Netlets for Thursday, Aug. 21

The media's reaction to Saturday's faith forum -- that John McCain did well because he gave short and certain answers while Barack Obama did not help himself with his longer, more thoughtful and sometimes philosophical answers -- is astonishing.

Have they forgotten so quickly?

We have had eight years of certainty, with knee-jerk reactions on foreign policy, the economy, energy, and global warming, which has left us with thousands dead and injured in an unnecessary war, a housing crisis which could have been prevented, an economy in shambles, and with no progress on energy independence or global worming.

Give me thoughtful answers to the serious problems confronting the United States of America any time.

TERESA J. AYLING, MINNEAPOLIS

Religion and personal beliefs are indeed relevant in America. But there is no relevance, hence no place, in our democracy for an evangelical "faith quiz." Can you imagine anyone in 1932 examining the religious views of Hoover and FDR before casting their vote to see who would best lead us out of the great depression? To give political credence to the thumbs up or thumbs down of a religious leader's faith-based cross-examination of the candidates is absurd. It's absurd in America, anyway.

Of course Pastor Rick Warren has every right to base his decision for our next president on his own beliefs and personal ideologies. And if his flock wants to follow his lead, that's certainly all right, too. In fact, I'm guessing that most Americans have their own conscious or unconscious litmus tests when evaluating candidates. The candidates' positions on social issues do matter. But with the country being torn apart by slow economic growth, inflation, mortgage crises, bank failures, energy prices, budget deficits, deregulation, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an imploding national debt, not to mention all the other pots about to boil over, why do we seek and legitimate the "OK" of a person whose approval of these candidates is based on, well, none of those issues?

Despite the claims of Pastor Warren, faith is not a world-view. Faith is belief without evidence. And yes, we do have faith in America. Every election is evidence of our country's faith; faith that the person elected will actually do what he or she has promised. Hope is probably the better word. I say we should acknowledge faith and hope, but then examine the issues, refer to the evidence and let the records of these two candidates be the deciding test by which we cast our ballots this fall.

DOUG BERGLUND, MINNEAPOLIS

I would like to thanks House Minority Leader Marty Seifert for alerting state taxpayers that the debit cards issued by Minnesota Human Services are being used in Hawaii and in other states (Star Tribune, Aug. 8). Minnesota retired seniors and taxpayers are struggling to pay the high gas prices and high food prices, and these debit cards are being used on vacations?!

It is time to put limits on these debit cards to avoid any appearance of abuse and fraud. I am a proud Red Cross volunteer and have issued many debit cards to people affected by disasters. These cards can be limited to a certain region or state. I ask that the Minnesota Legislature pass a bill during the next session to avoid any hint of fraud and abuse by limiting state Human Services debit card purchases to within Minnesota. Our tax dollars need to be spent here, especially during a slow economy.

MIKE DOWNING, WHITE BEAR LAKE

She stated that "Georgia's president invaded South Ossetia during the night, much as Adolf Hitler invaded Russia in 1941." This is a revealing analogy since, when attacked, Russian forces were occupying Poland following invasion from the east weeks after Hitler launched World War II from the west. Russia annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by similar means, also fighting a war with Finland, more than decade after colonizing Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Other nearby countries -- Moldova, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Japan -- have also experienced Russian expansionism.

In fact of the 14 countries neighboring Russia, including Korea and China, only Norway has not been militarily pressured by Russia in the last 100 years. Possibly the coverage of the Russian role in Georgia owes more to history than to bias.

Ivanova sees nothing incongruous in the world's largest nation violating the territory of a neighbor smaller than Minnesota. Therein lies the problem.

KRIS ZAKLIKA, ST. PAUL

The Russia-Georgia crisis exposes the utter lack of moral authority in U.S. foreign policy. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the United States has been jockeying for assets in the region: military bases, access to oil routes and missile defense systems. All under the pretense of spreading democracy. Yet in response to Russia's bomber patrols off the Alaskan coast, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pronounced, "Nobody needs Russian strategic aviation along America's coast." Our government's duplicity is both transparent and hypocritical.