Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Financial system needs watching to avoid scandals
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Financial system needs watching to avoid scandals
I watched in dismay during the Enron scandal, Madoff trial and the bank bailouts. Sadly, the corrupt behavior of these individuals and institutions was only exposed after the damage had been done. In a country where everything we eat, drink, wear and drive is inspected, it is staggering how little protection we have from financial products.
State and local governments have enough to worry about without having to regulate thousands of financial firms with a piecemeal set of regulations. It is essential to have a strong federal agency to regulate the financial industry so that there are no more scandals and bailouts that leave hard-working Americans out of luck. The Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act of 2009, H.R. 3126, is an answer. H.R. 3126 would create an agency that puts consumer protection first.
We need Sen. Mark Warner's support of this essential legislation to create a financial system that works for us, not Bernie Madoff.
Food opinion left her hungry
Many of us who are familiar with the business of journalism (I am a former reporter) are also familiar with the saying, "If you like newspapers or sausages, you shouldn't watch either one of them being made." I have watched newspapers being made, and I still like them. But I've never seen sausages made.
Now comes Christopher Mattera, a commentary writer in the Oct. 19 issue, who warns us by headline "Know who grows your food."
Although much has been said and written lately about the food we eat -- and I read it all -- I still found Mattera's piece interesting and informative. Also interesting? Beneath his byline is the information that he's a sausage-maker, something he didn't mention even once in his commentary.
The upshot is I still don't know how sausages are made. I feel cheated.
Nobody is sure what's in reform
I guarantee that John Givens ("Public needs details on the public option," Oct. 25 letter) speaks for the majority of us when he says he doesn't know what's in the public option part of the health care debate. I seriously doubt if President Obama, Joe Biden, Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi or any who want to see it ramrodded through without open debate do.
We are being hoodwinked as they operate like a mushroom farm: Keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em horse droppings. After they socialize medicine that we can't pay for, what's next? The remainder of our free society?
Step up in Afghanistan
When President Obama tapped Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, I thought he was utilizing her strong positions on American leadership, her desire to affirm this country as a force for good and to fight our enemies where they are found. Sadly, it has become increasingly clear it was just a cold political decision.
Clinton has been banished to the corners of the world to do menial tasks beneath the dignity of secretary of state. Take the recent election developments in Afghanistan. Our representative was John Kerry, someone who has a history of viewing this country as the problem and not the solution.
Obama promised a lot and has delivered little. He campaigned on the notion Afghanistan was the war of necessity and now is stalling on giving his general what he needs to win. Clinton and Robert Gates have urged the president to give the soldiers everything they need to win, yet Obama waits.
He said a lot to get elected; unfortunately it seems to have been just talk. Obama, it is time to be president. It is time to do what is right, not what is politically expedient.
Litter isn't only from smokers
Re: "Smokers' litter raises questions," Oct. 27 letter:
I am a smoker. Kate Robey's impressionable child can rest assured that no butts go out my car window. I use my car's ashtray as it was intended. Butts that go out a window can land on dry grass and start a fire.
Questions I have are: Has Robey's child or Robey ever released a balloon for breast cancer or remembrance of a lost friend? That balloon doesn't just evaporate after it leaves your hand and floats away. It loses pressure and falls to the ground (like a cigarette butt). Isn't that littering?
A bird or a land animal can pick up that kind of litter and possibly choke or die.
Use Countryside funds for course
Re: "Smart Way rates to rise next year," Oct. 23 news story:
As someone who has played at Countryside Golf Course for the past 20 years, less frequently in the most recent past because of the deteriorating condition of the course, I am pleased to see Roanoke City Council take the stand to do repair work.
As shown by Buena Vista, with Vista Links, and Virginia Beach, with Red Wing, a municipal golf course can be a profitable venture.
I hope the majority of the money is spent on the golf course itself and not on the pro-shop, office, etc. Golfers do not frequent a golf course for a building, they go to play the course. Repairing and refurbishing the course itself first will bring in golfers and the money to do the rest of the work.
A maintained course and reasonable prices will go a long way to bring back play to a course that is enjoyable to play and well laid out.
Elk herds did roam in Virginia
Re: "Short takes: From the Rockies to Virginia's coal fields," Oct. 24 editorial:
On your editorial page you stated that there had been no elk in Virginia for more than 150 years. This is true of native elk; however, over the years, elk herds were imported from other areas, mostly from the Rocky Mountain states.
I was stationed at Bedford Air Force Station on Apple Orchard Mountain, 10 miles north of the Peaks Of Otter on the Blue Ridge Parkway, from April 1955 until November 1957, and frequently would see a herd of elk around the Peaks. One big bull elk in particular would stand in the middle of the road and not move until he was good and ready.
I recently talked to a resource officer at the parkway's headquarters, and she verified the elks had been there, and said she thinks the herd died out sometime in the late 1960s. They were truly a sight to see.
