Gun control laws don't affect the lawless

Following the horrendous Christmas shooting in the Los Angeles suburb of Covina, there are sure to be outcries demanding more gun control.

There is, however, one point that those promoting new gun control laws always seem to ignore. That is, that one can pass new gun control laws until he is blue in the face, but those laws will only affect the law-abiding citizen. The lawless ones who use guns inappropriately couldn't care less about current or new limitations on gun ownership.

Those gun control advocates also ignore the statistics in those states that have modified their "carry laws," making it easier for law-abiding citizens to carry a concealed weapon. Those statistics all show a decrease in inappropriate gun use. That just makes sense: If you plan to rob someone, you might be deterred by the possibility that he might be armed, too.

William Burke

Belknap

Oceanside

Carlsbad should worry about its own backyard

Gee, poor Carlsbad. No one is buying cars at Car Country, no one wants to go to the most outdated, run-down mall in the country. The new city golf course is losing millions of dollars each year, so because of this, Carlsbad wants to stop Oceanside from building a new state of the art shopping center for all of North County to enjoy("Westfield sues O'side to stop shopping center," Dec. 24).

Carlsbad needs to worry about what's going on in its own backyard.

Anthony Forlenza

Oceanside

Another fatality on Highway 67

Another fatal accident on Highway 67 Sunday, Dec. 28 ("Ramona woman killed in Highway 67 crash," Dec. 29). Apparently the cost of concrete or steel barriers to separate the north and south high-speed lanes is more than the value of a life â€"â€" or several lives, injuries, permanent disabilities and so on.

And kudos to the Rhodes scholar who decided it would be just as effective to attempt to lower the speed limit to 55 by posting "Arrive Alive" signs. Since those didn't have any effect, we were treated to the additional silliness that turning on headlights might alleviate the problem.

And after that amazing and wondrous action was also found to have no effect on traffic (indeed, very few vehicles I've observed on 67 have had lights on during the day), solar-powered speed-registering signs were installed. Some of them actually work, and if you watch the displays, you'll see few numbers below 65 except during the daily traffic jam during rush hour (and, it should be assumed, during the next large fire, when 67 becomes a parking lot as it did during the last one).

How local and state government members can look at themselves in the mirror is more than I can fathom. I would have fallen on my sword by now.

Erich Benndorff

Ramona

Government is the problem

David Cutter (Letters, Dec. 23) presented a paragraph of hate and ignorance. Not one fact, just Clintonian â€"â€" the truth is whatever you want it to be. The writer appears like a Sen. Boxer, supporter of the enemy.

Muslims have been at war with the U.S. since 1979, though many are in denial. This administration has prevented post-9/11 attacks while dealing with congressional obstruction (the enemy within).

Both Presidents Clinton and Bush have failed to enforce laws (constitutional duty of the president) and control spending. The seeds of today's economic tragedy were planted in 1965 and have been cultivated by Congress and two presidents. Now we are harvesting this ripened product.

President Bush attempted to place some controls on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Senator Chris Dodd (taxpayer enemy) responded with filibuster threats and the effort dies.

President Reagan advised that government doesn't solve problems, government is the problem. Governance students recognize the truth of his observation. Uneducated voters continue to elect incompetent and self-serving legislators who perpetuate problems.

Murel Fisk

Escondido

Writer has forgiving attitude toward Bush

Mr. David Jackson's letter in the Dec. 25 North County Times gave me new and surprising insight into how we, as people, arrive at conclusions. He fairly accurately described how almost everyone wanted retribution for the horrifying and frightening 9/11 attack. Screamed for blood? Maybe. Probably to his credit, there have also been no follow-up attacks.

But did we ask "our quarterback" (President Bush) to almost ignore Osama bin Laden, the acknowledged perpetrator of that attack, and to place all our resources and our family members' lives in a different direction on a country and dictator who had almost nothing to do with that attack? Kind of like giving the ball to the quarterback and him running in the opposite direction and scoring a touchdown for the other team. But with much more horrifying consequences.

Mr. Jackson has a very forgiving attitude for all the decisions and actions President Bush made that went wrong in Iraq due to his actions and conclusions. I can only conclude that Mr. Jackson has been fortunate not to have a family member maimed, injured or lost in that war.

Sam Fabela

Vista

Hamas gave Israelis no choice

Israel's military action in Gaza is in response to the nearly constant barrage of rockets and missiles launched by Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza. Israel is fulfilling its duty and responsibility to protect the people of Israel who have been terrorized by the ongoing assault by Hamas.

Israel's action is directed against the Hamas terrorist infrastructure. For years, Hamas has built up its military resources and know-how with the sole intention of attacking Israel and its population centers. Since Israel's 2005 disengagement from Gaza and Hamas' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, Hamas has launched tens of thousands of rockets against cities in Israel's south.

In light of the unceasing attacks, Israel had no choice but to act against Hamas and eliminate its operational capabilities. Israelis are taking maximum precautions to avoid harming civilians in Gaza. The targets chosen by the Israel Air Force are Hamas operational centers, most of which have been deliberately located in densely populated areas.

Both the United States and the European Union have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. No sovereign government in the world would stand by and allow its citizens to be under steady and heavy attack. The U.S. would not tolerate any violence from its neighbors, and Israel should not be expected to do so, either.

Mark Dillon

Poway

We are losing our country to laziness

Now that the majority voted in "change," it's time to make some of our own changes. It's time to start mowing our own yards, washing our own dishes, fixing our own houses, taking care of our own kids.

We the people have gotten fat having other folks from other countries do our chores. Our kids will not take a job making $8 per hour cooking hamburgers because it's beneath them. We have got to change their attitudes about working from the bottom up.

Our country was founded on the sweat and tears of our parents and grandparents. We are losing our country to laziness.

Every time you drive by a crowd of illegals looking to take your money and send it back home, our sons and daughters could do the work instead and keep our economy moving. Change now before it's too late.

Steve Moore

Oceanside

Warren selection was inappropriate

As the facts dictate, it is inappropriate that Rick Warren of Saddleback Church will be invocation speaker at Barack Obama's inauguration. Ordinarily, I'm happy when all voices are being heard, whether I agree with them or not, but be warned what kind of people Warren and his "megachurch" brethren are.

These pastors are nothing more than opportunistic and convincing salesmen with workable business plans who became incredibly wealthy from selling a nonexistent product to the gullible, meshed with "new" contemporary ideals and casual attire.

I speak of the still-popular "Jesus movement" started in the 1970s partly by a now-famous "mega" founded in Costa Mesa in a tent. I was there. The fish hook was set for throngs of people who felt a need for a change in their lives during a time of declining church attendance.

Combining a dying religion, mostly plagiarized from older ones, with popular '70s culture was and remains sheer marketing genius. Most are still psychologically hooked. What started innocently with a message of love and redemption has, by design, turned into a gigantic festering fundamentalist stronghold for a dangerously intolerant and misinformed cult of faithfully fearful praying (and worst of all, voting) for Armageddon.

Carl Desserich

Vista

'Yes on 8' crowd are embarrassing themselves

To all of you self-righteous "Yes on 8-ers," including columnist Michelle Malkin, who characterized the gay community as violent, radical babies who threw temper tantrums simply because they didn't get their way, I'd like to point out that at no time were any of you jumped, beaten, sexually assaulted or robbed like the lesbian in San Francisco who had a rainbow gay sticker on her car.

If the editor of the North County Times was merciful, he would quit printing letters about Proposition 8 altogether. The people, and there are many of them, with weak arguments to justify discrimination are embarrassing themselves. While hiding behind Biblical principles to mask their homophobia, they're becoming known for the company they keep. …

Melinda Santa Cruz

Escondido

Trust the experts when it comes to climate change

Josef Horowitz (Letters, Dec. 20) calls "An Inconvenient Truth" a "propaganda piece" and Al Gore "partisan and self-serving." He claims global warming advocates pursue a "political agenda."

Then he urges us to read an obviously politically motivated book accusing liberals of causing seven environmental catastrophes. Sounds like "false science in the pursuit of a political agenda" to me.

Trying to critique a movie you have not seen is foolish and hypocritical. Accusing thousands of the world's foremost climatologists of political motives is just plain irresponsible. Even "lefty" George Bush finally realizes climate change is a scientific problem, not an ideological one.

The administration's U.S. Geological Survey just released a comprehensive study documenting, using "liberal" satellites, the catastrophic loss of sea ice in the Arctic, Greenland and Antarctica, and prolonged drought in the Southwest caused by global warming.

Not being an expert like Mr. Horowitz, I will continue to rely on the vast majority of the world's leading climatologists for the truth about climate change. I still urge anyone interested to see "An Inconvenient Truth," a film that is non-partisan, meticulously researched, and based on obvious factual evidence, contrary to what deniers who haven't seen it claim.

Michael McNulty

Escondido

Few aware of prison program

Once again, Congress put another program in operation that few American citizens are aware of.

The program, Rapid REPEAT, is available to all states who wish to implement it. This program would allow states to clear their prisons of non-violent illegal aliens to help the government close the books on thousands of pending deportations. It would also allow these illegal aliens to get out of prison early on the condition they promise to leave the U.S. and never return.

Rhode Island became the first state to sign up for the program, but lacks a way to find such inmates in their prison systems ("Rhode Island slow on inmate program," Dec. 8). This has caused a delay that could last for months.

Of course, civil liberties groups are whining that the illegal aliens to be released might not understand the rights they were giving up to obtain the release. What rights? If any rights exist at all, they would be the right to leave the U.S. and the right never to break U.S. federal law by crossing U.S. borders without permission.

Leon Smith

Oceanside

Never thought he'd see the day

I, like so many of my peers who lived through the 1950s and the '60s, who remember the sit-ins, the lynchings of black men in the South, the murders, the hoses, the dogs turned loose on demonstrators during the civil rights movement, the haunting words and melody "We shall overcome," Medgar Evers, the forced integration in Arkansas, Orval Faubus, Alabama, the Ku Klux Klan, Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, the Voting Rights Act, the Poll Tax, and on and on.

None of us thought we would live to see the day that an African-American would become president of the United States of America.

But, as I remember reading while at Cal-Berkeley, in 1963, Victor Hugo said, "There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come." Ladies and gentlemen, that time is now. I am glad I lived long enough to see it.

I really, honestly thought it would take another 200 years. As I state in the back windows of my car (you diehard Republicans, please don't shoot my car): "Tomorrow For Us Begins on 1/20/08. The Nightmare Is Over."

Anthony Abbott

Escondido

'Nuts and bolts' logic would allow polygamy

In regards to Frank Lancelotti's letter of Dec. 26: Nut and bolts? By his logic, polygamy would be fine. After all, when you join a nut and bolt together, it is sometimes accompanied by a second nut to secure the tightness of the primary joining.

And what of the bolt that uses a plain washer or a lock washer in between itself and the nut? They aren't joined together, they just complement the nut and bolt. If you use a different thread between the nut and bolt, it is possible to make them join together. In such a case, I'm sure Lancelotti would say they don't match and wouldn't be the correct usage of the nut and bolt.

By this way of thinking, the marriage of two people of different cultures, races, religions shouldn't be allowed to marry. I have used many nuts and bolts in my time and have found none of their uses that I could relate to marriage.

Lancelotti should stay in his shed and try and formulate other uses for the items in the shed that would prove his misguided point. His letter proves how desperate he is to try and prove his point. …

Frank Straw

Escondido