Making too much of moment; kicking the can; wake up call

Making too much of moment

When Gov. Perry appeared to be put on the spot without any context in a question, the media seemed to think this was some sort of serious problem. However, this syndrome is called Lethologica or a momentary lack of recall of a fact or event.

People keep writing about the oops moment Gov. Perry had some two years ago. This oops moment doesn’t qualify as a serious problem, as who among us has not had these momentary losses of memory, only a short time later recall the event or date, etc.?

As a governor, trying to recall major donor names and just keeping on top of his schedule of daily events would cause most of us a severe migraine. This does not define a person for life nor prohibit them from seeking political office.

Hopefully regular folks can identify with this syndrome. I think most students can recall a moment or two when a teacher out of the blue sky asks a question about the supposed reading assignment or math problem and was caught off guard.

So please cut him a little slack and let us focus on the bigger border security issues, national debt and amnesty edict.

— Wendy Helm, Fort Worth

Kicking the can

I am inclined to agree with Sunday’s editorial regarding Internet taxes, omnibus spending bill and the “kick the can down the road” approach. It seems that is what our government does.

As to the “Marketplace Fairness Act”: Right or wrong, good or bad, it continues the confusing piecemeal approach to all things taxes.

For example there are no less than six different taxes and fees and different categories for TV, Internet and wireless on a home “communications” bill.

Why? Certainly there is a “fairness” issue to taxation as well as the “need” for the funding for government services.

Surely our leadership can budget the needs and then fairly and far more simply collect and fund the budgeted programs. While possibly oversimplifying the issue, follow that simple rule and the “in store vs. online” tax collections would not even be an issue.

We can hope for that and a stop to “kicking the can.”

— Paul Buckley, Mansfield

Wake up call

Economic prosperity is back?

I think someone forgot to tell us that because most of us aren’t feeling it.

The construction industry sure needs to know that because they’re definitely not feeling it.

Unemployment is down? What’s really down is the labor participation rate, the lowest in over 40 years. Might have an effect on that lower unemployment number, huh?

Our medical insurance system is doing well, at least if you work at an insurance company. They are raking in record profits.

The 1 percent very much like the stock market up, as they are doing fabulous under this administration.

Gas prices are down, but government drilling permits are way down. The private businesses are driving this, not the government.

The CBO has stated that the amnesty will not cost you and I anything now but in the near future wages will go down and unemployment up.

And finally, not one new job was created under this administration until 2014.

It seems the American voters woke up for a little bit and didn’t like what they saw.

— Jim Parker, Brownwood

This story was originally published December 30, 2014 at 5:38 PM with the headline "Making too much of moment; kicking the can; wake up call."