Love Letters and Hate Mail

Oklahoma's Own Lady Macbeth

Dear UTW:

Having ordered seven state-sanctioned murders, Gov. Mary Fallin has a lot to learn from Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth.

Having plotted the murder of Duncan, the king of Scotland, with her husband, Lady Macbeth had regrets once the deed was done. "Out, damned spot!" Lady Macbeth said, rubbing and seeming to wash her hands for a quarter of an hour. "Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?"

Fallin could have given a similar speech when her execution of murderer Garry Thomas Allen was carried out on presidential election night.

Fallin ignored Allen's mental problems in spite of the U.S. Constitution's banning execution of insane or mentally incompetent inmates and the Pardon and Parole Board's recommendation that Allen's death sentence be commuted to life without parole.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, Oklahoma has ranked third among the states in executions with 101, behind Texas' 490 and Virginia's 109. Pastor Robin Meyers says, "Texas and Oklahoma are in a race to see who can kill the most people."

Oklahoma has 59 males and one female remaining on Fallin's death row.

Seventeen states have repealed the death penalty, and saved millions in litigation costs by converting death sentences to life without parole.

But none had a little Lady Macbeth living in their governor's mansion.

--Virginia "Blue Jeans" Jenner

Israel Should Strike Iran

Dear UTW:

According to various intelligence agencies, Iran could have nuclear armaments ready for use against Israel by early 2013. The devices could be nuclear bombs, or more likely, nuclear warheads on missiles.

Diplomacy by the United States and Western countries has been given a chance, but it has not worked to deter Iran's nuclear program, and Iran continues to develop its nuclear weapons.

Israel cannot allow Iran, and its irrational leadership, to have nuclear weapons because two or three nuclear detonations could wipe out Israel. Therefore, Israel must strike Iran with a multi-pronged attack, and it will only have one opportunity to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat.

Israel's military will have to be on general alert for an Iranian counter strike using conventional weapons. It is doubtful any of the other countries in the Middle East will come to Iran's aid.

Israel cannot count on the Obama administration to come to its aid. President Obama erroneously believes sanctions will work to halt Iran's nuclear armaments program, and at the same time he warns Israel not to strike Iran. Obama, with his coddling of Arab countries, is not a friend of Israel.

Israel's survival depends on military action against Iran.

--Donald A. Moskowitz

Fix It With Fair Tax

Dear UTW:

I have been an appliance repairman for 40 years. My natural inclination is to fix things. As I look at the state of national affairs today, nothing seems to be working right. One hardly knows where to begin the repair. May I suggest tax reform?

The income tax discourages investment and productivity. It penalizes exporters who must add the cost of taxes into the price of everything they export. People with high incomes are leaving the United States in droves to avoid income taxes. Working people have up to 25 percent of their income confiscated before they even get their paychecks. The IRS intrudes into our private affairs. We waste hundreds of billions of dollars and millions of hours every year, in compliance costs. People defraud the system for undeserved refunds. Hundreds of billions in revenue from the underground economy and tax cheating is left on the table.

The Fair Tax changes everything. Because it is a tax on consumption, it sidesteps that entire list of evils associated with the income tax. The FairTax, however, goes beyond mere reform. Sometimes when I am called upon to repair an appliance, the cost exceeds the value of the unit in question. That's what's happening with the income tax today. The income tax cannot be repaired. It must be replaced. Of all the plans being discussed on Capitol Hill, only the Fair Tax can bring the kind of fundamental and comprehensive change that will allow for a permanent fix.

--David Boone

Dr. Death, My Foot!

Dear UTW:

The income tax creates a stagnant economy for the United States. Companies have moved overseas to give their investors a tax advantage. They will not return to the US until our system gives them an advantage in the world market.

The answer to this is the FairTax plan. It will: eliminate income tax and the IRS, jump-start the economy, bring jobs back to the US, capture untaxed dollars currently lost to criminal and offshore businesses, allow you to keep 100 percent of your paycheck, let you save all the money you want and pay taxes only when you spend it, eliminate taxes you don't even know you are paying, lower interest rates and make April 15 just another beautiful spring day. If everyone tells their congressman to support HR25, we can turn this economy around as soon as it is enacted.

--Roy T. Newsom

Dear UTW:

J. Ray Hunt's very hilarious rant makes Mr. "Rant and Rall" look Republican. If Mr. Hunt should ever decide to take a break from whatever he is smoking, he may want to read the "News of the Weird" in the same issue of UTW. Government in action. By ... oh my ... Sen. Coburn! There Mr. Hunt can see what his liberal cohorts are spending all the money on. All that money that SHOULD be spent on those glorious programs Mr. Hunt wails about.

--Havah Gordon