Hogs by the numbers
It's midseason for Razorback football and time for assessment. Coach Morris appears to be a super nice guy, but where is the left-lane, hammer-down promised in the introductory rah-rah speech? We are 18 games in, a 4-14 record, no conference wins, and embarrassing non-conference losses.
SMU gave up Morris and a starting quarterback to Arkansas, which paid a reported $2 million release fee to SMU. Midseason, SMU is now 6-0 and first in its division. In three seasons, Coach Morris was 14-23 at SMU with one bowl appearance in the 2017 Frisco Bowl just after he left, which was a 51-10 loss to Louisiana Tech.
Arkansas has Top 20 facilities and fan base but we're tired of excuses and desperately need a winning November to Remember. If not forthcoming, it may be time to hammer down back to Texas for our coaching team and for Arkansas to have a coach with a history of winning in big conferences. Petrino up for a chat?
BOB HAYDEN
Little Rock
Sell the power back
Every homeowner and business should be able to sell excess electricity produced from solar panels or windmills to the power company at a 10 percent profit over and above their costs.
For example: Homeowner has an average electrical bill of $150 a month from his power company. He installs solar panels on his roof and cuts his bill to zero dollars most months, and sells his excess electricity back to the power company at a 10 percent profit over and above his installation costs amortized over a period of 20 years at a price to the company of 10 percent under the wholesale market price of electricity in his area.
For instance, if his installation costs were $20,000, the homeowner could sell his excess electricity back to the power company for $1,000 a year for 20 years plus a 10 percent profit for each year of $100 plus the wholesale market value of the electricity to the power company less 10 percent. The idea is to price coal- and oil-fired power plants out of business while allowing homeowners and businesses a fair profit on their investments.
Something like this was working in Germany and elsewhere. We should do the same here. We have to stop this insanity of putting CO2 into the atmosphere. We are near the tipping point at which global warming becomes unstoppable. When the temperature reaches 800 degrees Fahrenheit, like on Venus, we will all be dead. The coal and oil barons will scream like stuck pigs. Good! Their greed is destroying our planet.
Congress should immediately pass a law requiring all electrical utilities to purchase excess electricity produced by solar panels and windmills at a profit of 10 percent to the homeowner or business. Sunshine is much cheaper than oil and coal. God is not in charge of this. He put us in charge.
RUUD DuVALL
Fayetteville
Dereliction of duties
The mass killings will continue as long as we send the same people to the United States Senate and expect different results. Shame on us. This is what happens when all branches of government are under one party; power and money talk. You must find someone else for whom to vote.
Is it possible to sue the United States Senate for failing to protect us and our children? And individuals after they leave the Senate? Why aren't these people in prison for dereliction of duty to us? That's where I would be, especially if I violated a subpoena. The Republican Senate has failed in its obligation to "provide domestic tranquility."
Don't preach the Second Amendment to me. I have a copy. The Second Amendment has been stretched so far out of shape from its original intent, and was written when muskets were the rifle of the day. The founding fathers could not envision the semiautomatic or automatic weapons we have today.
How does a gun association exercise so much control that it can hold the United States Senate and a president hostage? It's putting money before lives, and the U.S. Senate and president are happy with that. All these shooters are doing is putting people on welfare. This is so cruel.
MILLIE FOREE
Bella Vista
Appeasement redux
While watching President Trump tell the American public that the negotiations in Turkey had produced "an amazing outcome" and a "great day for civilization," I couldn't help but think that our country finally had found its Neville Chamberlain.
Chamberlain, the U.K. prime minister in 1938, sought to appease Hitler by ceding the Sudetenland to Germany in exchange for what Chamberlain claimed was "peace for our time." World War II began one year later.
President Trump also said he applied "a little tough love" to the situation to get a ceasefire. I suspect the Kurds would agree, but would describe it more graphically.
EARL ANTHES
Forrest City
Editorial on 10/19/2019