Speak Out

Re "Correcting the problem" (Speak Out, April 27):

James Nolin's comments make me think that, like the source of fossil fuels, he, too, is a dinosaur. Surely he remembers in 1982 under Ronald Reagan when oil exploration and drilling in the United States shut down and Big Oil started importing instead of producing so it could take larger profits. Oil rigs were stacked in the yards. Lafayette and Houston were devastated economically, and I lost my job at an oil service company in Laredo, Texas.

Supply is not the oil problem and never has been. OPEC regularly slows production to keep prices up, duh. The world needs to get away from the internal combustion engine invented in 1864. Here we are 144 years later reading a letter from someone promoting a 144-year-old technology and telling us what we need to do.

One would think Nolin had a vested interest in oil if he thinks we should continue the use of an outdated fuel in an outdated technology. Nolin should do us all a favor and invest in hydrogen fuel technology and leave the dinosaurs where they belong, dead and buried.

Bill Jennings
Anniston

Mariah and Elvis

Re "Mariah, Elvis and decline" (Harvey H. Jackson column, April 23):

Elvis or Mariah? Wow, now he's stepping on toes! Star columnist Harvey H. Jackson was absolutely my favorite professor at Jacksonville State University. Anyone who ever had his classes likes him, too, or either they slept or skipped class. He is a barge-load of historical knowledge. I love to read his perspective on almost everything.

I used to be Mariah's No. 1 fan back in the day when she was normal, not made of silicon, and used her voice to become well known. She's not my type anymore. Of course, if I had called her, I could have saved her from the need to seek security through her looks, but she missed that chance. I married not only the most beautiful woman God created, but also one who knows that charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, because a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised.

As for Elvis, I have a fat stack of his records. Big, shiny "like new" plastic circles that make cool sounds when you run them backwards. I'm still an Elvis fan and so are my kids.

I cannot compare Elvis to Mariah in any way … well, maybe I can. So I guess I have no criticism after all of Jackson's work.

Jeff Hines
Anniston

Who profits from oil?

On March 3, I wrote my congressman, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks, to ask him why the federal government doesn't look into regulating the profits of oil refiners in an effort to make the price of gasoline more fair and reasonable. I cited as a precedent for such action the establishment of the Office of Price Administration during World War II to protect against price gouging.

So far, I have received no response from Rogers.

The billions of dollars of profit made at the expense of people who must have gasoline are both outrageous and obscene. Yes, the price of crude oil is indeed a factor in the price of gasoline equation, but unregulated and out-of-control profits are an even more significant factor. For example, in 2007, Exxon's profit was $40.61 billion — while still paying the high price for the crude oil.

Why hasn't Rogers answered my letter? I don't know. Could it be that some of the big oil profits are finding their way to Washington in serpentine fashion? I certainly hope not.

Homer H. Turner Jr.
Auburn