To all the pharmacists out there who daily do a wonderful job without the need to pass moral judgment on their customers, thank you.

To all those who feel that their personal issues are more important than patient care, perhaps you are in the wrong profession.

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We are wasting our efforts in trying to change the Afghans and other Muslims. They are rooted firmly in the 7th century, and there is no way a Western (and, in Muslim eyes, Christian) nation can change the Islamic cultures. Islam has yet to have its Renaissance, its Reformation or its Enlightenment. As long as we meddle in their affairs, they will remain in the 7th century and hate us.

To end and win the war on terror, the United States and other Western powers should simply withdraw from the Middle East. The U.S. should also develop a strategy of being neutral in regard to Israel. We have done enough for Israel, and Israel is not a territory of the U.S.; it must succeed or fail on its own.

If we follow a policy of non-intervention in the Islamic world, that world will change for the better on its own as the young people tire of the oppression from the religious establishment. What we have been doing for so many decades is exactly the wrong policy and will ensure decades if not centuries of Islamic enmity towards the U.S.

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Sadly, many descendants of newer immigrants have chosen not to embrace their new country. Unlike Ota and his family, few seem to me to embrace the American ethic of hard work, education and self-reliance.

Almost all of us are children of immigrants who sacrificed a great deal to come to this country at some time in the past and we continue to reap the rewards of the work ethic taught to us by those sacrifices.

Ota and his family suffered grievous discrimination and loss, yet they and their children and grandchildren became stronger Americans neither asking for handouts nor complaining. They got to work.

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Just as we would protect our kids from physical danger, we must protect our kids and grandkids from economic danger. We must actively support the conservative candidate of our choice. We can’t just show up at the polling place and vote. We have to try and convince our friends and neighbors to see the threat of another four years of Barack Obama as president and work actively to get out the conservative vote.

We can do this, but not by sitting in our rocking chairs, working in our flower beds and baking cookies. We need to get as motivated for our candidate as the few but vocal Ron Paul supporters are for him.

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The air pollution regulators are at it again relative to restricting wood-stove burning in our area.

They just don’t understand that enforcing burn bans based on artificial political boundaries doesn’t work. For example, under a King County burn OK and a Pierce County burn bank, a home on the Enumclaw side of White River could burn away legally, while a home a few feet across the river in Buckley would be banned from burning and subject to heavy penalties and fines.

The regulators should be smart enough to realize that new burning zone boundaries need to be created that take into account typical wind patterns, heavily concentrated population and industrial areas, traffic density patterns and past pollution problem areas.

Until they do this, our citizens and elected officials should fight any actions to increase wood stove air pollution regulations.

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Re: “Washington state investigates cause of BP refinery blaze” (TNT, 2-19) and photo.

With all that black smoke spewing for hours at least, “the U.S. EPA tested the air near the facility and at locations downwind and found no measurable threats from airborne pollutants related to the fire, according to the article.

Meanwhile, the Pierce County air pollution sniffers are ready to shut down with $1,000 fines the few remaining stokers of wood-burning stoves or heaters.

Do the Pierce County sniffers and the Cherry Point air sniffers come from the same planet?

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The author makes a fascinating argument for low tax rates on capital gains: Investors are taking a risk, which should justify a lower rate. They are, in his words, “taking a gamble.”

Perhaps we should follow this logic and lower tax rates on lottery winners and casino habitues. By his reasoning, they are more worthy of encouragement than those who merely work for a living.

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I applaud the writer’s opinion regarding politicians’ reluctance to take a stand on moral grounds. One should hope they would have the courage to take the stand which accurately represents their electorate, regardless of personal viewpoint.

It is a great country that grants its citizens the right to practice religion – or not to – and to protect them from persecution thereof.

I would like to borrow the line of reasoning employed to define adherence to rules imposed on employees of faith-based organizations. That logic can be used to defend that which is at the root of this argument, birth control, which incidentally surveys indicate is in use by nearly all Catholics.

No one is forced to be a citizen of this country. If one doesn’t like it , one is free to leave. Additionally, as a citizen, according to the First Amendment and the preamble to the Constitution, one is afforded certain inalienable rights. Those rights certainly include personal choice as it concerns a person’s body and its biological functions.

Just as the government should stay out of the church, the opponents of birth control have no right to impose their beliefs on others.To do otherwise would be against the founding principles of our country and therefore unconstitutional.

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Regardless of what really needs to be addressed – the PTSD process – political correctness trumps all else. In this setting, good people trying to do the right thing are often made into throwaway casualties by those benefiting from a public demonstration of their “caring.”

The facts are that PTSD is a real psychological condition, but PTSD is also very easily contrived and milked for financial gain. There are plenty of military careerist, brown-nosers and politicians eager to use such opportunities to stomp down anyone daring to objectively question this easily manipulated system.

And when there is an inappropriate PTSD diagnosis, a years-long diversion of disability dollars flows into an undeserving pocket. In this environment, who feels safe to openly discuss the process?

Don’t be too hasty to join the public bleating of those more interested in politically correctness than in a substantive, factual discussion without public fanfare and drama.

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It was understood this was how it is. After all, governmental powers and limitations are constructed by the Constitution, not the Bible. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich would have you believe government should be run in accordance with biblical principles.

This is opposite what the founding fathers imagined. The “no religious test” clause, Article VI, paragraph 3 of the Constitution, affirms this. Had they intended to promote religion as an arm of government or government as an arm of religion, they would’ve specified it. They didn’t.

To the contrary; they were careful to discourage church-state relationships. Santorum and Gingrich pompously proclaim otherwise.

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