In describing a chronic complainer, my Great-Uncle Austin would first expel an ample amount of tobacco juice onto the ground and then dryly proclaim, “Ahhhhh, he’d kick if he was in swimmin’.”

The Portland Press Herald article about the gentleman who wrote to the governor and was dissatisfied with his personal, hand-written reply brought to mind my uncle’s eloquent expression (“LePage tells man ‘I’ve done my part’ in response to Lewiston fires letter,” June 14).

LePage’s short but pragmatic question at the end, “What have you done?” was reminiscent of JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

We have to stop expecting government to do what we should be doing for ourselves. The government is broke. The taxpaying private business and industry sector, which is the engine powering the public sector, has been shrinking while Maine government continues to grow.

We now have a Cadillac-size government with a Ford Pinto motor because professional politicians refuse to cut spending even in the face of a shrinking tax base. How can we expect disaster relief from government when government has become a disaster itself?

LePage is not a smooth-talking career politician. He’s a professional manager from the private sector who works hard and demands accountability.

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Maine desperately needs this kind of tough love right now. Once the ship of state is put back on a course heading away from the rocks, perhaps we can then afford a governor who will pat your head and say what you want to hear.

Mark Armstrong

Lisbon

Closing Libbytown ramps another pointless city idea

More waste of money and time by our city government. Now they are going to use $100,000 of Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System money for a study to close the interstate on and off ramps in Libbytown (“Libbytown plan would remove four I-295 ramps,” June 17).

Councilor David Marshall now wants a study with the Maine Department of Transportation on removing ramps that help not only emergency vehicles but traffic move smoothly in and out of the city.

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Come on! Does he really think the state will actually remove these ramps after spending millions on repairs done recently?

Marshall and other city councilors might want to form a group to study lowering property taxes instead. Other towns are voting down increases in budgets, but yet Portland only increases them.

Then again, most of the voters who vote for the school budgets live in apartments and don’t pay property taxes. What are they going to do with the funds from the state for this past year’s snow removal?

Why are we allowing no prayers in schools yet allowing certain ethnic groups special rooms in schools to have their prayer time?

And why are we trying to narrow all the traffic lanes in and out of this city? Traffic is backed up enough at rush hours. Maybe voters should do their own study on why we keep voting for these people who have no common sense.

Here’s something city government ought to study: How can councilors once, just once, keep the tax rate the same or lower property taxes in the city? How can we stop all the waste of funds on projects that get removed after a year or two? Maybe councilors like David Marshall should study: How are city councilors going to keep their jobs?

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Frank Teras

Portland

Women need accurate data before decision on abortion

Your June 13 edition (“House rejects 3 bills limiting abortion”) declared that three bills proposing abortion restrictions had failed in Maine House votes.

One measure required that the pregnant woman/girl be given “scientifically accurate information about the fetus and the father’s liability for support” before she has an abortion.

How can providing a woman with scientifically accurate information about her fetus be deemed a plausible reason to reject this measure?

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I was taught in school that when you are about to undertake action with significant consequences, “accurate information” is a necessary thing. Have we lost our common sense?

Abortion does great harm. It ends a human life and frequently results in lifelong regrets by the woman/girl.

At least give her the basic accurate knowledge before she submits to such an irreversible action. Anything less is inexcusable.

Kathleen Traynor

Falmouth

Earth now in cooling cycle, not global warming cycle

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In response to “Another View: M.D. Harmon ignores real climate change data” (June 1):

In all due respect to volunteer Richard Jennings with the Climate Reality Project, M.D. Harmon was right on the money in his May 17 column (“Hysteria obscures lack of substance to climate change claims”).

By the way, Hurricane Sandy had absolutely no connection with global warming.

As a climate scientist, I research natural climate cycles and hurricane cycles. The National Hurricane Center and I agree that hurricanes have not been influenced by global warming. A larger number of strong hurricanes occurred during the early 1900s than during the past 20 years.

The United Kingdom Meteorological Office and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change agree that despite increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide, the Earth’s temperatures have not increased during the past 15 years.

Research indicates that natural forces control the climate pulse of the Earth, and Earth is now entering an extended global cooling cycle potentially more serious than any global warming cycle.

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Earth’s climate follows a 230- and 120,000-year cycle. The cycles are regulated by physical forces of the scientifically proven Milankovitch Cycles of gravitational forces, solar radiation and Earth’s elliptical path around the sun. Both cycles alternate between cold and warm periods.

The warm 120,000-year interglacial cycle just peaked about 7,000 years ago, and it was much warmer back then, with 50 percent less ice in the Arctic than today.

David Dilley

climate researcher

Global Weather Oscillations Inc.

Hiram

 


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