Now, how about pink dots?

I agree with Ms. Conser (Mailbag, Nov. 18): The new library is a joke when it comes to colors. How sad they allowed a colorblind person to choose the colors.

Why not go ahead and paint giant pink dots on the brown to complete the job? I feel sad for the city. It is not a building to be proud of.

Conda Eckles, Albany

Cow pie brown, putrid green

What were the powers that be thinking of when they approved these depressing colors of cow pie brown and putrid pea green for our new library? Not only is the building itself an unattractive architectural monument to ugly, but now covering it with these colors has slung insult onto injury.

A library’s facade should be an exciting and inviting place for our children and ourselves to eagerly enter. It should be a sparkling place of reading for knowledge and entertainment, not a building whose awful colors make us feel that there is doom and gloom lurking inside.

Whoever is responsible for this public atrocity needs to fix it!

Ellen and Bill Lilja, Albany

Now they want respect?

I see that Democrats want us to “give him a chance.” Should I use the same standards that the Democrats have used for the last eight years? Let’s see, I disagree with him, therefore he is stupid, or he didn’t get every fact completely correct, so he lied.

I find it ironic that the people who have been calling conservatives hateful names and siding with our enemies abroad during a time of war now feel entitled to respect. I guess the word entitlement says it all — you don’t have to earn it, it is just supposed to be given to you by virtue of your existence, unless you are a conservative.

Rich Kellum, Albany

Down with nasty profits

Now that Democrats have achieved greater power, they may be able to push through some of their pet ideas. For example, they may be able to substantially raise the minimum wage, perhaps even double it. If they achieve this, employers may find that they must lay off most of their entry-level workers, but let’s not be dissuaded by this small inconvenience, because this is a matter of fairness.

Have no fear, the government will come to the rescue by paying out more in unemployment benefits, welfare and stimulus packages.

Also, consider that the minimum wage quashes an unsavory, radical idea held by a few Americans, the idea that consenting adults ought to be free to engage in unfettered economic transactions. We certainly shouldn’t allow too much freedom.

We can also eagerly anticipate implementation of a windfall profits tax on oil companies. This will justifiably punish oil companies for delivering a needed product and making a profit while doing so.

Let’s simply overlook the fact that taxes, as compared with profits, already add far more to the cost of oil products. Let’s also overlook the fact that oil company profit margins, when calculated appropriately on a percentage basis, are actually lower than those of many other industries.

Why not tax all the other industries more heavily as well to be fair? Fairness is paramount. We simply don’t like those nasty profits and prefer losses.

Sufficient losses may result in most of our American companies going out of business, and we may find that we have no jobs or retirement savings, but this should not present an insurmountable problem because the government will rescue us once again. Right?

Richard Hirschi, Albany

Fog lights: Keep them off

It’s that time of the year again, drivers. You know, when it stays dark after breakfast, and gets dark before supper, and you can’t leave the house without staring down those irreverent drivers that haven’t learned to turn off their vanity lights.

Vanity lights? Some call them auxiliary or driving lights. Some call them fog lights.

According to Oregon state law — you will find this on page 62 of the drivers’ manual — it is unlawful to have any lights except low-beam headlights on “when you are following another vehicle within 350 feet or approaching within 500 feet.”

If you are in virtually any traffic, be it city, freeway or country, you are driving in dim-light conditions. Yep, that means broad daylight.

Oregon state has adopted the DOT standard FMVSS 108, which dictates that these extra lights be used in conjunction with your bright headlights, and used accordingly.

However, most manufacturers, foreign and domestic, wire them with the dim lights, and include an extra switch that allows them to be turned off. This is the pattern that the public has gotten used to, and the situation you encounter in traffic.

Having those boomer lights on is a class “B” or “C” infraction depending on the local law, and could cost up to $300 when cited. The downside to this is that the majority of the enforcers either aren’t aware of this, or don’t consider it unless they really need a cause to pull you over.

Daytime running lights are another matter. They are usually about the same brightness as your parking lights, and are, generally, nonintrusive.

In my opinion, these extra lights are a genuine vision hazard, and 98.6 percent of drivers are using these lights illegally.

Any meaningful feedback will be answered.

F. L. “Chris” Christensen, Albany

Clock’s ticking on Iraq

Within one week of being elected, President-elect Obama was putting more lipstick on the pig. What a letdown.

Obama based his candidacy in part on a bold (some say foolish) promise to finish Bush’s withdrawal of all combat brigades from Iraq and do it within 16 months of taking office. Obama’s timetable means only noncombatants will remain in Iraq after May 2010. Obama’s vow obviously played well with the voters. It also appeased Obama’s anti-war base, to whom he is now beholding. But recent reports reveal Obama will almost certainly renege on his promise. This coming immediately after his initial meetings with military leaders.

During his time in the Senate Obama labeled our presence in Iraq illegal. His campaign strategy convinced voters that Iraq was a U.S. failure. If Iraq was indeed a fiasco, a quagmire, and a pig with lipstick, then all combat troops must be out of Iraq in 16 months. No excuses, no euphemisms and no equivocation allowed. On Jan. 20, 2009, Iraq will be Obama’s war. And if Obama breaks his word on May 19, 2010, his presidency becomes a sham. Tick, tick, tick …

Gordon L. Shadle, Albany