Re: “America must chill the rhetoric of political rage” (editorial, 1-14).

There have been multiple tweets on the Internet wishing death for Sarah Palin: “Ugh! All the wrong people get shot. Why can’t this kind of thing happen at a Sarah Palin event?”

That tweet is the one that definitely bothered me the most. Why would somebody say such a thing? Encouraging people to murder somebody is just as bad as murdering them yourself.

We can’t make such comments illegal due to freedom of speech, but we should find a way to deter people from spreading such hate messages. …

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David Broder (column, 1-30) suggests the removal of two tax “loopholes” in order to use half the money to reduce the individual and corporate tax rate.

The two “loopholes” just happen to be the two largest tax breaks given to the middle class: the home mortgage interest deduction and the tax exclusion for employer-provided health insurance.

Without these two tax breaks (benefiting mainly those of us in the lower 98 percent of the income pool) many of us would not be able to afford a home or health insurance. Or we would have to pay substantially more taxes in order …

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Re: “Boomers’ ‘second adolescence’ being put on hold” (Froma Harrop column, 1-28).

Harrop suggests the need to reconsider what retirement means. Definitely useful information. That is where this column ceases to be useful.

She paints baby boomers as self-serving hedonists whose main concern is the opportunity to spend the second half of life playing. Baby boomers, Harrop states, should “remove their big rear ends from the jobs that young people want,” a view reminiscent of the disengagement theory of aging, dismissed decades ago as reductionistic and ageist.

Despite the financial devastation boomers have faced (along with others), many boomers still …

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Re: “Welfare cuts go back to drawing board” (TNT, 1-29).

Having worked many years within Working Connections Child Care (WCCC), I had seen it abused repeatedly. Does it make sense to pay more for the monthly cost of child care than the parent earns?

There are recurring abuse cases such as: eligibility established for part-time or temporary employment but the parent quits or is released but continues to use WCCC; not reporting that the other parent is in the household but not employed, which would allow for that other parent to care for their own children; and having a “live-in” …

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Headache, confusion, seizure, difficulty swallowing, coma, constipation, dizziness, death.

Those are some of the side effects that TV ad announcers tell us about while hawking potentially dangerous drugs to millions of Americans. It’s legal for these middle men to shill for really huge drug dealers, Big Pharma.

Thousands more people become sick or die from legal drugs than from all the illegal drugs combined. No one dies from using marijuana. Moreover, there is no doubt that marijuana has therapeutic effects.

But many people die or their lives are ruined over marijuana. This destruction doesn’t happen because of marijuana itself. Rather, …

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After the Haitian earthquake, people sent money; I sent money. But where did it go?

The foundations and companies we donated to should be responsible for finding out where it all went. “American Idol” and former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush urged the American people to help our neighbor in dire need.

Looking at pictures on year later, conditions look similar. Hurricane Katrina had better results after one year.

Before we donate any more money, the foundations that collected should go down to Haiti and find some answers as to where it all went and if our money …

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Re: medical marijuana.

Three different pills are available that contain the active ingredient in marijuana that people do find helpful. Any legitimate doctor can prescribe one of these meds for cancer patients, those with chronic illnesses or other symptoms that these pills may alleviate.

No legitimate doctor that would encourage or prescribe to patients to inhale dirty smoke into their lungs. There is no reason to smoke marijuana for “health” reasons. Anyone who says they believe that is just kidding themselves.

(Buzzelli is a registered nurse.)

What a warm and fuzzy moment to remember it was when President Obama gave his State of the Union address on Tuesday, and some of the most hardnosed conservatives and liberals sat together for a “Kumbaya” (holding hands around the campfire) show of bipartisanship.

It was not a little unlike the moment in a boxing match when the referee calls the combatants to the center of the ring to shake hands before they go back to their corners and wait until the bell rings before they come back and try to beat each others’ brains out.

The charade reminded …

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