Credit will destroy America

Perhaps the Republican and Democratic conventions have fleeced America yet again about the true meaning of America.

Americans were not engineered to be debtors until recently. Now we're expected to be in debt, especially through the schooling process, whether that schooling produces jobs for those degrees of not.

President Barack Obama is not brave enough to go against the current banking system, which is currently keeping us all in debt, yet, you will find, that if you do not have debt, you do not have credit.

Now that I pay bills with actual money, they want nothing to do with me.

Credit is a fool's game, and that is the way America will be destroyed, not by warfare, but by debt.

-- Lillian K. Staats

Wasilla

Romney won't reveal who he is

Recently, I was reminded of a con artist's trick of many years ago, whereby a con man, carrying a small pig in a sack, would approach a person in some country village and ask if they'd like to buy the pig. Because the head of the pig that was sticking out of the sack appeared healthy and clean, many people would be tempted to buy the pig. It was only after a buyer bought the pig and took it out of the sack (or "poke") that the pig was found to be scrawny or diseased and was no bargain at all.

What reminded me of this old-fashioned swindle was the manner in which presidential candidate Mitt Romney has presented his well-groomed, smiling face to many crowds but has not disclosed his tax returns nor very many specifics of what he'd do if elected president. Thus, it seems to me that those who vote for Mitt Romney this fall, will in effect be "buying a pig in a poke."

-- Stephan Paliwoda

Anchorage

Salmon resource belongs to all

In response to Rhona Hubbard's critique (Letters, Sept. 3) of the letter, "Should salmon resource be of benefit to the few or the many (Aug. 28)."

She criticizes Mr. Svendsen for saying, most commercial fisherman live out of state, when in fact he said many. There is a big difference between most and many.

I will use some Cook Inlet statistics. A sport-caught fish in Cook Inlet is worth 10 times more to the economy than a commercial-caught fish. Also over 60 percent of all sport income from the state comes from Cook Inlet. The best use of a Cook Inlet fish to the economy comes from sport fishing. I would remind Ms. Hubbard that the fish is a common resource belonging to all of us.

I agree with Ms. Hubbard that all of us should work together toward the common goal of conserving the stocks but when the commercial fisherman are getting over 80 percent of the fish in Cook Inlet and over 90 percent in the rest of the state, who is depleting the resource?

-- Debbie Wackowski

Anchorage

Public sector, not just private, also contributes to wealth

A writer of a previous letter seems to suffer from a basic conceptual error which others of his political persuasion may share, that only the private sector creates "wealth."

Both the public sector (the government) and the private sector (commercial banks) create money, but let's go beyond the "veil of money" and consider real wealth.

Adam Smith addressed this question in his famous book "The Wealth of Nations" (1776), making it clear that the entire product of a nation -- ALL its goods and services -- is its wealth.

Some misconceive that only (let's say) hamburgers and milk shakes are wealth, whereas bridges and highways, fire and police services and educated students are not. But imagine an exchange.

If public sector workers want hamburgers, they get them from the private sector.

But if businesses want a bridge or highway, fire and police services or educated workers, they get them from the public sector.

So to say that one supports the other is one-sided. It's a fundamentalist, fanatical, ideological position that has no basis. Each supports the other, and both contribute to wealth.

-- Rick Wicks

Anchorage

Israel block attempts at peace; it's time to rethink relationship

After watching the two political conventions this past week, I find myself wondering why a foreign country's opinion of who we as Americans elect is so important?

Since when do we care in America that the defense and support of a particular country is a necessary requirement to be an elected official in the U.S.?

The blind support of Israel is counterintuitive to the interests of the people of the U.S. What has Israel done for us, ever? Do we use their military bases? Do they provide support in any way for the U.S? Last I heard agents of Israel were discovered stealing military secrets from the Pentagon, thrown in jail, then deported.

Has Israel helped the U.S. in our interests in the Middle East? No, they have subverted our every attempt to broker peace, refuse to disclose the number of nuclear warheads they have and have stood in the way of U.S. interests in the region for over 40 years.

It is time to rethink our relationship with that country.

Remember the USS Liberty.

Remember Rachel Corrie.

-- Christopher Jensen

Anchorage

Utility does poor job informing us

I just watched Mr. Evans' press conference on the power outages caused by last Tuesday's violent winds.

It was pretty useless to those of us who remain without power. My neighbors and my family live in what has been described as the epicenter of the event. We see no boots on the ground, have received no updates or communication, save for the referenced press conference.

We are frustrated and angry. Our neighbors only a block away have power. It has even been suggested that CEA has no as-builts of our distribution network and is trying to figure it out.

I am OK with lead time, engineering issues and so forth, but I am pitchfork and torch angry at the lack of updates and information coming from CEA.

It is a disgrace that our information is coming from the rumor mill and not from the utility.

-- Richard Field

Anchorage

Text messages should be public

Whom, I ask, could possibly think that text messages about state or federal business sent by anyone in government service could be deemed free from public scrutiny?

Recently, an engineer down in Texas was charged with destroying evidence concerning the Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout by deleting more than 200 SMS messages and arrested for obstruction of justice. His trial is set for February 2013 and of course it remains to be seen if he is found guilty.

So, this will be a landmark case and if he is found guilty as charged, then no text messages by anyone even in private business will be safe from scrutiny.

-- Mike Hefley

Anchorage

For one, windstorm was fun

Having our electric power turned back on almost seems anticlimactic compared to how exciting Tuesday night and Wednesday morning was, rife with the noises of trees bowing and snapping. It was fun improvising, not having the television on and spending more quality time with my wife instead of all the other things we do that require electricity.

However I do wish to thank and applaud the persistent efforts of Chugach Electric and Municipal Light and Power for all their hard work and overtime. Police and fire departments too. Lights and warm showers are nice and not to be taken for granted.

-- Ken Spears

Anchorage

Appreciates utilities' hard work

Thank goodness the wind speed was only 39 mph in Midtown during "The Storm." We might have lost power -- or trees might have fallen.

Seriously -- kudos to all of the folks who take care of us. A special thanks goes out to the dedicated MLP "lumberjacks" and "lines folk" who were out before 5 a.m. removing a fallen tree out of our power lines -- restoring power to our dark and cold neighborhood. You are appreciated.

-- Steve Robb

Anchorage