Community is fed up with the Bakers

Fed up with the Bakers

Your Jan. 6 editorial regarding Adam Baker hit the nail on the head.

I think everyone is this area is tired of seeing this miscreant on the front page of the paper, time after time, issue after issue. Just put him on a steamer and get him out of here.

But this entire sordid affair does bring questions to mind as to what this community has gone through in the past year. We, as a community, have tried to show compassion for the little girl through a new children’s park in her memory. The response was overwhelming and a great thing is going to be done, but as a larger society, we have failed her.

Our justice system has turned into a theatre of the absurd. Because of endless appeals, plea bargains and every manner of contrived schemes, justice is now like a roll of bologna that you slice off the parts which you want and serve it up so that there is little justice for victims and more than merciful justice for those that kill our children, beat and terrorize spouses and destroy the lives of innocents of our society. You need a score card to keep track of the deals and appeals and everything that happens to make a mockery of what we all know should be justice. Justice is now a revolving door that cares more for paperwork and deals than a true reckoning.

And in the case of Elisa Baker, our system says that killing and dismembering a child will get you fewer years in prison than selling some pain killers and anti-anxiety drugs, so the prosecutors go after her with laws on the books since the Nixon years. I do not condone selling drugs, but I find it incredible as the discrepancy of the sentences between violent crimes and non-violent trafficking.

Regardless, send her somewhere away from here. Let this community be free of these two. I think we are all fed up with the both of them.

Paul Byrd

Hickory

Politicans are selling us out

When will the politicians in NC back off and give taxpayers a break? We now pay 35.2 cents a gallon tax on gasoline. Only two states are higher. Washington state tops the list at 37.5 cents. California is next at 35.3 cents, only one tenth of a penny higher than NC. We are in a virtual tie for second place. Forty-seven states have lower tax rates on gasoline. Are our roads any better? By the way, our combined state income and local tax burden is no bargain. We’re well above average in what we pay compared to the rest of our sister states.

I get so tired of politicians putting the screws to taxpayers by trying to solve their irresponsible and grossly wasteful spending on the backs of both job creators and workers. They can’t control their inefficient (and oftentimes unconstitutional and downright fraudulent) spending habits, so they simply raise our taxes. They even have the gall to give lip service to reducing spending, but it’s always just talk. It’s a bunch of BS at best, and a bunch of lies at worst.

Nationally, our elected officials have saddled us with a $15 trillion federal debt which continues to increase, not to mention that our combined state and local debts and unfunded liabilities are far greater than that. Despite this abomination, all they really want to do is spend even more and raise taxes even further. And if you think they want to ”protect” the middle class, think again. The middle class is where the real money is. That’s where they’ll eventually have to go in order to get enough money if they are to fund their excesses.

The price of regular gas at the pump is now as high as $3.40 a gallon compared to about $1.72 when Obama took office. So how does the administration’s energy policy address the ever increasing gas price issue? By shutting down drilling in the gulf, by advocating the shut down of all our coal plants, by trying to kill the Canadian XL pipeline, by giving over a half billion dollars of your money to ”green” companies such as Solyndra, a company that higher ups in the administration knew was going belly up, and by announcing that the executive branch will simply “end run” Congress by using the Justice Department, an activist judiciary, the EPA, the NLRB and other regulatory agencies to get its left wing agenda in place.

Between the out-of-control and arrogant political class at the federal level as well as our own NC political scalawags, we the people don’t have much of a chance.

James McCall

Taylorsville

Charles’ daughter overcame his faults

It was inspiring and uplifting to see the late Ray Charles’ daughter Sheila Raye provided our area with an outstanding performance and a powerful testimony of God’s redemption and restoration.

Her father was a superb performer but an irresponsible parent. Ray Charles was a selfish dog that abandons his kids like too many Black men today. According to the most recent government figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “72 percent of black mothers are unwed which eclipses that of most other groups: 17 percent of Asians, 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 66 percent of Native Americans.”

This type of reckless behavior is unacceptable. However, Brother Ray stepped up only when pressured and/or sued to take care of his kids. I was not surprised when his daughter said, “The Ray Charles estate wouldn’t return her calls” and we know why.

They simply did not want to acknowledge her as one of his children, which potentially qualified her in his will in some way. She says that Brother Ray had 12 kids, but after reading his autobiography, “Brother Ray: Ray Charles' Own Story” I don’t know how they can be so certain because from his own mouth he never denied that he loved various sexual indulgencies with many women practically all over the world.

The only name that matters is God’s name, which is like none other. He redeems, heals, and restores us. There is no other name by which we can be saved as testified by daughter Sheila Raye. God bless you

Charles Cooper

Hickory

Consumer director’s appointment improper

I read with interest the editorial of Jan. 5, “Regulatory pendulum has swung too far.”

We still have a constitution with checks and balances which should show how the agency is formed and when the regulating agency is duplicating existing law or is going too far with its regulations. These are functions of our Constitutional Republic form of government. 

In a Social Democracy, this is not the case. One person with his selected small group through regulatory agencies control the citizens. If you are not familiar with the term Social Democracy, I invite you to Answer.com - Socialism. They will show on page 2 Social Democracy with references from West’s Encyclopedia of American Law and other references. 

Also in the same HDR edition, you have a small AP article concerning the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which gives an example of another agency being created and director named. This is a good example of Social Democracy in action. 

The name sounds great and the President is boasting of it in his reelection speeches. The problem is it unconstitutional and unlawful. Technically, the US Senate is not out of session and the bill that formed the bureau requires the US Senate give passage on who will be director.

The Republicans want to change the bill before a director is named and so the delay. The present bill gives no funding control to the Congress. In other words you, through your elected representatives, have absolutely no control over this regulatory agency which can issue regulations with the force of law.

The AP states “Obama’s move was unapologetically brazen.” He has followed his base beliefs in he past and there is no reason to believe he will not do so again at will in the future. Which form of government do you prefer?

Robert Earl Hutchinson

Conover

President subverted constitution

A President is not allowed to make "recess appointments" if, as in this case, the Congress is not in recess.

This is another example of how the administration we have now is attempting to rewrite the laws set forth by our founders. It is vital that citizens take notice.

Do not believe what you see on TV, read or hear from others. Look into the past records and actions of those who are running and, yes, also the one who is in office now. If voters had looked into the record of Barack Obama, instead of opting to make history by electing an African American as President the results may have been quite different.

We must get past color and religious beliefs as our barometer for who will lead this nation. As Martin Luther King admonished us to judge not by the color of ones skin, but the content of his/her character.

The true character of this President has surfaced time and time again during his tenure in the Illinois senate and the ugly truth of his agenda for America is bombarding us daily.

We must be vigilant and elect a leader who will honor and strive to uphold the Constitution, not dismiss it as an outdated document to shun at every opportunity. Please research, then vote.

Judy Hughes

Connelly Springs

Voter ID push is about voter suppression

James McCall is a regular contributor to the HDR’s letters to the editor, and he has made it clear many times over that he is a fiscal conservative. Why then, does he support the Republican-dominated NC legislature’s $20 million Voter ID bill? 

In NC and other states where Republicans are pushing for Voter ID laws, being struck by lightning is a more common occurrence than voter fraud.  Voter fraud is already a felony in NC.  The Democratic Party supports prosecution to the fullest extent of the law for anyone who tampers with the election process.

However, our State Board of Elections estimates that nearly half-million NC voters do not have state-issued identification.  Of the 25 counties with the highest percentage of voters lacking ID, 15 of these counties also have the highest poverty rate in the state.

The fraud that’s occurring here is Republican legislators’ continuing insistence that the voter ID bill is necessary to correct voting irregularities in our state.  Those of us in the Democratic Party see this bill for what it is:  A devious and dangerous attempt to suppress the votes of the poor, elderly, and students, traditionally the more Democratic constituencies.  Perhaps to James McCall and folks like him, that’s worth $20 million.

Elizabeth Glynn

Chair,

Catawba County Democratic Party