Animals cruel to animals, too

Ingrid E. Newkirk, president and founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), has broken new ground with her article asserting that fish are fast learners who think ahead, form complex social relationships, have unique personalities and are problem solvers ("Extending leases of local fish farms was bad for fish and environment," Star-Advertiser, Commentary, July 20).

It bothered her when she saw workers at a fish slaughter facility skinning the conscious, struggling animals.

Unfortunately for fish, they are way down on the food chain, and I don’t think their creator meant for them to live a cuddly, worry-free existence. PETA’s mission is a good one, but this is starting to border on the ridiculous.

A lion slowly killing its prey by asphyxiation? A seal playfully tossed in the air by a pod of killer whales before being dispatched? And don’t forget birds of prey who tear apart their victims, alive, piece by piece, to feed to their young. That has got to stop!

Orson Moon
Aiea

Corporate jets provide real jobs

The $800 billion stimulus was supposed to create shovel-ready jobs to repair our infrastructure, provide tax breaks for jet owners and produce up to 500,000 jobs a month.

Now the Obama administration wants more money for infrastructure repair, doesn’t know what happened to the jobs and wants to stop the tax loophole for jet owners.

Having flown for one of these jet owners, I can tell you of the many jobs produced by selling/operating jets: avionics/engine/aircraft mechanics, refuelers, aircraft/avionics/engine builders, small-parts manufacturers, management companies, fixed-base operators, crew members and developers of future aircraft.

These are real jobs, and we are killing jobs.

Has anyone in this administration taken Economics 101? The Obama administration hopes we have short-term memories and aren’t paying attention. Wake up, America.

Donald Harlor
Ewa Beach

Concussions are long-term threat

CNN reported recently on a lawsuit filed against the National Football League for permanent residual injuries from concussions on the field by pro football players.

Similar to cigarette company allegations, the players allege that the NFL knew for years that the players were getting permanent, irreversible damage from recurrent concussions.

New studies are being done on postmortem concussion victims suffering from depression, rage and memory loss long after recovering from their concussions. The late effects are known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Discussing the research with the lead investigator, I found there is reason to believe that brain damage from concussions can spread almost like a virus to unaffected healthy cells later in life, causing the brain damage to grow even when no new concussions have occurred. This brain damage is detected as the dreaded tau protein formed from the concussion injury.

The implications for contact sports are horrifying.

Robert R. Sloan, M.D.
Honolulu

Mercenaries give U.S. a bad name

Pulling out of Iraq poses problems like never before. In earlier wars, we have never allowed so many civilians into our war zones.

More than 35,000 Americans have been hired by private firms to protect civilian workers who are rebuilding Iraq.

They wear uniforms, race around with sirens blaring and are immune to prosecution by the Iraqis and us. In some publicized cases, they have murdered Iraqi civilians.

These mercenaries are hated by the Iraqis and they give America and our troops a bad name. To Iraqis, all uniformed Americans look alike.

They are hated by our military, too. Talk with a returning serviceman and you’ll find out how these mercenaries ignore checkpoints, knowing our soldiers won’t shoot a fellow American.

We pay billions to firms that are now concerned about who will protect them and their security forces if the U.S. military pulls out of Iraq.

Keith Haugen
Nuuanu