Letters to the Editor
Old-school solution on booze Kudo's to Pennsylvania's Republican governor for having the courage to act on what he firmly believed was in the best interest of our state concerning the sale of liquor. The highly unpopular action he took was certain to provoke outrage, not just from Democrats but from within his own party.
Old-school solution on booze
Kudo's to Pennsylvania's Republican governor for having the courage to act on what he firmly believed was in the best interest of our state concerning the sale of liquor. The highly unpopular action he took was certain to provoke outrage, not just from Democrats but from within his own party.
Of course, this man of courage and principle was not today's incumbent, but Gov. Gifford Pinchot in 1933. When Prohibition ended, Pinchot set up the State Store system and focused on making buying liquor "as inconvenient and expensive as possible." In 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that excessive drinking kills 80,000 Americans a year and costs $224 billion. It says nothing about the number of wrecked families and individuals, probably because numbers don't go that high.
Imagine a governor actually stating that his aim is to restrain liquor sales? Courageous, then. Unthinkable, now.
John J. Donohue Jr., Philadelphia,
Battleship in its proper home
Those still fighting over the relocation from Camden of the USS New Jersey are trying to conjure up God and country for the lost cause of a move to North Jersey ("Shipping out from Camden," April 26).
Since the battleship's arrival at its South Jersey berth, thousands of visitors have gone though the overnight encampment program held on the ship. None has encountered any traumatic violence in doing so. The program is a high point of achievement and connection with past accomplishments of the ship, and has been most favorably received and attended by all participants. The battleship is the pride of New Jersey, and critics of its home in Camden would be better off supporting the battleship rather than trying to refight the battle over where it should stand.
Accept the past and move on.
Lt. Col. D.G. Patterson (U.S. Army, retired), Mt. Laurel
Discredited antiterror tactics
The recent report by the Constitution Project legal-research group on detainees' treatment after 9/11 found that U.S. methods violated international law with "no firm or persuasive evidence" that they produced valuable information that could not have been obtained by other means. That suggests that not only was the torture all in vain, but a substantial portion of the 9/11 Commission's earlier report on the attacks - which cited so-called enhanced interrogations - is without foundation, yet still forms the basis for our war on terrorism.
Andrew Mills, Lower Gwynedd
You lookin' at me, or the Internet?
It is bad enough that too many tech and telecommunication addicts ignore the dangers of texting while driving. Those dangers are bound to increase exponentially if the Internet-connected eyewear known as Google Glass catches on. Google should be looking at a feature that disables the glasses while driving. Sure, that might dampen sales of this totally frivolous product - and therefore lessen the incentive to add such a feature. But Google touts its social responsibility. Google Glass will surely test that public image.
Randy Sommovilla, Philadelphia