Monster fish OK for the movies

2/13/2010

It's an invasion worthy of a science fiction movie. Huge, nasty fish wipe out other fish by scarfing up not only the other fish but also their food supply. Boaters and jet-skiers are injured when the airborne monsters crash into them.

Thanks to The Blade's excellent reporting, we know that Asian carp that got loose down South have moseyed their way up the Mississippi and now pose a real threat to recreation, the environment, and northwest Ohio's economy.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must take emergency action. The Corps must make sure that the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River are biologically and hydrologically cut off from each other. Half measures will no longer do.

Monsters like the Asian carp are fine in sci-fi movies, but I don't want to see them leaping out of the water at Maumee Bay State Park, Kelleys Island, and Put-in-Bay. Surely Blade readers of all political beliefs can join me in insisting on aggressive government action against this threat to our region.

Tom Sheehan

Gilhouse Road

When I go shopping, I can see why this is a jobless recovery. Everything I pick up is made in China or somewhere else in Asia. Just imagine all the jobs we've shipped overseas.

The quality of goods from China is terrible. Most of the stuff I buy doesn't last long. We've discovered harmful chemicals in toys made there.

We've sacrificed quality goods and jobs for short-term profits. No one is in this for the long haul anymore.

Mike Bellfy

Honeymaple Lane

I manage a local machine builder. I have searched for some of the green business associated with the emerging solar and wind turbine industries.

Since some of the government stimulus package is invested in these areas, I made efforts to locate the companies on the receiving end of this money. We hoped we would be able to supply parts and assemblies. After many phone calls and much Internet searching, we turned up no appreciable leads on potential manufacturers and gave up the search.

Much to my dismay, I learned that much of the stimulus package ended up going to jobs in China. Not only have we outsourced our old manufacturing jobs there, now we are sending new manufacturing jobs to China, too.

Obviously our elected officials have let us down again. We need manufacturing jobs here, now more than ever.

Isn't that what the stimulus package was supposed to be about?

Brendan Buckley

Orchard Trail

Our government is sending tax dollars to China to build windmills that produce electricity, creating lots of jobs there.

I wonder whether China will send the money back as loans. What a deal for them.

Robert Klear

Delta, Ohio

The writer of the Feb. 4 letter "GM deal wasn't great for UAW" says he will vote for Sarah Palin and Scott Brown types. If he does, he should be prepared to give up his General Motors pension and health benefits.

All Republicans in Congress voted no on the stimulus bill that saved GM and Chrysler from going out of business.

If they had their way, the letter writer would be cut off, as the steel union members were. They now get their retirement benefits from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., run by the federal government, with no health benefits. Not a good deal.

I would advise the writer to be careful what he wishes for, or he might be without any benefits or pension.

I am a retired Ford Motor Co. employee and sure didn't like our price increase for prescriptions, but I realize it's this or nothing.

The writer should realize this, too.

James Perine

Lima

I was deeply moved after reading the heartwrenching letter.

I'm quite sure that if the letter writer had it to do all over again, he would have gladly hightailed it down South or out West to a right-to-work state, never joined a left-wing union that "Scott Brown and Sarah Palin types" despise, and gratefully shunned the great wages and benefits he has had to painfully endure all these many years.

Besides, wasn't it Republicans who so bravely and valiantly fought against Social Security, Medicare, and now universal health care?

Mark Hoover

Petersburg, Mich.

Your Feb. 6 editorial "Fixing a medical miscue" reflects the excessive influence of the drug industry on our health care system.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield's research on the vaccine-autism link published in The Lancet was not flawed, His new research on the long-term health of monkeys given vaccines shows stark differences between those that were and were not vaccinated.

There is an insidious effort to discredit this scientist, who is publishing such embarrassing research. Imagine the fallout from this study for vaccine makers and public health officials.

Is it any wonder there is a Tea Party movement in this country, as more and more people understand that government seems more interested in protecting the profits of big corporations than the health and welfare of its citizens?

This effort to discredit happens over and over again to health professionals who call the bluff of the drug industry by using low-cost natural means to guide their patients to healing and genuine health.

Many other professionals will cry foul, but with health-care costs in our country escalating while our health deteriorates, they need to start listening to the rebels.

Kris Johnson

Williston, Ohio

The contretemps over Ken Leslie points out a number of things that are wrong with the Toledo-Lucas County Homelessness Board ("Homeless advocate facing vote for ouster," Feb. 5).

A 25-member board is unwieldly and should have fewer members. Mr. Leslie should control his temper and not be "furious."

Board members and the president should read, understand, and followRobert's Rules of Order, the classic manual of parliamentary procedure.

Unless it was on the agenda, the motion to have an external audit ofthe board's performance was premature and out of order.

The board's meetings are public, and the pressand the public cannot be excluded. The board seems to have forgotten that it serves the public.

Perhaps this dysfunctional body should be renamed the Toledo-Lucas County Helplessness Board.

Larry Hawkins

Seaside, Calif.

Americans need real health-care reform.

Republicans in Congress are more interested in protecting health-care providers who injure and maim patients through negligence from being sued for malpractice.

Jack P. Viren, Jr.

Goddard Road