Law encouraged healing, not dying

It’s interesting that some people don’t understand the simple English meaning of "remedial agent or measure," which means to heal, to cure, to extend life ("Doctor says 1909 law allows assisted suicide," Star-Advertiser, Oct. 23). Usually, this was to provide access to traditional medicine or natural medicine. Often there is an herb for that or a natural remedy that may bring benefit. This proves that government and lawyers should stay out of medicine and medical decision-making as required by the constitutional right to privacy.

Myron Berney
Honolulu

Libyans overthrew Gadhafi, not Obama

Before we give President Barack Obama all the credit, we need to get the facts right. First, the U.S. had nothing to do with the capture and murder of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. The Libyan people did that themselves. They need to get the credit. Look at the videos and pictures: No U.S. soldiers were there. Second, the withdrawal of soldiers from Iraq was requested by the government of Iraq and was largely due to the agreement between the last presidential administration and the Iraqi government.

I am not here to bash the president, but let’s give credit where credit is due, not where it isn’t deserved.

Rich Webb
Honolulu

Obama deserves credit for successes

President Barack Obama has gotten rid of Moammar Gadhafi and Osama bin Laden, and he is bringing all U.S. troops home from Iraq by the end of this year. In less than a year, Obama has accomplished amazing foreign policy goals.

Domestic issues are much more complicated, since they must pass both houses of Congress by a majority vote.

Imagine what the U.S. would be like today if the Republicans’ main objective was not to make Obama fail by whatever means possible, but rather to be patriotic and work alongside the president, brainstorming, debating and coming up with solutions for America’s problems.

The Republicans are destroying America. Obama could find the cure for diabetes, AIDS and cancer and the Republican Party would do whatever it could to discredit him.

Thank you, President Obama, for all you do for America. If only the Republicans weren’t in your way, America would be prospering once again.

James "Kimo" Rosen
Kapaa, Kauai

In America today, laissez-faire is dead

For Republican presidential hopefuls Ron Paul and Herman Cain, together with the rest of the field who offer little more than mindless partisan bickering, the remarks of esteemed political columnist Walter Lippmann are a much-needed corrective to their loopy points of view: "Laissez-faire is dead and the modern state has become responsible for the modern economy as a whole … the task of insuring the continuity of the standard of life for its people is now as much the fundamental duty of the state as the preservation of national independence."

Mark Helbling
Honolulu

Fewer laws make better government

Our governor’s 56 percent disapproval rating is par for the course.At Blaisdell Center trade shows, local libertarians and the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii ask folks, "Does government do a good job?" asking folks to toss a penny in one of several jars marked: "Almost Always," "Usually," "Not Often," "Rarely."The last two jars are the most popular, and there are always a few folks who ask for a jar marked "Never."

Success and effectiveness in government functions are pretty much doomed to failure due to mind-numbing laws and regulations, the anti-progress conduct of big government unions, "feel-good" laws and disregard for cost effectiveness and accountability, sheer nuttiness (cash payment for unused sick leave, our tax code, etc.), and the lack of competition that results in almost a disdain for productivity and cost effectiveness in the government sector.

The solution to better government performance is fewer laws and regulations combined with all of us being more responsible for our actions.

Alan Matsuda
Honolulu

State siphons off retirement funds

Colbert Matsumoto, chairman of the state Employee Retirement System, is right ("Boldness needed to fix workers’ funds," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Oct. 23). The state should never have given a free ride to those who did not pay the cost. What he sadly failed to mention is the state’s stealing and siphoning of funds by the hundreds of millions for other purposes.

If not for this, we, the members of the ERS, would currently be in much better shape, if not fully funded. The state government needs to keep its paws out of the funds, now and forever, especially the governors of the state.

A real miracle could happen if the present governor would follow some of his top people and step down himself.

Floyd Burns
Pearl City

Will APEC use local kukui nut leis?

On Page 18 of Sunday’s supplement on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, under the heading, "Sharing Hawaiian culture with the world," there is a picture of a kukui nut lei. If we are, indeed, going to share our culture with the world via kukui nut lei, will they be imported from the Philippines or will they be the plastic variety from China? I understand locally made kukui nut lei are no longer readily available in the islands.

Rike Weiss
Niu Valley