Crashes indicate need to lower Coquihalla speed limits
Is it maybe time to rethink the speed limits on the Coquihalla Highway? How many times has that route been closed this winter?
The 120-km/h signs are still hanging there. Just about every incident has involved transport trucks. We should consider lowering speed limits during the winter months to 80 km/h for transport trucks and 100 km/h for passenger vehicles.
It’s pretty obvious that excessive speed during adverse road conditions is the problem. The government needs to protect people from themselves. Alan Braun, Sechelt
‘Easy money’ fuelling boom
The NDP’s announced intent to slow the real-estate market will, like other ill-conceived attempts to control speculation, have little impact as long the general perception persists that there’s still money to be made.
So far, increasing density, taxing vacant houses and raising the eligibility for mortgages haven’t changed anything significantly.
Like all market booms over the decades, the “easy money” will eventually run out and
that’s when things can get ugly as investors try to unload their assets at the same time. When that will happen and how it will affect housing prices is anyone’s guess.
Charles Leduc, Vancouver
NRA boss paranoid lunatic
While I didn’t watch very much of the speech by U.S. National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre, he came across as a paranoid lunatic, completely obsessed with the “evil” U.S. government and how regulating firearms is a conspiracy to eliminate the Second Amendment, which grants Americans the right to bear arms.
I think LaPierre and all NRA members should be ashamed of themselves for putting their need to play with machine guns, in order to feel macho, ahead of the safety of U.S. citizens, especially children.
I didn’t watch long enough to hear his defence of assault rifles for protecting one’s home, but as far as I’m concerned, they only exist for entertainment purposes, and that’s totally indefensible. Peter Randrup, Smithers
U.S. calling kettle black
The U.S. obsession with the spectre of Russian interference in the presidential election would be comical if it weren’t so hypocritical.
Even if Russia is guilty of nonviolent intervention — placing ads and releasing self-incriminating emails written by the Democratic Party — its crimes pale beside the violent U.S.-orchestrated overthrow of more than 30 governments over the years. America would do itself a favour by focusing less on the speck in its brother’s eye and more on the plank in its own.
Mike Ward, Duncan
Graham harmed society
U.S. humourist Mark Twain said that while he never wished for the death of any man, he read many obituaries with pleasure. Any pleasure I might have derived from reading the obituary of Billy Graham is diminished because he was one of the driving forces behind the growth of evangelical Christianity in the U.S., which led that country to the absurdity of the Donald Trump presidency.
I have little problem with moderate and progressive churches who have made peace with science, human rights, women’s rights and other rights that evangelical churches still oppose. Make no mistake, Graham’s interpretation of the Bible and other literalist religions are cesspools of irrationality that have fuelled the anti-intellectualism and anti-science of today.
Robert Rock, Mission City