Bombing in Libya creating unnecessary destruction Re: “On President Obama and the triumph of evil,” March 26
Bill O’Reilly’s commentary on the need for the United States to let loose our military bombs on Libya is the same old rhetoric he pushed when we did the same thing in Iraq — only to later change his mind.
His references to the likes of Pat Buchanan and others who are opposed to these unnecessary killings are puzzling. He should go over there and do some of his TV shows live so he and his followers can become better informed about the unnecessary destruction and carnage we are causing.
Bernard Helinski
Baltimore
District’s DMV is fleecing the public
Re: “D.C. hunting down $1b owed in overdue fines,” March 23
I, too, am a recent victim of the District’s efforts to fleece the public. I recently moved back into D.C. and was told I have a whopping $4,000 in overdue parking tickets dating back to 2001.
As I protested to deaf ears, I have had a valid D.C. driver’s license since then. What am I going to do besides go another week without a driver’s license? I contacted my city council representative’s office and am waiting to hear if there is anything that can be done to put the clamps on D.C.’s runaway Department of Motor Vehicles.
Nandi H. Osaze
Washington
Blame environmentalists for plastic bag litter
Re: “Arlington asks for federal bag tax,” March 21
Funny, isn’t it, how the best of intentions so often yields such bad results. Take proposals to apply a 5-cent “bag tax” in Montgomery County and elsewhere. When I was growing up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, we only had paper bags which, if carelessly tossed aside, simply dissolved when it rained.
Then “environmentalists” came along, insisting that plastic bags were more “environmentally friendly” and needed to “save the trees.” Thus was born the phrase “Paper or plastic?” We were warned they would eventually become a litter problem.
Now that the problem we were warned about has come to pass, do these latter-day Druids admit they made a mistake? Of course not. Instead, they propose that hapless consumers be taxed a nickel for each grocery bag — plastic or paper — even though paper bags were never a problem.
One can be forgiven for thinking this is simply another money-making scheme.
Roger Johnson
Kensington
