• Connecticut massacre • Percentage problem • Don’t blame God for Newtown • Smart appliances may be only option in future • Most cannot afford new appliances to save money Connecticut massacre I have no argument with strengthening gun control
• Connecticut massacre • Percentage problem • Don’t blame God for Newtown • Smart appliances may be only option in future • Most cannot afford new appliances to save money
Connecticut massacre
I have no argument with strengthening gun control laws and enforcing them. In my opinion, it is not the guns that cause the violence.
Guns, particularly assault weapons, are just some of the tools that can be used by highly educated and trained video gamers to maim and destroy any kind of enemy. Check out some of the E3 Game Critics’ Award Winners listed in Sunday’s “Last Minute Gift Guide.” XCOM proclaims “blood and gore, strong language and violence” in its advertising. The Last of Us warns “may contain material inappropriate for children.” Injustice: Gods Among Us is said to take place in a world where the lines between good and evil are blurred. These and other very attractively packaged games of mayhem, available at any Walmart, have each been raking in over $300 million in their first weeks of distribution.
Should we blame the creators of the comic book icons Superman and Wonder Woman of the late 1930s? Maybe it was the “Barbarella” 1968 movie with Jane Fonda, adorned in the sexiest of outfits brandishing the most coveted assault weapons. Did the addictive nature of Pac Man in 1980 begin the phenomena of the “gamer’s” lust for more “shoot to kill” video games? Has the recent oversaturation of media coverage of horrendous events actually encouraged “mentally unbalanced” individuals to invent worse atrocities in order to become the super heroes in their own life stories?
We have yet to know if thousands of these type of movies and video games contributed heavily over the years to the progression of extreme inhumane behavior in last Friday’s massacre and the other recent episodes around America. My assessment is yes, they have. And let’s not forget the daily atrocities in Chicago.
Fortunately, some of the panelists on Sunday’s Meet the Press addressed America’s “Culture of Violence.” Tom Ridge, 2005 Secretary of Homeland Security, said our social media promotes the corrosive nature of violence on TV and “shoot to kill” video games. Sen. Dianne Feinstein responded “Do the rights of the few overcome the safety of the majority?”
Is there any wonder why these heinous acts occur?
Marj Dente
Kapa’a
Percentage problem
According to current statistics only 7 percent of the U.S. population hunt game.
If we are governed by majority rule, how on Earth can 7 percent of the population dictate laws that allow a proliferation of guns that are not even used for hunting? Is American law enforcement so incompetent that people feel they need to hoard to assault weapons to protect themselves? Isn’t this considered vigilantism?
If only 7 percent of the population hunts, it is apparent that the majority of American gun owners are the crazies and the criminals.
Sheila Heathcote
Kalaheo
Don’t blame God for Newtown
How can you blame God; when schools took God and the Ten Commandments out of the schools? No moral absolutes are taught.
Merry Christmas is now Seasons Greetings
Parts of the Bible are now Hate Speech.
Most movie plots involve getting even and destroying your enemies; not forgiving them.
The schools are talking about the end of the world on Dec. 21.
Many TV programs are about serial killers.
Truth is relevant to personal interpretation: Everyone can make their own truth.
Movie, TV, and schools’ media must be more responsible.
Ed Smetana
Arlington Heights, Ill.
Smart appliances may be only option in future
Some of us have opted out on smart meters until we become convinced of the safety of RFs and EMFs, but that is only one part of the equation. The other part is the probability that each new appliance we install to replace an older one, will now come with its own, always on, wireless signal designed to communicate with your smart meter, whether you have one or not.
Look around your kitchen and the rest of your house and imagine every appliance large and small transmitting a wireless signal every minute of the day as long as it’s plugged in.
You can choose not to have Wi-Fi, not to stand in front of your microwave when it’s on, or to use your cell or cordless phone away from your head on hands free mode, but will you be able to buy a non-smart appliance?
In checking with five major appliance manufacturers only one said they still manufacture both smart and nonsmart appliances. The others said they manufacture smart appliances exclusively.
Valerie Weiss
Kapa‘a
Most cannot afford new appliances to save money
Referencing Leon Osowski’s letter “Helped by smart meter’s in-home-display” (printed Dec. 18), there are many commonalties shared on this island with the Osowski’s conservation of electricity.
The majority of us are extremely conscious about our usage of electricity. We line dry, we use fluorescent lighting when we can afford to purchase them, we conserve on T.V. and radio usage, etc.
Does the display tell the Osowski’s how much power the Smart Meter Display, itself, is using? Does it tell them how much energy their Smart Meter is using, where once there was a analog meter that used nothing?
I have the Osowskis are very fortunate in that they have the financial ability to take a perfectly good refrigerator and replace it with a more energy efficient one.
The Osowskis are very fortunate to be able to afford a solar water heater.
There are many appliances on the market made for smart meters, that will further bring down the Osowskis bill.
They can get rid of their current appliances and purchase them, and their bill will go down even further. They are very fortunate to be able to do this. Most cannot.
Chris Schaefer
Kapa‘a
