SMOKING BAN

Law fails to protect children in car seats

I do not understand where Boise’s priorities lie with smoking bans. There are bans for smoking in bars (all patrons are over 21) and in parks (open air), but adults are allowed to smoke in their car with minor children, often times with the windows barely cracked? Seems like those who are truly helpless and need protecting the most from harmful smoke inhalation are being ignored. Thanks, City Council, for being concerned for my health, but what about the newborn stuck in the back seat?

ALLISON BERGER, Boise

Smoking advocatesuse improper term

According to your story on the city of Boise’s banning smoking in bars and restaurants, “Nearly every bar owner, employee and patron interviewed for this story agreed on one point: Government doesn’t have the authority to tell businesses how to operate.” The story ends with the supposedly representative and symbolic quote from one bar patron who not only claims the ban contradicts our basic rights as citizens, but likens the ban to the tactics of the Gestapo.

Really? Can’t these smoking advocates — who claim to be experts on the U.S. Constitution — at the very least accurately represent who the Gestapo were? In fact, they were the German “security” police during the Second World War whose chief mission was to round up Jews to be deported to concentration camps, where they were summarily gassed, their carcasses buried and burned by the millions. To suggest that Boise’s constitutional prohibition against people engaged in a public health menace — smoking in public spaces — is equivalent to the behavior of the German Gestapo is plain wrong and a pathetic use of one’s First Amendment right to criticize government.

PETER SACKS, Boise

Clegg apparently thinksshe knows what’s best

With regard to Boise City Council member Elaine Clegg and her opposition to smoking in bars, I don’t smoke and I don’t hang out in bars, but I do have a few questions. Does Ms. Clegg really believe she is smarter than dozens of adult bar owners who work every day to better serve their customers and grow their businesses? Does she really believe she is smarter than the thousands of adults who would willingly enter bars where smoking is allowed? Does she really believe she is smarter than the adult employees of those bars who used to willingly work in them but now can’t, because they have been laid off as a result of Ms. Clegg and her ilk?

Does Ms. Clegg deny these adults their freedom of choice because she knows what is best for them and is going to do it to them whether they like it or not? Does it not matter how many are harmed economically by her mandates?

Or do Ms. Clegg and others like her run for office because they don’t trust people to manage their own lives and economic affairs?

BRUCE MOORE, Boise

OBAMA

President’s actions don’t match promises

We have had a president who made promises of affordable, universal health care for all. What we got was termination of dental, ear, and eye care for the disabled, senior citizens and the poor.

What else did we get? Amnesty for 12 million illegal immigrants who have no or little education and take what few jobs there are for Americans. They cost the taxpayers millions in food stamps and free housing. But we must protect our oil rights in Mexico. Right? Oh, you are not wealthy enough to benefit from the stocks. Sorry. The wealthy pay little or no taxes as they have offshore accounts and shelters in the United States. But we can rely on our corporations to be fair to us. Oh, 63 percent of them don’t pay taxes either. So who is paying the billion dollars spent on the Mars program? You, the taxpayer.

Our president has not made good on any of his promises in four years. He has hurt the American public. He has ignored the immigration ... to where we have al-Qaida cells in the U.S. and the Islamic Brotherhood in our colleges. Scary. Think before you vote.

LI WONG, Weiser

GOP not to blame for Democratic failures

I find it hard to believe how so many people fail to see through political make-believe.

All political parties say and print stories that they hope will influence the citizens of this (once) great country. A country that has succumbed to the lies of politicians both left and right.

On Aug. 2 were printed letters that tend to prove my point. In this instance the writers all believe the Republicans are responsible for all our problems. They cut taxes for the wealthy (it seems to me that my tax cuts were made at the same time). They (Republicans) have no compassion. They want to poison our water, air and food. Even though they also eat and drink the very same water and food. The Republican Party is controlled by the rich people; only Republicans are rich — Pelosi, George Soros, Feinstein, Boxer, Gates and other Democrats don’t count.

The Democrats have had control, or partial control, of Congress all three years of Mr. Obama’s presidency and have yet to pass a budget! Yet they blame the Republicans.

It is easy to understand how people develop their biases since the mainstream media, including television and newspapers, are so inclined to support the left.

CHUCK EGAN, Meridian

BAIN CAPITAL

Investment managers serve valuable purpose

There is much misinformation about Mitt Romney and his role at Bain Capital. Political ads characterize private equity firms as only profit-oriented and uncaring. The ads don’t say that distressed firms are the ones who come to firms like Bain Capital rather than the other way around. They seek expertise, guidance and capital.

There is not much difference between a physician treating a critically ill person and what an investment manager hopes to achieve with a dying company. The goal is to prolong life.

A physician’s tools are surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, amputation, antidotes, drugs, transfusions and stitching.

An investment manager uses different tools: business expertise, capital infusion, restructuring, logistics, product improvement, cost reductions, sales improvement, layoffs and hirings.

Both the physician and the investment manager have had ample success with their respective clients, but both have patients who die or companies that go bankrupt. Also, their clients will likely experience pain while going through their rescuing process.

The physician and the investment manager are highly valuable, at the top of their professions, and are compensated accordingly. Without their skills and experience, both the sick patient and business entity would likely die.

JIM KIRSCHBASUM, Eagle