Free public housing idea? Instead, get up and ... w-o-r-k!

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following letters to the editor were written in response to a letter to the editor from Hendersonville resident Richard D. Pope — headlined “Free public housing urged in Hendersonville” — that appeared in the April 29 edition of the Daily Planet.

Everything is free until you run out of money (i.e. other people’s money), then we all die because we have no money for food or shelter.

Still can’t spell, but I have spell checker — and I worked from the ages of 9 to 79, with only a few breaks in between.

If you are a native, you are Scotch-Irish — and would not take a handout anyway.

I read one citizen’s take on “free public housing” three times, trying to discern whether the piece was satire, irony or stupidity. I concluded that writer was dead serious in the belief that there is such a thing as “free stuff.”

Rational people (so, “old people”) understand that the concept of “free public housing,” like “free lunches,” is a gross misrepresentation of reality. Because nothing in life or death is “free.”

That slapping you hear when the doctor smacks the rump of a newly minted human being? That’s actually the sound of an invoice hitting the parents’ inbox.

Need food, clothing, shelter, electricity, water or transportation? Someone pays for all of it.

Going to college, technical school, or enjoying a “gap year?” Again, a diligent citizen writes some checks.

Getting married? Someone has to pony-up for the wedding facility, the musicians, the preacher, the food and drink, and every grain of rice thrown at the happy couple (lookin’ at you, dad).

Finally, when each of us exits this life, you can bet that the mortician, the mortuary, the cemetery, the pastor, the limousine service, the caterer, and the flower shop all have to be paid.

So the idea that there is some magical thing called “free public housing” is nonsense of the lowest order. And while the previous writer’s heart may be in the right place, there is no place for anyone to suggest that such housing is “free.”

Hard-working citizens, whether well off — as the previous writer claimed— struggling, or retired on a fixed income, pay for the “free stuff” so freely given by the Zohran Mamdani’s and Katie Wilson’s of the world.

Certainly no government agency or bureaucratic institution can magically make anything “Free.” They have no money that they have not first taken from the citizens.

PRECEPT: ANY MONEY SPENT BY A GOVERNMENT AGENCY, NGO, OR SOCIAL SUPPORT GROUP WAS PREVIOUSLY TAKEN FROM YOU AND ME.

Yes, the problem of homelessness deserves serious attention, but that’s a topic too large for the easy banter of an “Opinion” page in a “free” publication like Daily Planet (yes, tongue firmly in cheek).

Columnist ripped for basing his analysis on ‘YouTube U;’ urged to try in-depth reading

I read Roger Buckner’s May 3 commentary on Iranian temporary marriages with the patience one reserves for a relative who insists on holding forth at Thanksgiving dinner on subjects he discovered the night before on YouTube.

Mr. Buckner is entitled to his opinions. He is not, however, entitled to present half-digested video content as geopolitical analysis.

The practice Mr. Buckner stumbled upon is called “nikah mut’ah” — a form of temporary marriage recognized in Shia Islam, practiced primarily in Iran.

It is not a new development, not a secret, and not evidence of imminent regime collapse. It has existed for over a millennium, predating the Islamic Republic by centuries.

Its theological roots, its social controversies within Islam itself, and its complex legal standing are subjects that have been debated by Islamic scholars, sociologists and human rights researchers at length — in actual books, peer-reviewed journals, and established publications, rather than on YouTube.

Mr. Buckner’s conclusion — that the Iranian government offering this practice to common policemen constitutes “irrefutable evidence” that the regime is financially collapsing — reflects a breathtaking leap from anecdote to geopolitics.

By that logic, one could watch a video of American soldiers receiving hazard pay and conclude the Pentagon is bankrupt.

Iran’s economy is under genuine strain from sanctions, and serious analysts at institutions like the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution have documented this carefully.

That analysis, however, requires reading — a step Mr. Buckner appears to have skipped in favor of a single online video.

The commentary’s casual conflation of Sunni and Shia Islamic practices (the confusion over “mullah,” “imam,” and “ayatollah” is not charming — it is illustrative), its reduction of an entire civilization to a punchline, and its bizarre detour into American political grievances reveal less about Iran than they do about the limits of the author’s curiosity.

Mr. Buckner’s service to this country in Vietnam and in local law enforcement is genuinely worthy of respect.

That service, however, does not confer expertise in Islamic jurisprudence, Iranian domestic policy or Middle Eastern geopolitics.

The Daily Planet’s readers deserve commentary that is at minimum informed by sources that have been edited by someone other than an algorithm.

YouTube University, as Mr. Buckner calls it, has an open enrollment policy and no standards for graduation. It shows.

It’s time for Tucker Carlson to stop talking to Jewish supremacist clowns like The New York Times’ totally incompetent and corrupt Israeli spokesperson Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, otherwise better known as “Lulu,” the surreptitious serpentine Jew Mexican mother of loudmouth Laura Loomer, (who is allegedly) disgusting Donald Trump’s side piece (expletive deleted).

“Lulu” Garcia-Navarro is lying like usual about multiple aspects of her personal background.

For instance, “Lulu” falsely claims her family were Cuban refugees when their travel records and personal identification documents clearly indicate they were all Mexican citizens, born-and-raised, with their made-up Cuban heritage at the time believed by these Israeli stooges to have been their ticket into the United Kingdom for free stuff, including free education, free health care, free rent, free food and free love (Lulu’s favorite).

Furthermore, lying “Lulu” comes from a family of Zionist extremist thugs who were caught having committed multiple serious felony crimes against the people of Mexico, then later against the nation of Cuba, as well on behalf of the fascist foreign power of Israel.

If the United Kingdom weren’t every bit as under the control of kleptocratic Jews as America is, then “Lulu” and her loser family would have all been given one-way tickets to Tel Aviv, Israel.

But regardless of how many lies “Lulu,” the fake journalist, tries to tell convincingly while she unsuccessfully attempts to shame Tucker Carlson for doing her journalistic job for her — since Laura Loomer’s mother “Lulu” Loomer (aka Garcia-Navarro) is too stupid and clueless to actually be a convincing journalist of any kind — no one but her big-nosed, butt-ugly, biological daughter and dead-ringer Laura Loomer the lunatic takes “Lulu” the Semitic (expletive deleted) seriously.

Giving up her (expletive deleted) for that story is not laudable or commendable, it is indictable, y’all.

Israeli Holocaust and genocide scholars — Amos Goldberg, Omer Bartov, Daniel Blatman, Raz Segal and Shmuel Lederman — have all identified Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.

Yet, I can find no evidence that any of these scholars, including Bartov, who teaches at Brown University, has been invited to testify before Congress.

Moreover, according to Adam Johnson, author of “How to Sell a Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza,” in the two-year period after Oct. 7, major Sunday morning news shows like “Meet the Press,” ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” and CNN’s “State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash” featured no Palestinian guests at all.

“Face the Nation” had just one, with the Palestinian Authority’s British ambassador appearing on Nov. 5, 2023.

• Holy Father: “Enough with the idolatry of self and money. Enough with the display of force. Enough with war! True strength is manifested in serving life.”

• Wholly Fodder: “Leo should get his act together as pope. I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime, I guess.”

BTW, if Pope Leo’s agenda actually included trying to lure Trump into more bombastically stupid tweets, would that be a Robe-a-Dope strategy?

If you were in the Asheville area yesterday (May 1), it looked like July 14th in Paris — only the streaks in the sky were all white.

Bye-bye to the hapless King (Charles III) ... now resign as head of the Church of England, as at least two dozen more innocent Christians slaughtered in Africa add to the thousands already subjected to heinous crime... and at least one additional church reportedly (was) torched while you chose to meet with Barry Obama’s wannabe NYC mayor (Zohran Mamdani)?

The Clinton-Obama thugs are allowed to execute their strategy and, while their C linton N ews N etwork slings the BS, not anyone seems to (IAR) INVESTIGATE - ARREST - PROSECUTE the real assho--s keeping a close evil eye to the daily schedule of a close friend and confidante within his inner circle — the CEO of the Obama Foundation (Valerie Jarrett)....

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following letter was emailed to the Daily Planet and is addressed to Bill Press, a liberal syndicated columnist whose work appears regularly in this newspaper. The writer takes issue with some assertions by Press in a recent column.

I once lost a bet over this several years ago. Someone of your stature should know better.