LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Motivation For

Retroactive Abortion

You would think that Ted Rall, having a week to dream up and write down his latest great idea, would come up with something better than his latest proposal for the betterment of America.

Mandatory abortions for those under 25 is something I could see Teddy getting behind, but with a little more effort, he might have foreseen mandatory reversible vasectomies for male babies at birth (to be reversed at age 25 whether or not you want children).

This would eliminate any need for birth control or personal responsibility or morality of any sort.

I'm pulling for Mama Rall to consider a retroactive abortion.

Richard Tellejohn

Brooksville

John and Joe -

The Makeup Artists

I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for this moment. Can you believe it, after months of speeches, debates, hugging babies, smiling for cameras and political pandering, we've finally arrived at the real issue in this presidential race, "lipstick on the pig?"

For those of you who are in the dark, you can bone up by purchasing the "lipstick on a pig" book from Amazon.com. It should come as no surprise that "lipstick on a pig" has become a campaign issue. After all, it is part of our business and political culture. It's being practiced in corporate boardrooms, in the oval office, in the halls of Congress and, if you pay close attention, there's probably a pig with lipstick running around your neighborhood.

Putting lipstick on a pig isn't as easy as it might first appear; not everyone can do it and few can do it well. In fact, to be real good at it, you need years of experience.

For example, John McCain, the top of the Republican ticket, and Joe Biden, the bottom of the Democratic ticket, have served a combined 62 years in the halls of Congress. It is safe to say they've dressed up a few pigs in their political careers, and no doubt have compared notes.

In fact they've both been applying lipstick to one of Washington's favorite pigs for the past 25 years. The pig I refer to is the one that takes an extra tax bite out of the paychecks of millions of average working Americans every week. After taking the bite, this little pig scurries back to Washington with the bacon. It is there that John and Joe get their slice of the little porker and spend it on something other than intended.

During the past 25 years, these two makeup artists have used this pig to create $2.3 trillion worth of new Social Security IOUs on working Americans. Last year alone, Social Security tax overpayments created $190 billion of new Social Security IOUs using working Americans tax over payments.

John and Joe, the twin talents of makeup artistry, have dressed up this pig and sold it to their fellow Americans as a savings and investment program. Now that's how experienced pros "put lipstick on a pig," and that's why putting "lipstick on a pig" really is the issue in this election.

Jim Gries

Weeki Wachee