Silent letters

What's the deal with adding an extra "E" to words like "point", er, "pointe"? It's a silent "e". It isn't pronounced it as "pointee"? Or is it? There are several developments around OKC and Stillwater where the shopping mall is called Lakeview Pointe or the office park is called Quail Pointe or North Pointe or Hefner Pointe. Why not just "Point"? What's with the silent "E"? I get the "point". I don't get the "pointe". Don't we have enough words with silent "E"? Like, "conference" or "maintenance" or "double" or "couple". Why isn't "double" spelled "dubbel"? Um, if there are two letters together is one of them silent? If not, wouldn't that word be pronounced "duh-ba-ba-bull". Sounds kinda goofy. Guess that's why it isn't spelled that way. Not only do we have words with silent letters at the end of the word, but some silent letters at the beginning of the word. Opossum. Pneumonia. Psychology. Who decided these things? Like words that sound the same but are spelled differently. Two, to and too. How can the first word have a "w" in it and be pronounced the same as "to"? "Too" means the same as "also". If I'm an "also ran" does that mean I'm also a "too ran"? Or is it, I'm too a "too ran"? Apparently not getting enough sleep the last few days is affecting me in a weird (wierd?) way. Is it "affecting" or "effecting"? It's "i" before "e" except after "c". What happens after the daggone "w"? Then we have "one" and "won". No wonder people from other countries have problems understanding our language. There was a Chinese guy in one of my college classes. One evening during a late nite studio session, one of the other American students was joking around with the Chinese kid and called the Chinese kid a pussy. The Chinese kid didn't know what that meant so he got out his English-Chinese dictionary. After reading for a few minutes, he asked, "Why did Eron call me a cat?" Don't ask me, Dude. I'm hung up on figuring out the silent letters.