Letters to the Editor
tempus
Published Letters: 469 Editor's Choice: 8
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CLEARLY Paglia knows all
[Read the article: If we leave Iraq, do we lose for good?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, by all means hitch yourself to the words of ONE Republican nuke 'expert" and spit in the faces of >90% of the world's climatologists. By all means, claim YOU are right and the actual scientists that, you know, do SCIENCE for a living are wrong. Paglia, the all-knowing, all-seeing (yes, the Supreme Court didn't give the 2000 election inappropriately to Gore and the DE FACTO independent, post election count of votes in Florida DIDN'T show that Gore actually DID have the most votes in Florida too - except that is exactly what happened). Ignore that which you don't personally care for and, instead, insert your own magnificent scientific literacy and brilliance into the place otherwise occupied by the world's scientists. Don't listen to scientists. Their just Democratic Environwackos afterall. Known "fact" in the Colbert world of "truthiness". You are one of those "brainy" and "wise" pundits like Broder who think the 'little people' are too addled to be trusted with the vote - for instance, the people are WRONG because 56% want impeachment of Cheney NOW. Before any investigations show the mountains of illegality he is guilty of. Since this doesn't mesh with YOUR punditocratic ideas, the people must be idiots and wrong.
Paglia absolutely wallows in truthiness. Most of the rest of us, I dare say, prefer to wallow in truth. Scientific truth. The scientific truth, as best as is possible with all the current data, that says humans DO, without doubt, have a major impact on global climate change. Period. No question. It is virtually 100% settled amongst those scientists not directly employed and paid by the oil companies or (coal) mining companies. Funny how THAT works: independent scientist ALL agree while the outliers, to a man and woman, are paid to come to conclusions in the best interest of "shareholder value". Hmmmm, who to trust...the 3 industry scientists that poo-poo human-forced climate change or the THOUSANDS of non-industry scientists who conclude recent climate change IS human-fed? A rational person would not have any problem with this issue. You do. What does that tell us?
Oh a little not on the H2O greenhouse gas thingy: you increase CO2 amounts, it DOES increase overall temperature. That is fact and unavoidable (Venus's temps are driven PRIMARILY by CO2...it is NOT a pissy little gas of no import). Now what happens when you increase temp via methane OR CO2? Why, you increase WATER EVAPORATION TOO! GAH! More water vapor in the air! More GREENHOUSE GAS water vapor! This, in turn, increases the temperature still more, increasing the level of water vapor, etc.
Here's a tip: If your house is on fire, you do NOT throw gas on it. What does this mean? Even if the largest part of global de facto warming were to be the Sun, you DO NOT throw MORE fuel on the heat pump thinking that a degree or two MORE than would otherwise occur is A-OK. It is NOT A-OK. Each degree increase is devastating. You do NOT throw fuel on the global warming fire by poo-pooing human factors...and even if it were only the sun, you STILL do everything you can to moderate it for our own sake (as well as the sakes of every other living thing that we ultimately also depend on).
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It is the failure to act
[Read the article: Still more White House secrecy -- this time in the Tillman investigation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That is at the root of why Congress has managed, in but 6 months, to shoot down below the President in approval. It is not because the GOP is filibustering everything, it is not because they "just don't have the votes" to do, well, anything at all. It is because they DO, in fact, have all the power necessary to actually end all this but they adamantly REFUSE to use it. They are obstinately turning away from their legitimate and necessary powers and acting in concert with the Administration to simply run out the clock with NOTHING resolved.
I can ONLY assume that the Dems do not want to strip the President of the dictatorial powers he claims...because they want those powers for Hillary or Obama (the two the establishment Dems expect to be their DLC-picked leader), and assume that they can't lose and simply give these same powers to Guiliani or Thompson. They are in cahoots with Bush/Cheney for a little dictatorship, so long as THEY are the dictators.
Irrespective of the GOP obstructionism (that the Dems COULD handily do away with if they WANTED TO...otherwise, where was this supermagicpower the GOP minority is wielding when the DEMS were in the minority?!), it is the FACT that the Dems are so very stubborn in their do-nothingness. They virtually wallow in their ineffectualness.
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Oh yeah...sounds "great"
[Read the article: U.S. to merge with Mexico and Canada?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wow ! Sounds great!
All three countries united for peace and prosperity? We could do it better than the Europeans have,clean up our own act and be rich and happy! Sign me up!
It just sounds so great...so long as the Bill of Rights are fully applicable. Freedom of speech, assembly, press, religion, none-establishment, free from illegal search and seizure, trial by jury, etc, etc. I wouldn't mind a nice union (for a while the land would be cheaply had in Mexico!) so long as the Bill of Rights and environmental protections aren't compromised downward. Better that they be compromised UPWARD into stronger protections. Then we can dump the borders.