Letters

Letters to the editor, Dec. 16

Hernando Today
Published: December 16, 2012

Ishi, Uki or Oshi?

"That's a beautiful car." I said to the couple loading bags of groceries into the trunk of their car.

I was admiring their cream Lincoln MKS parked next to my vehicle outside my local supermarket at the Shoppes at Avalon in Spring Hill.

The woman smiled, thanked me and continued putting away her bags of groceries into the trunk. The man, however, gave me a very long stare and then strode toward the back of my vehicle – a Suzuki Grand Vitara. He took one look at the car's insignia and then heaved a loud sigh of disgust.

"Do you have any idea," he said, leaning in close to my face, "the company that made your car, made the engines for the planes that bombed Pearl Harbor?"

Dumbstruck at the vitriolic outburst, I struggled for something to say but the words would not come. All I could do was stare at his moving mouth as if in a trance. With my own mouth hanging agape, a vision suddenly manifested itself and I saw millions of microscopic droplets of his saliva launched into the air around me and dreamlike propelling themselves through the air…toward my face.

I felt sure that one may have actually landed on my lower lip.

He didn't look that old. He certainly wasn't old enough to be a World War II veteran.

What a load of baloney.

Wasn't it Mitsubishi engines that powered the Zero fighters?

But I suppose for a man like this with such hatred of anything Japanese, or maybe it was my Scottish accent, he could easily mistake words ending is ishi, uki, oshi.

That man needs to get a life.

Sue Quigley

Spring Hill

Jumping off the cliff

Here we are at the edge of the fiscal cliff and the campaigner in chief is totally intransigent on raising tax rates on the rich. Not one of those socialist ideologues can explain how that will help, in any way, to alleviate our crushing debt.

The top 2 percent already contribute over 40 percent of the tax revenues in the federal coffers. This is oddly peculiar coming from the bunch who screams about fairness. What I want these socialist nitwits to do is set down in real numbers how this is supposed to work. Here's a hint it can't be done

These same morons drone on and on that the middle class is going to suffer. Here's another point. They are already screwed by the (un)affordable care act, it's just that the socialist dill weeds seem to keep that little tidbit of info to themselves.

What, then, is the answer you ask? Let the cliff come and go over it. That is the only way to halt the spending by forcing it on them. Most notably it would end most if not all unemployment compensation then watch as the slackers find work, any kind of work, to keep body and soul together while feeding their families.

I can hear the outrage now about making these poor people suffer to which I say, it's time to lay down and die or stand up and survive on your own blood, sweat and tears. The drastic cuts in wel(un)fare and other giveaways to the great unwashed slackers of our society will further cull the herd of the unnecessary burdens to society. So let the cliff come and let's rejoice in going over it the sooner the better so we can start rebuilding our economic strength and military power.

Mike Stansbury

Brooksville

The real losers

This fiscal cliff everybody is talking about that will go into effect in the new year may be one big smoke screen to enact a mammoth tax increase and social program cuts our wonderfully elected representatives haven't the guts to legislate.

Think about it, everybody can point fingers at each other and the hard decisions neither side has the guts to legislate or agree to goes into effect.

Massive cuts to social programs the Republicans want and big increases in taxes the Democrats are looking for and look who has to loose the most, the taxpayer. What a brilliant idea both sides of the political spectrum get what they want and of course we pay for it.

Obama and his Senate gang are probably salivating at the prospects of all that new tax money and the do nothing Congress can go on doing nothing and get ready to go home for the holidays, the taxpayers on the other hand can go out and get a big tube of Preparation H.

We may hear a bunch rhetoric from both sides, but that's what it might be rhetoric. I do hope that we can look to a brighter future, but if past performance is any guide the light is growing dim.

James Woods

Brooksville