Have the New Times editors gone mad, or was the paper recently sold to The Wonderful Company?

To provide shiny quotes from the wannabe water pirates in favor of a private, for-profit takeover of the county's water resources, and to bash the rightful role of county government in the management of such a precious resource, is both ludicrous and a disservice to the public ("To the rescue," March 30). Supervisor Debbie Arnold even provided your staff with a document that demonstrates the evil strategy of the water pirates and how they have decimated other water aquifers by setting up puppet "special districts" throughout California.

SLO County is clearly the proper organization to manage this county-wide resource, which is vital to both individual households and the county's main economic engine, agriculture. Peter Johnson should work a little harder to investigate the cynical profit motives of those privateers whom he quoted: Money uber alles, Peter?

-- Dean DiSandro - Paso Robles