To the editor: If I’m going to join the “revolution” that Gayle Reaves so eloquently described in the opener to your Best of 2009 edition (“Long May We Wave,” Sept. 30, 2009) – a revolution against hypocrisy, greed and corruption – I’d first like to see some justice. Because if there was really such a thing as true justice, then these things would happen:
Gas wells would be drilled in Mike Moncrief’s backyard, and Joe Barton would be required to live downwind from the cement kilns. Executives taking bailout money would be required to live in FEMA trailers, have their jobs outsourced, and their homes, private jets, and cars repossessed. Truth in advertising laws would force Fox News to be renamed Fox Propaganda. Public schools that refused to air President Obama’s education speech would lose their federal funding. Dick Cheney would be held in federal custody indefinitely and be waterboarded 182 times. Senior citizens screaming “Stop socialized medicine” would forfeit their Medicare benefits. Muslims and African-Americans carrying AK-47s would demonstrate at Republican “tea parties.” Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O’Reilly would be given truth serum, rendering them all speechless. Jerry Falwell’s and Pat Robertson’s children would all turn out to be gay. Churches preaching love but practicing hate would lose their tax-free status. Any American calling President Obama a fascist, a socialist, or a communist would be deported.
And, last but not least, Texas would secede from any union with Rick Perry.
Sharon Austry
Fort Worth
To the editor: I just read your cigar recommendations in your recent issue (Getting and Spending, Best of 2009). I have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. I agree that Pop’s Safari is a great cigar lounge. However, as far as a place to purchase cigars, it has a very limited selection. As a longtime cigar smoker, I prefer Tobacco Lane on the Square, in Sundance Square downtown. Tobacco Lane has an extremely large and varied inventory, their prices are competitive, the service is great, and they also have a larger selection of wines at good prices.
Patrick O. Jacks
Johnson County
To the editor: In response to “the teabaggers” being named as the critic’s choice for the most likely candidate for alien abduction (People and Politics, Best of 2009), As I recall, the critic feels that these folks waste their time with futile protests and “name themselves after a sexual position,” suggesting their lack of intelligence and perhaps implying perversion.
Well, the first time I heard the term “teabagger” in this context was watching Keith Oberman and Rachel Maddow using this sexual term to describe the free American citizens who chose to attend the “Tea Party Protest” in April 2009. They did it in a kind of immature, tongue-in-cheek wannabe John Stewart kind of way. There was also a rally in downtown Fort Worth on Sept. 12 that drew well over 5,000 people. I am a “teabagger” in this context, of course. Have any of you been to any of the rallies that have taken place in Fort Worth? They are people with real worries and concerns beyond the media critiques, who don’t deserve to be called simply “racist, redneck, right-wing Republican,” etc.
I’m not going to insult you by assuming you haven’t examined the current administration and found that something stinks on many levels beyond the surface of Lake Hope. Some people develop a taste for old stinky cheese. What is going on right now is old stinky cheese in a brand-new shiny wrapper.
Damien Keith Grober
Fort Worth
Remedying Rip-Offs
To the editor: Dan McGraw’s article (“Worth the Paper They’re Written On,” Oct. 7, 2009) hit the bull’s-eye regarding the machinations of the gas and oil companies. Their “contracts” were specifically designed to obfuscate mostly trusting senior citizens. They certainly didn’t suggest or encourage allowing an attorney to peruse the contracts prior to signing. The gas and oil representatives took advantage of the vulnerability of many folks not familiar with how these self-serving scam artisans operate. They inveigle themselves to people just so they can “negotiate” for a signature on the bottom line and talk about how the money can be used to buy their children Christmas presents, etc.
One should apply the caveat, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” These merchants of bullshit didn’t even pass out suckers to those they ripped off.
Justice will be served with attorney Kip Petroff on the people’s side. He’s no neophyte in litigation, having won large settlements in the fen-phen cases. These oil and gas legal machinations must be curbed.
Elizabeth Sprague
Fort Worth
