Congestion relief anything but relief

I might point out that in all the places he cites, those congestion fees have been passed along to the consumer and this added-on cost has resulted in double-digit inflation. If London’s dictatorial approach of imposing congestion fees is applied to any urban region here in the U.S., the result would also be a hyper-inflated cost of doing business, loss of employment opportunities, and finally a loss of our country’s overall competitiveness in the global economy.

Furthermore, the current approach to building and operating mass transit in the U.S. is extremely expensive and inefficient. Therefore, most people who have to commute to and from their workplace (and cannot afford to waste their valuable time on a dysfunctional mass transit system) have no real choice except to commute by private auto.

The owners and operators of private automobiles in the U.S. are already paying the majority of the cost of the transportation infrastructure through gas taxes, vehicle registration fees and license fees — and there’s even enough money left over to subsidize all the mismanaged mass-transit agencies.

The private auto has been (and always will be) a very positive factor in the efficient operation of business in the U.S. and the government should not take away this means of productivity. The American people are not in the mood for the government to be performing any kind of socio-economic experimentation with their choice of transportation.

Galen Dutch

San Francisco

Obama criticism inconsistent

On April 16, Senator Obama received considerable publicity for appearing before a Jewish organization and criticizing former President Carter’s meeting with Hamas, the terrorist organization that is dedicated to Israel’s destruction.

Yet, Senator Obama has repeatedly stated that he wants to meet with Iran. According to the State Department, Iran is “the most active state sponsor of terrorism.” Specifically regarding Hamas, Iran directly funds, trains and controls its terrorist activities (as well as those of Lebanon’s terrorist organization Hezbollah and the multi-national terrorist organization Islamic Jihad). Iran has not renounced terrorism, recognized Israel’s right to exist, or abided by its past agreements.

There can be no dispute but that Obama’s positions are utterly inconsistent. The positions can only be reconciled as follows: Obama hypocritically denies others what he grants to himself, as he finds politically expedient.

Jason Jungreis

San Francisco

One more complaint

On the front page of all the local and even nationally distributed newspapers, over the last few days, there has appeared a story about the Catholic Church’s Pope Benedict XVI’s six-day visit to the U.S.

Many of the articles also mentioned, in the latter paragraphs, a number of “problems” which many “aggrieved Catholic activists” have raised.

These include, of course, such things as the church’s staunch opposition to female priests, the banning of the use of condoms even to prevent AIDS, the Church’s vigorous denunciation of gay marriage, and the ever-popular and continuing massive sexual abuse scandal.

I am not an “aggrieved Catholic activist.” I am an aggrieved non-believer ... an atheist, if you will. I do, however, fully agree with the complaints expressed above, and I have one more strong complaint to add. My complaint is why in the world are we spending even one penny of tax payers’ money to elaborately and obsequiously fete this religious representative of an ancient, sexist, homophobic, anti-science superstition?

Don Havis

San Mateo

Spending will hurt later

The U.S. ran out of money a long time ago. It’s already bankrupt; it just doesn’t know it yet! It has more debts than it has money to pay them, and its money is worth less all the time. Some politicians do get it, of course, and understand that constant excessive spending and astronomical debts aren’t good, but they figure that since the U.S. has gotten away with it so far, it can just continue to do so indefinitely. Besides, they figure that when it’s time to pay the piper, they won’t be around anyway, so they might as well charge it now and let someone else worry about paying it!

You can just hardly believe that seemingly rational people, national leaders no less, can think there’ll be no consequences for their actions, no repercussions for destroying their currency and their economy! Russia and China may have lost the Cold War, but it looks like they’re winning the peace.

Ted Rudow III

Menlo Park

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