The Broken Bicyclist Benefit Barbecue and Free Concert
Allan Fenyves was in a bicycle accident, breaking; nine ribs, his clavicle and pelvis; and he suffered a collapsed lung. He is losing his home and has no health insurance. He will be down for six weeks.
On November 21 at 11 a.m. drop by the Cave Creek Coffee Co., 6033 E. Cave Creek Rd, enjoy a complementary Pulled Pork Sandwich from Brian’s Black Mountain Barbecue, have a glass of wine or a great coffee beverage and listen to:
11 a.m. – The New Horizon Jazz Band
11:30 a.m. – Vice Mayor Ernie Bunch acoustic folk
Noon – National finger picking guitarist Greg Sarena
12:30 p.m. – Valley singer/song writer Jay Taylor.
All donations go directly to Allan. Tax-deductible donations can be dropped off at any local branch of The Bank of America, made payable to “The Fenyves Recovery Fund.”
Warmly,
Mad Coyote Joe | Cave Creek
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Disappointed
My husband and I reviewed the results of the Walmart Proposition with great disappointment. As residents of Carefree, we were unable to vote on a topic that we felt critical to Cave Creek's future but held hope that Cave Creek residents and leaders would do the right thing for their community and its unique character, despite the lure of the tax revenue gained at the cost of surrounding businesses. We were confident that Cave Creekers would vote to maintain the unique richness of the Cave Creek lifestyle that my husband and I have shared and enjoyed being such close neighbors to the community.
With sadness and deliberation, as a result of this voter outcome, we have decided we must vote with our pocketbooks and invest our dollars in businesses outside Cave Creek focusing in Carefree and the other surrounding communities. We are fully aware that our dollars alone may not make a difference in the scheme of things but we are hoping that others will also voice their unhappiness in the same way. Maybe our small message if done by many, will get a message to those in power who will realize that this area is something to cherish.
My husband and I will miss our old haunts and associations with Cave Creek business people and employees, but we're certain we will find other favorite restaurants, stores and markets in other communities.
Good Luck Cave Creek, in the long term I think you will understand the short-sightedness of this decision. My husband and I look forward to a change from this direction so we can return to the town we enjoyed so much.
Ron and Barb Neagle | Disappointed Carefree Residents
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The Eisenhower-Nixon-Reagan-Bush-Bush healthcare plan passes
Americans can thank the former Republican presidents listed above for the unconstitutional healthcare contraption that passed the House and that will complete the transformation of the United States into a European-style social-welfare state, but without any of the market efficiencies that several European nations have designed into their national healthcare systems.
All of these presidents ignored the fatal flaws with the existing healthcare system and handed the issue to the Democrats. The irony is that Democrats had created the fatal flaws and would have been easy targets in a Republican-led reform effort.
The first fatal flaw was wage controls in 1942, which led companies to compete for labor by substituting medical benefits for wages. Next, employer-provided medical benefits were excluded from taxable income. Then, medical benefits were deemed as negotiable wages under labor laws. All of these flaws happened under Democrat presidents.
The flaws resulted in the biggest flaw of all: the death of a consumer market in medical care/insurance. In its place grew the economically unsustainable system of third-party payments, in which employers and their insurance companies paid doctors and hospitals for care given to their employees. Employees sat on the sidelines like brainless coconuts instead of informed consumers as others set prices and service levels for medical care.
Eventually, the coconuts lost all knowledge of the cost of the care they were receiving, thus creating a mindset that medical care shouldn’t cost them anything. They also became dependent on their employer for medical care/insurance, a dependency that would lead to widespread insecurity as the old employment model of lifetime employment with one employer fell apart.
Incidentally, the disconnect between cost and use is also the fatal flaw with public education. Parents have no idea what the education costs them and thus see no direct connection between education spending and their wallets. Because of this disconnect, education productivity has plummeted over the last 40 years, as measured by stagnant test scores and a doubling of per-pupil spending in real terms. It’s also interesting to note that the stated goal of compulsory education was universal education, just as the goal of nationalized healthcare is universal healthcare. With over 30 percent of Americans not finishing high school, and with many of those who do finish being below standard in reading and math, universal education has been a failure. Yet many Americans believe that universal healthcare will be a success.
The final flaw in healthcare was Medicare, which was enacted in 1965 under – yep, you got it – Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat. Unbeknownst to most Americans, Medicare replaced a cost-effective healthcare system known as Kerr-Mills for the elderly poor. Quickly becoming an entitlement for the non-poor, Medicare reinforced the mindset that medical care/insurance was not a personal responsibility but a responsibility of third parties. Of course the original cost estimates of Medicare have turned out to be laughably wrong, and of course, the program has been extended way beyond its original intent, most recently and egregiously by George W. Bush.
All of the Republican presidents listed in this commentary’s title professed to be believers in free markets. Yet they failed to understand where the death of a consumer market in healthcare would lead – to growing insecurity among Americans, to high numbers of uninsured, to skyrocketing costs, and ultimately to complete government control. Failing to understand that, they failed to act and thereby handed the issue to the Democrats.
Depending on what you think of nationalized healthcare, you can either blame or thank Republicans for the passage of the healthcare bill.
Craig J. Cantoni | Scottsdale
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Stimulus
The Arizona Republic reported last summer that Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, “one of Arizona’s most vocal backers of the federal stimulus plan,” criticized Senator Jon Kyl for suggesting that the stimulus money could be put to better use (Mayor Gordon Says Kyl Wrong to Oppose Stimulus Money, July 14).
However, the Republic’s latest reports indicate that it was Senator Kyl who was right all along. An October 27 report indicated that the stimulus bill “saved or created 657 jobs in Arizona, a small fraction” of what was expected. In fact, the report went on to note that since the recession began, “Arizona has lost 268,000 net jobs.”
The Mayor didn’t hesitate to become one of the Obama administration’s cheerleaders, despite the lack of evidence that the stimulus was working. Will he be as quick to admit his error?
See the following for source information:
www.azcentral.com/members/blog/phxbeat/57723
www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/10/27/20091027stimarizona1027.html.
Troy E. Hyde | Via e-mail
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‘Simply’ being here illegally
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's new stated goal to get "criminal aliens" off our streets translates into much more than just that politically correct and misleading concept.
She (and the Obama administration) expand the meaning of that statement by stating that the priority for local law enforcers should be illegal aliens arrested only for committing crimes other than "simply" being in the U.S. illegally.
Are you listening, Sheriff Arpaio?
The fact that it is a crime to "simply" sneak across our border or "simply" overstay your visa no longer matters to ICE.
To "simply" be here illegally means that these individuals "simply" showed total disrespect for our law and "simply" mocked our concept of national sovereignty and are "simply" telling us to go to Hell.
Their millions are "simply" flooding our already crowded schools, bankrupting numerous hospitals as they "simply" receive free health care and are "simply" taking jobs away from millions of American citizens.
Secretary Napolitano is making a big deal out of the fact that more of the illegals arrested this year had a criminal history than those apprehended last year, attempting to convince us that her new tactic is more effective than Sheriff Joe's sweeps.
Her figures mean nothing, as we have no way of knowing about crimes those "simply" residing here illegally may have committed in their country of origin.
Kelly Nantel, a spokesman for ICE, refused to give a direct answer as to whether or not his organization supported the arrest and deportation of individuals who are "simply" here illegally, instead saying that ICE will remove them only according to DHS priorities.
That priority seems to be to allow them to stay until Washington can grant them amnesty.
To his credit, Sheriff Arpaio has told Napolitano to shove it; that his deputies will continue to enforce the law as it is written, not as she wishes it was.
If every law enforcement agency across the nation were to follow the lead of Sheriff Joe, the number of criminals arrested would increase dramatically and our illegal immigration problem would be solved.
That is "simply" a fact.
Richard Humphries | Elfrida, Arizona
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Terrorist certainly, unhinged definitely, traitor absolutely
One who causes intense fear; this is the definition of a terrorist. Just ask anyone who has been fired at in anger; ask anyone who was at the processing center at Fort Hood Thursday Nov. 5, 2009. An unbalanced individual, by definition, is a person who is unhinged. A traitor is one who betrays their country or compatriots. Major Nidal Malik Hasan fits all of these definitions to a “T.” But traitor is to me the most heinous and the least talked about offense.
Federal law requires everyone who enlists or re-enlists in the Armed Forces of the United States to take the enlistment oath. The oath is administered by a commissioned officer. The officer asks the person to raise their right hand and repeat the oath after them. This oath is unlike most oaths in that the individual swears allegiance to a document,, the Constitution of the United States of America and to obey the orders of the President of the United States and orders of officers appointed over the individual. These orders must be lawful and in accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
“I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according the regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
Major Hasan violated that solemn oath, “against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” As such:
Major Hasan should stand trial as a traitor to his country and be punished accordingly. Anything less would be a travesty of justice and a smear against all who have served their country honorably.
George A. Ross | LTCOL USMC (RET) | Cave Creek
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A ‘good dictatorship’ a contradiction of terms
The Constitution of the United States of America is not a document that limits the rights of man, but a document that limits the power of government over man. The government cannot confiscate and redistribute the wealth of its citizens nor prescribe their choice of happiness. Yet this is precisely what is happening.
Politicians profess it is evil to loot and pilfer for one's own sake, but claim it is virtuous to do so for the sake of others. They claim that depriving bondholders of their rights in the Chrysler bankruptcy, distributing taxpayer dollars to favored bankers and institutions, proposing fines and incarceration for not purchasing health insurance is for a "good cause."
There is an unspeakable moral corruption in saying that government coercion and violation of individual rights can be justified by a "good motive" or an "unselfish motive." A "good dictatorship" is a contradiction of terms.
When we argue about what is "good" or "bad" government regulation, we have accepted and endorsed the principle of government control. We have accepted the existence of a power to limit our rights and the use of force to compel us to act for the "good." History books are replete with examples of governments imposing their social “good” with brute force including torture and murder; it is only a question of who runs the Gestapo.
Therein lies the uniqueness and value of our Constitution. It limits the power of government, whoever is in charge, and protects our individual rights and freedoms. We abandon it at our peril. Without the rule of law, we are subject to the rule of the mob; perhaps a lesson still waiting to be learned by our nation.
Ed Konecnik | Flushing, New York
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Passing the buck
There is a serious water issue at Petite Acres R.V. Park located behind The Hideaway bar and restaurant. It’s been a problem since I moved in Dec. 27, 2008 – that being no water pressure!
I contacted Maricopa Health Dept. and they say water pressure needs to be 20 PSI and the inspector after hearing the total situation said he was on his way. That was in August!
He called me back the same day and told me he wouldn’t have time after all because he’s off at 3:30. He said he would definitely be here the following Monday. He mentioned his friend Jessica (Marlowe) and that he would have the town water provider check it out.
I did not see the County Health Inspector for several days after the call. When I reached him by phone, he passed the buck to Jessica and said I was to contact her. He was too busy to leave his office.
I contacted Jessica and explained the situation. She said they would check it out.
The town checked pressure at the meter. Of course, it was fine. Everybody is refusing to come on the Petite Acres property and test pressure to our R.V.s!!
I tested mine and it ranged from 5 PSI to 14 PSI, depending upon whether my neighbors turn their water on. If they turn theirs on, I have none and vice versa.
Ken DePue | Cave Creek
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Security requires nuclear deterrent
President Obama naively suggests the world can be free of nuclear weapons if the U.S. and Russia commit to arms reduction.
Obama is negotiating a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia in December 2009 which could reduce the U.S. and Russian operational nuclear warhead arsenals from over 2,500 to 1,500 warheads each. The treaty assumes we can verify the Russians destroyed their 1,000 warheads. The treaty will also reduce the number of long range missiles.
The reduction in U.S. nuclear/missile capabilities jeopardizes our national security because a number of other countries maintain nuclear weapons, including China, Pakistan and North Korea. Iran is currently developing nuclear weapons and Syria desires to have a nuclear capability.
The world will never be free of nuclear weapons because countries like North Korea and Iran are lead by dictators who lust for the threatening power of nuclear weapons and the capability to use their nuclear arsenal against perceived enemies.
President Obama’s lofty rhetoric sounds wonderful to himself and the Nobel Peace (In Weakness) Prize Committee, but I doubt he will satisfy his appetite for appeasement and get the leaders of the nuclear armed countries around a camp fire to toast the elimination of nuclear weapons and merrily sing Kumbaya.
Donald A. Moskowitz | Londonderry, New Hampshire
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Do I have this right?
Let’s see if I understand this. The infamous “shoe bomber” acted alone, did not kill anyone and is called a terrorist. To protect us from other terrorists like him we now must remove our shoes at the airport. The “Fort Hood Shooter” also acted alone. In addition he killed thirteen people and wounded thirty but is not considered to be a terrorist. Nor are we taking any measures to protect the public from others like him. Do I have this right?
Jack C. McVickers | Scottsdale
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