Roundabouts are efficient
It is with some amusement I continue to monitor the dialogue regarding "roundabouts." I have driven extensively in Europe where this method of traffic control is very common. One can tour hundreds of miles through the countryside and never see a stoplight. The system works very well, and eliminating the stop and go lends to a greater degree of efficiency. The Europeans drive as we do on the right side of the road. I have also experienced roundabouts in Australia. They are very common there, for all the same reasons. I dealt with driving on the right side of the car, on the left side of the road for hundreds of miles and countless roundabouts. It is not rocket science.
I expect those who object also find parallel parking and backing up a serious challenge. Lord help them if they had to back up a four-wheel hay wagon as I did routinely at the age of 10 or 12. Stop whining and get someone to teach you how to drive.
— Mike Koskovich
Wasilla
Justice for King Cove regarding road
There are few things in this world more predicable then federal Judge Russell Holland siding with the federal government and the environmentalists. King Cove is no exception. The idea that federal judges are appointed for life is a practice that needs to be changed. In today's judicial world judges and the decisions they make are unfortunately easy to predict by their "liberal or conservative" leaning. What happened to the old idea of a blind lady liberty?
— John Sturgeon
Anchorage
American credo is measure
…with liberty and justice for ALL.
— Andrew Leibert
Anchorage
No need for stupid jab when middle ground is goal
Cam Radar's Dec. 18 response to Jay Ambrose's commentary on the liberal leaning of "institutions of higher learning" seems to suggest a middle road, moving away from left vs. right confrontation. He concludes by recommending that people need to focus on self-examination, self-growth and changes to their own views and behavior, rather than focus on lashing out with contempt at those whose views differ from their own. While I recognize the value in this suggestion, I might point out that life is short and there are many human-caused problems in this world that need to be addressed, by as many of us as possible. While some "navel-gazing" may be helpful, time and effort devoted to dialog is essential.
Along the way to his conclusion, Radar includes a quote from John Stuart Mill: "That most stupid people are conservatives." You have to wonder why he needed to include this jab at conservatives if his goal is to promote a middle ground.
As for Mill, he was born into a wealthy elitist family and spent his entire life in "ivory towers" promoting what in the early 1800s would be considered liberal change. Mill may not have even recognized the difference between the words stupid and ignorant; stupid being primarily a genetic factor and ignorant (about the things important to Mills) the result of being poor and thus having no access to institutions of higher learning.
If poor and illiterate in the 1800s, yes, you probably seldom strayed from the familiar (you were conservative), maximizing your probability of survival. In like manner almost all living organisms are conservative, except for some Homo sapiens.
— Jim Lieb
Palmer
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