Readers’ Column for the week of March 25, 2018

You may call the Owego Pennysaver Readers’ Column at (607) 687-2378 24-hours a day, or e-mail comments to readerscolumn@stny.rr.com. We reserve the right to revise or reject any message.

I am a hunter and outdoorsman and I am also a conservationist. It is our duty as hunters to be, inherently, conservationists. If you are one of the men that use dogs to track, run, ambush, and force coyotes from their den (often containing new born pups this time of year) to kill, then you are NOT a hunter. You are not a man of the land. You are not feeding your family by the sweat in your brow. You are in the business of eradication. I will admit that population control is part of our duty in balancing an ecosystem. However, you take your dogs to places in which you do not live. Run them through yards with pets, pastures with horses, and private woods with families on walks and hunters working diligently to manage their microcosm. All the while meddling in an ecosystem that you have no part in maintaining and no business reaping any benefit from. I will tell you what, if I cannot maintain my woods myself and we end with an explosion in the coyote population that needs hemming, then I will call you. In the meantime, unless you plan on helping pay the taxes and do the work, stay out of our woods and off of our hill.

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To the person who has been throwing soiled diapers out along upper Whig Street and Howard Hill Road in Newark Valley, this is disgusting and totally irresponsible! You need to clean up your act!

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It amazes me that people wanting to know if a business does something will call this column instead of calling the business.

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To Whom It May concern: I think the Christmas lights are beautiful and I am leaving them up a little longer. They are pretty against the winter landscape. P.S. Do you remember what happened to the Grinch? 

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I would like to comment about Whig Street, not the speeding but the crosswalk that’s down by the elementary school and also by the middle school. People don’t understand what a crosswalk is, they don’t stop when you are trying to cross there. It’s just another problem that needs to be addressed. 

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It breaks your heart to realize how far Franklin Graham has fallen from the ideals of his father, Billy Graham. 

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I’m calling to comment on the Waterman Conservation Education Center property being fracked. I’ll tell you, we went in the late 70’s, early 80’s and logged that property off for Waterman with three adjoining properties over to Jewitt and Forest Hill. We went in there with tractors so we did not make skid roads, and mar up the trees and rip the bark off. Now they want to frack it? That’s a bunch of crap!

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I totally agree with the person who wrote about the decorations in Owego, the unkept streets, the exteriors that are painted, etc., but I don’t even know if there is a code officer in Owego. If there is he or she could not have been traveling down Liberty Street. There are homes that have not had electricity, the roof is falling in, the windows are covered up and they have been like that for years. I don’t understand it. Let’s clean up Owego! 

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It’s almost spring and just when I’m starting to think about going out and cleaning my yard due to spring fever, I read in the Pennysaver that now there is a burn ban through May 14. For those of us who live in Tioga County, who don’t live in town where there is brush pickup, we can’t burn, we can’t put it in the garbage, and we can’t take it to the dump. I already have piles of stuff from last year in my back yard. Other than starting a new pile in my front yard, does anybody know what we are supposed to do with all this yard waste and leaves? Anyone’s comments would be appreciated. 

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Chris, of the Spencer Van Etten area, please call the Candor 659 number again. Your message was not clear.

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This is to the person who does the announcements for the mobile food pantry in Nichols. Not everybody has modern technology. It needs to be posted where everybody can get it. 

National Political Viewpoints

Why would Mr. Trump be so upset that his congratulations to Mr. Putin were leaked? He said it so let him own it.

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So look here, another school shooting in Maryland (a state with highly restrictive gun laws) that was stopped by the school resource person (unlike Parkland, Fla. where the school resource person basically hid out). So, we have a situation where a good guy with a gun stopped a bad guy with a gun. Interesting how that works. 

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The White House is an embarrassment to the country. Mr. Trump is out of control with his actions and comments. If you don’t care about your reputation that’s fine, but PLEASE don’t take America with you. 

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Mr. Trump doesn’t want to be your president; he wants to be your ruler.

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Mr. Trump said Robert Mueller didn’t have the authority to check into the Trump organization, guess he can with his subpoena. What’s Mr. Trump hiding? What will Mr. Mueller find?

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The Liberal Masters of Social Justice are ceaselessly inventive in curing societal ills. The New York City Housing Authority has failed miserably to provide the poor with heat, water, elevators, etc. Things really are tough. It costs the New York City Housing Authority $369,000 ($141,000 base and $228,000 overtime) for one plumber. Liberal genius de Blasio, New York City’s Mayor has found the solution. By advancing one year’s rent, $12,000, and a one-way bus ticket to Broome County, New York City saves $50,000. The $50,000 is housing and other social services. Broome County Social Services then becomes caretaker and it only costs $35,000. For every seven homeless persons exported, de Blasio can afford one $369,000 plumber. If we build the Section 8 housing in TurtleTown they will come courtesy of New York City Mayor de Blasio, even though it is illegal.

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First, let me address the term “Assault Weapon”. Before 1989, the term “Assault Weapon” did not exist in the lexicon of firearm terminology. It has NO precise meaning and currently can best be defined as: A vague, emotional term, used to instill fear into the uninformed, by persons with a political agenda. The term was dreamed up by anti-gun activists and adopted by politicians and the media in an attempt to demonize whole classes of firearms in an attempt to get them banned. Second, the term “Assault Rifle” has a VERY precise definition and according to the “Department of Defense Small Arms Operations Guide” is: “short, compact, Select Fire weapons that fire a cartridge Intermediate in power between a submachine gun and a rifle”. “Select Fire” is defined as: A firearm’s ability to be fired fully automatically, or semi-automatically or, in some cases, in burst-fire mode at the option of the firer. “Burst-Fire” is three rounds per trigger pull instead of one round per trigger pull, which is semi-automatic mode. The AR15 is NOT fully automatic, does NOT have burst-fire mode IS SEMI-automatic ONLY (like many other firearms that just don’t look like the AR15) thus it cannot have a Select Fire mode. As has been stated in this column, AR in AR15 stands for Armalite and not Assault Rifle. Thus, the AR15 is NOT an Assault Rifle, should NOT be called an Assault Rifle, definitely should not be called an assault weapon, and is NOT a Military weapon. Most if not all of these facts should be easily corroborated by MULTIPLE sources on the Internet.

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For all those who want to opine here on the workings and character of our Federal Government, before your next post, check first with yourself if you have taken the initiative to vote for your Village electorate on the 3rd Tuesday each year in March. (Hint: It was just this past week.) Do you show up to vote every year for your Town, County and State electorate each 1st Tuesday in November? Suggestion: Before you opine here, perhaps you need to first do what it takes to care for your own neighborhood. It’s pathetic to see the total number of eligible voters there are for these local elections and then see the actual numbers of who actually shows up to vote. The odds are very favorable that those who make their remarks here are in the same majority who are the no-shows at the voting booth. Where your voice can be heard, you take a pass. Therefore, there is absolutely no value given or taken in what you have to “rant” about here. The saying goes, “If you’re not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”

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As an early Trump supporter, I have followed the “Russian” investigation closely. At first I thought it mattered little, but with the President’s fixation on ending it I became concerned that something bad had occurred. With his numerous bankruptcies, Trump has been forced to go overseas for financing. I think it is very possible that he, unwittingly at first, may have laundered large sums of money for the Russian drug syndicate. I certainly hope I am wrong.

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The NY Prevailing Wage law was enacted in 1897. Not 1997. 1897. Cuomo didn’t jam it down anyone’s throat.

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It seems the D.C. sewer extended further than we had any idea into the FBI, the CIA and NASA. These are things you are not going to hear through the regular news media because it’s obvious now why they did not want an outsider in the White House.

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While Trump is building his wall, the cartel is building their drug tunnels under the wall. Isn’t that wonderful? Yes, we have a very large, stupid president. I just thought that should be noted. 

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Mr. Trump’s money isn’t worthless but he most certainly is.  

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Okay, now here’s the deal. Trump is the king tweeter. At 9:17 this morning, and he has not he tweeted one word about the divorce case going on with his children when he has so much mouth about the men who are trying to straighten him out, to teach him how to talk, how to hold his temper, and how to shut that big fat mouth. 

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So, if Trump’s son and his wife are going for divorce after 12 years and five children, will Trump blame this on Russia? Will he be man enough to say I’ve been such an ass that I’m driving my children apart? They cannot bear the thought of what they are going through because of their father’s big mouth. 

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Can anyone explain the purpose of the recent walk out protest? Nothing was accomplished and it was all done on taxpayer dollars. I guess Cuomo has nothing better to do then lie down on the ground and shake. These kids need to work towards peace. The protests appear to be nothing more than shouting matches, and not the memorials that were promised. I did not hear any mention of the names of those who tragically lost their lives. 

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If you want to read a good comedy book, read Hillary’s book titled What Happened. A lot of laughs. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

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To last week’s comment, Hillary is not in India criticizing President Trump and Americans. She continues to whine about her election loss. She needs to stop! She looks and sounds foolish and this is why Trump responds. 

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Fourteen months ago we got rid of the moron that was in the White House, his name is Obama. We’re just beginning to find out what crooked things the Democrats were doing for the last few years. I say throw them all in jail and throw the keys away. Secondly, did anybody else know that Hillary Clinton fell down last Wednesday in India and broke her wrist? She was still in the hospital on Saturday. Why is that? When you break a wrist or ankle you’re only in the hospital for two or three hours. Hillary has the onset of something; I’m willing to bet.

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Regarding the comment in last week’s column, someone must be ill informed. There has not been an increase of jobs, taxes have not been cut, the stock market is not soaring and Isis is certainly not defeated. I too say go Trump! Go back to where you came from. 

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For some reason I came across that Fox TV News station, which I don’t watch, and I heard this person yelling or supposedly talking and there she was! It was Jeannine Pirro and her blabbermouth. It was going 119 mph! 

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I’ve got a great idea to make Hillary go away. Send her on a one-way trip to Mars! But the problem with that would be if she’s up there on Mars, eventually the Martians would get tired of her and send her to another planet in the galaxy – like Pluto.

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Today, Melania Trump spoke about opioids in New Hampshire. I thought she would have learned how to speak better English by now. It’s been almost a year and a half since her husband’s nomination. She had plenty of time to practice. A week ago she was talking about bullying. Is she kidding? Her husband is the biggest bully that ever lived! Doesn’t she know that yet?

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Donald Trump says we need the death penalty for drug dealers. I think that’s a great idea! It’s about time we start getting tougher with the criminals. We also need the death penalty for political candidates who are caught colluding with foreign powers and caught laundering the Russian mob money. Oh wait, that would be our president too! He won’t pass that.

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You so called Evangelists that follow that satanic Trump; you guys are far from being a Christian. You are being duped. 

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It seems our Mr. Mueller has a rather shady background and is now coming to light. Perhaps we need an investigator to investigate the investigator! 

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They say no man is above the law. Let’s see what happens in Trump’s case. Good luck.

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I used to love this column and it used to be the first thing I would read, but now it’s the last thing I care to read. People are absolutely ridiculous! They seem to think that everybody else is wrong, all they do is criticize and they want to believe all the things the media says. Don’t they realize that they lie more than our president? And what does the word respect mean? Does anyone know? I’m over 70 and I get very tired of all of the younger generation growing up saying that I can talk to you the way you talk to me. I don’t think so. Why don’t the parents teach their children and stop blaming everyone else for the way their children are? Why don’t we stop doing the blame game? 

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When will the madness end? Cuomo is going to tax healthcare and medicine. So more people will need more and more costly New York State medical assistance. Now this is genius, tax what we pay taxes for. The additional cigar taxes will go a long way in paying for new roads and bridges.

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I remember when the Ruger Mini14 was introduced looking like a scaled down M14. Almost immediately following came the after market parts to make it look more modern military. Then along comes the AR15. A gun that even the inventor said does not belong in civilian hands. Rapid fire with lots and lots of ammo. Add a bump stock and sound like a belt fed weapon. With their low caliber and high velocity, a real weapon of mass destruction. Maximum damage to anyone it hits. Just read the autopsy reports from the Las Vegas terror shooting. That could have been the fate of the Mini14, but why play dress up when you can get a gun off the shelf that already looks wicked. As soon as you grab that first high capacity magazine you have branded yourself as someone who should be on a watch list. America’s terrorists are now lone wolves with some sort of chip on their shoulder. No need for the public to have either.

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What does Putin have on Trump? He is so weak when it comes to the Russians. Does he wear adult diapers? Because he is always a moment away from wetting his pants. His family cannot get security clearances and still have access to our secrets. Are they giving them to the Russians? The Saudi’s laugh at us and say they have Jared in their pocket. We see how Cambridge Analytica, Facebook and guess who, the Russians along with American traitors easily hacked our election. Not a Shot was fired, it was so easy. The republicans handed it to them.