LETTERS

A discriminatory law

Jan Brewer’s veto of the Arizona bill allowing people to deny service to groups was a smart move. It was destined to go to court, and many taxpayer dollars would have been wasted before it was struck down as being unconstitutional.

It seems this bill was crafted so that it was not just homosexuals who could be discriminated against, but this was the intent.

I think one constitutional hurdle the bill would have faced is the fact that in order to take advantage of the law, a person would have to be not just religious, but sincerely religious. In the inevitable lawsuits, the discriminators would then be obligated to prove their religious sincerity, a difficult task at best.

The religious litmus test also introduces another problem that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere. This bill allows only religious people to act like idiots. If a person were an atheist or agnostic and wanted to act like an idiot, it seems this law would leave them out in the cold.

The Constitution states that no religious test can be used to hold public office. Should we then set a higher bar for someone to be merely idiotic? Whatever happened to equal protection under the law?

LEWIS NEIDHARDT Sherwood

Thanks for nothing!

I would like to commend all those who fought and won in opposing the Bass Pro Shops’ possibly being built in North Little Rock. I see now that an outlet mall is being built alongside the Bass Pro which was eventually built in Little Rock near Otter Creek.

I live in North Little Rock and the difference in distance for me between the proposed North Little Rock location and the final Little Rock location is about 5 miles, as will be the case for most residential growth in North Little Rock. Do you really think that will deter me from driving there to shop?

Thanks to all who made this possible and lost so much revenue, growth and out-of-town traffic for North Little Rock. I think the next campaign could be to close down McCain Mall. That might boost business too.

Who knows, the McCain Mall area could be a park, all green and fuzzy.After all, the mall location is only a mile or two from where Bass Pro wanted to build, for the environmental types who used that excuse to oppose the North Little Rock Bass Pro.

Or maybe it was the difference in traffic flow at the Interstate 40/30 interchange as opposed to the I-30/430 site. Go figure.

RAY VANZANDT North Little Rock

Outstanding delivery

Mary McCumpsey wrote praising her courteous paper-delivery person.

I have lived in Parkway Village for 28 years. I cannot remember more than one or two times that the paper has not been right at my back door. One icy morning recently I opened the glass door and raked the paper inside with a golf club. A truly outstanding delivery family that we at the Village commend and appreciate. GEORGE D. MOBBS SR. Little Rock

Right side of liberty

Another stimulating lecture from Professor Gitz. In his effort last week, the Gitzer draws the clear and fast political/social/moral line of the contemporary world. On the right are liberty-loving classical liberals and libertarians, plus their latter-day “progeny,” British Tories and North/ South American conservatives. On the left are state-adorers of various stripes from naive American so-called liberals to social democrats, socialists, Marxists and communists.

Gitz then corrects the prevailing confusion of placing totalitarian haters of liberty like fascists and Nazis in the camp of the liberty-loving right. Because as the incisive analyst observes, the supposed struggle between extreme-left Stalinists and extreme-right fascists and Nazis was an illusion, simply a murderous faction fight between bad guys on the left.

Thus, the modern descendants of classical liberalism stand alone on the political right, holding fast against those who attack the classical liberal “ideology of limited government, private property (capitalism) and individual freedom” with nefarious weapons like a graduated income tax, Social Security, Medicare and, Lord save us all, Obamacare, the apparent ideological equivalents of the corporate state, five-year plans, and purification of the Aryan race as pursued by Stalinists, fascists and Nazis.

So it’s all very simple now. Leap back into the ideological purity of Locke, Montesquieu and Smith wherein you can snuggle comfortably with Federalists (?) like Madison and Hamilton, worship at the altar of capitalists like Jay Gould and sleep the dreamless sleep of Calvin Coolidge on the right side of the great divide.

THOMAS C. KENNEDY Fayetteville

Restore opportunity

On a regular basis some contributors write glibly about the performance of President Barack Obama. For example, the Affordable Care Act, which deals with at least 47 million citizens not having health care, or the Keystone pipeline, which has not been financed.

Others claim Obama was not born in the United States of America.

Some right-wing politicians claim he would bring Sharia law to the United States.

They call him a socialist. Anyone who does this has no idea what the word means.

I believe the president’s policies limn another reality: a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. The economy needs help; immigration reform can help. Americans foundering in today’s global economy need particular succor. Congress needs to act on voting rights and funding the nation’s infrastructure, renewable energy and research needs.

Opportunity is who we are, and the defining project of our generation is to restore that promise.

ROBERT HYMER Little Rock

On appointed rounds

It was no surprise to discover that we did not get our local or statewide paper the Monday and Tuesday after the ice.

The Postal Service, though, did deliver the monthly subscription bill that Monday. My hat is off to the USPS.

GERALD SIMS Vilonia

Editorial, Pages 13 on 03/17/2014

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