Tobacco addiction; same-sex hypocrisy; not states’ rights

Tobacco addiction; same-sex hyprocracy;

There’s no such thing as a safe tobacco product. But with the recent introduction of e-cigarettes and little cigars, the tobacco industry is up to its old tricks to addict kids.

Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate all tobacco products to keep the industry from using candy flavorings and provocative marketing to hook kids.

Now, the industry is trying to weaken that authority by urging Congress to remove e-cigarettes, hookahs and other soon-to-be regulated tobacco products from FDA oversight.

This would restrict the FDA’s tools to protect youth from egregious product manipulations and marketing practices, making it easier for the industry to lead our kids into a lifetime of addiction.

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger should oppose this plan and support strong regulations to protect our kids from an unscrupulous tobacco industry.

— Mark Koch, Fort Worth

Same-sex hypocrisy?

I read with amusement the Wednesday front-page story on the groundbreaking ceremony for the Facebook data center to be built in the Alliance Corridor.

A photo showed dignitaries, including Gov. Greg Abbott, with smiles on their faces and their shovels in the dirt.

Abbott is on record as opposing the recent Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

So how could he and other Texas politicians who embrace this position provide tax breaks and other incentives to a company that openly welcomes and embraces the very values that these politicians find so distasteful?

Could it be that the almighty dollar and jobs trump one’s principles?

— Stuart Snow, Grapevine

Not states’ rights

I have always thought of Pat Hardy as one of the — perhaps the only — sane Republicans on the State Board of Education.

But her credibility just took a nose dive as a result of her stated opinion in a Star-Telegram article that “states’ rights” was the primary cause of the Civil War.

Pure revisionist history.

Had the South believed that a Republican-controlled Congress would not have outlawed slavery, I believe that war would not have been fought, certainly not at that time.

The South was so afraid of losing that it took its football and went home.

— Dave Robinson, Fort Worth

This story was originally published July 13, 2015 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Tobacco addiction; same-sex hypocrisy; not states’ rights."