Netlets for Thursday, Feb. 5

Bailouts must come with many strings First came news of the bonuses, million-dollar office renovations and new corporate jets.

Now the Associated Press reports that the dozen banks receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years.

The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.

So now American tax dollars are being used to pay the salaries of foreign workers employed in these bailed out banks?

If our money is used to keep these banks afloat, we need to be able to make the rules. That includes severely capping executive compensation, a strict moratorium on bonuses and corporate jets, and limiting employment opportunities to Americans -- those who are paying for it.

Wall Street's culture of unlimited greed and obscene entitlement must end now.

LORIN DRAKE, GOLDEN VALLEY

The shameful action was by our elected officials who gave that money away with no strings attached. Even more insane is that those idiots are about to do it again.

BRUCE CARLSON, BROOKLYN PARK

Step aside and don't impede the clean-up crew Regarding Michele Bachmann's Jan. 30 column "The perils of spending like it's 1929": Sorry, Rep. Bachmann, but many Americans have been paying attention for the last eight years.

We are now faced with the outcome of Republican policies of tax reform for the wealthy and less government regulation of business, bankers and brokers. Don't ask us to look back 75 years to distract from what has unfolded just recently. War without taxes to pay for it has a way of catching up with us. Corporations that fear little government regulation soon decide profit and bonuses are their new mission statement. Politicians who deny global changes and refuse to implement regulations for the future must be willing to accept business failures.

President Obama has been elected to clean up your mess. Don't expect him to use the dirty scrub bucket you left behind.

Taking a stand against watered-down morals Regarding the Jan. 30 article about Academy of Holy Angels stripping Rep Paul Thissen of his Hall of Fame nomination: Thank you, Holy Angels. Your action in this matter has reinforced my decision in sending my kids to Holy Angels.

I'm so tired of our society taking the easy way out on difficult decisions. The Jan. 31 letter writer who stated, "No Christian community should expect its politicians to enforce church doctrine upon the general public," doesn't seem to understand the whole purpose of having a Christian community. Without such communities our society will continue to water down morals and ethics to the point where anybody can do anything and it has to be accepted.

PAT MORIARTY, SAVAGE

Cap and trade will be good for Midwest economy With thousands of Americans looking for work, now is the time to invest in technologies that will transform our energy economy and create good, Midwestern jobs. Unfortunately the Jan. 30 New York Times article reprinted in the Business section missed the mark in its assessment that putting a cap on global warming pollution will damage the economy and harm the Midwest's manufacturing industry.

The Midwest Governors Association has already committed our region to develop and implement a regional cap-and-trade program to limit and lower global warming pollution. Due to years of federal inaction, states are taking it into their own hands to incentivize market development of clean energy technologies and energy efficiency projects that are not only good for the climate, but also create Midwestern jobs that cannot be outsourced.

J. DRAKE HAMILTON, SCIENCE POLICY DIRECTOR, FRESH ENERGY, ST. PAUL

Two types of diabetes The Jan. 25 article "Diabetes cure might be homegrown" was misunderstood by a Jan. 30 letter writer. The letter suggested that the money spent on diabetes research would be better spent on education for prevention of diabetes. Ironic that the education to understand diabetes was at fault. The writer said that "our culture's overprocessed, high-sugar diet" was the problem, perhaps cured by "whole, natural foods."

The diabetes research in the article was related to Type I, insulin-dependent diabetes. No evidence has ever said that there is a link between Type I onset and diet. The writer has confused Type II diabetes, which does have a diet-related link. To focus on prevention, as the writer suggests, implies that there is a known way to stop Type I diabetes. That is what research is about.