MAILBAG:

Jim Righeimer admits to talking on his cellphone in excess of two hours a day, while driving his car “during a large portion of that time” [“Nanny state says ‘no cellphones,’” July 12]. He complains about the new cellphone law and the “nanny state.”

An open letter to Jim Righeimer:

Dear sir,

You are that person who drives slowly in the fast lane, holding up the entire flow of traffic on a busy street.

You are that person who pauses overly long at a stop sign, concentrating on your phone conversation and confusing the rest of us at the intersection.

You are that person who, trying to hear over the static of your phone, misses the opportunity to turn left, confounding the driver behind you.

You are that person who cannot seem to sync with the flow of traffic around you, and all you can say is, “No, it’s not me. It’s the other guy who can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.”

This has nothing to do with automotive safety and everything to do with common courtesy. I beg you: Hang up the phone and drive!

Bill Bennett

Newport Beach

Polarized media don’t educate Americans

I’ve noticed, with some concern, the self-labeled conservative talk show hosts’ blatant attempt to connect our gas prices with the ban on drilling off our coasts and in Alaska. The two are connected only by the word “oil” — nothing else.

The large oil cartels already own the rights to hundreds of thousands of acres of proven reserves they have yet to tap! Why do they so desperately want the rights to drill off our coasts and in Alaska? Because they don’t yet control those reserves, and they want them — it’s as simple as that.

The price of a barrel of oil is arbitrarily decided by OPEC, of which we, Canada, Mexico and Venezuela are members along with the Middle Eastern countries. We import less than 25% of our oil from the Middle East — our largest supplier being Canada, followed by Mexico and Venezuela.

If the oil companies started drilling tomorrow in our forbidden reserves, that oil wouldn’t reach the pump for about 10 years. How’s that going to affect the price of gas at the pump today?

Politicizing this situation with Republicans pushing for drilling and Democrats against it only serves to further polarize an already disgusting situation.

It would behoove both sides to stop knee-jerking and find out some background data. I realize that’s difficult for a population that gets its news in 10-second sound bites, and is treated to each situation in black or white terms.

But if we are to be really free, we’re going to need to become better educated — and even more — better informed. Our news media, both print and visual, have crumbled — prey to corporate profits. We now have a choice of right-wing or left-wing — period.

If we really want to check the accuracy of our news, we need to go online to news sources in Spain, New Zealand and the BBC. If the same story jibes with our media, we can believe it. More often than not, however, the others will agree with one another but be different than our own. Our news has been “sanitized.”

These are not political problems, nor are they Republican against Democrat — they’re problems for all Americans.

Alan Remington

Costa Mesa