Cal Thomas

Government GymsEditor: The article about the federal government funding gyms at the taxpayers' expense really angered me.I am one of many self-employed nurses who by some misfortune owe taxes. How the government expects us ever to pay this money is a mystery, when there is penalty and interest for the duration of the bill.Unless you have a large sum of cash to pay on this bill, you are at the government's mercy. Making scheduled payments is fine if you are steadily working, but when you are not, the interest and penalty are still applied.

Mish-MashEditor: Using a mass murder case as a springboard, columnist Cal Thomas (Aug. 2) jumps to the conclusion that the death penalty is justified. Insane crimes, he would have us believe, are not committed by insane people, but by evil people who, as his sources say, have a ''spiritual void.''Thomas rambles on about good and evil, concluding that ''man is basically not good'' and therefore ''needs to be controlled and conformed.'' This pseudo-scientific philosophical and theological mish-mash, by some arcane logic, leads Thomas to support the death penalty and even, in a Texas case he cites, murder.