In the first Rocky movie, starring Sylvester Stallone, the eponymous protagonist shares a confidence with the young woman he’s courting. Develop your body, so Rocky’s mom once advised him. He can forget about applying to Mensa.

During his State of the Union address, President Barack Hussein Obama Jr. could’ve been channeling Rocky Balboa’s mother. His urging Congress to take up the matter of gun control reminded me very much of my own mother. She forbade me to play with my older brother’s hunting knife. I might hurt myself.

President Obama again reminded me of my own mother, when he urged making the Head Start program available for all American children. This point does take a little thought to get to the implication, specifically, tax money.

It isn’t going to be cheap. If the American people want the best for their kids, they will have to shell out big for the appropriate facilities and staff. I remember my mother telling me to share my toys with my playmates.

Bottom line, the wealthy will be expected to pony up.

As for me, I consider myself a historian of science manqué. As such, I wonder whether historians will try to glorify Obama’s term in office as “mommy’s revolution”. I consider that a tad too grandiose. I propose that a more appropriate term of art would be “mommy’s insistence”.

It’s a good bet that the more flippant historians will adorn the President with the following title: “mommy’s little helper-in-chief”.

Sincerely,

A. Alexander Stella

Susquehanna, PA

This is a narrative about what happened to two Pennsylvanian dairy farmers. Their plights, as told separately by two women, are woven together as one, each filling in the blanks of the other for a complete picture. We'll give them the singular name, Barbara. This is her story.

Barbara wasn't getting any younger. Running the farm this year was more difficult than last year and next year would be harder still. She wanted to somehow retire but how? Then came that knock on the porch door. It was the landsman.

After some small talk, the landsman told me I was walking on money. A mile down was a deposit of natural gas. There is a new way to extract it, he explained, that was minimally invasive. Of course there would be some surface disruption but not much and it would be over quickly. Then the gas would flow and so would the money from royalties.

How much money? A lot of money over the 30-year life expectancy of the well, answered the landsman. It seemed like the answer to my prayers. I could not only retire but could possibly become a “shaleionaire.”

The landsman was likable, forthright, and sincere. I trusted him. That was my first mistake. He handed me a two-page contract to sign with assurance that it was in my interest.

I glanced over the small print, then signed it. That was my second mistake. Paragraph 15, had I read it, would have given me pause for thought: “no promise on behalf of either party shall be binding unless agreed to in writing.” In other words, what the landsman said, no matter how misleading or false, had no legal standing.

Several months later I woke up to find 18 trucks idling on my land. Bulldozers leveled a drill pad, and a rig went up not far from my backdoor. I should have counted myself lucky. Paragraph 4 read: “no well may be drilled nearer than 200 feet to any dwelling house.” The rig was 500 feet away.

Then came the fleets of trucks carrying water, sand, chemicals, rig parts, heavy-duty construction equipment, diesel engines, fuel, pumps, exotic machinery. This was a 24/7 operation against which I was a helpless observer.

But paragraph 4 was warning enough: “Lessee shall have the right to construction . . . all facilities to discover, produce, store, treat and/or transport production.” And paragraph 8 gave them the right to “ingress and egress.”

In plain language, the gas company had the right to do whatever it wanted whenever it wanted.

My back pasture became an industrial zone.

Then it got worse.

I noticed that the water in the cow trough stopped freezing on cold nights. This affected the cows as well as the marketability of their milk. My tap water turned milky white, then became gelatinous, the faucets sputtered with methane. It was undrinkable.

The gas company agreed to provide water, provided I sign a non-disclosure agreement. I didn't sign. I wanted people to know what was going on.

My royalty check for the first month of production was $1,400. I calculated, based on the volume of gas extracted it should have been more. But that was because I didn't read paragraph 3: “the amount realized from the sale of gas less all costs of post-production expenses.”

The landsman's 30-year well production prediction turned out to be two years after which it twindled to 20 percent along with the royalties. My last check was for $70.

The market value of my farm fell 85 percent. My health suffers from the contaminated water I am forced to use for brief showers. The fumes, constant noise from traffic and flaring, glaring floodlights at night from my “industrial zone,” as well as others in my neighborhood, all take their toll.

And if things get a little too sticky for the gas company, there's paragraph 10: “the lessee shall have the right to surrender this lease after which all payments and liabilities cease.” But the lease denies me the right to opt-out. That, as I found out, is in paragraph 9.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

A quote: “This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future”. Adolf Hitler – 1935

We believers in the Second Amendment and the rest of our Constitution lost the latest election. We face four more years of Barak Obama and his Socialist, overreaching Federal Government agenda. We may not survive, any more than the German people did. Did you know that only a third of the people voted for Hitler (multiple parties) but the President, Paul Von Hindenburg, appointed Hitler as Chancellor. The Enabling Act of 1933 gave Hitler all the power he needed and the rest is history. It was comply or die.

Rahm Emmanuel, Mayor Chicago and spiritual brother of Obama has said “Do not let a good crisis go to waste”. That is what we are seeing now with this hysterical rush to gun control. Folks, there are over 300 million guns in the hands of law abiding American citizens right now. Assault weapon legislation was on the books for 10 years without noticeable effect. This current push for gun control is not what it is presented to be. It is nothing less than a step to confiscation. Should this be beyond you, you are already probably beyond redemption. I want to be able to defend myself when our society self-destructs. Reckless spending and ballooning government - this cannot go on forever and our society will surely collapse, just like Greece. When the mobs get to my house, I don’t expect to allow them to overwhelm me without a fight.

Universal background checks – your son needs one before you can give him Grampa’s Army Colt 45 - is the step to universal gun registration. Then, the government can identify whose door to knock upon, just like Nazi Germany. Limiting magazine capacity is a drop in the bucket with respect to killing of the innocents. If you don’t recognize gun confiscation as the ultimate goal, you are more nearsighted than I could ever imagine. Mayor Bloomberg says it straight out. Mayor Emmanuel says it straight out. Only the NRA says “No Way”. They, and all the law abiding citizens of this country who have the vision to see what is really going on.

Sincerely,

Joe McCann

Elk Lake PA

My last letter of Scouting was hastily written and sent with some remarks that were wrong. I would like to apologize now for my errors. The Girl and Boy Scouts are mostly faith-based in God's teachings. Over 70% of the troops and their meetings are held in religious settings - Church halls, etc. These Scouts are doing a great service to our community. The Scout Leaders teach the kids so many skills and crafts and values and lasting friendships.

The Girl Scout cookie drive is very important to help with bringing cash to these scouts. I believe that a box of cookies selling for $3.75 would let over 50% or $2.00, stay with the local kids. The other 50% would pay for the bakers, shipping, packing and license fees. Please buy the Girl Scout cookies or make a donation of a little money. If you cannot afford to give money pray for the Scouts and thank them!

Years ago, I was a Boy Scout in Inter-city Chicago. Back then there were no bad movies, no internet, no bad language. What's happening today is a disgrace! The kids are being fed trash with sex oriented filth on television, the movies, Internet, and the filthy language that is spreading even into our dictionaries, and the grocery store magazines (Cosmopolitan) at the check-out area. President Obama and many others should stop agreeing and passing laws with those who are attacking our centuries-old, decent values in our culture and military, and our future -the kids!

Sincerely,

Bruce Moorhead

Susquehanna,Pa.