Opinions

We flung open our windows this weekend. As the kitchen curtains flapped gently with the October breeze, we were reminded of an editorial from Oct. 1, 2005.

A flower to the new Pima County Public Library bookmobile. The vehicle replaces one purchased in 1990 and can hold up to 4,000 books. The updated bookmobile will also have a retractable canopy and technology for WiFi and video, according to a press release.

Vote 'no' on 105

Don't be fooled by the universal sigh of relief that was heard Friday when the U.S. Congress approved a $700 billion package to rescue the U.S. banking system.

I'm a female job seeker over 50 in a weak economy. Sounds almost like an oxymoron, doesn't it? Yet many women are in exactly the same boat, and for reasons as diverse as the jobs we seek.

I was talking to friend in New York City the other day about the financial crisis, and she told me about a scene she had witnessed in the lobby of the Warwick Hotel. Four Swedish tourists, who clearly had been on a shopping spree in Manhattan, fueled by the still cheap dollar, were trying to cram all their purchases into four suitcases. They had bought a hand-held scale — one of those you grip onto the suitcase and lift — to make sure all their American goodies were not overweight for the flight home.

WASHINGTON

On Sept. 28, in little Toledo, between 4,000 and 5,000 people gathered to watch 1,200 rowers compete in the 23rd Frogtown Races Regatta, hosted by the Toledo Rowing Club and Owens Corning.
It was a wonderful day, and we enjoyed watching our granddaughter and hundreds of high school kids compete for Notre Dame Academy. Our beautiful river and downtown skyline showcased the event. A woman from Chicago told us she enjoyed the event so much and looked forward to returning.
Now the bad news. I called WTVG-TV, Channel 13, and asked why it was not there. The channel said its budget did not allow it, and they only had one cameraman.
I am sick and tired of watching gore, killing of parents, rape, robbery, and gay men making babies. I want - and expect - more of the good news like the above events.
Go back out with reporters like in the past and stop asking us to do your job and send in pictures.
Theodore Georgoff
Windamar Road
'Heroic' Great Lakes initiative is all wet
It sounds like Congress has made a "heroic" effort to protect the Great Lakes from exploitation. But did it? No. While there would be a ban on bulk exportation of bulk shipments - containers over 7 1/2 gallons - suppliers can ship containers of 7.4 gallons or less by the truckload, defeating any effort at protection. How did we survive without prepackaged water containers? Our household fills a water bottle using our own filtering of tap water.
This sounds like the usual political ploy for members of Congress to pat themselves on the back with no substantial, real limits on export. It's like keeping the glass half full while allowing an unlimited number of glasses. Marcy Kaptur has it right.
Don J. Mooney
Erie, Mich.
Laws protecting life say a lot about nation
The alternative approach to opposing abortion proposed by Richard Gaillardetz in the Sept. 27 edition of The Blade should be an additional approach, not a shift in position.
He cites the dim prospects of a court reversal, problems with enforcement, and the fact that abortions would continue as reasons for questioning the strategy. Speeding laws don't stop all speeding; theft laws don't stop all thefts; murder laws don't stop all murders. Yet these laws are on the books.
These laws speak to what we believe as a nation. They suggest what we value as a culture and as a civilized people. He states that the 1.3 million abortions a year is a national moral scandal. I agree.
But the greater scandal is that the law of the land allows this taking of helpless, innocent life growing in the womb.
If our ancestors believed that "settled law" meant the end of the discussion, we would still have slavery and only white men would be able to vote. There would be no African-American or female voters, let alone candidates, in this year's election.
As long as Roe vs. Wade is the law, our nation cannot realize the greatness that our forefathers had in mind when this country was founded.
Furthermore, the social policies that he cites in describing his candidate would certainly be valid reasons to support that candidate. They are pro-motherhood; they provide health-care assistance to poor families, and they require paternal responsibility and support.
However, to overlook other policies in that candidate's record and to describe that candidate as "pro-life" strike me as infringements of the commandment against bearing false witness.
Andrew Babula
Sylvania
Brand new cents make little sense
"Pennies from Heaven" is a wonderful song from years ago. Presently our government has invested millions to mint new pennies.
How ridiculous it is in these economic times for the feds to mint a coin that should have been retired years ago. I wonder which senseless part of government made the decision to redesign the cent and continue its usage?
No wonder the country is going broke. Perhaps our leaders think pennies come from Heaven. I'm certain they also believe that money grows on trees.
The reality, however, is that taxpayers will foot the multimillions needed to produce these unneeded coins.
Tell me these new cents make any sense.
Donald N. Thurber
LaSalle, Mich.
Great Depression offers us solutions
The Great Depression of the 1930s would have caused many people to lose their homes, including my parents.
The FDR administration came up with the Home Owners Loan Corporation. As I was very young at the time, I have no idea how it worked but somehow, instead of giving money to bankers, it was loaned to homeowners, who gave it to the bank, so they were able to keep their homes.
Certainly our Congress could have found a better solution than that proposed by our Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson.
Can someone look into history and learn, or is there no thought for the common people?
My home has no mortgage.
Harry R. Older
Grosse Pointe Parkway
Our own actions got us into this mess
Two years ago I wrote to The Blade asking, "What happened to our great country?"
Well, I now know. When one of our companies outsourced jobs, I didn't boycott them. When oil became our "crack," I bought a truck. When China made a better television at a cheaper price, I did not think of who lost a job.
I did, however, complain to anyone who would listen about how bad things are. I have been selfish, not really caring about what I was doing to the planet or the economy. So please stop blaming the politicians.
I'm the one who forgot the values and morals this country was founded on.
Time for change.
Joseph St. John
Arden Place
Late author's book to become movie
Your editorial on Sept. 25 remembering writer David Foster Wallace was a thoughtful tribute to a humble genius. I offer one minor correction. You assert that "none of Mr. Wallace's books will ever be adapted by Hollywood."
In fact, this year we'll see the release of John Krasinski's film adaptation of Wallace's short story collection, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Literary critic David Lipsky said after Wallace's suicide that "no writer saw the era as clearly."
We live on in Wallace's moment, even as he does not.
Ben Krompak
West Central Avenue
Keep roads clean; use G-rated billboards
Shouldn't our nation's highways be rated "G"? This is not the case on U.S. 23 south of Sterns Road (near the Michigan-Ohio line).
Harley Davidson on Central Avenue chooses to force us to look at, in my opinion, an X-rated billboard. The owner's product must be doing very poorly if he stoops to using a woman's body parts to sell his inventory of motorcycles. The billboard is certainly in bad taste and very unprofessional.
The owner, who approved the billboard, claims that when he looks at it, he thinks of motorcycles.
Baloney. I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. Blatant, provocative billboards are not what we need. We need our highways rated G.
Marcia Crots
Ottawa Lake, Mich.
If Uncle Sam is in a bailout mood … In these days when people refuse to accept responsibility for their actions, I have only one question: How do I apply for a government bailout?
Gary Sahadi Lambertville

SENATE passage of a bill clearing the way for nuclear cooperation with India has three major drawbacks for American foreign policy.
First, it blows to smithereens any credibility in overall U.S. policy opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The prohibition on nuclear trade with India was imposed when India did not sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and then developed and tested nuclear weapons. India still hasn't signed the treaty and the new accord preserves its exclusion from inspection of its nuclear military facilities.
How is the United States to oppose the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea while subscribing to India's position on nuclear weapons? Both countries have signed the treaty.
The United States also needs the support of India's archenemy, Pakistan, in fighting the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and terrorism in South Asia. Pakistan specifically developed its nuclear weapons program to balance India's. The Pakistanis have watched the nuclear courtship of the United States and India with deep concern throughout the Bush years and find the new agreement to be vindication of all their suspicions.
Third, the bill's path through Congress was eased by a powerful new India lobby that has emerged, based on the growing numbers and wealth of people of Indian origin in America. Its most visible arm is the U.S. India Political Action Committee. The lobby's success in gaining congressional approval for the bill moves it close in power and influence to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The tools of both are votes and money.
Too bad the House has passed this bill and that President Bush likely will sign it soon. The result is not in America's long-term best interests.
It would be worth following the money in this election year to learn the full story behind Congress' willingness to give India a free pass on nuclear weapons.

A PUBLIC and private-sector commit- ment to keeping hundreds of jobs in economically depressed Huron County has paid off. Raising a new company from the ashes of the former Norwalk Furniture Corp. is a testament to what can be done when a small community refuses to succumb to big setbacks. After Norwalk Furniture, which had been in business for more than a century, closed last month, employment prospects for its 500 long-time workers looked bleak.
In July the struggling furniture maker idled workers, then twice called them back as investors and prospective buyers expressed interest in the company. But what appeared to be a sure deal fell apart, closing Norwalk's largest employer. Then local investors rescued the firm when they bought it for a reported $2.5 million, renaming it Norwalk Custom Order Furniture. Then the state pitched in with a six-year, 55 percent tax credit valued at $718,900, with terms that require Norwalk Custom to stay at its current location for 12 years.
The Ohio Department of Development says about 260 full-time jobs would be created within three years. Production also is expected soon to begin finishing and shipping furniture items already on order by dealers and franchise stores across North America.
Clearly, these are difficult times for furniture makers nationwide. But the dedication of the Norwalk investors to keep a local factory operating and people working means one company beat the odds.

After John McCain's decision to pull out of Michigan, voters might become uneasy with him running government
THE odds were against John McCain winning Michigan from the start. The state has voted Democratic in the last four presidential elections, and the worsening economy doesn't help any Republicans' chances. Moving resources gradually to other states might make sense. However, to abruptly admit that he was giving up on the state smelled of desperation, sending a whiff of defeat nationwide. This signal may hurt his campaign far more than an extra ad in Florida or a staffer in Ohio will help it.
That's why the most appropriate reaction to Mr. McCain's decision came from L. Brooks Patterson, the salty and outspoken Oakland County executive.
"I don't know what McCain was thinking," Mr. Patterson told a Detroit newspaper. "He's a general who left the battlefield in the middle of the fight."
It's difficult not to agree with his assessment. After insisting for months that he could and would win Michigan, Mr. McCain yanked his TV advertising and moved his paid staff to other states, principally Florida and Ohio. The move left national experts and the Michigan GOP aghast.
In Michigan, though, the announcement has far worse consequences. With the top of the ticket seemingly throwing in the towel, Republicans will find it harder to motivate their base to get out to vote.
That means the odds just got a lot better that the Democrats can knock off freshman U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R., Tipton) and his congressional colleague, Joe Knollenberg (R., Troy). It means there is now virtually no chance that the GOP can take back the lower house of the Michigan Legislature, and that nearly all their statewide candidates for university boards are likely to be defeated, with the possible exception of Michigan State University's Scott Romney, brother of the man most Michigan Republicans would have preferred at the top of their ticket. "[Mr. McCain] has thrown a lot of good Republican candidates under the bus," Mr. Patterson said.
There is another troubling aspect to all of this. The Michigan decision seemed risky, impetuous, and not sufficiently thought out - much like Mr. McCain's choice of a running mate. Voters may want to ask: If this is typical of how he makes major decisions, would we be comfortable with a president who runs the government this way?

It’s been 50 years since I graduated from Midwestern State University in 1958.

Here’s the good news: You’re no longer seeing dollar signs when you consider the national debt.

There is an analogy called “The Frog in Boiling Water” dilemma that goes something like this...

Our monthly lunar intruder, the full moon, once again does a white-washing job in the night skies early this week.