If only professors could get a UK coach’s contract

I have nothing against Mark Stoops, and I wish him well. He seems a smart man, judging by the details of his deal with the University of Kentucky. It makes me realize that as a UK professor I have a lot to learn from college sports. I mistakenly assumed that winning games and student-athlete academic success were normal contractual expectations for a college football coach. But I see that ours actually get a bonus (more per game than I make in a year, by the way) for winning more than one Southeastern Conference game, and another for ensuring academic good progress of his players. I guess I’ve had it wrong these 20 years at UK. I am holding out next year for a new contract that expects my students will not learn anything, and gives me a bonus if they do (I won’t hold my breath). And if they don’t, I wonder if I could get a buyout to tide me over while I look for a new job.

Richard Schein

Midway

Blame society, not guns

Who killed Jovan Belcher? It wasn’t the gun. I suggest it was outcome-based education. Until a person chooses to put a bullet in the chamber, they are incapable of harming anyone — including oneself. I suggest the sports world stop writing smarmy liberal fiction — such as by Jason Whitlock, quoted by Bob Costas — and print the truth. These tragic events were the outcome of a self-esteem culture and a jock culture that allows men to remain boys because of their athletic talents.

Research will show he accepted a “gangsta” behavior code and diminished the value of education. He was tattooed to prove his “street cred” and he adopted the worst of black culture’s treatment of women: badly and own them. He surmised his value wasn’t uniquely intrinsic: a gift from God, but how he performed; and his measuring stick was what he thought he owned and controlled. It was his essence and, when threatened, he defended the sum value of his life.

In that awful second before he chose to pull the gun’s trigger and murder his baby’s mother, and later end his life, what if he had thought: God don’t make no junk.

No, a gun didn’t kill Belcher; a secular, atheist society’s value system pulled the trigger.

Ranny Grady

Monticello

Corporate DEMons

Maybe the letter writer of “Heartbreaking disparity” (Dec. 4) about Hostess declaring bankruptcy should have done some research, instead of assuming nasty Republicans ran the company into the ground while taking huge profits from it. Easy to find out that a private equity company, Ripplewood Enterprises, took control of Hostess in 2009.

Ripplewood is owned by Timothy Collins, a major Democratic donor. Ripplewood is the 10th biggest DNC donor and the largest among the private equity firms. Collins gave $500,000 to the Obama super PAC Priorities USA whose anti-Romney ads were found to be mostly false by the Washington Post Factcheck. During this time, the CEO’s recompense went from $750,000 to $2.55 million.

So, before blaming Republicans for every dastardly act that has ever occurred, the writer might do some simple research on the Internet. Maybe he gets his information from CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC, all owned by huge media conglomerates that give big bucks to Democrats. In case he is interested, 70 percent of the wealthiest members of Congress are Democrats.

Nancy Davidson

Georgetown

McCain’s real goal

Don’t John McCain and Co. realize they lost yet again? This witch hunt against Susan Rice is a thinly veiled attempt to pressure President Obama to select Sen. John Kerry for secretary of state. Kerry would be an excellent choice, but the real reason is that Republican Scott Brown, recently defeated by Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, could have a chance at regaining a Senate seat from Massachusetts. McCain and Co. don’t give a hoot about Benghazi. They probably couldn’t even find it on the map. How cynical and Machiavellian is this?

Does anyone remember Condi Rice week after week on the Sunday shows going on and on about the “mushroom cloud”? The Republicans never said a word about that or the loss of over 4,000 American lives and untold Iraqi victims in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction which existed only in the fantasy world of Bush/Cheney.

Obama won this past election handily and he should not let a couple of disgruntled wannabees influence his cabinet selection or beat up on his ambassadors. The winner should have whomever he wants. He earned it.

Judy Harvey Lexington