As a citizen of this country, I am totally dismayed in the handling of all aspects of the government. From small towns to entire states and the country, I am seeing politicians who are making a living off the citizens. We can stop this pretty quickly. We need to set term limits on every elected government official from the lowest to the highest offices. Watching congressmen and state representatives and even mayors in office for 20-plus years cannot be a healthy way to run a government. I am asking all of you to consider putting term limits on everyone who is elected.When I see someone like (U.S. Rep.) Charlie Rangel speak so harshly about his own constituents along with so many others, it sickens me. Give someone too much power and this is what happens. They make themselves comfortable. They begin to believe we work for them instead of the other way around. How do they do it? I don’t know, but they always leave office richer and more arrogant than when they went in.It is time to put term limits on the law books. I am not alone. I believe there are a majority of voters out there who feel the same way. Please hear my plea.CANDICE CASEYErwin‘Climate change’Weather in Arizona and across the country is hotter than ever. Global warming is real. We have to shut down coal, stop driving, breathing and change the climate. We have to do something.Record lows were recorded in 1,122 locations during the last week of July. The Arctic region experienced the coldest July on record, and the shortest summer on record. Oh my gosh, we are entering an ice age, what is happening? Global cooling, that’s it. We are headed to an ice age if we don’t do something. Let’s name it “global climate change.” Hurricane activity is going to be huge this year due to global climate change. The media is on needles and pins waiting for one. Two months into the five-month season — nothing yet. This is a real crisis. Or is it?NASA’s GISS maps are available online. They show global temperature changes were minuscule between 1961 and now, changing plus or minus 2/10 degree in 85 percent of the earth surface. In fact, earth’s temperature increases have leveled off for the past 16 years, and we may really be in for a global ice age. Graphing the temperature changes with the activity of the sun shows that the earth’s temperatures are driven by the sun’s activity. So, why are we working so hard to fix the sun’s problems? Global records indicate that in Roman times, temperatures were hotter than now, and they were even hotter before. Then there was a mini-ice age of 400 years. So, what did the Romans do to stop global warming. Eliminate SUVs.Regulations, hype and more is generated to justify job killing, industry killing regulations. Yes, we should be good stewards of the environment (and we are), but we should also use common sense. We are at that point where we are shutting our country down for something that is really out of our control, and for which the regulations will have a minuscule effect, if any. JACK VAN ZANDTJonesboroughAsteroid miningA recent letter from Joe Nagy lauded the reports of a company called Planetary Resources to mine asteroids. It would cost $10,000 a pound to put payload into orbit and undoubtedly much higher to reach fast-moving asteroids millions of miles away. This project is fictitious. Most likely this is a false front operation — sometimes known as a proprietory company — secretly funded by some government organization for some clandestine purpose. The most likely scenario is that this involves some geo-engineering study or project to deflect sunlight from earth to counteract global warming. The true mission being kept secret so as to not have to confirm that global warming is occurring and to not cause a possible panic. This may all sound conspiratorial, but there already are well-developed plans for such sun shields — Dr. Roger Angel of Arizona University has originated several plans so far. Quite oddly, most people can believe a hokey scheme like asteroid mining, but so many people disbelieve in global warming despite its numerous and obvious effects. DENNIS R. O’HAREGray
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