Letters, faxes, and e-mail

Bush has lying disease:

Headlines revealed President Bush recently had Lyme disease. A more sinister problem has been Bush's chronic ailment known as lying disease.

Because of Bush's lies and half-truths, American soldiers are dying in an Iraq civil war that experts say cannot be solved militarily. Bush is desperately hoping for a military victory so he won't go down in history as America's worst president.

Constantly reinventing reasons for going to war, Bush is now banking on Gen. David Petraeus to surge to victory while more of our soldiers are caught in the middle of Iraq's sectarian and religious fighting. Petraeus, it should be noted, was the general responsible for arming the Iraqi security forces but also responsible for failing to track more than 190,000 weapons that cannot be accounted for.

The failure of the United States to account for 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and automatic pistols is an embarrassment for the Bush administration after months in which it has repeatedly accused Iran of supplying weapons to the insurgents.

The lost weapons fiasco is one more sad example of the Bush "Katrina effect" on every major endeavor by his administration. Expect more lying and parsing of the facts as Bush illogically presses Congress for an armament package for his Saudi pals while renouncing the children's health-care plan.

Thomas B. Thrailkill

Huntsville

Langford wants to be top dog:

It is obvious Jefferson County Commissioner Larry Langford's concerns are not truly for the hospitals or any Jefferson County businesses. Langford's main concern is getting in the mayor's office and being top dog.

When Langford was top dog over the commission, everything was all right. Now that Bettye Fine Collins holds the post of commission president, Langford seems to have lost interest in the county.

Henry L. McShan

College Hills

Fear mongering reefer madness:

Recent studies on the effects of marijuana use have been spreading like some sort of aggressive disease.

The first study said smoking even one joint could raise a person's risk of developing schizophrenia later in life by an astronomical 40 percent. However, if one takes the time to look at actual rates of schizophrenia among the entire world population, he will see the rate has always been around 1 percent with no real fluctuation. If the schizophrenia claim were actually true, we would have seen a huge jump in the number of people diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The second study claimed a link between marijuana and lung cancer. It said one joint is as bad as five cigarettes. However, Dr. Donald Tashkin, who for many years worked in cahoots with the Drug Enforcement Administration to try to prove this theory, recently released a study that shows smoking marijuana does not cause lung cancer and may even have some preventive effects.

This kind of fear mongering about marijuana is true reefer madness.

Loretta Nall

Alexander City

Is banning drug economical?:

A recent government study tells us marijuana is the most frequently used illegal drug in the United States. More than 83 million Americans older than the age of 12 have tried marijuana at least once. More than 12 million had used the drug in the month before the survey.

A recent essay "Make marijuana a legal cash crop" (Commentary, Aug. 5) reported that, despite intensive eradication efforts, domestic marijuana has increased tenfold over the past 25 years. Its proliferation to every part of the country demonstrates that marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the economy.

Should we add another 83 million to our jails and prisons (since it is illegal), or make marijuana a legal cash crop? I'm not so sure it would even be cost-effective to treat 83 million people for marijuana use.

Let's not forget marijuana's medicinal benefits, along with another variety of marijuana (hemp) that can be used for bio-diesel fuel, rope, paper and many other products.

I'm no economic expert, but this doesn't make much sense. It didn't make much sense to Milton Friedman either, and he was an economic expert.

Dawn Palmer

Tarrant

Illegitimate claims hurt veterans:

The recent letter "Veterans being misdiagnosed" cites a disturbing problem.

Sadly, Veterans Affairs doctors nationwide deal with gigantic numbers of veterans who illegitimately claim to have post-traumatic stress syndrome. These illegitimate claims usurp a vast quantity of medical funds sorely needed for the treatment of veterans who have legitimate illnesses, including PTSD.

Armond "Si" Simmons

Pell City