In Florida, a loss for the cause of justice
1. 41-vehicle wreck ties up traffic Sunday on I-81 in Rockbridge County
2. Virginia Tech football roster has holes on picture day
3. Medicare penalties hit hospitals in Roanoke, New River Valleys
4. Microfestivus beer event gets downtown Roanoke hopping
5. McFarling: 2 little numbers are a big hurdle for Virginia Tech football
6. Arrest made in case of missing Nelson County teen
7. DAN CASEY: Copter cost still stirring up dust
8. Roanoke farmers markets making local foods more accessible
9. Virginia attorney general's office grows under Ken Cuccinelli
10. Man's drowning is 5th in Lynchburg area
Friday, July 19, 2013
In Florida, a loss for the cause of justice
There has been another casualty in Florida.
Justice was hard at work, there in her court of law, when she was stalked, chased down and assaulted. She was shot through the heart with half-truths and whole lies, and left for dead.
She was then pitched into the cold, hard ground of Florida, her scales and balances bent and broken. May she never “rest in peace,” but rise again, whole and untarnished; for America is Justice, and we are small indeed without her.
DANA COX
CHRISTIANSBURG
Cuccinelli was right to decline this debate
Thank you, Roanoke Times, for defining your editorial stance so clearly in your editorial of July 13 (“The left-wing debate conspiracy,” July 13 Short takes). You obviously have drunk so much of your own liberal Kool-Aid that you’re not even in touch with how intensely left-leaning and politically active the AARP has become; so much so that many of us conservative seniors have left.
As you admitted, the proposed moderator, Norah O’Donnell, was “formerly of NBC and MSNBC.” Surely even someone as lost in a liberal parallel universe as your editorial board would realize that a former member of the radically liberal MSNBC would be as potentially toxic to any conservative during a debate as CNN’s Candy Crowley was to Mitt Romney in the second presidential debate in the last election.
Her decision to “correct” Romney about a statement he made that was correct as he stated it — as she later agreed, kind of — unfairly slanted the debate toward President Obama. The score for that debate was Obama 1, Crowley 1, Romney 0.
Ken Cuccinelli was absolutely correct to reject a set-up for Terry McAuliffe, no matter what the liberal lapdogs at The Roanoke Times say.
JON R. HARRIS
ROANOKE
Council has a bunch of shrewd negotiators
I look back and marvel over the Roanoke City Council’s methodology for raising members’ pay. The initial bid was 28.5 percent. The reaction of most people: Isn’t that a little steep?
Then they propose and approve a 10 percent raise for themselves. Wow, what a sacrifice — an 18.5 percent reduction from the original plan! My how generous of them.
Wait a minute. On second thought, not really. Their raise is 7 percentage points more than what most of their constituents will receive this year. The strategy to start very high was a brilliant stroke.
DANNY WOODFORD
ROANOKE
Taxpayers shouldn’t underwrite loans
We hear a lot from the White House and the Congress about how higher education is to be financed. It appears government loans financed by the taxpayer is the preferred financing method.
Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported Harvard University had an endowment fund of $32 billion. Since Harvard is only one of many prestigious colleges and universities, it is easy to believe many of them also have large endowment funds.
Currently, we have learned our very own prestigious college, Roanoke College, has purchased $2.7 million of real estate in Salem.
Just where all of the largesse originated is not revealed. We can only speculate how much of it came from Pell grants, G.I. Bill benefits, student personal funds, alumni gifts and grants from foundations, etc.
If these institutions are truly interested in education, it seems reasonable to expect them to lower tuition rates, or possibly grant tuition loans to applicants, freeing taxpayers from having to underwrite student loans.
WILLIAM N. GILES
TROUTVILLE
1. 41-vehicle wreck ties up traffic Sunday on I-81 in Rockbridge County
2. Virginia Tech football roster has holes on picture day
3. Medicare penalties hit hospitals in Roanoke, New River Valleys
4. Microfestivus beer event gets downtown Roanoke hopping
5. McFarling: 2 little numbers are a big hurdle for Virginia Tech football
6. Arrest made in case of missing Nelson County teen
7. DAN CASEY: Copter cost still stirring up dust
8. Roanoke farmers markets making local foods more accessible
9. Virginia attorney general's office grows under Ken Cuccinelli
10. Man's drowning is 5th in Lynchburg area
THE ROANOKE TIMES
