Pouring money into public education is an exercise in futility, particularly with the checkered history of the miseducation of teachers and students and the malpractice of teacher unions. Indeed, the latest education-related political barbs being thrown by President Barack Obama at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, accusing him of wanting to cut education funding, isa perfect example of Obama’s wasteful spending intended to keep the support of teacher unions. Read More

The political cartoon portraying conservatives and libertarians as insensitive and callous toward the poor is grossly mistaken (Today’s Cartoon, Pat Oliphant, Wednesday). Caring and compassion are good only when they are voluntary and individual. Voters and bureaucrats are spending someone else’s money. Public compassion is always compulsory and inefficient. Government agencies have spent zillions of dollars over the past decades to alleviate poverty; there is still no lack of poor people. Mostly what we get are well-paid poverty fighters with very, very generous pension packages. Read More

Your article on the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival (“Outside Lands hits high note,” Monday) stated in passing that there were “fewer than half the number of complaints about noise.” It remains to be seen whether that was because the concert’s noise pollution was actually lower, or whether Sunset and Richmond residents simply gave up trying to get organizers to actually deal with the noise pollution. Read More

Justice was a lost concept in the Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi case (“Mirkarimi deserves another chance,” Wednesday). It seemed every week of this saga there was a new — never to be proven — accusation. On and on it went with no respect for the man who received more votes in November than Mayor Ed Lee did. There was a clear mandate by the voters to see Mirkarimi carry out his mission for a visionary jail system. While we wait for Mirkarimi to be reinstated, we are losing hope for the thousands of men, women, and youths languishing in our jails. Read More

It is quite saddening to see that the city attorney and the Election Department have decreased the traditional standards of reason when it comes to issues that may or may not be placed on the ballot (“Voters deserve apolitical details on Hetchy battle,” Monday). After all, it has been my pleasure to have placed nearly a dozen issues on the ballot over the years. Read More

As we pass Monday’s 67th anniversary of the U.S.’s dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, let us renew our commitment to work for peace in our world. More than 220,000 Japanese people were killed and gravely injured by the atomic bomb blasts in Hiroshima and later Nagasaki. Many others suffered cancers caused by the radiation fallout. Read More

As a former Bay Area resident, I read with interest your coverage of the Board of Supervisors’ decision to send a gross receipts tax to the November ballot in place of the existing 1.5 percent business payroll tax (“Business tax reform compromise set for ballot,” July, 31). No doubt the payroll tax harms hiring and business growth, but I must warn my former neighbors that replacing it with a gross receipts tax is exchanging a bad tax for a worse one. Read More