Brown cleverly answered an unfair question Re: “Dim Bulb,” Oct. 7
I always find the Dim Bulb section on the editorial page to be amusing, but the selection of Scott Brown’s remark on Oct. 7 was the first time I strongly disagreed with the section.
The original remark directed at him was tone-deaf on a whole number of levels. It was bad from an elitist “this job is beneath me” perspective. It was rather mean-spirited on a personal level, never a good side to a politician with little charisma like Elizabeth Warren. And it was bad from a political prospective, as it illustrated the difference between problem-solving approaches of two parties. Whereas Brown used whatever resources he had available to solve the issue of not having money, Warren opted to take a loan and push the solution into the future. I know which approach I would want my representative to pursue.
In contrast, Brown’s choice to quip just the personal side of the remark with a short and witty put-down like “Thank God” was a political masterstroke. It was clever, it was funny, and in my mind it joins Churchill’s famous “If I were your husband I would drink it” as one of the better comebacks made to such an attack. Bravo, Scott Brown! You won that one.
Yevgeny G.
Rockville
Protesters are just repeating history
Re: “Occupy Wall Street is more of the Left’s familiar flapdoodle,” Examiner Editorial & Nate Beeler cartoon, Oct. 11
I am amazed that the editorial and the cartoonist caught so well the essence of what may and would happen if the lumpenproletariat (as Karl Marx would have called them) Occupy Wall Street crowds have their way. For 24 long years under Soviet communism my parents and I witnessed exactly that. After the “anti-capitalist” mobs — under the guns of the occupying Soviet Army — self-distributed all wealth, executed or threw in death camps the professional and business elite and moved into their houses, the economy collapsed and the country became a totalitarian people’s republic. Then the Communist Party came safely from behind and physically eliminated all those who brought it in power (the useful idiots with the peace signs and Che Guevara T-shirts of today). The protesting leftists, now labeled “social parasites,” became in their turn “enemies of the people” — most of them executed or thrown in jail for “sabotage.” Forty-five years later their system imploded in apocalyptic misery and hopelessness. But as Hegel said, history teaches us that men learn nothing from history. And history keeps repeating itself.
Michael Gloukhov
Fairfax
Gambling is not a beneficial industry
Re: “Anti-gambling forces praise P.G.’s proposed ban on slots,” Oct. 5
It is alarming to me that those in Annapolis want to bring video lottery terminals (“slots”) to Fort Washington. Have we dropped that low in clout? Is the gaming industry going to pick up where predatory lenders left off?
Fort Washington is one of the reasons why Prince George’s is the wealthiest majority black county in the nation. I have visited casinos around the country and I have never seen one placed in a community as affluent and well-educated as Fort Washington.
We often say Prince George’s has no dominant industry for which we are known. Montgomery is known for biotechnology and health companies. Fairfax is known for high technology and defense. Prince George’s, despite having great assets, has no definition that immediately comes to mind, except as nation’s wealthiest county for African Americans. Is gambling now to be our brand, our industry?
I say go back to the drawing board and start over, because I expect more and want more for my family and my community. There is simply no benefit in gambling getting a foothold in the wealthiest and best-educated black county in the nation, except to wipe out any whatever remaining wealth that predatory lending left behind.
Linda Brown
Fort Washington
