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Why publish photo that promotes smoking?

The Dec. 25 Viewfinder picture taken by Stephanie Klein-Davis shows Matthew Thompson of Clifton Forge smoking a cigarette. The caption states he is smoking while riding his bicycle down Main Street in Clifton Forge.

While Thompson has every right to smoke outdoors, both on or off his bike, why on earth would you publish this picture? This picture seems to be promoting smoking, at worst, or is just a senseless use of space at best.

Surely on Christmas Day you could have selected a more appropriate and inspirational photo.

We all should be angry about Bush and Cheney

My friend is angry. I know he is angry because he has removed the Bush-Cheney bumper sticker from his GMC pickup.

When I asked him why, his face purpled and his eyes bulged like overripe grapes: "I've been so brain-washed into believing liberals were responsible for my country being in shambles, I failed to see that Bush and Cheney have done in seven years what the USSR couldn't do in 40."

My friend, in his rage, used more explicit language, of course. But he is right to be angry.

Maybe if enough of us get angry, liberals and conservatives alike; maybe if we open our eyes and see the deception, greed and corruption in Washington; maybe if we raise the bar for politicians -- maybe, just maybe, we can salvage for our grandchildren what our fathers left us, the belief that we are all endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Presidential candidates should take time off

I am so sick and tired of all this presidential campaigning.

It is on TV, the radio, the computer, the telephone, newspapers and magazines morning, noon, and night.

Why don't all of these wannabe presidents take a few days off, run for the city limits and give us a break, please?

Socked in on top of Mill Mountain

Often I look toward Mill Mountain and cannot see it. How many days a year does this happen? Why would anyone battle the fog and cold rain to go up there for lunch, much less later for dinner?

Successful restaurateurs will tell you that to make a profit, a restaurant needs to be at full capacity every day.

Brave or foolish souls (you have heard of us selfish nature lovers) will use it the most, but with a town full of restaurants, why would anyone go past them to dine in the middle of a cloud? Where is the beautiful view on a day like that? It is dangerous and sometimes impossible to drive up a two-lane road. One year some of the zoo staff were snowbound for three days.

Stop knocking the Fishburns and listen to them. They are part of a group of people we have been blessed to have in the valley who had a good idea of the balance of business and the environment long before green was cool.

Do we want our tax money used to keep this ill-considered idea going and going and going?

Botetourt should use a 'trash train'

I read the article on Botetourt County's trash dilemma ("Botetourt Co. talking trash with companies," Dec. 22).

Why wasn't the idea of using a "trash train" brought up? Norfolk Southern has a branch line that goes to Roanoke Cement Co., which happens to be just short of the county landfill.

Looks to me like it would save a lot of man hours, fuel, and wear and tear on vehicles by transporting the trash by train to a place that already has rail service.

Energy bill mandates the impossible

The arrogance of the members of Congress is amazing.

This month, by a wide margin (314-100), the House passed an energy bill (H.R. 6). The centerpiece of the bill requires automakers to increase their corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) by 40 percent to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, including passenger cars, SUVs and small trucks. It won't happen, because the government can't force this on the automobile manufacturers and the American public unless we all start driving Yugos or Mini Coopers.

Another major requirement of the bill is to improve efficiency standards for lighting, appliances, and commercial and government buildings. Light bulb efficiency will have to increase 70 percent by 2020, and the Energy Department has been ordered to quickly implement the bill's elements. What are the penalties if the manufacturers can't comply with this mandatory conservation?

The bill does nothing to help make the United States energy independent. There are no provisions to increase energy from nuclear plants or to promote new domestic production of oil or other fossil fuels.

Since Congress has crafted a bill that is impossible to achieve, what's next? Maybe they could pass a bill to repeal the law of gravity.

Hard to keep anxieties straight

Thank you for your timely Christmas morning reminder of yet another thing I should be concerned about ("Is public getting too apathetic?" Dec. 25).

I'll admit I'd forgotten about avian flu, but I do have it on my list of anxieties. It's just that the list is so long. Herewith is a partial recitation, serious worry to complete apathy:

1. Global warming. 2. Giant meteorites striking the earth. 3. Al Gore. ... 27. Global cooling (left over from the 1950s). 28. Avian flu. 29. Regular flu. ... 87. New Hampshire polls. 88. Iowa polls.

I wanted you to know that I have now moved avian flu from 54th to 28th.

What was it the Apostle Paul said? "Do not be anxious about anything."

Offended by gays? That's your problem

Letter-writer Barbara Groseclose ("God loves sinners, but not their sins," Dec. 25,) apparently thinks her religious beliefs justify official discrimination against the gay community.

That might be okay if America was a Christian theocracy, but it most certainly is not, thank heavens.

Sure, the gay-bashers can whine all they like that the actual words "separation of church and state" aren't mentioned anywhere in our Constitution, but the U.S. government made my point quite clearly in its Treaty of Tripoli in 1797, which states that "the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."

If homosexuality so deeply offends the religious beliefs of people like Groseclose, frankly, that's her problem, not the gays' problem.

Show me someone who gets all up in a lather over the things that other consenting adults do with each other in the privacy of their own bedrooms, and I'll show you someone who sorely needs to get a life.