Crack down on meth, not marijuana

As our state Legislature soon convenes, many Hawaii residents fervently hope for the exercise of common sense. We long for the day when marijuana is legalized and taxed, and crystal methamphetamine is cracked down on. It was not an exercise of common sense when then-state Attorney General Warren Price spent millions of dollars "eradicating" the state of marijuana.

That kind of money, along with the hypothetical "green" tax revenues, could better be spent on policing the manufacture and sale of meth, and healing the ice addicts and their families, rather than ridiculously policing a senseless infraction. It is very clear to me: marijuana is natural whereas crystal meth is distilled poison. The time has come to legalize pot and crack down on meth.

Stuart N. Taba
Manoa

Raising any taxes is never a victory

The tax increase on upper-income Americans is being hailed as a victory for President Barack Obama. Why is raising taxes on anyone considered a victory?

To me, it’s an admission of failure. Failure of government to adequately manage the trillions of dollars it already has. Failure of government to live within its means. Failure of government to stop spending money it doesn’t have.

You and I have to get by with what we’ve got. Why shouldn’t government?

Bob Lamborn
Liliha

Think tank articles filled with untruths

I am amazed and disappointed in Star-Advertiser commentaries from think tanks filled with misinformation and untruths, giving a patina of expertise and therefore undeserved respect.

For example:

» The threat of tax hikes prevents corporations and the 1 percent from investing in jobs. In fact, they’ve sat on their ill-gotten gains for years. No "fear," just waiting for more government money and less risk.

» Washington is preventing oil drilling on public lands. In fact, there are more than 3,000 leases out now but only a minority in use. Are oil companies waiting for more government subsidies and tax breaks?

» Lower tax rates on the rich will encourage growth? Tax rates are the lowest in60-plus years and still they don’t invest.

» We need to end the regulatory assault on business? One of our biggest problems — fiscally, environmentally, etc. — is the lack of regulations and enforcement.

Please, more discretion and less insults to readers in what gets put out for public consumption.

Tom Tizard
Kailua

Developers should offset their impacts

If development goes in at Hoopili, Koa Ridge, Kakaako and Haleiwa, and then three more hotels plus a subdivision and condos on the windward corner at Laie and Turtle Bay, we’ll have many thousands more cars, buses and limousines on Kamehameha Highway from Honolulu around to Hygienic Store, Kaneohe, or the other way around.

The two-lane Kamehameha Highway to the North Shore is already congested. There absolutely will have to be a four-lane highway with an elevated bridge over Waimea Valley to connect to the Haleiwa bypass road. Should not all developers pay half the cost for this infrastructure before building? Why "build it and they will come?"

Paul Nelson
Waialua

O’Reilly’s viewpoint is mischaracterized

It seemed to me that the viewpoint Bill O’Reilly was making, while admittedly a generalization about a very diverse ethnic group, was far more complimentary than denigrating ("O’Reilly comment prompt’s Hanabusa’s call for an apology," Star-Advertiser, Jan. 5).

His comment was that, when compared to other ethnicities, Asians tended to be "more industrious and hardworking."

His point was that those attributes were generally the product of, and in turn promoted by, personal responsibility and self-reliance, which are considered to be conservative in nature, whereas the liberal "progressive" leaning is toward collective responsibility.

One side believes that government should be the tool for social justice (whatever that means) and caring for the needs of whoever among us may be struggling, while the other side believes that government is the problem.

Our esteemed U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa apparently didn’t like such an inconsistency being pointed out. After all, if you’re all worked up over thinking somebody has abused you in some way, you’re a lot less likely to actually think about what the person said and was meaning.

Jim Wolery
Kaneohe

Rosemond advice to girl’s mom wrong

I was deeply disturbed to read John Rosemond’s "Parent Power" column ("Tell daughter that admiring other girls’ bodies is normal," Star-Advertiser, John Rosemond, Jan. 5). In responding to a mother asking for advice on talking about her 10-year-old daughter’s expressed attraction to other girls, Rosemond tells the mother to basically nip it in the bud early and to make it very clear to the child that this topic was not to be discussed between mother and daughter ever again.

I was shocked and saddened to see such damaging ignorance to not only be published in our paper but to be offered as "professional" advice from someone who should know better. I then saw on the opposite page an ad for Rosemond giving a parenting workshop sponsored by Hawaii Baptist Academy, and it became clearer what is going on here. The Star-Advertiser should dump Rosemond’s column immediately and find someone who actually cares for the well-being of children’s development rather than attempting to instill homophobia into tender family relationships.

Matt LoPresti
Ewa Beach