay more than 36 percent for a loan?

Why, then, would we ask the poor to pay up to 360 percent?

Let's eliminate such shameful practices from Virginia. Please let your state legislators know that you oppose the Car Title Act of 2007.

A life sentence for winery

I read an interesting article on the Main Street Newspapers Web site pertaining to the fact that one winery owner found out that if it uses a distributor to sell its wine to retail outlets, as required by last year's legislation, then it is committed for life, even if the winery is sold. The complete article can be found at tinyurl.com/37zdep.

This smacks of indentured servitude, and I thought that Virginia banished slavery some years ago.

I thought it was illegal for any legislation to determine who should sell to whom.

What happened to free enterprise, or did the wholesalers lobby to have more money than the winegrowers associations?

Most of our mistakes don't kill thousands

Deborah Pike's Jan. 19 letter to the editor, "Bush isn't perfect, but he doesn't deserve this," says we all make mistakes. This is true, but most of our mistakes don't leave nearly 40,000 dead, including 3,000 of our own, with more to come.

The number of Bush apologists has been shrinking quickly, but there always will remain a few.

As far as I am concerned, he hasn't come close to getting what he deserves.

When a rubber stamp serves as oversight

In response to your Jan. 22 editorial "Bush tries to dodge accountability again":

The Bush administration's new strategy to get warrants to wiretap is no victory for anyone, other than the administration.

The matter is referred to a court, which has never totally turned down any request to wiretap. It may have sent the matter back for "better wording," etc., but it has not denied any requests for wiretap warrants.

So, now we have a rubber stamp process that should make everyone feel better -- that there is "court oversight." Is that what we are saying?