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Wednesday, August 8, 2012


Letters: Reid makes false tax return accusations

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., makes baseless and false accusations about Mitt Romney's taxes, first in an interview with The Huffington Post and then on the Senate floor ("Harry Reid's accusation fans flames over Romney's taxes"). 

And then he tells us that a person running for president should be open and transparent. Apparently, being open and transparent applies only to conservatives.
Reid suggests that a person who doesn't pay taxes, as he claims Romney is, should not be fit for any office. But he didn't seem to show this level of concern during the tax evasion controversies involving Timothy Geithner and Charlie Rangle.
This proves once again that Reid is concerned only about such issues when the person is not a liberal Democrat.
Barry Levy; Hawthorne, Calif.

Romney should clear controversy
Someone's pants are on fire, although it's not clear whose. Is it Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's, who claims that presidential hopeful Mitt Romney hasn't paid income taxes for 10 years? Or is it Romney's, who says he has?

Letters to the editor
USA TODAY receives about 300 letters each day. Most arrive via e-mail, but we also receive submissions by postal mail and fax. We publish about 35 letters each week.
We often select comments that respond directly to USA TODAY articles or opinion pieces. Letters that are concise and make one or two good points have the best chance of being selected, as do letters that reflect the vibrant debate around the nation on a particular subject.
We aim to make the letters platform a place where readers, not just writers representing institutions or interest groups, have their say.
Enough rhetoric! It's time for Romney to either put up or shut up. Only he can put an end to all of the controversy. Time will tell who the real liar is.
JoAnn Lee Frank; Clearwater, Fla.

Faith often misunderstood
It was a refreshing and unexpected joy to read Tom Krattenmaker's On Religion column Monday ("Column: Can faith help an Olympian?").
It is obvious that Krattenmaker has exposed himself to more than the typical narrow, restrictive, misinformed and, dare I say, ignorant understanding of the Christian faith. As a pastor, I teach my congregation to clearly recognize and understand with absolute clarity that we are people of faith, not "magic." I can only ask Krattenmaker to please share his sources with his news media colleagues so we can have more fair and balanced presentations of our beloved faith.
Rev. John Allen Newman; Jacksonville

Letters: Physical education reform needed in schools

 I read with interest StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee's "sounding the alarm" commentary on the "harmful policies" in our educational system, but I was stunned that she didn't mention reforming physical education as a key element for our future success ("Column: Olympic effort needed for education").

We are witnessing another generation of our sedentary children becoming increasingly obese, at high risk for diabetes, negative body image and self-esteem, and plagued by attention-deficit disorder, as well as other psychological problems. We know from the work of John Ratey and others that consistent physical exercise effectively prevents and often reverses these and other chronic conditions.
How can we not invest massively in physical education to help our current students and prevent kindergartners from becoming statistics? How can we not use our sizable fund of knowledge in exercise and its benefits to tailor physical education to individual interests, sensitivities and capacities? What do you think would happen to the focus and grades of an 8-year-old boy if you forced him to sit at his desk for an additional two hours a day in a classroom or incorporated walking, basketball and other activities into his day for two hours? Could the industrialized nations that ranked better than the USA simply have outdone us by strengthening the mind-body experience?
Eric Bachman, M.D.; Swampscott, Mass. 

Great Olympics reporting
In response to a Wednesday letter "Olympians deserve praise," I think that the reader misconstrued USA TODAY'S July 30 headline "Some Olympians coming up short."
I have been faithfully watching the Olympic Games coverage on TV, and I believe strongly that USA TODAY is doing the best job covering the Games for print and online readers. It wasn't the intention of the newspaper to bash or offend any of the participants but to celebrate their wins as well as losses, accordingly.
In my opinion, USA TODAY attempts, as best it can, to give each Olympic event fair and balanced coverage. If you read past the headlines and actually scan through the articles, you'll find the reports applaud these brave individuals for all that they do. Just like the old adage says about not judging a book by its cover, one can't always judge a story by its headline.
Tim Buege; Racine,Wis.

Letters: Do seniors realize which programs strain budget?


Doug Kapustin for USA TODAY
Jack Ireton-Hewitt is a 75-year-old Romney volunteer working the Republican booth at the Shippensburg, Pa., community fair.




 I am a 40-year-old man who is between both age groups featured in your article "A defining gap: Seniors for Romney, Millenials for Obama."
The positions taken by some of the seniors quoted in the article are somewhat disingenuous. How can seniors who are now receiving or soon to receive Social Security and Medicare benefits complain that government is too big? This age group by far receives more than its fair share of the federal budget. Yet to really alleviate the budget crisis, both programs are going to have to be cut. Are they advocating cutting these programs to fix the deficit? I haven't heard anyone in this age group say that.
Furthermore, one senior interviewed stated that she cannot vote for President Obama because she does not want nationalized health care for this nation. I am left to ponder: Why is a nationalized health system OK for seniors (Medicare) but not OK for all other age groups?
Alan J. Bellomo; Ebensburg, Pa.

Letters to the editor
USA TODAY receives about 300 letters each day. Most arrive via e-mail, but we also receive submissions by postal mail and fax. We publish about 35 letters each week.
We often select comments that respond directly to USA TODAY articles or opinion pieces. Letters that are concise and make one or two good points have the best chance of being selected, as do letters that reflect the vibrant debate around the nation on a particular subject.
We aim to make the letters platform a place where readers, not just writers representing institutions or interest groups, have their say.
Free speech consequences
USA TODAY reader Larry Schmidt takes exception to "people on the left (who) don't approve of free speech unless it is in line with their beliefs." He defends the Chick-fil-A president's right to espouse his religious beliefs under freedom of speech, but apparently not the rights of the detractors to organize a boycott. I find that highly hypocritical ("Matter of freedom of speech").
Free speech comes with responsibility and accountability. Try exercising unbridled free speech in the workplace and see how fast you are marched down to human resources.
If a business chooses to go public with its religious or political convictions, it is terribly naive for its supporters to think there will be no free speech repercussions in return.
Dan Shelton; Albuquerque

Letters: Concerns of communist infiltration not 'baseless'


In DeWayne Wickham's column "Bachmann plays risky anti-American gambit," he states that Sen. Joseph McCarthy's claims of communist infiltration of our government were "baseless."123

123As we know now, thanks to the Venona transcripts of Soviet intelligence files, many of McCarthy's claims were almost all true, and backed up by Soviet documentation.
If Wickham cares to call things "baseless," perhaps a comparison with budgetary savings to be found in the Affordable Care Act would be more apt.
Michael Meehan; Albuquerque
Don't give in to fear
We tried McCarthyism in the 1950s. It was a dark period for our country. Back then, the boogeyman was communists. Today, Michele Bachmann and others want to revive McCarthyism using the boogeyman of Islamists ("Editorial: Bachmann's Islamist scare relaunches McCarthyism").
Letters to the editor
USA TODAY receives about 300 letters each day. Most arrive via e-mail, but we also receive submissions by postal mail and fax. We publish about 35 letters each week.
We often select comments that respond directly to USA TODAY articles or opinion pieces. Letters that are concise and make one or two good points have the best chance of being selected, as do letters that reflect the vibrant debate around the nation on a particular subject.
We aim to make the letters platform a place where readers, not just writers representing institutions or interest groups, have their say.
We ask ourselves how people in other countries let oppressors come to power. Turns out we don't need to study other countries. We only need to study ourselves. Bachmann shows what happens when winning becomes more important than anything else. When a people buy into the fear the Bachmanns of the world spread, that's when the oppressors take over and atrocities go unchecked.
Russ Johnson; Port Richey, Fla. 

Beckel betrays liberals
In the Common Ground column with Cal Thomas, the phony liberal Bob Beckel says he favors a flat tax ("Are the wealthy taxed too lightly?", The Forum, Thursday). Only right-wing politicians such as Steve Forbes favor a flat tax because it is a very regressive tax. Please get rid of Beckel. He is an insult to true liberals.
Reba Shimansky; New York City

Romney just like Bush
How long will Mitt Romney refuse to release more tax returns? We already know he has a $100 million IRA, and bank accounts in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Switzerland ("Obama presses GOP on Bush tax cut plan"). While Romney dodges questions about taxes, he blames President Obama for former president George W. Bush's disastrous policies that led to the "Great Recession."
Of course Romney supports the proposed budget from Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., giving more tax breaks to the rich, the repeal of ObamaCare and the roll-back of Wall Street regulations. Romney is like Bush on steroids! A vote for Romney is an endorsement of Bush-era policies, which mean more pain for the middle class.
Tom Minnerick; Elgin, Ill.

Marvin Hamlisch, Composed 'The Way We Were,' Dies at 68

Published: August 07, 2012 @ 5:30 am

Marvin Hamlisch, the composer and conductor best known for the torch song "The Way We Were," died in Los Angeles Monday. He was 68 years old.
Hamlisch collapsed after a brief illness, his family announced.
In a career that spanned over four decades, Hamlisch won virtually every major award: three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys, a Tony, and three Golden Globes.
Len Prince
Hamlisch composed music for more than 40 motion picture, including his Oscar-winning score and song for “The Way We Were,” and his adaptation of Scott Joplin’s ragtime music for “The Sting,” for which he received a third Oscar.
His musical scores, though intricately conceived, never drew attention to themselves. They served to complement the on-screen action, not overwhelm it -- enhancing each gesture, each glance, each moment of drama. That subtle approach allowed him to be something of a musical chameleon, easily gliding from searing dramas to off-beat comedies and making him a close collaborator to a diverse group of directors, such as Woody Allen, Steven Soderbergh and Alan J. Pakula. He would even write a James Bond theme, the sexy and stirring "Nobody Does it Better" sung by Carly Simon over the opening credits to 1977's  "The Spy Who Loved Me."
Perhaps his greatest collaboration was with Barbra Streisand, for whom he penned the signature love anthem "The Way We Were." He wrote the score for her 1996 film, "The Mirror Has Two Faces." He also served as musical director and arranger of Streisand’s 1994 concert tour and the television special, "Barbra Streisand: The Concert," for which he won two Emmys.
In a 2010 interview with Broadway World, Hamlisch said he drew on the lovelorn masterpiece "My Funny Valentine" to write the theme song to "The Way We Were" because he wanted to capture the highs and lows of romance.
"It was all almost like a very yin-yang sort of movie," Hamlisch said. "I wanted to write something that was uplifting and positive. On the other hand, there is a tremendous amount of bitter-sweetness to that film -- and bittersweet romance -- so, it's a real duality. And that's why I think the song -- though it's in the major mode -- is quite sad."
Hamlisch's deft touch can be felt in the scores for such diverse films as “Sophie’s Choice,” “Ordinary People,” “Three Men and a Baby,” “Ice Castles,” “Take the Money and Run,” "Bananas,” “Save the Tiger,” “The Informant!” and his latest effort, “Behind the Candelabra,” an upcoming HBO film about the life of Liberace.
On Broadway, Hamlisch had a smash hit with 1975's long-running “A Chorus Line,” which received the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award. Other works such as “The Goodbye Girl” and “Sweet Smell of Success," garnered some critical praise, but were never fully embraced by audiences. But he remained busy in the theater scene, and a statement  from his publicist said Hamlisch was supposed to fly to Nashville, Tenn.

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