If the state wants to make beaucoup sales and tax monies, it should raise prices and taxes on food staples shipped to foreign countries, such as rice and other grain grown in California.

Fruits and vegetables shipped to foreign countries should be “sky high” in order to enrich California’s farmers. People have to eat, and foreign governments have billions of dollars to buy our foodstuffs.

America is one of the most productive food producers in the world, and we should not sell our food products on the cheap to foreign countries. If the “Wheat Rust” virus cuts world production of wheat, we can really make a bundle on sales and tax dollars.

Food can be America’s oil, and we will have no budget deficits.

John Sanchez,
Rosemead

What a great article you wrote about Dale Drozen (The Madera Tribune, July 13). Drozen is a man I have never met, in fact I never heard of him until your article.
Madera County needs this man.

We need to hear from him after every Board of Supervisors meeting. This man is a voice I want to hear from. He seems to want what is good for all in Madera County.  Ask Mr. Drozen to be Madera County’s “Citizen on the Street Corner” or “Citizen in the Board of Supervisors meeting”  “bee in the Supervisors’ ear,” whatever sounds good.

I bet the readership would get a kick out of it, too.

Just think — we get cute legs and hugs from Leon, as well as great travel and Parks and Recreation news, and Board of Supervisors meeting news from Dale. Cool.

Susan Lobach,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Back in the day when I worked in Washington State, I was in an audience for a speech on civil rights that was the best I have ever heard. It was delivered by then-Superior Court Judge Charles Z. Smith, who later became a four-term member of the Washington State Supreme Court, and who was, and still is, widely regarded as one of the smartest lawyers and most accomplished Americans.

Justice Smith also was a law school associate dean and professor, a radio commentator, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, a special assistant to U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, president of the American Baptist Churches USA and a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

His speech on civil rights was unbelievably short. It was delivered to a small group of Seattle business people who had gathered in a small upstairs room in downtown Seattle a few days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. The people in the room had gathered to figure out what they could do to head off what they thought at the time would be race riots, and to try to do something for racial justice.

I remember the moment when Charles Z. Smith stood up. He was probably the tallest man in the room, and was dressed like he had just stepped out of the pages of Esquire, in a dark suit, white shirt and red-stripped tie. He stood quietly for a moment, until the room was silent. Then, he spoke:

“There is really only one thing anyone can do to bring about racial justice,” he said. “It is this: Don’t discriminate. Period.”

As I read about the Sotomayor Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Judge Smith’s words seem as true today as they were back then.

By the way, Judge Smith’s father was Cuban, his mother black. But I think of him only as an American — a wise and good American whose words have meaning for me today.

Judge Sotomayor is a true American. She grew up in a public housing project believing in the power of education. With her own indefatigable work ethic, Sotomayor excelled in school and won a scholarship to Princeton University. After graduating Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, she entered Yale Law School, where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.

She has worked at almost every level of our judicial system — prosecutor, litigator, trial court judge and appellate judge.

Sotomayor would be the court’s first Latina justice. She is an inspiring public figure and will make a great justice. I hope the Senate will move swiftly to confirm her nomination.

Dr. Loraine Goodwin,
M.D., J.D., Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

The United States already has the most expensive health care system in the world. Americans aren’t unhappy with the quality of the care. What they hate is how quickly costs rise, and how those who pay for health care often subsidize those who don’t.

It doesn’t sound like the health plan for which President Obama is thumping the tubs will change any of that Obama wants to make sure everyone has health coverage, and that is a worthy goal, but we need to remember something about our costly health care system: It already covers most people.

People 65 and over are covered by Medicare, which is financed by a mandatory employment tax, paid by both employers and workers.

Medicaid covers vast numbers of poor people who for whatever reason have no other coverage. That is again paid for by taxes.

Private insurance covers many who work or own businesses. In some cases, the employers pay all costs for coverage, but that practice is dwindling. In most cases, costs are shared between the employee and the employer.

Then, there are laws which require hospitals to treat virtually anybody who comes through the door into the emergency room, whether the patient can pay or not. The cost of that care is born by the public, usually through state payments, and through subsidization by regular paying customers. Hospital rates are usually padded to help the hospital absorb the cost of treating indigents whose care isn’t otherwise paid.

And something else: Doctors and hospitals pay atrocious insurance fees for malpractice and pass those costs on to their patients, or their patients’ insurance companies. Obama’s plan does nothing to limit punitive jury awards, which contribute to the high malpractice insurance costs.

People won’t want to pay any more — they would like to see more for the money they already pay.

By Tami Jo Nix
The Madera Tribune

It must be incredibly difficult to take a book with as many pages as J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” and make a movie meant to be seen in one sitting.

The sixth cinematic installment in the contemporary fantasy saga debuted Wednesday.

The boy wizard Harry Potter (portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe), who as a baby survived a killing curse from the evil Lord Voldemort, has grown up. The cute and put-upon orphan child, whose parents died to protect him, is now a young man of 16 in the equivalent to his junior year at Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry.

Fans of Harry Potter’s “muggle” (non-magical) family will be disappointed as there are no scenes featuring the Dursleys. Also, no Dobby the house elf, Lucius Malfoy or any scenes with Voldemort in them, except as brief flashbacks of memory.

However the younger Malfoy, the much-hated Draco (played by Tom Felton), plays a big part in this movie. The audience is also introduced to young Tom Riddle, an ultimately pivotal character in the series, when headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore (actor Michael Gambon) visits the 11-year-old at an orphanage.

As the main characters of the series have matured, the movies have grown progressively darker. This latest treatment, which runs 153 minutes, is the darkest by far. But it isn’t all dark and grim by any means.

Scenes in the twin Weasley brother’s joke shop are as light and airy as earlier scenes in the candy store Honeydukes from previous movies of the series. The store itself shouldn’t disappoint book fans who have been looking forward to seeing what a joke shop built and run by these two pranksters would be like.

Young love also blossoms for the saga’s three main characters as first Harry’s best friend Ron Weasley (actor Rupert Grint) is caught up in a romance, friend Hermione Granger (actress Emma Watson) struggles to adjust, and Harry has love troubles of his own.

A new potions master, Horace Slughorn (Academy-Award-winner Jim Broadbent), has an important part of a puzzle that will help Harry in his fight against Voldemort. This sets the stage for the next installment in the saga, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which nytimes.com says will be released in two parts with the second installment debuting six months after part one.
If the next film is like this one, expect a winner.

+ + +

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is rated PG for frightening images and scenes, some violence, language and mild sensuality. Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Some Maderans are likely to gasp when they see their water bills late this year or early next year after water meters start being read and used as the basis for billing. I, too, may be one of those who gasps, for although Mrs. Doud and I don’t have a water meter yet, we will be among those whose rates will go up anyway.

Some people think water ought to be free, or that they should somehow be exempt from the costs of bringing clean water to them.

We see this attitude throughout the county. On Tuesday, for example, some people showed up at the Madera County Board of Supervisors meeting to complain about having to pay the bills sent to them by their water districts.

People who don’t live in Madera or Chowchilla either have their own wells or belong to service districts which provide them with water and sewer service. For years, the county subsidized many of those districts’ costs from the county’s General Fund, but those days are past. Yet, some folks just don’t understand that they need to pay for what they use.

In the City of Madera, where no meters are read and most people pay for water according to the square footage of their lots, there has long been a feeling that some water users are wasteful, especially in the summer.

Most people who irrigate their yards tend to over-sprinkle — but would say they actually are responsible users of water. Meters will help sort that out.

The meters will be a good thing, after the sticker shock wears off. Wherever water meters are installed, people become better stewards of their water.

That’s something we need to be. We live in an area that’s just a step above a desert, and for decades we have been drawing down our water table. In dry years, as we’re presently experiencing, that becomes a serious situation, indeed. The next generation of Maderans will thanks us for those meters.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

I heard a prayer the other day on the radio which went like this: “Thank you, Lord, that we live in a time and in a place where it is warm.”

I wasn’t paying all that much attention — I had been surfing stations in my car — so I don’t know the context of the prayer, or who prayed it. But it got me thinking about all the global warming talk and the people who are worrying about it.

Global warming has been under way for about 10,000 years, melting the great ice sheets of the last glaciation which covered about half of what now is the United States. Global-warming alarmists are fond of showing photos of icebergs calving off glaciers in Alaska, but that has been going on for thousands of years. And the reason glaciers calve is because ice behind them is pushing them forward. We all learned that in grade school.
Without the global warming of the last few millennia, where we live now would be uninhabitable. That would be true of most of the northern United States.

Even a minor interruption in warming can cause severe hardship. The United States, since its founding, has recorded at least one “little ice age” when temperatures dropped. Europe has had more than one of these episodes.

The idea that global warming will bring doom just isn’t born out. Crop yields are up world wide, people live longer — global warming has been a boon to humanity.

The ill effects on life don’t seem to come from warming, but rather from cooling. The geological record is clear — when ice advances, life is buried or driven away.

The fact that the G-8 leaders didn’t come up with more climate doomsday pronouncements may mean people are finally coming around to reality on this subject.

That prayer seems to make more and more sense.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Most of us know some rules of thumb, little sayings or syllogisms that are supposed to help us get through our lives. There are books and Web sites about these rules of thumb, and they are fun to read.

But I have to argue with some of them.

This one, for example, gleaned from Rules of Thumb.org:

“It takes two minutes for the sun to drop out of sight once it touches the horizon.”

That may be true of some places on the planet, but I think the sun sets more slowly in Madera. Mrs. Doud and I went out to see the fireworks on July 4, and we got there just as the sun was on the horizon. The fireworks were supposed to start when the sun had set.

“How long before the fireworks?” Mrs. Doud asked.

“Two minutes,” I replied.

Well, we sat there, and sat there, and the sun just sort of scrunched itself down, not really setting. The whole thing took about 20 minutes, confirming Mrs. Doud’s opinion that most of the time I don’t know what I’m talking about. So much for that rule.

Here is another one:

“Keep your car keys by your bed. If a burglar breaks into your house, press the alarm button on the key fob.”

I put my car keys on my nightstand, and it worked. Nobody broke into the house. I didn’t even have to press the alarm button. However, when I went out the door and locked it on my way to work, I discovered I had left my keys — on the nightstand. I went back in the house, grabbed the keys, and being in a hurry, inadvertently pressed the alarm button, scaring the daylights out of the cat, which sleeps on the roof of the car.
So much for those rules of thumb.

Here’s one we might be able to trust, though:

“If someone says ‘go look in the sink,’ don’t.” (“Rules of Thumb,” Chapter 12.)

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

The airlines are complaining of falling revenues as a result of the recession, and they are responding by canceling flights and trying to pack planes tighter.

Let’s see. How is that going to make more people want to fly. Do I want to wait longer for a flight? Do I want to be even less comfortable in my coach class seat? Is something wrong with that scenario?

What would happen if seats became a little larger and a little more comfortable? Would more people want to fly? What would happen if schedules remained the same, even though the planes weren’t quite as full? Would more people want to fly?

The airlines also are raising their rates. Naturally, this will make more people want to fly.

On the ground, meanwhile, we learn that in already traffic-jammed San Francisco, bus fares are going up and schedules are being cut back. Will that make more people want to ride the buses — buses which, by the way, are known on some routes for being downright scary because of the creeps who ride them. And, of course, fares are going up.

The amazing thing about the airline business is that no matter how overcrowded it is with carriers, more airlines keep wanting to get into the act. That is even though the number of passengers seems to have peaked — at least until the recession goes away.

Maybe one of the new airlines will offer its passengers a little more comfort, a little less hassle and schedules that work in everyone’s favor. Maybe one will borrow a page from the past, when airlines competed on the basis of comfort and service.

They’d better, or buses will begin taking the passengers away from them. It turns out buses in some East Coast cities are offering luxury coach service between major cities, and they are filling with passengers. We may be seeing a new trend.