One week ago... Cate Gable wrote this very nice article about me.
My dear husband likes to write letters to the editor. In fact, his letters have a reputation in this community...and it isn't always received well by those with differing opinions. There have been times my friends have refused to sit by me at meetings... I find out one of the latest letters from my spouse is the reason. My response is often, 'Do you agree with your husband all the time?'
If I could draw a cartoon- it would be of me calling Matt Winters (editor/publisher of newspaper)... 'Hello Matt? will you please stop running those editorials? Brett can't help himself... he is writing another letter!" - picture Brett madly typing out a letter to the editor.
This will help you understand the rather humorous letter that was printed about me this week. I wonder how Les Gernert feels to know that Brett has yet another Letter to the Editor- running alongside? (Brett's letter follows) (and seriously...Brett writes great letters.. but I don't always agree with them either)
Letter: Watch out for Karl Rove twitters: Hazard to mental health
I read with great interest Cate Gable's column regarding "Queen of the twitterverse" Nansen Malin. I obviously don't know Mrs. Malin, but it seems she is a nice person who gives back to the community, which is very commendable. I only know her husband, Brett Malin, from the letters he writes to this paper, some of which I find downright astonishing. But to the main point of the article - twittering.
Our children and others have had us set up a Facebook account so they can "better communicate with us," which mostly includes communiqués such as, "The weather is great here in (Denver, Chicago, N.Y., pick one), what's it like there?" I'm not sure I could make it through the day without getting all this important family news. What I'm trying to say is that most of the functions of Facebook, and for that matter twitter, can be done with e-mail or a phone call. The only good thing I can see about twitter is that politicians love it, but can only use up to 140 characters for each message, which is a blessing considering that the average politician can speak for an hour without hardly taking a breath and say almost nothing that matters. These folks I prefer not to think of as "peeps" but "twits."
I would offer Mrs. Malin one word of caution - and this comes from a man who has a huge amount of contempt for both political parties - twittering with Karl Rove might prove dangerous to one's mental health. Look what has happened to both Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck since he has joined their cable network. I have to assume they both were rational human beings at an earlier time. Now these poor souls have just about lost any sense of reality. Just trying to help.
LES GERNERT
Ocean Park
Here is Brett's latest letter. You can view more of his writing on his personal blog. ConservativesClub.com
Letter: Join the Tea Party and reject giant deficits
My dear husband likes to write letters to the editor. In fact, his letters have a reputation in this community...and it isn't always received well by those with differing opinions. There have been times my friends have refused to sit by me at meetings... I find out one of the latest letters from my spouse is the reason. My response is often, 'Do you agree with your husband all the time?'If I could draw a cartoon- it would be of me calling Matt Winters (editor/publisher of newspaper)... 'Hello Matt? will you please stop running those editorials? Brett can't help himself... he is writing another letter!" - picture Brett madly typing out a letter to the editor.
This will help you understand the rather humorous letter that was printed about me this week. I wonder how Les Gernert feels to know that Brett has yet another Letter to the Editor- running alongside? (Brett's letter follows) (and seriously...Brett writes great letters.. but I don't always agree with them either)
Letter: Watch out for Karl Rove twitters: Hazard to mental health
I read with great interest Cate Gable's column regarding "Queen of the twitterverse" Nansen Malin. I obviously don't know Mrs. Malin, but it seems she is a nice person who gives back to the community, which is very commendable. I only know her husband, Brett Malin, from the letters he writes to this paper, some of which I find downright astonishing. But to the main point of the article - twittering.
Our children and others have had us set up a Facebook account so they can "better communicate with us," which mostly includes communiqués such as, "The weather is great here in (Denver, Chicago, N.Y., pick one), what's it like there?" I'm not sure I could make it through the day without getting all this important family news. What I'm trying to say is that most of the functions of Facebook, and for that matter twitter, can be done with e-mail or a phone call. The only good thing I can see about twitter is that politicians love it, but can only use up to 140 characters for each message, which is a blessing considering that the average politician can speak for an hour without hardly taking a breath and say almost nothing that matters. These folks I prefer not to think of as "peeps" but "twits."
I would offer Mrs. Malin one word of caution - and this comes from a man who has a huge amount of contempt for both political parties - twittering with Karl Rove might prove dangerous to one's mental health. Look what has happened to both Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck since he has joined their cable network. I have to assume they both were rational human beings at an earlier time. Now these poor souls have just about lost any sense of reality. Just trying to help.
LES GERNERT
Ocean Park
Here is Brett's latest letter. You can view more of his writing on his personal blog. ConservativesClub.com
Letter: Join the Tea Party and reject giant deficits
Having rushed through a trillion dollar "stimulus" bill, it appears now that a reckless 2010 budget will quickly follow. After harping for two years that George Bush did not do enough to prevent them from running up huge deficits in 2008 and 2009, the Democrats in Congress and President Obama have just thrown all fiscal responsibility right out the door.
Words can hardly describe this insanity. After a while the phrase "a trillion dollars" seems to lose all meaning. An over $3 trillion dollar deficit in just two years, a doubling of the national debt in five years, a tripling in 10 years, trillion dollar deficits extending indefinitely - and these are just the Democrat's optimistic estimates!
Americans know full well that government cannot spend its way to prosperity, and that borrowing massive sums does not make the economy healthy. This type of unrestrained spending has been tried many times before, in many countries, and has always ended in the same disaster. We last saw this folly in the U.S. in the late 1970s, and the result was 10 percent unemployment, 13 percent inflation and 14 percent interest rates on mortgages.
Americans understand there is no free lunch; when the government spends so much more than it takes in, the money must come from somewhere. Taxes will increase, and not just on the rich. We will pay with higher interest rates, as the government drives up the interest rate to find takers for the trillions in debt they issue. And we will pay with inflation and a devalued dollar, when the government runs out of lenders and just prints more money. When your retirement savings earn 5 percent a year, but decrease in value 10 percent from inflation, congratulations - you've just helped pay for this deficit spending.
The bad news is that these terrible economic policies are already under way, and the first chance to change the politicians in Congress won't be until 2010. And even if the Democrats responsible for this are thrown out of office in 2010, undoing the damage will take years. What you can do is contact your representatives in D.C. right now, and let them know that this is no way to run a country. And if you're really steamed, drive down to Olympia for the tea party on April 15 to add your voice to the thousands demanding that this stop, now!
Brett Malin
Seaview
Words can hardly describe this insanity. After a while the phrase "a trillion dollars" seems to lose all meaning. An over $3 trillion dollar deficit in just two years, a doubling of the national debt in five years, a tripling in 10 years, trillion dollar deficits extending indefinitely - and these are just the Democrat's optimistic estimates!
Americans know full well that government cannot spend its way to prosperity, and that borrowing massive sums does not make the economy healthy. This type of unrestrained spending has been tried many times before, in many countries, and has always ended in the same disaster. We last saw this folly in the U.S. in the late 1970s, and the result was 10 percent unemployment, 13 percent inflation and 14 percent interest rates on mortgages.
Americans understand there is no free lunch; when the government spends so much more than it takes in, the money must come from somewhere. Taxes will increase, and not just on the rich. We will pay with higher interest rates, as the government drives up the interest rate to find takers for the trillions in debt they issue. And we will pay with inflation and a devalued dollar, when the government runs out of lenders and just prints more money. When your retirement savings earn 5 percent a year, but decrease in value 10 percent from inflation, congratulations - you've just helped pay for this deficit spending.
The bad news is that these terrible economic policies are already under way, and the first chance to change the politicians in Congress won't be until 2010. And even if the Democrats responsible for this are thrown out of office in 2010, undoing the damage will take years. What you can do is contact your representatives in D.C. right now, and let them know that this is no way to run a country. And if you're really steamed, drive down to Olympia for the tea party on April 15 to add your voice to the thousands demanding that this stop, now!
Brett Malin
Seaview