LETTERS

A message more vital

It seems our society as a whole looks forward to a holiday on the calendar, for it means time off from work, family get-togethers and just relaxing from daily responsibilities.

However, I believe the one coming up Sunday means much more than worldly pursuits, and the message has an eternal significance. The miracle of God’s love for his creation began in a manger in Bethlehem and came to a conclusion on a cross just outside Jerusalem.

This Easter Sunday, many will go to church service and sing along with a beautiful choir about a living savior and go home unaffected and uncaring, not to be seen again until Christmas.

Once again God will reach out to mankind with a message of salvation and hope in a hopeless world and will, for the most part, find a deaf ear to his offer. It may quite well be his last one. Are you ready for eternity?

WILLA ROMINE

Bryant

It’s all a massive hoax

As a scientist (Ph.D., chemical engineering), I am convinced that the belief by many that global warming is caused by humans, whether it is carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons or whatever, is the result of a massive hoax. Many intelligent people agree with my view.

Patrick Moore, Ph.D.: Before a Senate subcommittee, the former activist with environmental group Greenpeace refuted assertions that carbon dioxide emissions from human activity are responsible for global warming.

Charles Krauthammer: In a recent column, he pointed out inconvenient truths that contradict global warming: “Settled? Even the U.K.

’s national weather service concedes there’s been no change … in global temperature in 15 years. If even the raw data is recalcitrant, let alone the assumptions and underlying models, how settled is the science? … 2013 saw the fewest Atlantic hurricanes in 30 years. … And the last 30 years-of presumed global warming-has seen a 30 percent decrease in extreme tornado activity … versus the previous 30 years.”

Forbes.com: “Sorry, but with global warming, it’s the sun, stupid.”

After several years of reading “global warming” literature, I am convinced that man is not a serious cause of climate variations. I believe that sunspot activity levels, and quantities of cosmic rays entering Earth’s atmosphere have the major effect on terrestrial conditions.

As an engineer I strongly disagree with the “need” to spend billions (trillions?) of dollars to reduce CO2 emissions. It would simply be money wasted.

CHARLES W. LAMB

El Dorado

An excellent carrier

I’ve been reading the continuing drama of the curling pages, and I am sorry that people don’t have better things to do than worry about some curls.

The main thing I want to talk about is our great delivery person. We live in an extremely hillyarea and not one time did they miss delivering my paper in the extreme winter of snow and ice.

As to the person who wondered why his paper wasn’t double-wrapped on rainy days, again my delivery person comes through.

I don’t know a name, but whoever it is, I say thank you!

BILL MAIDEN

Rogers

Drug-test doctors too

Doctors are well-respected around the United States. I think you will rarely find doctors in today’s world with any problems or anything wrong with them. But to be on the safe side, in my opinion, doctors, just like everyone else, should be drug-tested. To get other jobs you have to be drug-tested, so why can’t doctors be like others and be drug-tested as well?

Some doctors could be all doped up while working on patients; who wants a doctor working on them while there’s something wrong with them and they’re not in their right mind? The way people are dying, we don’t need the people we depend on and trust the most with our sickness to be the cause of deaths.

In a recent New York Times article, a doctor had hepatitis C, a potentially fatal virus, The painkiller he used for the patients was the same he used for himself; while injecting his arm and then patient’s arms with the same needle, he transmitted his disease to the patients. That goes to show that you can’t trust everyone you hire. How can you be a doctor when you’re sick yourself? This doctor killed two people with his sickness before he was finally arrested.

I believe hospitals should perform random drug and health checkups monthly. The tests should be comprehensive enough to screen for fentanyl and other commonly abused drugs.

In that case, I believe all doctors should be drug-tested because doctors are like normal people. Everyone has struggles and you never know what someone could be going through. All health-care workers with access to drugs, including doctors, should be subject to mandatory drug testing.

KALISHA WILLIS

Strong

Ensure public health

Modern times and the progression of marijuana laws call for a standard of proofing different types of marijuana strains. Marijuana is used today by many people around the United States for medical problems, such as nerve pain or chemotherapy-related nausea.

Would the government allow people to consume any type of other medication without strict guidelines on the drug and its ingredients? I think the federal government and FDA need to step in and require the regulation of all marijuana and THC-containing edibles to ensure public health and safety. Marijuana is not yet legal in all 50 states for medicinal use, but in the future it most likely will be, and there should be measures put into place ahead of time.

Consumers should have the right to know the potency and potential symptoms of a specific strain before they use the product. A standardized proofing system needs to be put into place in order to reduce potential risks with dosing. Unlike all other FDA-approved medications, marijuana is most often smoked and does not have an exact “dose,” which increases potential for misuse.

Marijuana has proven to be a legitimate source for medical treatment for many illnesses and it is going to take public help to push lawmakers into ensuring public health in this matter. According to federal law, there is no currently accepted medicinal value to marijuana, yet there have been many studies done by federally funded agencies that have concluded otherwise. Proofing is something that marijuana and its users need in order to properly medicate, and I believe there is no longer a case for deniability in the case of the federal government.

BRENT JONES

Hot Springs