To the Editors:

The letter from Mary Hollis McCord in your Jan. 29, 2004, edition is a classic. Ms. McCord is proud of the fact that she was able to break the law and abuse an Animal Control officer while walking away without a ticket. Law enforcement officers in general, and Animal Control officers in particular, are forced to spend a large part of their time dealing with inconsiderate people like Ms. McCord who somehow have concluded that rules don't apply to them. Maybe she would see the matter differently if she was one of the thousands of parents who each day have a small child bitten or mauled by a loose dog. I will never forget the day that a "beautiful, fuzzy, marshmallow of a dog" like Ms. McCord's animal tore into the flesh of my toddler. Selfish and thoughtless people who let their animals run loose are always shocked to discover why there are rules such as leash laws and why society has to depend upon law officers to enforce what should be common decency. They also find that there is little consolation for a parent trying to staunch the flow of blood from the torn flesh of a child when the lawbreaking owner of the animal says that the dog "has never done that before." Whose personal freedom is being infringed when children cannot go to a park without fear of attack? It's bad enough that most parks are fouled by the poop left behind by lazy dog owners.

Grow up Ms. McCord and show some respect for the people who have to enforce the rules even in the face of irresponsible twits like yourself.

Durango

As a culture, we are living irresponsibly. Are we paying for it? A few years back we were entertained with Bill Clinton, who privately "screwed" a few women. Now, we have George Bush, who started his first week of office in his presidential career publicly "screwing" the majority of women of the world, regarding the loss of family planning. Perhaps he aspired to King Solomon, forcing thousands of women into marital and concubine servitude. Patriarchs of old and of today have regarded Solomon as wise. Remember the infant to be torn into halves? Does clever equal wise?

Now the Bush entourage conspires to "screw" the entire planet. What a deal for our children to pay for.

Let us give up our dreams. Let us have a war. Let us "screw" each other in the name of the Lord (Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, Allah, and so on), (in the name of Jesus?).

Do we have a choice whether to sit by as Bush plays King Saul, counting the bags of foreskins presented to him by his corporate cronies, who ply their marketing justification skills over our military loved ones?

Is the religious right that wise? How will the Statue of Liberty look in a burka? What happened to the dream of mutual respect and honor? Will you vote? Will you care? How fast can you and your children run from the force of "Big Brother?"

Dear Editors:

Seriously, are we so brainwashed by television that we believe law makers are protecting us when they work to ban natural plants such as ephedra? Of course we are!

Millions of fat Americans sit in front of their boob tube slurping their coffee in the morning as they watch CNN report how deadly ephedra can be. Never mind that in 1999 alone, the government's Drug Abuse Network reported 641 deaths linked to Benadryl, 477 deaths linked to Elavil, 450 deaths linked to Tylenol, and 305 deaths linked to Prozac.

Meanwhile, Joe Coffee scurries to work and, like a parrot, tells everyone how "deadly ephedra can be." After all, he is now an expert from the simple act of gazing at the "tube." Sad that after 35 years of being alive, Joe Coffee still cannot take part in the American pastime called "thinking."

It seems that the fears of ephedra have caused amnesia among Americans, as they have forgotten that ephedra has been used successfully and safely for over 5,000 years to treat a myriad of afflictions, most notably obesity. Additionally, when mixed with other herbs, its safety profile makes coffee appear poisonous.

To further substantiate ephedra's safety, over 50 clinical trials have proven this as fact! In 1999, the U.S General Accounting Office (GAO) made a report to congress stating that the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) Adverse Events Reports (AERs) surrounding ephedra (commonly used as an argument against ephedra) were "poorly documented." It appeared that the amount of product used, how often it was used, and for how long it was used was not substantiated. The GAO continued to report that 10 to 73 percent of the so-called AERs were not even associated with ephedra!

Believe it Joe Coffee. The pharmaceutical lap dog known as the FDA lied to you! Feeling depressed about this? Perhaps you should try some Prozac. The world needs fewer idiots!

Playing devil's advocate, 100 so-called (often announced on the airwaves) deaths attributed to the use of ephedra pales in comparison to the number of deaths caused by tobacco, FDA-approved drugs and medical doctors. For instance, cigarettes kill about 400,000 per year, the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that medical doctors are the number three killer in the USA and synthetic drugs number four!

Let the facts speak for themselves, that ephedra has been responsible for nearly a hundred deaths and 1,178 adverse reactions is a fallacy. Of course, ephedra, like sugar, must be used properly and most supplement companies have ignored this. Nonetheless, ephedra is in fact an inexpensive natural product that poses huge competition to pharmaceutical companies. Most notably, ephedra is poised to successfully treat obesity, and manage the symptoms of ADHD, depression and asthma, when used correctly.

Considering that obesity kills 800 people per day and that the American Cancer Society has stated that obesity may soon be the leading cause of cancer it would appear that ephedra is exactly what America needs!

So it's time that ALL of those people living in states that have banned the use of ephedra (California, Illinois and New York), except when prescribed by a doctor, get off their docile asses and distribute ephedra containing products to EVERY obese man and woman they know. You just might save their life! As for the lawmakers, get your politically correct, pharmaceutically campaigned selves out of office. Or start going after the real killers like tobacco and FDA-approved drugs.