Letters to the editor for Tuesday, Jan. 13

Memo to all drivers who want to talk on their cell phones as they go to and fro: Use mass transit. Your phone conversations may be annoying to the passengers around you, but at least you won't be a danger to other drivers (or to yourself).

ISABEL LEVINSON, MINNEAPOLIS

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While many cogent arguments have been offered as to the source of our slumping economy, I am surprised that no one has posited the most screamingly obvious explanation: the cell phone.

This menacing device has managed to ravage the entire GDP of a country, and yet no one is looking into its deviant presence. Hedge fund managers and investment bankers broker deals on their cell phones, while at the same time texting their buddies and intermittently calling their wives. CEOs make billion-dollar merger and acquisition decisions while chatting with golf buddies over their cellular devices. And parents who could have spent 10 more minutes talking to their children about the importance of saving and spending wisely and balancing their own budgets, instead spend them arguing with their spouses over a cell phone.

If Congress isn't going to regulate the use of a device that has single- handedly curtailed growth and curbed innovation in our country, then I will. Next time you step up to order your triple-shot, half-shot of sugar-free vanilla, extra hot, no froth, skim milk latte, put down your cell phone and invest in what you are doing at the moment, or else I will politely stimulate our economy by doing it for you.

ALEX CAHILL, MINNEAPOLIS

He could have called for eliminating restrictions on domestic oil production, now while oil prices are low, to break the stranglehold unfriendly nations have on us. Instead he spoke of "alternative" energy sources, which is political speech for "the government chooses the winners," instead of the market.

He could have urged fast-tracking nuclear energy plants, which would create thousands of high-tech, permanent jobs in an environmentally safe way. Instead he spoke of pie-in-the-sky solar panels and wind turbines that create unknown environmental costs, and that will always need redundant sources of traditional energy for when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow.

He could have spoken of school vouchers. Letting parents decide where to educate their children by putting competition into our public and private schools, the kind of competition that has fueled America's greatness for two and a half centuries. Instead he spoke of new computers and labs and libraries, and new training for teachers.

There is nothing new and bold in these proposals. They are 1976 all over again. They won't work now either.

TIM MILLER, LINO LAKES

Isn't it nice of them to remind us -- especially those of us who thought that maybe we now had a chance to end the idiocy that has long characterized U.S. policy in the Middle East -- that the only solution is the military solution, and that when it comes to the Middle East, the world can confidently count on the United States to take the wrong position and defend it to the death -- usually meaning, of course, the death of the powerless and oppressed.

Thank you so much for that courageous stand, you three pillars of conformity.

JAMES MANGAN, MENOMONIE, WIS.

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I commend Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum for their brave stand in opposing the blatantly one-sided resolution supporting Israel in its war on Gaza. It took great courage to vote their conscience and do the right thing.

MELLY AILABOUNI, FARMINGTON

At his rally announcing his campaign's filing of an election contest, Norm Coleman said that the citizens of Minnesota should decide this election. I couldn't agree more; my only question to the senator and his attorneys is does this mean that the U.S. Supreme Court will not have an opportunity to overrule the Minnesota courts and ultimately the will of the Minnesota electorate should the senator lose his election contest?

STEVE LINNEROOTH, CENTER CITY, MINN.

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I supported Al Franken in our recent and never-ending election, and I hope he prevails if the election ever does actually come to a conclusion. That said, I thought the Star Tribune's Jan. 10 article on Norm Coleman's private finances lacked newsworthiness, let alone front-page status. Tsk, tsk.

The Minnesota Legislature, facing a $4.8 billion deficit that is expected to worsen, should consider a revenue stream that could balance the budget: marijuana.

The State Controlled Substances Act has used prohibitive taxation as a means to regulate distribution. However, prohibition has failed to regulate, making distribution as profitable as ever.

Perhaps instead of bankrolling and subsidizing criminals, government should modify Minnesota's Controlled Substances Act and regulate distribution legally instead of insisting on distribution through the black market. This would add at least a $1 billion in needed revenue to the state and might bring in some needed tourism dollars.