In reading the article by Charles Spence in the Jan. 5 issue concerning EPA’s fuel rules (“Capital Comments: The latest on NAVAIDS, user fees and fuel rules”), I am reminded of a comment by the famous film comedian of the 1930s and 1940s, Groucho Marx. He said of government, “Politics is the art of seeking trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” What else needs to be said to explain the absurd solution that bureaucrats can find to remedy non-existent problems?
I also recall what Lt. George Gay, the sole survivor of Torpedo Squadron Eight in the battle of Midway, had to say along this line. In his 1979 book “The Sole Survivor,” he wrote in the epilogue, “These environment fanatics have only very small points, and not many at that. A total clean up of our environment is a romantic illusion. It could result in our being in a beautiful world — cold, hungry and unemployed.”
BUDDY KIRTLAND
Collinwood, Tenn.