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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 22, 2009

Jocks Doing Steroids
With two wars and a failing economy I find it impossible to understand why time is wasted in Congress and on the news with these overpaid, underworked jocks doing steroids. They receive no punishment other than a slap on the wrist and told don't do it again. Then they go out and continue to pull in multimillion-dollar salaries. So why even bother. I am sick and tired of hearing about it. It makes no difference to anything vital to this country's well-being. If the baseball commissioner can't handle the problem, MLB should be abolished and they should all get jobs at McDonald's. It wouldn't hurt America at all.

BRUCE MILLER

Tampa

A-Rod's No Hero

Enough already with all this A-Rod stuff! I can't look at the paper, I can't turn on my radio, I can't watch television without seeing or hearing, "A-Rod this, or A-Rod that." A-Rod is no hero. He's just another loser in a long line of overpaid, overrated, juiced-out jocks. There are so many of them that it isn't news any more.

You want someone of real character to look up to? You want real heroes? Here are two:

Sgt. "Snuffy" Smith and his squad occupy an observation outpost on the side of some nameless mountain in some God-forsaken province whose name no one can pronounce. He hasn't had a hot meal or warm bath in over a month, but he's there because he believes in something larger and more important than himself.

Or how about Airman Rodriguez? It's 2 a.m., the wind is howling, and the temperature is 20-below, but he is hard at work on the flight line in Minot, N.D., prepping an airplane scheduled for an early takeoff. But he doesn't complain. He's there because he believes in something larger and more important than himself.

A-Rod and the rest of his juicer jocks are losers and aren't in the least bit deserving of all the adulation and coverage that they are getting. Sgt. Smith, Airman Rodriguez - these are my heroes, even if we never hear about them in the news media.

LESTER E. SCATES

Plant City

State Fair Vendors

I am writing to express my disappointment with vendors at the state fair this past weekend. I understand anyone can rent space, but on two occasions my 7-year-old daughter was approached by people wanting to show her "magic," which in turn came to be a Bible story. They were very deceiving, and I did not think it was appropriate to bring so much religion into the fair. I brought my daughter to ride rides, enjoy food, and have fun, not to be subjected to 30 minutes of a "magic" book that was not in fact what she was led to believe.

MICHELLE RUSZIN

Valrico

Bars And Towers

As a resident of the dead zone between Coleman Middle School and the hotels on West Shore, let me thank the Luddites who scotched the Coleman tower proposal. Our "safety" issue is hundreds of homes with no bars, where our wives and daughters must park on area streets to complete a call or go outside to get a single bar long enough to take a call or check voice mail. If the land lines went out, say during a hurricane, we wouldn't be able to make a 911 call.

These activists won't listen to the science, but perhaps some of you will.

From sources readily available on the Web (including the Cisco and IEEE sites), the typical cell phone transmitter outputs about 300mw (milliwatts, or 1/1000 of a watt), while car phones emit about 1000mw. The antennas on towers vary by application and coverage but would range from 20w (20,000mw) for a single application covering a 1-kilometer area, to 500w for antennas providing multiple services over larger areas.

Most of you will recall from your high school science classes that all signals in the electromagnetic spectrum vary with the inverse square law. A signal that is twice as far away will have one-fourth the power. So, what are the relative signal densities of a cell phone held one-half inch from one's ear versus an average dipole antenna on a 70-foot tower that is about 200 feet from the nearest continuously occupied structure? The tower antenna is about 5,000 times further away (one-half inch versus 212 feet), meaning that, even for a 500w antenna, its signal density would be lower by a factor of about 15,000 (yes, that's one-fifteen thousandth).

Thus, if the parents who fall for the activists' claims were really concerned about the radiation, they would immediately take away their children's cell phones and probably discard their own as well. Oh, they'd also have to get rid of their home wireless networks, portable phones, garage door openers and baby monitors (which are about four times more powerful than the average cell phone).

In truth, they just think the towers are ugly (they are), but only a few will be honest about it. And if they've got bars, what do they care about the rest of us?

JEFF HILL

Tampa

Ignored Bill's Contents

Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite mentions "$200 million for condoms" added to H.R. 1, the stimulus bill, (Other Views, Feb. 18) but fails to mention that the final version was approved by Congress and signed by President Obama without the family planning provisions in Section 5004 of the original House version.

Responding to Republicans' objections, President Obama personally asked Rep. Henry Waxman, chairmain of the committee that introduced the family planning provision, to withdraw the proposal. Listening to critics regardless of their harshness and seeking compromise is exactly the "change" Americans elected Obama to deliver.

Apparently, since Brown-Waite voted against the bill, she finds it easy to ignore its contents, not to mention her own budget office which says that tax money spent on family planning actually reduces Medicaid payments for prenatal care and delivery of infants.

GARY BURGE

Lutz

Political Vote

Ginnie Brown-Waite's action to help us get out of the serious economic crisis we are in is to proudly attempt to block what the other "guy" is trying to do to help.

Rep. Brown-Waite, if you were earning your money, you'd be offering your solutions instead of just making noise about what the other "guy" is doing. That is distracting in classic fashion from the fact that you are doing nothing but casting "no"votes to insulate yourself politically just in case this stimulus plan doesn't do the job.

I look forward to part two of your view where you share with us specifically what you and your fellow party members would have done had you not been so busy badmouthing the other party.

RAY DORN

Sebring

JOIN DISCUSSION

The Tribune welcomes letters and e-mails from readers. The text should be original and no longer than 150 words. By making a submission, you agree the Tribune may edit the letter for length and clarity, and publish it in any medium.

Please include your name, address and daytime phone number. Mail to: P.O. Box 191, Tampa, FL 33601-0191. Or e-mail without attachments: tribletters@tampatrib.com.

Also, read and participate in the Tribune editorial board's blog, "Thinking Out Loud," at www.tboblogs.com/index.php/thinkoutloud/categories....

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