Elected representatives should delay DTV switch

Editor:

Converting the TV broadcast spectrum to digital transmission was not supposed to affect cable subscribers. However, it appears that there is nothing to prevent Suddenlink and other cable suppliers from switching everyone to digital service. This will allow them to: Avoid the expense of converting the digital signals to analog, sell or rent more converter boxes, charge more for the supposedly more expensive digital service, although it will be less expensive for them and will free up bandwidth, and also offer add-ons like movie rentals to a wider audience.

These are powerful incentives, and it will be surprising if Suddenlink does not go all digital, as is occurring elsewhere, burdening consumers with extra expense and benefiting their bottom line.

This is the time for our elected representatives to step up to the plate and require that the cable companies continue to offer analog service for, say, another ten years. I'm sure the public will be grateful.

Vann CarrollCharleston

Obama 'elitist' attacks show love of mediocrity

Editor:

Many Americans believe that truth is in short supply among politicians. How many times have you heard, "They're all liars," or, "We need straight talk"? What's interesting is that we now have somebody who "tells it like it is," and he's being criticized for it.

About a week ago, Sen. Barack Obama talked straight about small-town voters: "It's not surprising, then, they get bitter; they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Obama is right. As working-class Americans see their jobs going down the drain, it's understandable that many of them turn inward. Instead of voting their economic interests, they, justifiably angry, turn to fear-mongering candidates who offer attractive, simplistic (but wrong) "solutions" that blame minorities, immigrants and persons of other (or no) faith traditions for their economic woes.

Because he confronted a problem, analyzed it and told the truth about it, Obama is being attacked as an "elitist."

These attacks exemplify America's alarming love affair with mediocrity, an unfortunate attitude that glorifies dumb and vilifies smart. How else can one explain George W. Bush's being elected twice to the presidency?

Rich StonestreetCharleston

Yoga is indoctrination in religious mysticism

Editor:

Editor:

Converting the TV broadcast spectrum to digital transmission was not supposed to affect cable subscribers. However, it appears that there is nothing to prevent Suddenlink and other cable suppliers from switching everyone to digital service. This will allow them to: Avoid the expense of converting the digital signals to analog, sell or rent more converter boxes, charge more for the supposedly more expensive digital service, although it will be less expensive for them and will free up bandwidth, and also offer add-ons like movie rentals to a wider audience.

These are powerful incentives, and it will be surprising if Suddenlink does not go all digital, as is occurring elsewhere, burdening consumers with extra expense and benefiting their bottom line.

This is the time for our elected representatives to step up to the plate and require that the cable companies continue to offer analog service for, say, another ten years. I'm sure the public will be grateful.

Vann CarrollCharleston

Obama 'elitist' attacks show love of mediocrity

Editor:

Many Americans believe that truth is in short supply among politicians. How many times have you heard, "They're all liars," or, "We need straight talk"? What's interesting is that we now have somebody who "tells it like it is," and he's being criticized for it.

About a week ago, Sen. Barack Obama talked straight about small-town voters: "It's not surprising, then, they get bitter; they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Obama is right. As working-class Americans see their jobs going down the drain, it's understandable that many of them turn inward. Instead of voting their economic interests, they, justifiably angry, turn to fear-mongering candidates who offer attractive, simplistic (but wrong) "solutions" that blame minorities, immigrants and persons of other (or no) faith traditions for their economic woes.

Because he confronted a problem, analyzed it and told the truth about it, Obama is being attacked as an "elitist."

These attacks exemplify America's alarming love affair with mediocrity, an unfortunate attitude that glorifies dumb and vilifies smart. How else can one explain George W. Bush's being elected twice to the presidency?

Rich StonestreetCharleston

Yoga is indoctrination in religious mysticism

Editor:

It's fine to have religious indoctrination in public schools, as long as it is not Christianity. Tax money is being used to promote religion, and the hypocritical ACLU is mute. 

Kanawha County students are being indoctrinated in yoga, which is New Age/Eastern mysticism. 

The argument that yoga is used only for "relaxation, exercise, and self-confidence" is bogus.  If that argument is accepted, then Kanawha County should allow creation science, as long as it's for scientific purposes, because creation science broadens the horizons and increases the cognitive processes of students.

Yoga masters themselves have acknowledged that it is impossible to separate yoga from its religious foundation.

Mike Shreve (former yoga teacher at four universities) says "The whole purpose of practicing yoga, in any of its aspects, is to bring a person to an altered state of consciousness."

Students lie on the floor of a darkened room, seeking a higher state of consciousness while their academic levels reach lower and lower levels. 

At least they feel good about those low-test scores.

Karl PriestPoca

USPS is online with Create Mail

Editor:

Consumers have moved online, and so have we. The Postal Service has an online product that allows consumers and businesses to create customized greeting cards that also can be used in combination with a gift card. It is easy, convenient and affordable.

Create Mail, found at www.usps.com/createmail, offers online services that combine the speed of the Internet with the effectiveness of traditional mail. Create Mail allows you to select or design a mail piece and enter addresses or upload an address list. Your mail piece is then printed, prepared and mailed in as few as one or two days.

Create Mail allows customers to submit electronic documents and mailing lists to the Postal Service website. The Postal Service sends those files to a contract printer, who prints the items and enters them into the mail. Create Mail can provide a discounted postage rate by automating and presorting your mail. There is no minimum number of pieces required. And you don't have to apply for a permit or pay an annual fee.

With Create Mail Cardstone, greeting cards can be produced for any occasion. You can choose an image for the front of your card from an extensive online gallery or upload your own image. The Postal Service has partnered with dozens of national retail companies to include gift cards including Starbucks, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Barnes and Noble and several other retailers to include with your card or mail piece if you choose.

Virginia Williams, OICU.S. Postal ServicePond Gap