Editor

Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

OK. So I'll never qualify as chairman of the Federal Reserve and I can have a problem trying to balancing my checkbook, but a few things about the nation's current financial situation trouble me.

For the last many weeks (I'm not sure exactly how many), we were told by some federal mouthpiece that grocery prices were up a modest 4 percent. My problem is I could never find out where this guy shops. It certainly isn't where my family shops.

Now, recession. Are we in one or not? The learned geeks say that the GNP (Gross National Product) must be negative for two months in a row before you can use the word recession to describe our economy. And you are told the GNP is up 0.6 percent, so, no recession.

But back when I was in school (OK, so that wasn't yesterday), the GNP was defined as equal to the monetary value of all goods and services generated in the country.

Now stay with me for just a minute.

If the value of grocery prices are up 7 to 10 percent or more, if many of the everyday items you buy are up 5 to 10 percent or more, if gasoline, fuel oil and other petroleum products have increased 30 or 40 percent, does it not stand to reason that as the value of these items has increased, so has the value of the GNP?

Guess that means we're not in a recession — just an inflationary spiral.

It must be time for common sense, or is that common cents?

JOHN E. TAYLOR

204 Jamestown Road

Front Royal

May 2, 2008

Editor

Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

It was with great pleasure that I read in the Daily that Jennifer McDonald is returning to the Economic Development Authority as its executive director.

I was executive director from 1994 to 2003 and I hired Jennifer initially as a summer intern. The EDA evolved substantially during my tenure and Ms. McDonald was a key reason for our success. I was so impressed by her intern work that I created the project management/property manager position for her after she completed her bachelor's degree in political science from High Point in North Carolina. We never looked back.

Jennifer grew and evolved during our years together as a proven professional able to manage any task assigned to her. One of her major successes during my tenure was the complete management, contractor selection and budget administration associated with the $1.2 million renovation of the former Avtex administration building where EDA currently maintains its offices. The EDA moved in May 2003 after nearly a year of demolition and construction. I am very proud of the building and the work Jennifer performed to complete the project on time and on budget. She developed a strong working relationship with the various contractors on this complex project.

Jennifer was also an important team member during the recruitment of more than $250 million of industrial investment to Warren County. She was very active in all aspects of securing major capital investments from Family Dollar Services, Ferguson Enterprises and Sysco (Baugh), as well as many of the smaller companies the EDA assisted.

I have followed Jennifer's career since I left Warren County and I am pleased to recently return to the east after spending four years in the western U.S. I am hopeful that I will be able to work with Jennifer in professional settings again in regional economic development activities.

Front Royal and Warren County 's economic base will become even stronger and diverse with Jennifer managing the EDA.

Congratulations to all involved with her selection.

STEPHEN HEAVENER

P.O. Box 1747

Concord, N.H.

April 26, 2008

Editor

Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

"These are times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country. But he that serves it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and women."

These immortal words penned by Thomas Paine in 1776 were the inspiration for a recent gathering in Silver Spring, Md., dubbed "Winter Soldier." No summer soldiers these, they are soldiers with a conscience who have served their country honorably in Iraq.

One after another these members of Iraq Veterans Against the War related their unsanitized version of the Iraq war, giving testimony about war crimes and atrocities they witnessed or committed.

This from Pfc. Clifton Hicks. While on tank patrol in the city of Abu Ghraib, he was given an order that the city was a "free fire zone" and that no friendlies" or civilians remained in the area. Upon that command, Hicks' unit "opened a furious fusillade, firing wildly into cars and people running for cover, at anything that moved." Sent in to survey the damage, Hicks found "the area littered with human and animal corpses, including women and children, no weapons or military gear near the bodies. ... I will agree to swear till the day I die, I didn't see an enemy on that operation."

Unfortunately, most members of the American mainstream media who packaged and sold the Iraq war to a gullible American public, largely ignored the Winter Soldiers. The New York Times, the most egregious in selling the war, gave it no coverage, nor did any of the major broadcast or cable networks.

These courageous veterans and active-duty soldiers risk being charged for complicity in war crimes, but they will not be silent. "If it's a choice between sitting in cowardice and not speaking up about things that are wrong, I'll take court-martial" said Selena Cooper, an active-duty military intelligence sergeant.

The real war criminals are those who put patriotic Americans in a situation where their morals are at odds with their survival instincts. They must be held accountable.

GENE RIGELON

1117 T-Bird Drive

Front Royal

April 7, 2008

Editor

Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

Those who stake claim in eternity certainly don't seem to be serious about the whole of eternity. Religious adherents push into an unseen future, a "heaven" where that which is prohibited here is abundant there. And in their minds it seems nothing existed before to Columbus' storming the beaches of North America. "Family Circus" depicts life as it has always been.

To protect this vulnerable belief system, any facts outside a basic focus is belittled: UFOs and Atlantis are spoken of only by "kooks" and conspiracy theorists are paranoid substance abusers. It isn't ignorance that fears intelligence; it is belief systems that fear intelligence. Ask any Neanderthal family.

While we force our children into schools that teach a narrow scope of "history" encompassing 300 years, we are oblivious to that which has occurred many thousands of years before Barbie's first cross-country drive in her RV. The facts and evidence of civilizations like Atlantis are fairly conclusive, yet the fruits of our society are harnessed for dumber focuses.

We have been given flight; we drop bombs. We have been given science; we develop bombs. We have been given television; we see bombs dropped and think explosions are acceptable, so long as they are American explosions.

In James Twyman's book, "Emissary of Light," it is revealed the inner workings of our universe, and those entities who dedicate their being to preserving the human species. This seriously tampers with any conventional belief system because it doesn't guarantee comfortable military pensions. It clearly points out that life is different from the "truth" the mainstream struggles to foist off on society.

In "The Atlantis Blueprint" by Wilson and Flem-Ath, careful methodical facts are joined to show a timeline much different than George Washington would have you believe. Mainstream science, dependent on funding as opposed to neutral fact-sharing, is simultaneously skirting the truth, while perfecting cluster bombs. This makes the military-industrial complex wealthy, thus assuring pensions.

It is interesting that Indigo and Crystal children are so interested in the "Star Wars" series. And they aren't afraid to look back 20,000 years.

Are you?

ROY ANDREW STOKES

687 Woodville Road

Maurertown

April 30, 2008