Pittsburgh Dish

Mail Call

Dish answers the Post-Gazette's Letters to the Editor

From today's P-G:

"Handout mentality"

Regarding the April 14 "Morning File" item "Dear Millionaire," suggesting that people making over $1 million kick in extra money at tax time to make up for tax cheats and deadbeats: Hey, PG, guess what? Those who have made something for themselves don't owe you or any of the rest of us a damn thing. This article made me want to puke. You basically want to reward the tax cheats and the deadbeats.

I'm by no stretch of the imagination a millionaire, but I surely don't expect anyone to pay my tab or give me a free ride. Your "entitlement" mind-set, and that of your fellow liberal Democrats, is a huge part of what is wrong with this country. People just like you ... people who believe the world and their government owes them something, that "someone else" should solve their problems for them.

Our government owes us security and the freedoms we have. That's it. God forbid it should happen, but if Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama is elected, you Democrats need to understand that checks are not simply going to start showing up in your mail.

We are all playing on an even field. Some people choose to work hard and possess the determination, resilience and perseverance to achieve success. There are far too many, like you, who have their hands out. The sooner every person learns to be accountable for his or her own circumstances the better off we all will be.

MICHAEL EVANS
Pine

Dear Self-Made Man,

Ever take out a government-subsidized student loan to, say, attend a state-subsidized public university to earn a degree that you perhaps used to get a job at a corporation that benefits from tax laws that enable it to pay little, if any, tax and therefore be able to keep you and others employed?

If so, I want my money back, whiner.

Sincerely,
Mr. Dish

Mail Call

Dish answers the Post-Gazette's letters

Non-family zone?

When Mayor Luke Ravenstahl decided to close Market Square early on March 15 to preserve the "family" orientation of the St. Patrick's Day parade events in Downtown Pittsburgh, he had decided that since many St. Patrick's Day revelers went to the South Side after the parade, they could just go there several hours earlier to drink.

When he unleashed all the St. Patrick's Day drinkers on us, I can only conclude that he thinks there are no families in the South Side and, hence, no need to preserve a "family" orientation there.

On behalf of myself and other "families" who do reside in the South Side, I would like to challenge the mayor's assumptions.

From as early as 10 a.m., I could hear shouting in the streets. By 2 p.m., I could barely walk down the sidewalks. But I couldn't even leave, since illegally parked cars were blocking my garage. Around 6 p.m., I did see a few families with children walking around. I wonder what the parents said to their children when the families came upon the unconscious young person who was sprawled on the sidewalk surrounded by police and spectators?

If Mayor Ravenstahl has designated the South Side as the "non-family" oriented neighborhood in which anything goes, could he please start a program to buy out the families who do still live there before their
property values fade away? Or at the very least, can he build a parking garage for the residents so that they can escape during those times when the South Side is designated a "non-family" zone?

ELAINE LUTHER
South Side

Dish replies:

We understand, Elaine. We really do. It's truly unpleasant when drunks disrupt the peace. Mr. Dish had the pleasure of witnessing a middle-aged female Steelers fan from the suburbs urinate in the shrubs next to his North Side house this fall. He asked her where she lived, intending to come to her house and take a dump on her lawn. She did not reply, though she moved her SUV from in front of the Dish estate.

However, suck it up.

Dish is guessing you knew there were several thousand watering holes in E. Carson when you and your family purchased your property. That's part of the fun of city life, right, living within walking distance of shops,
restaurants, cultural attractions and, yes, even bars.

Not that the kind of behavior you chronicle is acceptable, but it's not exactly unexpected, now, is it? Be honest. On St. Patrick's Day in the bar-iest area of bartown?

Seriously, Elaine, the city buying your property? Building a community garage? One day of debauchery (as bad as it seems to have been) merits this?

Call the cops, yell at the offenders, lobby for the restriction of liquor licenses, cover your kids' eyes. But, please, dear, let's not act as if the foundation of the American family and the sanctity of your home are being
eroded by a pretend Irishman spewing green beer on the sidewalk.

Elaine, think about it, is reasonable adult behavior really worth the price of living in what would amount to a suburb in the city? Idiots make the world go 'round. Enjoy the ride.

Mail Call

Dish answers the Post-Gazette's letters

From Thursday, Jan 31, 2008

Our public air

I have a very strong opinion when it comes to a smoking ban. I'm all for it. Many people have argued that it should be up to the owners of the establishments if they want to enforce a smoking ban because they are
privately owned. Maybe those people are right.

In the meantime, the government should impose a smoking ban in public places -- sidewalks, bus stops, parks, etc. Isn't it the right of nonsmokers to be able to walk down the street, wait for a bus or play in the park with their kids without having to breathe in another person's disgusting habit?

JENNIFER STEBERGER
Millvale

Dear Jenny,

While your plan seems like a very wise use of police manhours, I got a better question: Why doesn't the government mandate that Our Public Newspaper refrain from publishing puerile pap such as your letter? I mean, I almost had an effing stroke reading this idiocy. Frankly, it's a wonder you know how to breathe at all, so perhaps you shouldn't be so bothered when a guy with a butt dangling from his lips walks through the effing park polluting your environment for three effing seconds.

Go suck on a Port Authority bus tailpipe.

Sincerely,
Mr. Dish

Mail Call

Dish answers the Post-Gazette's Letters

From Friday, Jan. 11:

Just pay it, already

This is to all the drunks and booze-mongers out there who are upset over the drink tax.

It's really getting old hearing you all moaning and crying over this business. How 'bout just shutting up and paying the darn tax?

If you all have enough money to get drunk on or if you can own your own business, then you certainly must have a few extra dollars to pay the tax.

Sober up and shut up.

SAMUEL ENCISO
Arnold

Dear Sam,

Wonder if you'll feel the same way when the county passes the ornery jagoff tax. It's $5 for each pointless rant.

Hic!

Sincerely,
Dish

Mail Call

Dish answers the P-G's letters

Do liberals take pride in abortion?

In his Midweek Perspectives piece "A Proud Liberal" (Sept. 26), Leonard Boasberg lists all the wonderful accomplishments of American liberalism but seems to have forgotten the one issue that has become the litmus test of today's liberal: abortion. Is he just as proud of late-term abortion, partial-birth abortion, abortion for minors without parental consent, abortion for minors in cases of statutory rape, abortion without informed consent or just abortion in general?

Mr. Boasberg also states: "We (liberals) believe, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal, and that goes for women, too." Perhaps he should have continued his quote until he hit the line about "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights," which declares life as the first of such rights, all other rights being moot if you're deprived of the right to life.

Preborn children are human, living and, after abortion, dead. Is this a source of pride for American liberals? I hope not.

E.A. SVIRBEL
Whitehall

Dear Ms. Svirbel,

How many unwanted children have you adopted? Just curious.

Sincerely,
Dish

Mail Call

Dish answers the Post-Gazette's mail

In today's installment of Dish's sporadic feature, we address the issue of proper language as raised by Arline Chiz in her Sept. 7 letter to One of America's Great Newspapers.

Signifies dullness

I wanted to comment on the Sept. 4 article about movie ratings and was so glad to see a lot of people are offended by bad language. I don't often go to movies because of the offensive language that is used.

My children are all grown and on their own. When really bad language is used in my presence, I usually tell the offender to watch his language. I have always said I don't care how much education a person has, if he or she can't use another word, then in my estimation that person is not very smart.

ARLINE CHIZ

Bethel Park

Arline, you ignorant s*&%. Just because some mother f&@#!@ chooses to tell you to go f*&$ yourself doesn't mean he or she lacks intelligence, godd*&#it.

In fact, Stephen Hawking once told us that, "I'm gonna #$@ that *$&@ with extreme prejudice. She's a hot piece of *#$ and that's the *&#$ing truth." Then he added, "I very much enjoy physics."

See?

Sincerely,

Dish

Mail Call

Dish answers the Post-Gazette's mail

In the first installment of Dish's new feature, MAIL CALL, Dish addresses a caring mother's concern. The letter appeared exclusively online on Aug. 23.

Subjected to militarism

A few weeks ago, I took my 13- and 9-year-old daughters to a children's film. While waiting for the movie to begin, wedged between movie trivia questions and previews for upcoming movies, was a lengthy advertisement encouraging youth to exhibit the ultimate show of American patriotism by joining the Marines. I'm already distraught that as early as next year, according to the guidelines of the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires that the military have the same access to high schools as other kinds of recruiters, my oldest daughter will be subjected to the harassment of military recruiters in her high school, pressed to fill war-time quotas.

Most concerning were the photos in Saturday's front-page Local section of the Post-Gazette ("Learning the Trade," Aug. 18). There were two large photos of young children dressed in army fatigues watching intently as a state police corporal demonstrates how to use guns and other weapons. What's wrong with this picture?

Parents should be talking to their children about peaceful solutions to conflict instead of teaching them aggression. My children will have to pay for this illegal war in Iraq, a war this country was led into under false
pretenses, a war that has resulted in close to 4,000 Americans' deaths and countless Iraqi casualties.

How about a hike down a nature trail, an afternoon at the zoo or a trip to a museum or public library instead of packing your children off to a camp that will only teach them to continue our destructive culture of U.S. militarism?

FRANCINE PORTER
Shaler

Dear Francine:

Hippie.

Sincerely,
Dish