LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Corporations avoid taxes

I am a Democrat who worked his way through college and law school without a grant or loan from any government agency. I have been in business for myself since 1966 and have borrowed money many times but never from a state or federal governmental entity.

I greatly appreciated the lead article in your business section recently,even if it originated with the New York Times news services.

It related the full truth about U.S. business and corporate taxes, truth which has beenwarped by the current partisan political debate across the country and in the nation’s capitol about corporate tax payments.

In a nutshell, it is true, as the Republicans assert, that U.S. tax rates are higher than virtually every other industrialized nation on the planet.

It is also true, as Republicans fail to assert, that we provide more ways for corporate taxpayers to avoid taxes than virtually any other industrialized nation.

As a consequence, even though our corporate rate is among the highest among industrial nation, actual collections are nowhere near parity because of the multiple tax escape hatches available to corporate entities.

Big banks, insurance companies, manufacturers and retail conglomerates have enormous power in Congress because of the impact that their collective wealth has on political races. Congress needs to look for fiscal budgetary relief from where the money is, not where it isn’t.

BOYCE R. DAVIS Lincoln Stimulus was mistake

President Obama and Gene Lyons are attributing our deficit to George W. Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. Have they ever heard of the dot-com bubble? America went from surplus to deficit because the bubble burst in 2001.

The dot-com recession ended after the tax cuts reversed an economy in free fall, driving unemployment below 5 percent and the deficit below $200 billion in 2006. The current recession began after the Democrats’ subprime loan policies derailed the economy in 2008. America is facing a debt crisis because Obama’s stimulus package failed to reverse the collapse of 2008 the way the tax cuts reversed the collapse of 2001. Obama and Lyons are intentionally misleading the American people by tying the fiscal picture of these two recessions together.

Suppose that Bush had taken Lyons’ advice and not cut taxes on dividends, capital gains and top marginal rates, and instead, opted for an Obama-style stimulus package. Wouldn’t unemployment have exceeded 10 percent with a $1.5 trillion budget deficit in 2003, as in 2010? What would the Democrats say about an approach that added billions to the deficit, yet after two years had reduced unemployment to only 8.8 percent?

Obama and Lyons should man up and admit their mistake. The stimulus package was a failure. The economy has to be invigorated with an acrossthe-board tax cut to recover and preserve the entitlement programs.

THOMAS L. POPE Little Rock Free will is impossible

If the laws of nature apply everywhere and always, free will cannot exist. This is just logic, not science. We have will, but it is a product of evolved biological systems that obey the laws of physics. Our actions are determinedentirely by our genetic potential, physical and cultural environment, individual experience and chance. The latter arises from the probabilistic (yet notrandom) nature of quantum physics. Perhaps the most damning argument against free will, if being a violation of physical laws isn’t enough, is that it is completely superfluous. Experts in the biological origins of behavior say it simply isn’t necessary to introduce free will in order to explain human mental processes or actions. Those who believe in an omniscient god who knows the future have an additional logical hurdle to overcome. If the future is knowable, even by God, then it must be immutable. In that case we have no power to change it. Indeed, even God would not be free to change his mind.

Lack of free will does not mean we shouldn’t hold individuals accountable for their actions. Laws and social mores are an essential part of the environment that constrains human behavior. Without them we would have uncivilized chaos. But, we must recognize that these rules are pragmatic convention, not divine revelation, andso they should be devised and applied with restraint and some measure of empathy. As they say, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” DENNIS BRADDY Little Rock Codename a tribute

Much has been written lately about the use of Geronimo’s name during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. There are those who have incorrectly assumed that the great Native American warrior’s name was used in reference to bin Laden himself, but they are mistaken. Bin Laden was issued a completely separate code name which doesn’t deserve to be repeated here. The name Geronimo was used in reference to the mission itself, not in reference to bin Laden.

When the mission commander gave the order to proceed by saying, “For God and country . . . Geronimo! Geronimo! Geronimo!” he was letting his troops know that it was time to jump off the metaphorical cliff, just like Geronimo supposedly did to avoid capture. Even after all their training, the Navy SEALs had no real idea what was in store for them when they exited those helicopters. They were taking a leap into the unknown. The great warrior’s name was used as a sign of respect, as a sign of bravery. When those valiant men heard that dynamic order to proceed, I’m certain they felt the spirit of Geronimo enter their hearts, thereby helping to screw both their courage and their own warrior spirits firmly to the sticking place.

To believe anything less actually would be an insult to Geronimo’s good name.

JAY D. JENNINGS North Little Rock Horse thieves still exist

Horse owners beware. The old west is gone. Horse thieves are not. I recently began reviewing the bloodlines of my horses. For the past several years I have not raised any foals, but my mares are not getting any younger. So, I began to think about a breeding plan for this year.

Then in early March, I noticed my horses were not in their pasture. Because the land next to ours belongs to my mother-in-law, I was not concerned. My husband brought them back home the next day. It was then we realized five of the biggest mares were missing. We searched for them everywhere we could think to look during the next three days. At that point we reached an unbelievable conclusion. They were gone.

Over the next four days, we pieced together a scenario I hope no other horse owner ever has to experience. My horses had been stolen, sold to a buyer and transported out of Arkansas to Oklahoma. From there we believe they were shipped to the Mexican border, unloaded, reloaded and carried across into Mexico to a slaughter facility. I filed a report with our local sheriff’s office, but I am not expecting my horses to be recovered.

The registration papers for these mares will be sent to the National Missouri Fox Trotters Association and they will be identified as deceased. There is no way to replace them.

I never imagined this could happen to me. Horse owners, please realize there are people who think nothing about stealing your horses and selling them to be killed.

CARLA SAMPLE Pleasant PlainsMandate hard labor

Too much money is spent on incarcerating prisoners, about $60 a day.

Laws are obeyed due to threat of punishment. If proper punishment were enforced, many crimes would never happen. People would not try drugs, there would be no drug dealers, and people would think before committing crimes.

A first-offense punishment could be to dig a trench three feet deep, three feet wide and 90 feet long. The measurements would have to be exact. When finished, refill the trench and pack it down so the land is back to its original shape. For the second offense, double the length of the trench.

Prisoners would work 10 hours a day, six days a week without television, telephone, computers, tobacco or visitors.

The length of the sentence would depend on when the trench is properly done.

Areas where the trench is to be dug should be in good public view, preferably close to schools so students could benefit.

Would this be unusual punishment? Perhaps, but not cruel. Moneyill spent for prisons and incarcerating people from work and families is cruel. By observing this type of punishment, I would predict people in the drug trade would have second thoughts, especially having dug one trench with time to weigh the cost.

LAYTON JACKSON Fort Smith So bad it’s not wrong

Ptolemy theorized that as a planet revolved around the earth, it had epicycles in its orbit. That explained the retrograde movement in the night sky. But, Ptolemy was wrong. Now, epicycles is a derisive term when someone is trying to rescue a faulty hypothesis.

I did not know how silly evolution was until two weeks ago. An evolutionist asks, “How did birds evolve from reptiles? And proceeds to search for the answer. Sure enough, the evidence is there. But, rephrase the question into a simple sentence, “Reptiles evolved into birds in order to fly.” That is an impossibility. It can’t be done.

I accepted evolution as a valid scientific theory. Until two weeks ago, I did not know that it was bad science.How bad is it? It’s so bad, it’s not even wrong. I stole that joke.

It’s so obvious to me now. Evolutionary theory is just one big epicycle.

JOHN ROACH Harrison Try remaining calm

Your neglecting to remain calm during these times when common lunatics neglect to remember that their ignorant conclusions, as per recent events, shall be examined by future analysts who recognize their obligations to ignore the ignoramuses guilty of jumping to conclusions before the facts have been legitimately established as per the aforesaid recent events.

Our hero, Donald Trump, shall not neglect to obey the rules for analyzing any complex events which the usual lunatic fringe wordsmiths are often guilty of as they hurriedly seek to be the firstest with the mostest.

Donald Trump shall not be guilty of trumpeting hasty conclusions and/ or ignorance as per the wordsmiths.

H. E. HARVEY ClarksvilleFeedback Why fight last war?

Congress is in a budget battle, and the target seems to be so-called entitlements. We have spent $17.6 billion with another $4.4 billion appropriated for a satellite that should help detect incoming missiles. Since there are no missiles being fired at the U.S., but our infrastructure continues to deteriorate and people are still getting older and need medical care, maybe our spending priorities should be examined. It is very rare to hear anything from Washington about military waste and extravagance, but there would be no budget problem if we would stop fighting wars that can’t be won and cut back on such things as useless weapons designed to fight in wars the way they used to be fought.

FRED LARSON Horseshoe Bend This is real fortitude

I Googled testicular fortitude and got a one word definition: SEALs.

JIM GWIN North Little Rock