Letters: Not milk? Thankful that KY legislators have shown us that almonds aren’t cows.
Not milk? Duh.
While eating my morning cereal with almond milk, I always imagined the almonds placidly grazing in a green meadow, then loping to the barn to be milked by a kindly farmer. Imagine my horror when I opened the Herald-Leader a few days ago to discover that my almond milk isn’t milk at all, but a liquid expressed from a nut! Thank goodness our Kentucky senators are considering a measure (Senate Bill 81) designed to protect naïve and ignorant consumers like me by setting strict definitions for food products that can be labeled and sold as milk. Now that the almond/coconut/soybean/oatmeal industries’ deceptive practices have been exposed, perhaps this bill can be broadened to protect consumers from falling prey to the false labeling of other foods, such as hamburgers (no ham), peanut butter (no butter), and hot dogs (no dog).
Seriously, senators: Consumers know it’s not animal milk; that’s why they choose it.
Bev Salehi, Lexington
Bill shields farmers
If people didn’t read the recent Herald-Leader article, entitled “Senator wants ‘milk’ label only for milk made from cows, other animals” they should. In it they’ll find Republican state Sen. Matt Castlen pushing Senate Bill 81, a bill to restrict the use of the word milk to only dairy products produced by mammals. Liquids derived from soybeans, almonds and coconuts need not apply.
This bill is being pushed by the Kentucky Dairy Development Council and their executive director H.H. Barlow who said it’s needed due to the improved farming efficiencies having created a milk glut that reduced prices. And H.H. Barlow is quoted as saying “Milk is the secretion of an animal. I’ve never seen a tree secrete anything yet, except maybe maple syrup.” Will he move on to removing the word milk from the plant called milkweed next? It oozes a sticky white sap looking like milk from its leaves when they’re damaged.
So now we’ve got a Republican senator trying to protect the Kentucky Dairy Development Council and dairy farmers from a problem they created. I wonder where the personal responsibility is.
And I thought Republicans were for less government and less regulations. Oh, the hypocrisy.
Joe Crouch, Lexington
Fear plus force
Conservatives, religious, political, or some combination seem to have a short leitmotif to address their concerns.
That theme is “fear, then force”. The fear can be an actual danger, but more often is the created fear. An example is the bathroom bills introduced around the country. With a typical public restroom, the odds of seeing another’s dangly bits is nearly zero unless the “victim” makes a determined effort to be offended. Yet the fear is created. And the force to address that fear is the force of law.
Then there is the famous “good guy with a gun”. The fear is usually a violent “illegal immigrant” and the force is typically a gun held by a patriotic American.
In my job as a regulator, I had guns pulled on me more times than I would wish. Not once did I look at a person’s gun pointed at me and think, “I could draw my gun and shoot him before he shoots me.” Talking to the irate person before me worked every time. I didn’t think the solution was more angry people with guns.
Senate Bill 89, now withdrawn by its sponsor, was a spectacularly idiotic effort to create fear and control it by force of law.
Hal Stephen Midkiff, Mount Sterling
A security proposal
So, our Kentucky state legislators are OK with gun-totin’ in the Capitol rotunda. It’s good that there’s a metal detector to let ‘em know who and how many; even better, to prevent attack by skateboard.
All the talk about guns and gun safety reminds me of the the early 1940s when my best friend Bud and I would go to the basement and set up a row of little rubber soldiers. Imagining them to be Nazis, Bud and I took turns popping them off with my BB gun. Feeling the heft of that shiny gun and watching those little soldiers flying through the air was a real rush. But we got over it. Bud and I grew up; not sure everybody else has.
As long as our lawmakers have a metal detector to reveal the presence of guns, why not add another security system. It’s a machine that sends a light beam into a legislator’s left ear. If that light is then detected coming out through the right ear said legislator is free to go on to the chamber.
Ernie Henninger, Harrodsburg
Dearth of facts
Regarding the recent column by Linda Blackford: The “farce” that I observed was the public hearings conducted by the Democrats. I heard no factual evidence of any law breaking by the president, only loads of opinion from folks who disagree with his methods. Even though I may not care much for some of his actions, so far, his methods appear to be working.
Ray Brown, Lexington
School choices
According to a recent Herald-Leader article, “Fayette teachers go to Frankfort”, taxpayers should be pleased that the schools superintendent and the teachers’ union president are working together to get more money for public schools.The Fayette County Education Association, a labor union, is described as “an employees’ group”.
Teachers leaving classrooms to lobby the legislature are paid for that day. Substitute teachers, many of whom are paid, increase the cost and decrease the quality of that day’s classes. In addition, Fayette County Public Schools uses taxpayers’ money to pay for a professional lobbyist to convince politicians to increase funding. So, we have a taxpayer-funded public school system, using taxpayer money to lobby for more taxpayer money from the state government, which is funded entirely by taxpayers.
They are lobbying for more money and against low-income families being able to send their children to private schools with tax credit scholarships and against public charter schools. Wake up, taxpayers. All families should have choices, not just those who can afford private schools.
Ray Davis, Lexington
Nursing home op-ed
It is not my concern to dissect bit by bit the recent op-ed with its blanket condemnation of nursing homes by Dr. Kevin Kavanaugh, though I do wonder how much time he has actually spent walking the halls of nursing homes where much good actually happens.
His justifiable concern regards emergence of drug-resistant pathogens and I think he would agree that antibiotic use and abuse has been primarily responsible, though clearly nursing home efforts to evaluate and control transmission are indispensable. Now let me quote from his article, “Lax federal regulations only see a problem with medication errors if there is a mistake in at least one of twenty drug administrations. Up to 75 percent of antibiotic usage in nursing homes may be inappropriate. Overworked hurried staff sets the stage for such errors.”
This at least implies that nursing homes are doing something other than simply following instructions from physicians or their extenders when they would be derelict if they did not. It is a little illogical to somehow assess blame over something that is totally beyond their control. It is interesting that the article actually says very little about the overprescribers while attacking nursing homes unmercifully. Perhaps that will be in another article.
Dr. G.A.Weigel, Somerset
Advice from Alaska
I’m questioning the ability of the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team. There was a time when tradition was the driving point and our team proved this by gutting it out for wins. With no professional teams in Kentucky, we put our support in our college teams. This is a tradition the current players and coach seem to not understand. Don’t get me wrong, they are awesome at what they do and never disappoint the NBA draft. This is where the problem starts. We don’t have an obvious professional team, so as supporters of the UK athletic programs, it’s nice to see athletes gutting it out for the win. In the last few years, we see fire that fizzles when the recruiters come along. Maybe a championship just isn’t in the making for the “best players”. Maybe we need the right players; the ones who do a gut check and win at all costs. It’s tough to be a fan talking them up and then hearing the phrase “when was the last national championship for UK basketball”. The team needs to challenge itself and make it happen. I’m a supportive fan reminding players they are part of something bigger than themselves, so perform like it.
Jeff Clark, Ketchikan, Alaska