The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 4)

Thank you for Mr. Peters article. Please pass my kudos on to him.

This is a much more important issue than even the article displays. You see, prior to automobile insurance being mandatory, there was a type of coverage that was available called "uninsured motorists insurance." That was in case someone hit you but they didn't have insurance. Guess what? You still get that coverage, you still need that coverage.  Now, insurance companies have gone so far as to steal your car legally. My mini-van was hit by a neighbor. The insurance company totalled the car, then refused to pay enough money to either repair or replace it. Then, it was illegal for me to drive it. After they said it was totalled, it had to have a salvage license, and was undrivable. It is far worse than the article depicts. The insurance company was neither required to repair or replace the vehicle...yet, I was insured. That is abject criminaltiy and blatant fraud.

Forcing people to buy a product of any type drives up the cost and destroys the service. When insurance was optional, insurance agents came to your home at your convenience to sell you insurance. They visited once or twice a year to see if your needs had changed and to try to sell you more. They also responded immediately to any claims.

After car insurance became mandatory, police stopped responding to accident calls.  Insurance agents respond with, can't you work it out with the other party?

Now let's look at medical insurance. Is medical mal-practice insurance mandatory? We need to eliminate all mandatory insurance. At the most, doctors should post a notice that they do not carry mal-practice insurance. I believe very firmly that the primary reason for the outrageous medical costs is due to insurance. If you eliminate all of the insurance premiums paid by doctors, nurses, hospitals and other components of our health care system, we would have affordable health care.

Please, look into all mandatory insurances for any type of business or organization.  Eliminating this one thing, mandatory insurance, is right up there with eliminating all bans on drilling for oil in harming our economy.
-- Gail Spurlock

The really crazy part about automobile liability insurance is that the policies attach to the cars and not the drivers. Thus, if I have two vehicles, even though I can't drive them both at the same time, I'll still need two policies.

It is the drivers that should carry insurance, not their jalopies.
-- Handy
Illinois

LOOKOUT MARRIAGE
Re: George Neumayr's Brave New Barbarism:

The Pagan Left is celebrating the denigration of marriage into a mere social contract by states like Iowa and Vermont. By removing the sexual identity of the legally betrothed from the equation, marriage becomes merely another form of legal contract, what may be termed a Sub-Chapter G Corporation. Since the legal argument for gay marriage relies on the individual right of equal protection, it clearly opens the door for group marriage, aka polygamy. Since the procreative purpose is removed, it allows relatives to marry. Gay marriage mandates the right of gay couples to adopt. And since it lowers it to a legal relation it will inspire business associates who seek the benefits of marriage (no compulsory court testimony, no inheritance and joint itemized deductions). In fact, since the right to marry is now based on an individual's legal right, it allows one to marry inanimate objects. What gay marriage really does is destroy the basic concept of marriage, surely the pathway to a New Barbarism.
-- Tim O'Neill
Pompano Beach, Florida

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FAIL WITH YOUR OWN MONEY
Re: Nicole Russell's The Sinking Strib:

Funny how "the writers, editors, photographers, and other staff of the paper" are looking to our (taxpayers) money for their salvation rather than putting up their own. May we (the taxpayers) dictate their salaries and benefits in return? Somehow, I bet that detail is not in the mix of the L3C. Perhaps someone might advise them ("the writers, editors, photographers, and other staff of the paper") that they have failed and that it is time for them to "move on."
-- Reid Bogie
Waterbury, Connecticut

HISTORICALLY ILLITERATE
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s The Arrogance of His Power:

Churchill liked a brandy, but Roosevelt drank Old Fashions, but neither of them drank on the job, and both would have been appalled at any suggestion that they did. They were far too busy with a world war to bother with dividing up the world the way Obama seems to think they did, even if they had the inclination, which I doubt very much. Britain simply did not have the financial clout, Churchill was well aware of the limitations of British power and Roosevelt thought a lot more in terms of dismantling colonial empires, not establishing him. It is bizarre that Obama is so quick to accuse a liberal icon like FDR of being an imperialist, it shows a level of ignorance that is simply astonishing. What on earth did they teach this fool at Harvard, how did he manage to graduate? If this is any indication of his knowledge of history and economics then I don't expect the recession to end in a hurry.
-- Christopher Holland
Canberra, Australia