PUBLIC FORUM : OK OF 22,000-UNIT PROJECT `PLAIN STUPIDITY'.I have to think that it's just plain stupidity on the part of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is the five member governing board of Los Angeles County, California. Members of the board of supervisors are elected by district, the current members as of April 2006 are:
Water is the key issue. In case they haven't looked around lately, L.A County is primarily a desert dependent on water from hundreds of miles away. Our right to the amount of Colorado River Colorado River River, south-central Argentina. Its major headstreams, the Grande and Barrancas rivers, flow southward from the Andes Mountains and meet to form the Colorado near the Chilean border. It flows southeastward across northern Patagonia and the southern Pampas. water we consume is being contested by those states that also have rights to the water and whose populations are also growing. The supervisors evidently choose to ignore facts concerning the future availability of water in the county when they encourage projects like this. Elected officials are supposed to be looking out for their constituents' interests. It seems this is not the case with the Board of Supervisors. Other matters are of more importance. - L.A. Calabro Northridge Thanksgiving and Lincoln Regarding Gary Hull's column (``No guilt on Thanksgiving; raise glass to freedom, creativity that make productivity possible,'' Opinions, Nov. 26) that Abraham Lincoln and others have forced upon Thanksgiving an unwarranted and unwanted religious emphasis, I have only this to say: When one stands on the shoulders of giants, it's best not to mock them. - Robert Claiborne Robert Watson Claiborne, Jr. (1919–1990) American folk singer, labor organizer and writer. Overview Robert Claiborne was a folk singer and union organizer in the 1940s and 1950s. Reseda Right to bear arms The right to bear arms refers to the right that individuals have to weapons. This right is often presented in the context of military service and the broader right of self defense. Suppose I were to propose a new amendment to the U.S. Constitution that read as follows: ``A well-equipped and trained volunteer fire department, being necessary to the security of a fire-free state, the right of the people to own and carry fire extinguishers shall not be infringed.'' Would anyone with a positive IQ interpret these words to mean that, unless I were a volunteer firefighter, I couldn't own a fire extinguisher to protect my personal property and the lives of my loved ones loved ones npl → seres mpl queridos loved ones npl → proches mpl et amis chers loved ones love npl ? Of course not. Yet, that's exactly what Al Hromjak (Public Forum, Nov. 24) says about the Second Amendment. How revisionist re·vi·sion·ism n. 1. Advocacy of the revision of an accepted, usually long-standing view, theory, or doctrine, especially a revision of historical events and movements. 2. and wrong can a person get? Regardless of the facts, the ``guns are bad'' segment of 20th-century America will say anything to further its factually challenged, emotion-based cause, even raping the Bill of Rights in the process. As any constitutional scholar will tell you, all 10 Amendments constituting our Bill of Rights deal with the government's inability to strip from us certain specific inalienable rights The term inalienable rights (or unalienable rights) refers to a theoretical set of human rights that are fundamental, are not awarded by human power, and cannot be surrendered. They are by definition, rights retained by the people. that we possessed even before we were a country. Among these is the right to ``keep and bear arms.'' Only a naive, constitutionally uneducated person would have you believe that, unlike all of the other nine amendments, for some unexplained reason, the Second Amendment is uniquely a ``collective'' one applicable only to ``the people'' who are members of a militia. By the same foolish thinking, the Fourth Amendment only protects groups of ``the people'' from unreasonable searches and seizures. How silly can you get? - David L. Peltz Reseda With all due respect to Al Hromjak, he is the one misreading MISREADING, contracts. When a deed is read falsely to an illiterate or blind man, who is a party to it, such false reading amounts to a fraud, because the contract never had the assent of both parties. 5 Co. 19; 6 East, R. 309; Dane's Ab. c. 86, a, 3, Sec. 7; 2 John. R. 404; 12 John. R. the Second Amendment. The militia referred to in the Constitution is not the National Guard or some other established military organization. Rather, Mr. Hromjak and I and our neighbors are the militia. It was understood by the framers of the Constitution that the militia was composed of the general citizenry, with privately owned weapons, led by officers chosen by themselves. Indeed, that had been the definition of a militia for 400 years. Additionally, as Alexander Hamilton points out in Federalist fed·er·al·ist n. 1. An advocate of federalism. 2. Federalist A member or supporter of the Federalist Party. adj. 1. Of or relating to federalism or its advocates. 2. No. 29, a militia would serve as a defense against a permanent standing army, which was regarded as a threat to the citizenry. That is why the framers believed a militia of armed citizens to be ``necessary to the security of a free State.'' There's one more point to be made: The Second Amendment does not read, ``The right of a well-regulated militia to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,'' as Mr. Hromjak and others would suggest. The amendment defines a right of ``the people.'' I am not a member of the gun lobby, but I strongly believe in individual liberties, and a proper reading of the Second Amendment must occur in a historical context, not clouded by faulty revisionist interpretation or partisan attitudes. - Juan C. Ros Executive director Libertarian Party of California The Libertarian Party of California is the California affiliate of the Libertarian Party. The state chair is Kevin Takenaga. Libertarians in Office in California Name Office James Gray Orange County Superior Court Judge Tom Tryon Calaveras County Supervisor Valley Village There is no evidence from the writings of the Founding Fathers, early American legal commentators or pre-20th-century state and Supreme Court decisions indicating that the Second Amendment applied only to members of a well-regulated militia or that the sole purpose of the amendment was to preserve the right of states to keep their militias. - Howard Picard Valencia The Second Amendment asserts that a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state. During revolutionary times, the militia was not an organized military unit. It consisted of volunteers made up of ordinary citizens. The remainder of the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear arms to the people themselves. If the Founders meant to guarantee that right to an organized state militia, they would have said so. The guarantee applies to individual citizens in the same way that the other rights in the Bill of Rights apply to individual citizens. - Larry Cohen cohen or kohen (Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. Glendale This is in reply to Al Hromjak and Ira J. Horn for their letters to Public Forum on Nov. 24 (``Pro-gun lobby misreads Second Amendment''). Horn writes that criminals get guns from law-abiding citizens. He's very wrong on that account. Law-abiding citizens can't sell guns to criminals. - Robert Johnson Robert Johnson may refer to:
Panorama City The problem with gun controllers is that they believe people are basically good and guns are inherently evil. A gun is nothing more than an inert piece of metal until someone picks it up. The solution is people control, not gun control. - Ed Stone Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. `Smart kids lose out' Re ``Smart kids lose out; LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) plan for gifted students fades,'' Daily News, Nov 22: Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. board members have their priorities backward. Instead of opting for the benefit of the students, who board members are supposed to represent, the union-dominated board opts for more money for teachers, who are already overpaid o·ver·pay v. o·ver·paid , o·ver·pay·ing, o·ver·pays v.tr. 1. To pay (a party) too much. 2. To pay an amount in excess of (a sum due). v.intr. To pay too much. for the results they obtain - some of the lowest test scores in the nation. Now the board refuses to listen to parents of 50,000 LAUSD students identified as gifted, and instead listens only to the teachers union. LAUSD board members are actually considering funneling a large amount of a $71 million windfall to salary hikes. Yes, there are many students who are not qualified as gifted, but we certainly should extend every opportunity to those students who are. I would like to see some academic test results between those attending private school vs. those who attend public schools. The private schools would win hands down. This is only one more reason why I support the voucher system for our children, not more union-supported pay for unionized teachers. Our values toward our children have been misplaced mis·place tr.v. mis·placed, mis·plac·ing, mis·plac·es 1. a. To put into a wrong place: misplace punctuation in a sentence. b. . - William Hunter William Hunter may refer to:
Tujunga Parks' `formula for corruption' I would like to respond to Police Chief Bernard C. Parks' reply (Public Forum, Nov. 16) to the Daily News' Nov. 9 article ``LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. brass under investigation.'' As vice president of the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Police Protective League, which is the union representing most L.A. police officers, I find it amazing how easily the chief of police exonerates his own command staff and how easily the public and media are manipulated. The problem is that the chief has been able to mold his new disciplinary system into one with a sure-fire formula for corruption. This system allows the chief to be the sole reviewer of allegations made against himself, his command staff and perhaps even his own friends. Parks is the sole person to decide if a complaint should be taken, never mind investigated. And now with the termination of Inspector General Katherine Mader, there is no one willing or able to oversee the potential misconduct of the chief. With the ``rubber-stamping'' Police Commission in place and the media willing to accept anything Parks has to say, all in the name of the Christopher Commission reforms, we are quickly being led down the road of cronyism Cronyism Tammany Hall Manhattan Democratic political circle notorious for spoils system approach. [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 492] and corruption. - Dave Hepburn Police Protective League Los Angeles CAPTION(S): 2 Photos PHOTO (1) Christine Jennis of Santa Clarita protests Newhall Ranch project. Andy Holzman/Daily News (2) Bernard Parks Police chief criticized |
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