We have been seduced by shining devices

Looking about today’s world, it is difficult to not suspect that “we the People” have been seduced by and become addicted to shining devices and glorious toys that promise easy knowing, entertainment, convenience, communication and a sense of personal power, all in exchange for broad access to our earnings. That these devices break down and need constant upgrades is the genius side of their marketing, that and our growing dependence on them. Artificial Intelligence now is touted as being the next great thing. Let us do your thinking, writing and art. Those are outdated artifacts in the electronic age. The greatest human capacity rests in writing code. It is no secret why the tech bros are cozying up to the soon-to-be President Donald Trump. Just allow us to do our thing. It will be good for the economy, particularly ours. Let the lesser beings eat cake.

— Bob Porath, Boulder

War, simply stated, is just actually murder

When we train people to kill other people, as we do with our military, we take a risk.

We are essentially training them to be what is usually considered to be insane. We are deciding that, if performed in the interest of the correct belief, murdering another human being is actually doing good.

What could possibly go wrong?! What happened in New Orleans with one of our soldiers shouldn’t surprise us. After a while in this brief journey each of has on earth, a lot of us get onto the idea that the “insanity plea” in the law is in fact “insane”: Anyone who wants to kill someone is obviously insane.

We struggle with killing because “they” are doing it to us after all … and “They” haven’t the right beliefs. We come up with the only answer; what the old Testament called “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”

We actually need to remember that poor desperate soldier who succumbed to the idea that belief in some ideology justifies murder.

In the Jesse Welles song “War isn’t Murder” which Boomers aren’t likely to hear; it is spelled out the path that we are on in being at war with ourselves. My grand daughter knows, but us older folks need to remember.

War, simply stated, is just actually murder. And this infection of training us to kill eventually leads to us killing ourselves.

— Michael Dille, Boulder

Camera is embarrassing subscribers like me

Running a short piece of a syndicated column, such as George Will’s, and telling the reader to find the rest of it on the Washington Post, is egregiously cheesy. The Boulder Daily Real Estate And Sports Bulletin embarrasses itself and the gullible people like me, who are subscribers.

— Earl Noe, Boulder