Letters to the Editor
Silenced
Published Letters: 1358 Editor's Choice: 75
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Population studies have their limits
[Read the article: A hard Pill to swallow]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Population-based studies identify correlations and try to isolate them sufficiently from confounding factors to establish causation.
Isolating causation from all the various correlations is very, very difficult and that's why population-based studies contradict one another all the time.
The best thing you can have is a population study augmented by animal and in vitro research.
When you do an animal or an in vitro study, the causation is right there because you have the power to drive it yourself in the lab.
See that's what nailed it for tobacco. For years and years the population studies said the same thing. Lung cancer. But population studies can't tell you HOW the lung cancer happens, so they can't really PROVE causation.
It took a while for molecular biology to get to the real causative root of why the combination of nicotine plus aryl hydrocarbons is so deadly.
In the end, the population studies and the animal and in vitro research agreed. If lung cancer were fire, then combining nicotine with aryl hydrocarbons is like combining gasoline with a lit match.
(By the way, they're discovering the opposite for marijuana. Where nicotine is like gasoline, THC is looking more like water.)
If the Pill causes atherosclerosis, then there ought to be some evidence confirming this from animal and in vitro studies. If there isn't, then the population study could have wrongly isolated the Pill as the cause of the correlation.
I think people need to take more science. There should be science classes on the Internet for anyone to take. I think there needs to be some investment made in lifelong science education for the public.
Even if you end up being a Luddite -- at least you'll be a well-informed Luddite whose Luddism is based on a solid understanding of the scientific solutions you're rejecting.
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I've read about a similar problem in LA
[Read the article: Where have all the line technicians gone?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]According to the LA Times story that I read, the problem in LA is that a lot of potential blue collar labor belongs to a gang and has a prison record and smokes weed.
You see, the War on Drugs hasn't been effective at eliminating drug abuse, but it has been very effective at giving poor and working class men prison records and funding the gang lifestyle.
I read that if you're willing to help these guys get out of the gang lifestyle, and you're willing to overlook the prison record and the weed, then you can find people to join your union and work.
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This is the best reason I can think of to get out of Iraq
[Read the article: Bush's old world disorder]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Well aside from the fact that we shouldn't have been there in the first place.
I suppose I misspoke when I said this crisis isn't Bush's fault. Going into Iraq was his fault and not thinking carefully enough about how to approach the Afghan problem was also his fault.
We need to get out of Iraq ASAP and put all our resources into bringing peace to Afghanistan -- before Pakistan ends up as one of the casualties.
I don't think Bhutto will be able to bring peace, because she prefers inflammation.
She wants to "crush" people who just won't be crushed. Nobody has ever crushed the people Bhutto claims she can "crush" on our behalf.
If they won't be crushed, then we have to find a way to make peace with them, somehow.
War is not getting us what we want, so it's time to consider peace as an alternative.
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So have you heard about "slap"?
[Read the article: Smoke this!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's the new drug rage all over England. It's made from beef fat. Anyone can make it in their kitchen once they learn the secret.
It's suppose to knock you into dreamland for a week or two. Young people have been abusing it to save money. They get "slapped up" and have their bodies put in storage. They can sleep for weeks at a time, saving money they'd otherwise be spending on rent, food and drink.
They are literally sleeping away their young lives on this drug.
Sorry I'm laughing too hard now to type any more. "Slap" was a drug hoax someone pulled on British journalists a few years back.
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Robertson is un-American -- and his views are bad for his own religion
[Read the article: Rudy's new best friend]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When he was running for president himself 20 years ago, Robertson clearly stated that he would bar the appointment to any government position of any citizen who was not either a Christian (and that doesn't include Methodists, Episcopalians or many other denominations he considers to be "anti-Christ")
Christian Europe was for centuries a bloody, war-torn place because Christians were unable to accept any diversity in religious belief or practice.
And one reason why they couldn't manage to live together is because religion powered the government.
If your country was Protestant and you were a Catholic, your life was in danger.
That's the history that made our "founding fathers" decide to create a country that separated government from religion.
And this is why Americans are so much more religious than most Europeans. Because it was actually GOOD for religion to get out of the business of running the state.
Christianity thrived in America precisely because it was detached from government power. The separation of church and state allowed for a diversity of Christian beliefs.
Greater variety in Christianity = more people willing to go to church, because they're more likely to find a church that suits them.
Robertson is so blinded by his own narrow beliefs, he can't see that the separation of church and state is the best thing that ever happened to Christianity since Jesus.
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Trial lawyers are part of how our system of justice works
[Read the article: "I'm not going to paint a caricature"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Would Obama prefer a system of justice where people facing trial weren't allowed to hire their own lawyers? Or a system where there were no trials at all?
I'd like to hear his argument against trial lawyers. If he's going to start flinging this phrase as an accusation, then let's finish the thought, please.