If you can’t park it, you can’t drive it
Re: D.C. drivers can’t parallel park? Blame the DMV,” Feb. 10
Perhaps D.C. should emulate California when it comes to taking the driving test. Before an aspiring new driver even leaves the parking lot, he is required to parallel park next to the building.
If he can’t, the test stops there.
Ben Arnold
Centreville
Real unemployment figure is near 20 percent
Re: “Charticle,” Feb. 9
The charticle on page 39 of The Examiner would have been more interesting if its truthiness had been higher. Reliable sources that show their analysis put the unemployment rate at closer to 20 percent.
The government’s own data shows that for people of working age, the actual employment rate is 60 percent. Simple math says that equates to a genuine unemployment rate of 40 percent.
Just because there are no jobs and people have run out of unemployment benefits does not mean they are not still unemployed. The government would clearly like to forget about them to make their numbers look better, but that is not honest.
The government also claims that there are millions of engineering jobs that can’t be filled. This is amazing, since there are millions of engineers out of work. Companies could fill all those supposed vacancies with experienced engineers, but they want cheaper labor, so the government imports more H1B foreigners to compete with our unemployed.
And don’t even suggest that they pay market rates, hire an older engineer, or train their current employees instead of dumping them when they turn 40 and replacing them with new grads.
William Adams
Springfield
Many Catholic institutions already cover birth control
Here are three quick facts everyone should know about insurance coverage for birth control:
(1) Twenty-eight states already have long had the policy now proposed by the Obama administration.
(2) Eight of those go much further: they require even churches to provide such coverage.
(3) Many Catholic charities and other institutions already have long been providing coverage for birth control.
My religion forbids the eating of pork. If I am an employer whose commissary legally sells pork, and people buy and eat it, my conscience is clear. It’s up to God, not me, to punish them for doing so. Far be it from me to force them to abide by my religion’s dictates.
And according to the U.S. Constitution, they have no right to force me to abide by their religion either.
Edward M. Cohen
Arlington
