Warren unique in challenging times
I think Sen. Elizabeth Warren offers all Americans a glimmer of hope in an otherwise abysmal congressional setting as we transition to 2015.
She is a very well-spoken senator who represents everyone (except Citibank, apparently), is extremely smart, prepared to rise to the occasion, and seems to carry no baggage or hidden agenda.
I encourage everyone to read her latest book "A Fighting Chance," listen carefully to what she has to say, and take comfort in her being truly a senator who represents each of us in these challenging times.
— Thomas B. Petersen
Anchorage
Religion is club for Homo sapiens only
Each day an untold number of animals are sacrificed for our eating, clothing and sporting pleasures. We don't even bat an eye over it. A religion whose God endorses slaughtering innocent sentient beings for pleasure is a religion and a God I want nothing to do with. Instead of being a club for Homo sapiens only, religion needs to stand for the sanctity of all sentient life. Alongside the slogan "Make Bread, Not Bombs" needs to go: "Make Bread, Not Meat."
The darker the night, the brighter a star within it will shine. Please have a Christmas free of meat, leather and fur. It will be a true Christmas of peace.
— Thomas H. Morse
Anchorage
Terrorists might deserve the torture
With regard to "waterboarding" or "torturing" of prisoners of war, I submit that there are three general categories of "prisoners."
1. Prisoners taken in combat — These are enemy soldiers who have fought valiantly against our troops. In all our wars, such prisoners have generally been treated and cared for humanely until the end of hostilities, and then repatriated.
2. Captured spies — These are enemy agents, who have clandestinely engaged in sabotage and espionage against our country. During all of U.S. history, such prisoners have been tried, and if convicted, have usually been given prison sentences during times of peace, and are usually executed during times of war.
3. Captured terrorists — These are usually revolutionary fanatics, who pose as civilians, with the object of indiscriminately wounding and killing as many innocent men, women and children as possible.
I am not pleased by the prospect that the U.S. would torture anyone; however, I suppose it could be argued that foreign terrorists, by planning or carrying out the mass-murder of non-combatant civilians, voluntarily relinquish the protections which might otherwise be afforded to them by the Geneva Conventions, and, upon being captured, leave themselves vulnerable to whatever treatment their captors deem appropriate.
— Stephan Paliwoda
Anchorage
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