Sees downward spiral
of these United States

America as a whole has turned into a nation that breeds arrogance, ignorance and laziness!

Uneducated, glorified teen and tween parents are the norm. Where has our pride gone?

What happened to the days where we would send away our unmarried teen mothers to be to convents upstate to take care of the “problem?”

Nowadays, we have shows on TV that glorify unsafe sex, its now fashionable to pretend to have mental disorders that make you cut yourself. It’s fashionable to have no self-respect or to be uncouth. Most parents these days could care less about what little Billy and Mandy are doing after school, and more about their smart phones and Facebook pages.

Kids could care less about saving face, and more about sucking face, with anything they can find. We as a country do not put our children first. We put our greed and gluttony first.

America the Next Generation: Overweight artery-clogged grandparents at 30, uneducated mass hysteria loving devolved apes.

No one wants to change this. Who wants to work hard when other taxpayers  can support you and your five kids and your drug problem?

I am all for government help, when it is needed, work hard, discipline your children, stop using abortion as a form of birth control! If we all thought about the future in first place we would not be in this situation. America would not be consumed by ignorance.

Reba Boggs
Arden

Parallels drawn between
today’s, past’s shakedowns

A recent show on the Protestant Reformation disclosed one of the practices of the Catholic priests that really ticked off Martin Luther — the paying of “indulgences” (no doubt the original “sin tax”).

A priest would offer absolution of all sins, real or imagined, past, present and future for a pay off, basically buying a “stairway to heaven,” (good name for a song).

There is nothing new under the sun and history does repeat.

Doesn’t that “shakedown” sound a lot like the carbon tax, tobacco tax, sugar tax, existence tax, etc. etc.; these are nothing more than modern day indulgence taxes?

Is “nudging” the citizenry into preferred governmental conditioning while reaping enormous “shake down” profits not just as corrupt and far more sinister?

At least the priest did not care about completely controlling the “mark” after the “shakedown.”

 Following history could our “reformation” from such tyranny be the return and strengthening of the U.S. Constitution in original intent?

Jack Hensley
Weaverville 

U.S. termed constitutional
republic, not a democracy

Our Founding Fathers hated democracy. So do I.

Democracy is rule by public whimsy. Whereas the Founders envisioned for our nation a rule of objective law, not of fickle men.

Under this vision, the protection of rights trumps the wishes of a mob, any mob, no matter their fallacious appeals to authority.

Thankfully, U.S. Federal Judge Vaughn Walker agreed with the Founders and me in his decision overturning California’s proposed Constitutional ban on gay marriage.

With his decision, free adults retain the right to enter into voluntary contracts on their own terms unmolested by their neighbors. And this is how it should be — for all of us.

If a majority voted to ban Christianity, should we respect the will of the people? I pray not.

TIM PECK
Asheville

Sit home on election day
to guarantee another ‘crash’

Karl Rove

Sick of the mess in Washington?  Why not just ignore the campaigns and stay home on election day?

Perhaps you want further empower those free-enterprise Republicans who allowed the Banksters and Wall Street to run roughshod over our economy.

Yes, that is exactly what they are counting on, the same folks who allowed CEOs to amass their billions, packing the halls of Congress with swarms of lobbyists, investing millions of dollars in lobbying, resulting in corporate welfare, while reaping billions from us in return.

Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and other right-wing groups are plowing $300 million into campaigns which they are counting on to retake the Senate.

They intend to use the media which they and their corporate buddies monopolize, in order to “Swift Boat” Democrats, disguise their own radical views, and if successful, drag us back to the policies that led to the greatest harm our nation has suffered since the crash of the ‘30s.

Maybe you are doing well enough to be employed in the workforce.  You are fortunate indeed if you are better off than your parents a generation ago.

What about the wealthiest among our citizens?  Politifact.com reported, “in 2007 the nation’s top CEOs earned more in one workday than the typical worker earned all year.”

In fact the report looked at compensation for “top U.S. executives,” reporting they made over $12 million a year.  Besides, in the past 40 years the gap between pay for top corporate CEOs and the average working stiff grew more than 10-fold.  While they used to earn just 24 times what the average worker got, they now get 275 times what most employees get.

One of the distortions of those “free-enterprise” proclaimers, intent on regaining control of all branches of our government, is that Democrats want to raise taxes.

Why would you be opposed to raising taxes for individuals who earn more than $125,000 per year, but currently pay less than the rest of us in lower tax brackets. 

So why not just sit back and let those wealthiest and greediest among us express unchallenged warnings of socialism and big government, so that the remains of our middle-class citizens undergo increasing loss of security and more join the ranks of those already homeless and in poverty. 

Or perhaps you would rather become active and try to thwart the decline of our nation and our citizens.

Lew Patrie
Asheville

WWNC-AM (570) radio talk-show host Matt Mittan (foreground) of “Take a Stand,” along with his award-winning producer, Agnes Cheek (running the controls in the background), were flown to Washington, D.C., by their company to observe and comment on Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor Rally” on Aug. 28. Upon their return to Asheville, they said the event has been transformative for them. Daily Planet Staff Photo

Matt Mittan transformed
at Glenn Beck rally? No way

To all concerned, please do not use Matt Mittan and Glenn Beck in the same breath.

Just a few weeks ago, Mittan was saying that he was concerned that Beck was losing it.  He and 880 were at each other’s throats and the studios are right beside each other, with just a glass between them.

I think that  Matt and (570 AM program director) Brian Hall cooked up a scheme to act like Matt had been censored for one day. Matt was later reported to be home sick.

In my opinion, this was a stunt to build ratings.  I offered to settle our differences on the air and Matt said no.
Do not be guilty of thinking he has had a change of heart with just this one show.  Remember, he nailed Charles Taylor and would not ask hard questions of Bruce Goforth.

I will reserve my thoughts on him after a year of consistent  language and actions.  Remember, both 880 and 570 are owned by the same company (Clear Channel Communications Inc.) and run by the same management.

Don Yelton
Weaverville
Yelton is vice chair of the Buncombe County GOP.

Defeat of Nesbitt termed 
key to stopping spenders

Are you as fed up as I am with our elected officials in North Carolina?

Are you tired of all the new ways they find to tax us and then waste our hard-earned money on their pet projects?
In Buncombe County, the people can help stop the waste and corruption in Raleigh by voting Senate Majority Leader Martin Nesbitt out of office on Nov. 2.

He could stop the tax-and-spend attitude but chooses not to do it because he is one of the big spenders himself.
Voting him out would be a big win for the working people in North Carolina.

Bill Lack
Asheville

Shuler’s land deal requires
answer/apology to voters

Since November the whole district has known that Rep. Heath Shuler, in my opinion, sold us a pile of deceit regarding his dealings with the TVA and his personal property investments.

His tall tale that he had never contacted anyone at the TVA to push his multi-million dollar deal along was blown sky high.

The Asheville Citizen Times’ John Boyle said: “There’s no pretty way to put this. Congressman Heath Shuler flat-out lied... — repeatedly.”

The Smoky Mountain News gave Shuler their “Pants On Fire Award,” saying: the “TVA report later confirmed that the Congressman had lied when he told media he had had no contact with the TVA.”

The Hendersonville Times-News said: “Shuler tried to slide around the truth, apparently hoping that the whole story would never come to light.”

In my opinion, Shuler knew that it was wrong for a congressman to call the CEO of the TVA about his own sweetheart land deal so he decided to bald-face lie about it. And he has not had the humility to admit or apologize for it. When Shuler asks for your vote to be part of Pelosi’s majority again, will you let him pretend that what every major paper in WNC has reported as shameful fact never happened?

ROBERT DANOS
Hendersonville
Danos is chairman of the Henderson County GOP.