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Re: the Dec. 1 George Will column "Here we go again with new New Deal."

Will essentially claims that the Great Depression was the fault of workers in this country. Really?

Then, as now, the depression began in financial services. Unregulated financial markets created rampant speculation in exotic investments not secured by assets that collapsed under their own fraudulent weight.

The first thing Franklin D.Roosevelt did was to recapitalize the financial markets and impose regulations to restore public trust in financial institutions. FDR then had to inject money into the economy to get it growing again. He did so by putting people back to work in the public sector.

After 1936, FDR returned to traditional economic theory and briefly reduced federal spending to balance the federal budget. The recovery stalled and a recession resulted.

This recession was not the result of workers pricing themselves out of employment.

Re: the Dec. 1 column "Nebraska fiasco shows parents need support" by Leonard J. Pitts Jr.

It is true, unruly children can disrupt a family and destroy any sense of sanity. Parents do need help. Yet there is another side to the coin, children who have no parental guidance.

My daughter teaches high school health back East. She aches for the kids who look forward to going to school to eat. On Fridays, they try hoarding food for the weekend. Summer school is a blessing because they can eat during the off season. The main cause for their lack of food is abandonment and parents on drugs.

We should look both or many ways before we become judgmental. Maybe a helping hand is a good start.

Re: the Dec. 2 article "Obama taps Napolitano, Clinton for 'inner circle.' "

As I gazed at the photos of the six new Cabinet nominees on the front page of the Star, the first thought that came to mind was that the idea proposed by Jesse Jackson in the 1984 presidential campaign of a Rainbow Coalition has actually come to fruition.

Our country seems to have finally entered the 21st century in which one's color, creed or gender will not be a criteria for our elected officials or their appointees. I am very gratified to see this occur.

Re: the Nov. 30 article "I-10 bypass west of city urged."

An ideal bypass would start on Interstate 10 south of Tucson swing west and cross Interstate 19 south of Tucson, go around the west side of the Tucson mountains, cross Interstate 8 west of Casa Grande and intersect I-10 at Buckeye. In the future this highway could be extended north, passing Wickenburg and Prescott and terminating on Interstate 40 by Williams.

This grand bypass will provide an alternate route for transient traffic that now goes through Tucson and Phoenix. It would alleviate the perpetual congestion on I-10 between Tucson and Phoenix and provide an alternate route for north-south traffic going to the Grand Canyon.

My experience has been that most of the cars that pass me on either I-8 or I-10 have Texas, California or Mexico plates. Arizona is a speed bump for transient traffic. Given the heavy interstate and international traffic on I-10 through Tucson, it makes sense that the federal government pay for the entire bypass.

Re: the Nov. 30 article "I-10 bypass west of city urged."

Those of us who live on the west side of the Tucson Mountains don't want a bypass. We have already got the Central Arizona Project and the percolation ponds on our side, so we have done our part.

If you think this area is uninhabited, go online and find out the truth. The bypass would be in view of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which is a tourist attraction.

The idea of using the bypass as an emergency route is bogus, there are other roads. In the future, trains will be utilized for cargo transit more because they are exponentially more fuel efficient, so I don't believe this increased-traffic claim.

Re: the Dec. 1 column "Can Clinton-era all-stars really think outside box?" by Jonah Goldberg.

Goldberg feared the Obama White House staff would be sporting Che Guevara casual wear. Obviously he gets his "facts" from the likes of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, thus exposing them for what they really are: purveyors of groundless fear-mongering and sheer fantasy.

Please continue to carry Goldberg's opinions. We need the morning amusement.

Re: the Dec. 1 letter "Goldberg columns too far to the right."

The letter writer voices the classical "American left" philosophy of "We are the only ones anointed to tell the truth." Please do not take Goldberg's column off your editorial pages. We live in a free country and should have the benefit of balanced opinions, whether we agree with them or not.

Re: the Dec. 1 letter "Goldberg columns too far to the right."

The letter writer said the Star has "absolutely no right to include Jonah Goldberg" in its editorial pages. That is an outrageous and chilling statement, but typical of what I hear from the "progressive" left. It seems the letter writer would only allow opinions that support his beliefs to see the light of day, and would squelch all opposition.

The opinions I see in the editorial comments from the left are every bit as mean-spirited and vitriolic as the letter writer claims Goldberg is (a claim that I dispute).

I kept track of the editorials in the op-ed section during the election, and noticed that left-leaning editorials outnumbered right-leaning editorials. Now that the election is over, they seem to be well-balanced. The Constitution guarantees the Star the right to publish any opinions it wants, and readers have the right to read them or not as they wish.

Re: the Nov. 21 article "Judge acquits 2 of dogfighting charges."

I salute the Star for reporting the public's frustration and outrage of the recent acquittal of the couple who raised pit bulls. The article showed that incomplete law enabled this couple to escape true justice.

I just moved here from Virginia, where the Michael Vick case was prosecuted to the fullest. I take delight in the care Arizona gives to provide wildlife with space and the general respect the citizens maintain for its diverse creatures. This acquittal does not reflect those sentiments.

Animals fulfill a heartfelt need in humans and our domestic companions are particularly dear to us. Let's catch Arizona law up to embrace the compassion our society aspires to express for creatures beneath us in the chain of being by writing our lawmakers to promote change. Empathy for animals is the foundation of compassion for our fellow human beings.