Editor:

The battle of Measures F and J, as described in the “Town Dandy” of Jan. 8, is a battle that never had to happen. The way to defeat Dave Meserve, Jack Nounann and Amy Goodman is for every family of Bush dead-enders to make sure at least one of their children enlists in the U.S. military. I know a number of families have children in service and I honor them. But recruiters would not be tempted into aggressive recruitment if quotas were easily met. Of course, if Bush had fought the right war to begin with in Afghanistan and if he had actually asked for commitment and sacrifice from all Americans after 9/11, things would be easier for the military. This is one liberal who was quite ready to do the scalp dance over Bin Laden’s hide.

Ironically, the Obama presidency will be an excellent recruiting tool. Obama gave a marvelous speech to the Woodrow Wilson Institute in which the power of arms would be matched by the power of ideas. American troops would be seen as the “good guys” representing a Constitution that means what it says, no matter what. [...]

Concerning “Sowell man” Joshua Kinch’s letter “Media Moron” (Jan. 8), I would agree that the Eureka Reporter was another Arkley gift to the community in at least three ways: It really whipped the Times-Standard into shape, it provided another source of employment for fresh journalism grads and it functioned as a journalistic version of a baseball vanity camp allowing many “wannabe writers” like me a chance to get printed.Mr. Franco-Simmons was very good for a while back in ’04 letting me spar with my conservative opponent and never changed a word of invective. I am grateful. After a while, we lost track about what it means to be an American: the price of your own freedom is that you will be continually irritated by people whose politics and/or religion are anathema to you. Get used to it. I received a series of savage e-mails from GFS that spooked me so badly I eventually wanted nothing to do with the ER and stopped reading it. When James Faulk of the T-S asked for the community to send him their scariest GFS e-mails, I realized I was not alone. The ER was launched with a lot of unneccesary invective and acrimony directed at the T-S and they folded when their wealthy sponsor withdrew his money. End of story.

I don’t really understand the need to keep ER alive. The T-S has periodically printed conservative columnists like the inadvertently hilarious William Rusher anyway. Why can’t former ER stalwarts submit columns and letters like everybody else? Don’t tell me they still think they are God’s Select or whatever. Sheeesh! [...]

— Timothy Crlenjak, Eureka

Sweet Spot: The truncated Tim Crlenjak wins a Bon Boniere sundae for sending our favorite letter of the week.