Child-support switch is governmental interference

Recently out of the blue, I received a letter from the Department of Justice informing me that all child-support payments will now be funneled through its agency. My ex-husband and I have had a support order for more than eight years. We are responsible adults and I receive my payments monthly and on time.

Regardless, the government has not only stuck its nose into private citizens’ business (again), but they also shorted my check $26 for their processing fees. All this for a service that I did not request or need in the first place.

While $26 might be a drop in the bucket for some, it is a noteworthy amount of money for a single mom with two children. Furthermore, this auspicious organization chose to deduct its fee during the holiday season, when surely every dollar counts.

I am urging other divorced parents in this situation to contact their local and state officials. This is an unacceptable way to do business and the Department of Justice should not be allowed to get away with this.

Kelley Young, Corvallis

Someone stole Christmas from my house, my family

I am confused to why someone would walk up to my porch, and take packages for my family. On Thursday, Dec. 18, someone felt it would be OK to take these gifts. I always thought the Willamette Landing area was safe, but now I am not so sure. Whoever you are, I have no empathy for you. Enjoy your holiday season, because you have ruined ours.

Dan Foster, Corvallis

Obama inauguration reflects skewed priorities

I just read where District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty estimates the presidential inauguration will cost $50 million. In these tough economic times and with two wars being fought, one has to ask: Is President-elect Obama setting the right tone?

Let’s rewind the tapes. In the 2005 inauguration President Bush was criticized unmercifully by the media and liberals for his $40 million celebration. They accused him of kowtowing “well-heeled Republican fatcats” and having “skewed priorities.” But critics conveniently ignored that the cost of Bush’s “spectacle,” when adjusted for inflation, was rather low-brow in comparison to Bill Clinton’s first inauguration. And now in 2009 the Democrats appear to be raising the bar for inappropriate, ostentatious displays of shameless excess. Will Bush’s critics unleash their venomous anger on the new president? I’m not holding my breath on that one.

Perhaps President-elect Obama should follow FDR’s lead and simply serve cold chicken salad and pound cake. At least he would send the right message in these austere times.

Gordon L. Shadle, Albany

System could help motorists share road with bicyclists

The Shared Space System is being used in regions of the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, United Kingdom and Belgium with promising results and needs to be considered in Corvallis as a way for pedestrians, bicycles and motor vehicles to coexist without accidents and injury.

Using the Shared Space System, there are no street signs, no traffic lights, and no distinction between foot paths and roads and yet a pedestrian feels safe enough to walk backward across the street without looking, because cars must give way to people and bicycles. Courtesy works. Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians must interact by watching each other, instead of watching lights and signs.

At one busy intersection in the Netherlands during the four years prior to implementing this system, there were eight serious accidents. After four years of Shared Space, there were no accidents. The round-about in the center of the intersection has a large water fountain connected to sensors. As the traffic gets busy, the water goes higher and drowns out the noise of the traffic.

Corvallis is honored as being a bicycle-friendly city. After the tragic deaths of people on bicycles during the last few years, the Shared Space System might eliminate all bicycle and pedestrian deaths and is worth considering in Corvallis and Philomath.

Wendy Marie Haber, Alsea

In dealings with Gaza, Israel guilty of war crimes

Rachel Peck’s recent letter deceptively omits “the rest of the story.” Palestinians are surviving only through their own resourcefulness, much like those in the Warsaw ghetto with which Gaza is being compared. They are digging tunnels under their prison walls into Egypt to obtain needed supplies, and are consuming products they once exported to Israel, a market now closed to them that has crippled their economy.

Gazan resilience and resourcefulness does not diminish Israeli responsibility and guilt. Under international law, Israel remains an occupying power since it controls Gazan borders, airspace, and access to cruicial resources including electricity. The Fourth Geneva Convention requires an occupier to safeguard the well-being of the occupied population and prohibits collective punishment, making Israel guilty of crimes against humanity.

Israel argues (without credible basis) that Gaza was “liberated” and is now an independent political entity, but if that is true then the Israeli siege is an act of war that violates the U.N. Charter and Nuremberg principles, the latter of which defined aggressive war as “the supreme international crime.” And the record is clear that the feeble and largely harmless Palestinian rockets have been entirely retaliatory against much more deadly and truce-violating Israeli attacks.

Thus, whatever the legal status of Gaza, Israel is guilty n either of war crimes or crimes against humanity. International law professor Richard Falk, the UN Rapporteur on Human Rights in the occupied territories, has recommended investigation of Israeli leaders by the international criminal court for possible indictment.

Virginia Fast, Eugene

Rise in CO2 a result of rising temperatures, not the cause

It has become arrogant for media to perpetuate the lie that global warming is caused by CO2 and is anthropomorphic. For at least the past 10 years they have propagated the lie that CO2 is the cause of warming. When too many people started to catch onto this fraud, they issued a new term: global climate change.

MIT scientists recently recorded a worldwide increase in methane levels. Scientists are shocked because the finding directly contradicts the theory that humans are causing the increase of greenhouse gases.

Since the worldwide levels of methane increased at the same time throughout the same year, it is now believed that the fluctuation of this greenhouse gas is a part of Mother Nature’s natural cycle.

NASA was once again caught manipulating temperature data. Al Gore’s scientific collaborator Dr. James Hansen submitted data that claimed October was the hottest October on record despite worldwide reports of plummeting temperatures. In reality, last October was the 70th warmest October in 114 years.

I have yet to read one article published in the G-T that doesn’t go along with Al Gore’s get-rich scheme; a scheme for governments to demand more money through a carbon tax.

I would like to dedicate this letter in remembrance to Michael Crichton, who passed away on Nov. 4. Crichton managed to make a dent in the man-made global-warming fraud by authoring a book titled “State Of Fear.”

CO2 is a result of rising temperatures. It’s not the cause.

Robert Gutierrez, Corvallis