Democratic senators that fled Wisconsin ing that. Decent citizens have a right to know. The Freeman, Waukesha: March 13, instead 2012 -Page 8ayour elected job, wake of doing up. Put the politics aside and for once in Waukesha, WI and Fox News (Bill O'Reilly is an author your political career think about what commentator. His syndicated column runs Tuesis best for Wisconsin and its citizens, days in The Freeman.)
printed when letters appear. We reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Please keep letters to no more than 300 words. Generally, letter writers are limited to one letter every 30 days. Send letters to: Editor,The Freeman, P.O. Box 7,Waukesha,W1 53187. Or e mail: letters@conleynet.com. -
SOUND OFF Water and Mayor Scrima
I read (Thursday's) article about Waukesha's application for water in the neighboring cities Milwaukee, Racine and Oak Creek that apparently are having problems with Waukesha. I am kind of wondering what our mayor, Mr. Scrima, is doing besides getting guitars. He seems to be screwing up the most important thing in his job, which is to ensure that Waukesha has water. By the time this guy is done, Waukesha is going to be a ghost town with a couple of stupid guitars up and down the street (so) we are reminded of the day he killed Waukesha. GuitarTown logo
Why do we have to change our city symbols to GuitarTown with the new logo and everything? As soon as you go through downtown you are going to notice the guitars. They are 10 feet tall!
to propose the killing of anything and everything, along with all the other individuals who do it. The article in The Freeman clearly lets one know. They are upset because the wolves have now become more prolific and are taking out more deer. It all comes down to money and revenue for hunters, not because the wolves are doing what they are supposed to do and the people aren't. This state needs to clean up their act. Joel Kleefisch needs to butt out of everybody's business. He advocates the killing of everything. Sour grapes because we are all against him proposing killing cranes. Now he's on a wolf hunt? Shame, shame, shame on him and the rest of them. Leave nature alone and address the real issues.
***
This is in regard to the article on Kleefisch co-authoring a wolf hunting bill. I am strongly opposed to this bill and Wolf hunt would hope that your readers would con"Wolves could be hunted with firearms, tact their Assembly people and urge them bows, crossbows and leg traps." (March 7 to vote against it. The facts are that a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Bait, dogs healthy wolf kills about 20 deer per year and other electronic calls would be legal. according to the DNR. Whereas that That's hunting? would be about 16,000 per the year, wherePeople don't understand that wolves are as cars kill 45,000 deer alone and hunters very social and live in groups or packs. took over 226,000 deer this past year. Also, This helps in their protection, hunting for historically the wolf population in the food, and raising their young. The pack is state was 3,000 to 5,000. Eight hundred is led by an alpha male and female who are significantly smaller. The deer herd, on the only ones in the pack who mate. Who leads when one of the alpha wolves the other hand, is 1.5 to 1.7 million, and historically there were only about eight to is killed? 10 deer per square mile in the United Hunting dogs and other dogs are killed States, yet if you look at a map of Wisconbecause they threaten the pack. sin the deer concentration, you will find it There must be a better way to reduce is usually significantly higher than that the population of wolves. amount. And also the wolf is an animal - Ted Haasch, New Berlin that is very beneficial because they will *** cull out the sickly animals like the sickly deer, and if you'll notice by looking at a I would like to comment on the ongoing map of Wisconsin, the wolf is mainly in northern Wisconsin and that's where they unsettling issue of Wisconsin's archaic do not have a chronic wasting disease. and barbaric hunting practices. There is no life form sacred in our state anymore. I The chronic wasting disease is located in southern Wisconsin, where you have few am calling in reference to the wolf huntif any wolves. So we really need to alert ing bill. When has anyone ever heard of our legislators that we need to vote down wolves attacking humans? All they do is this bill and that the wolf is very much take out some deer, the sick and the needed for the fight against chronic wastyoung, just like all other animals do as ing disease, Lyme disease, because you God and nature intended. They do not harm anyone. They are monogamous with have more Lyme disease with more deer, to eliminate deer-car crashes, clean up one another. They are social and they avoid humans at all costs for obvious rea- carrion on the roads, the health of our sons. I am tired of Joel Kleefisch wanting forests ... .
Mining bill
Mr. Urban's letter to the editor describes only one possible scenario. I grew up in an area that, too, had been extensively stripmined for coal (southeast Kansas) in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. Today, the excavated areas are finger-like lakes with plentiful fish and surrounding vegetation. Harvesting the mineral resources of the Earth does not have to be environmentally disastrous. Sen. Schultz's vote had less to do with "vision" than with his role as a spoiler for the Democrats.
*** Frank Urban, in his letter to the editor entitled "Schultz correct to reject mining bill," cited his experience with coal mining in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s as justifying his opposition to a proposed northern Wisconsin iron ore mine. Frank either is ignoring, or not aware of the fact that mining technology today has come a long way from what it was 60 or 70 years ago. Using that logic, I suppose one could be in favor of banning all air travel today because of a bad plane crash that occurred back in 1948. What nonsense.
*** In response to Frank Hoover's letter in (Thursday's) Sound Off, we "Unicrats," as you call us, said no to the ripping up of our north woods because we are also environmentalists.
*** This in reference to the mining bill in Thursday's March 8 Sound Off. They shouldn't worry about the 16 "Unicrats," union Democrats that voted against that mine. They should really worry about that one Republican that jumped sides and voted with the Democrats because the Republicans have the majority. If it wasn't for him it would have passed. SOUND OFF Responders are encouraged, though not required, to sign their name. Please provide a phone number for verification.
Phone: 513-2641 E-mail: soundoff@conleynet.com Mail: The Freeman,Attn. Sound Off,
801 N. Barstow St.,VVaukesha,W153187
dle Eastern country - as is the case with Iran and Syria. The United States has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since the shah left in 1979. Until the Obama administration desperately tried to re-establish contacts with the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria by appointing a new ambassador, there had been nearly six years of estrangement. Yet Iran is nearing its goal of obtaining a nuclear weapon both to threaten Israel and to bully other oil-exporting regimes of the Persian Gulf. The Syrian government is now butchering thousands of its own citizens with impunity. A final option would be to return to the old policy of re-establishing friendly relationships with Middle East dictatorships regardless of their internal politics - and then keeping mum about their excesses. We did that with Pakistan, which has both received billions in U.S. aid and produced a nuclear bomb. Yet it is hard to imagine a more antiAmerican country than nuclear Pakistan, without which the Taliban could not kill Americans so easily in Afghanistan. The United States once saved the Kuwaiti regime after it was swallowed up by Saddam Hussein. We have enjoyed strong ties with the Saudi monarchy as well. Neither country seems especially friendly to the U.S. It is still a crime to publicly practice Christianity in Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 mass-murdering hijackers of 9/11 were Saudis. Oil in the Middle East costs less than $5 a barrel to produce; it now sells for over $100, largely due to the policies of our allies and OPEC members. Let us review the various American policy options for the Middle East over the last few decades. Military assistance or punitive intervention without follow-up mostly failed. The verdict on far more costly nation-building is still out. Trying to help popular insurgents topple unpopular dictators does not guarantee anything better. Propping up dictators with military aid is both odious and counterproductive. Keeping clear of maniacal regimes leads to either nuclear acquisition or genocide - or 16 acres of rubble in Manhattan. What have we learned? Tribalism, oil and Islamic fundamentalism are a bad mix that leave Americans sick and tired of the Middle East - both when they get in it and when they try to stay out of it.
(Author Victor Davis Hanson, a historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, is a recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal. He can be reached by emailing author@victorhanson.com.)
TODAY'S INSPIRATION
"The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: hard work, stick-to-itiveness, and common sense." — Thomas A. Edison