Moores Shell-bashing is pure drivel
I was disheartened to read the drivel in Shannyn Moore's most recent column, "Stand down Greenpeace …" in ADN. The piece is filled with so many illogical leaps and contradictions its hard to know where to begin.
To summarize, her column conflates the technical challenges of offshore oil and gas exploration with, among other things, Donald Trump's laughable presidential campaign launch and the South Carolina church shooting. It also has to do with the 19th century whaling industry and Appomattox … or something.
Suffice to say I'm confident that most Alaskans understand the need for Shell's Arctic drilling program, and its importance to our state economy and the Lower 48. I'm confident that they also understand that as a radio host, Ms. Moore is hardly qualified to be the arbiter of what is and isn't a "setback" for Shell and its summer program and will rightly use the column to line their cat boxes. What is surprising is that ADN would continue to publish this drivel.
— Caroline Higgins Brady
Anchorage
Approach to heroin wrongheaded
Basic economics says that limiting supply will drive up price. Presumably heroin deaths in Alaska are lower than they might be due to a high price for the drug caused by the limit on supply created by its illegality. But the "elasticity of demand" for an addictive substance is low; people will pay anything at all for it if they need it (note that bars do fine in tough economic times). We might question whether the high price actually promotes its use, since sellers are so motivated by the high profit margins that they not only risk long prison terms but will fight deadly battles to protect "market share" from other sellers.
I recommend that policymakers and those who vote for them read "Chasing the Scream" by Johann Hari, a polemical history of drug laws in America and worldwide.
— Frank Cahill
Anchorage
Knik Arm bridge holds bright future
I've always felt that our political leaders and citizens are incredibly shortsighted in planning infrastructure. It seems that by the time projects are completed they are almost outdated. We need to plan not for now or even the next decade but toward the next century.
Two issues in the news today should be linked. Airport expansion and the Knik Arm bridge are projects that should be planned not for now but for decades in the future. I envision an entirely new international refueling and cargo transfer airport across the arm providing jobs and a market for refined fuel adding value to our resources. Our existing airport could meet the needs for domestic flights forever without affecting our quality of life by taking our parkland for expansion.
We need to access the land across the arm for a better way for our community to grow through this century and into the next. Driving into Anchorage for the first time in 1975, I was shocked by a new Glenn Highway that seemed vastly over designed for the time with little traffic. It provided for growth in Eagle River and the Mat-Su that has supported the economy and quality of life for Anchorage. The Knik Arm bridge would be our road to a better future with land for homes, recreation, industry, and good jobs for our children and grandchildren.
All communities within Anchorage have had to sacrifice for our inevitable growth, and Government Hill will sacrifice for the bridge but with cooperation and planning can benefit with the rest of us.
— Tim Pritchett
Anchorage
Get pot regulations under control
I don't smoke pot but I defer to the many Alaskans who have opted to make it legal. Now watching from the comfort of my heavily stuffed armchair I watch as our government makes the rules of the road for using marijuana; rules that will probably make it more difficult to use than when it was illegal. For example, you can't consume it in public (no one has clearly defined public), you can only have six plants of which only three can be flowering (as determined by the city's newly appointed on-call forensic botanist), and now my favorite fresh from the Assembly (drum roll please) … you have to keep it in your trunk when transporting it and if you have a vehicle without a trunk you'll be arrested for not having a trunk.
I think you can see where this is going. Here are some simple rules free of charge. If you smoke don't drive anything, don't give it to kids, and if you operate a public conveyance or work in a lifesaving capacity or you carry a gun for a living you can't be high when you are performing those duties. Other than that, have at it.
And for naysayers — get over it. You lost. Pot is legal. Stop making our Assembly make stupid, embarrassing rules. Don't make the cure worse than the disease.
— Alan Rice
Anchorage
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