Lawrence A. HunterCongress is soon expected to consider whether U.S. consumers should be able to purchase medicines from abroad. The legislation to allow drug re-importation is expected to include a provision that represents one of the most destructive government interventions into free markets since the New Deal.

Dan HynesIllinois Comptroller Dan Hynes is not generally known for his sense of humor.

Privately, in one-on-one situations, Hynes can be engaging, and even funny. Put him in front of a microphone, however, and he's usually stiff as a board.

So, it was a great surprise last week when Comptroller Hynes regaled a Springfield audience with a "fable" that had attendees laughing with glee.

Your article "Building a Better Promise" was informative and timely. (See River Cities' Reader Issue 654, October 10-16, 2007.) I had a general sense that the idea has potential as an economic-development tool, but didn't know any of the specifics. Your article helped fill in the specifics (as they are known) and pointed out the serious questions about funding, timing, and applicability.

Voter Beware

The slate of candidates for Davenport's 2008-9 city council has been decided.

Davenport residents were fairly deceived, during the last campaign, by several of the elected officials currently serving, so this time it is "voter beware."

It is important to know the professional backgrounds of those running, as well as the inspiration, incentive, or both, to vie for a council seat.

There is no shortage of goofiness at the Illinois Statehouse these days. Some players are goofier than others, but Governor Rod Blagojevich usually gets most of the coverage.

Mark W. Hendrickson Protectionists claim that free trade is bad for America - that increasing imports of goods means increasing exports of jobs, thereby gutting our economy. This notion could only be valid in a zero-sum world with a fixed number of jobs, where one country's gain would be another's loss; in fact, though, the number of jobs, both at home and abroad, is locked into a clear uptrend. New businesses and industries continually emerge in the never-ending attempt to satisfy humankind's insatiable wants. We can never run out of jobs.

In a move that has probably fatally poisoned an already toxic Illinois Statehouse atmosphere, the wife of House Speaker Michael Madigan's chief of staff was fired from her state job.

John W. Whitehead "There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-Day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/FourSquareGospel, feel it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme."

 

- Ray Bradbury

 

Governor Rob Blagojevich The newspaper headlines were just what Governor Rod Blagojevich wanted last week.

"Illinois to offer free cancer tests for women."

"More women get free cancer screenings; uninsured now have access to program."

"Governor expands cancer screenings."

And the story leads were pretty good, as well.

I find it is disgusting when insecure people regurgitate the ancient fables of the Bible as a justification for their bigotry. I would like to address the Rock Island man who, in a letter to the Quad-City Times, was criticizing the print media for not mentioning "Christians" in their coverage of the court rulings regarding gay marriage in Iowa. I would remind him that our Constitution guarantees our freedom from a theocracy (in spite of the Bush administration).

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