Letters to the Editor
JackSparx
Published Letters: 421 Editor's Choice: 16
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Did CIA employees refuse to torture?
[Read the article: Michael Mukasey's tearful lies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hayden explanation of the need for the insurance involved him playacting convincing an officer to carry out an order. He indicated that the resistance seemed to involve more than just covering the employee's "children's college fund," but rather to convince them about the legality.
You've got to wonder if CIA officers are standing up to their superiors when asked to perform illegal activities, and if Hayden now feels he needs to bribe them to follow orders. It was some weird stuff.
Of course, Hayden's portrayed his explanation to the officers by saying the attorney general says its legal. HA! I'm sure they find that reassuring.
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Torturers Tort Insurance Hayden on Meet the Press
[Read the article: Michael Mukasey's tearful lies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"The last thing I need as director is to have a CIA officer, when I go and tell him to do something in the shadows and point out to him it is perfectly lawful, that the Department of Justice has reviewed it, our lawyers have reviewed it, it's lawful, justice says it's OK and it's clear on its face that will help protect the nation, I do not need that officer handicapping what he thinks the next set of election results might be. I need him to have confidence in that DOJ opinion. I can't have that officer weighing in his mind, "This could become an issue later" and beginning to balance his kids' college tuition account with his doing his lawful duty to defend the republic. So I'm taking that off the table. We're going to pay for that. We're going to give people this insurance policy so that they can focus on doing their lawful duty."
Apparently some CIA officers disagree with the director of the CIA about what is lawful. Also, note that Hayden is arguing that he will use insurance to end run the results of American elections.
How would that work? Let's imagine:
Hayden: The DOJ says it's OK to crush the testicles of children. We need you to crush some testicles.
CIA officer: Well, I'm not completely sure that's exactly, y'know, helpful or American. Or really legal.
Hayden: It's your duty! Mukasey says so!
CIA officer: Do we even know if we have the right guy? I mean we've been wrong before.
Hayden: No worries! I've got this insurance policy I want to sell you....
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Well, yeah, but you can also feed oats to finish cattle
[Read the article: King corn takes a hit]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't know anything about farming, but I think the oats story might be involved in the alfalfa story, since oats was/is undersown with the first year alfalfa crop. If cattle farmers who traditionally used a corn-oats/alfalfa rotation chase the market for soybeans, they get used to finishing their cattle with something else? In any case, I doubt demand for horse feed is the answer, since I suspect horse population has increased over the past several decades.
Fertilizer is one limiting factor, but in the West it's also interesting to look at water. The market for hay is up, but alfalfa is an irrigated crop in much of the West and water is scarce.
It will be interesting to see how so many new factors affect food prices: peak oil, "alternative" fuels (including snakeoil ethanol from corn), water shortages, global warming swings in weather patterns, etc. The future looks chaotic, and perhaps more threatening than Osama.
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Food grade corn
[Read the article: King corn takes a hit]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think food-grade refers to corn directly meant for human consumption (eg in tortillas or sweet corn). But most corn is fed to livestock so it is indirectly in the human food chain. I believe livestock corn (commodity corn) is the same corn used for ethanol. Somebody probably knows more than I do.
In any case, all corn varieties compete for acreage and inputs with each other, so an increase in corn ethanol demand could mean an increase in food prices. I call ethanol snake oil because the energy inputs seem so high for the energy output--it may make economic sense (especially with subsidies) but not environmental, consumer, or energy sense. There are many farmers who would disagree, but they probably don't read Salon.
Food grade corn brings up another issue though--foreign markets. I think we probably sell a lot of corn to Mexico since NAFTA. As foreign markets begin to eat more like us, that will also affect what we grow. India and China have a lot more money to spend on high-cost food now, but I wonder how much more meat they can grow without grain imports from us.
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Biodiesel and bioweasel
[Read the article: King corn takes a hit]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'd like a diesel car too, but I have to admit some cynicism about the whole alternative fuels craze. It makes environmental sense to recycle used cooking oil from McDonald's, maybe, but when you start growing crops just so people can drive to the gym you gotta wonder. I don't think there are enough french fries made to power all the cars motoring past the drive-thru window. One of the main food shortages in the world is in fact cooking oil. How can biodiesel not compete with cooking oil supplies?
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A national primary day would kill ethanol
[Read the article: King corn takes a hit]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Eliminating the electoral college would decrease farm subsidies. Reallocation of senators by population would eliminate them.
Though, if urban populations take over farm policy, so much for the last vestiges of Jeffersonian democracy.
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@Ancient. Hillary's take on it
[Read the article: Obama picks up new superdelegate support]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Today, Hillary Clinton's campaign downplayed the importance of superdelegates in the nomination process. "It's really not about superdelegates," said Clinton. "This process is not, and never has been about superdelegates, or delegates, or the number of state contests won or lost, or the popular vote. It's not about issues, or personalities, or who can win, it's not about polls or elections. I think the Americans know that. It's not really about anything at all."
Asked to comment on the his wife's apparent nihilism, former President BIll Clinton said, "that depends on what your definition of 'is' isn't."
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@meffert It's not about truth
[Read the article: Obama picks up new superdelegate support]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's about truthiness