Letters to the Editor
futhark
Published Letters: 246 Editor's Choice: 22
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Coasting And Rambling
[Read the article: How to get better gas mileage]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A feature on many cars of the mid-Twentieth Century era was "free-wheeling", with the transmission automatically disconnecting the engine from the drive-train if the car was going faster than the engine would have been driving it, so the engine could throttle back to idle as you sailed down a hill. Anyone with a manual transmission can do the same thing by shifting into neutral at the top of the hill or approaching a stop sign. However, I don't think automatic transmissions like being slammed back into gear from neutral at highway speeds. One must monitor one's speed, of course, to be safe. In a mountainous are such as I live in, I estimate I can safely be in coasting mode between 5 and 10% of the time.
Smaller, lighter cars need to be developed and marketed, as do all-weather human powered vehicles (velomobiles), which are moderately popular in places like the Netherlands where the climate is wet and the ground is flat.
The ultimate challenge of the Twenty-first Century is likely to be the conversion of the American infrastructure from energy inefficiency to efficiency, spurred by increasing energy costs. The sprawl of single-family homes across the landscape is terribly inefficient for home heating as well as transportation, and certainly does make the best use of agricultural land. The European pre-industrial era pattern of scattered villages made up of apartment houses over stores and workshops has much to recommend it from the standpoint of optimal energy and land use.
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I Haven't Been To Iowa
[Read the article: Bob Dylan's guide to Iowa]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]but the only candidate with signs up along roads and streets in my Northern California community is Ron Paul and the place is peppered with them, probably an average of one every couple of miles. I'm sure these were put up by people who not only volunteered to put them up, but bought the signs as well with their own money. Many of them I saw in Santa Rosa are homemade. Something is happening here... Both my brother and my sister-in-law on my wife's side, who don't know each other, are going to vote for Bill Richardson. Most of the people I know socially are Kucinich supporters. Do I live in a weird place or do all the polls lie? And can we trust an Israeli defense contractor to fairly count the Iowa caucus votes, especially the Kucinich and Paul votes, when both candidates are on record as opposing continuing American unconditional policy alignment and support of Israel.
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The Kean Commission Investigation Was Obstructed From Day One
[Read the article: 9/11 Commission: Our investigation was "obstructed"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Kean (aka 9/11) Commission was given the task of finding out how 19 box-cutter-wielding Islamic fanatics were able to inflict the chaos and destruction we witnessed on September 11, 2001, NOT of finding out what REALLY HAPPENED! Putting White House stooge Philip Zelikow in charge as chief-of-staff assured that the Commission's efforts would be steered away from asking too many embarrassing questions about the inconsistencies in this "official account" and the fantastic unlikelihood that the events would transpire as they did. Packing the Commission with the very people (members of the political and financial elite) whose class interests were best served by the official account further ensured that the report would rubber-stamp it. I'm surprised that any of the Commission members now would have the audacity and unconcern for their personal safety to raise the issue of obstruction, which could well lead to raising public awareness of the sham nature of the official account and the Commission report.
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Giuliani Got Less Than Half The Votes Going To Ron Paul: Time To Quit, Rudy!
[Read the article: With the numbers in, Biden and Dodd are out]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As exclusionary as the Iowa Caucuses were (no absentee ballots, must have transportation, etc.), they will have been of value if they help convince Rudolf Giuliani that America doesn't want his kind of blustering chauvinism and continually threatening posture. Maybe there is some hope that the American people are beginning to realize that he represents a continuance of the programs the political criminals currently in power, taking us ever further down the road to dishonor and disaster.
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"Donnybrook"? "Snoozer" Is More Like It!
[Read the article: A Democratic donnybrook]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ok, I confess to having fallen asleep in front of the tube showing the Democrats debating last night. It was late and I was bored beyond tears listening to the juvenile hair-splitting and quibbling about when who said what. Sorry if substantive positions were enunciated in the second half; most of those watching would have turned it off or fallen asleep by then anyway.
Too bad Dennis Kucinich was un-Democratically excluded, as he is an articulate speaker with firm convictions and positions that differ sharply from the corporate-friendly mush the "front-runners" are all spouting. The only candidate allowed in the debates (the Republican side this time) who recognizes that we already live in a fascist state is Ron Paul, who said so Friday night on Bill Moyers' Journal on PBS.
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Oh, Yeah! Remember The First Question About Nuclear Terrorism?
[Read the article: A Democratic donnybrook]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]ABC is only slightly less of a haven than Faux News for the neocon crooks who have been driving this nation to ruin for the last seven years. The first question about nuclear terrorism was beyond absurd...its intent was to have the Democratic candidates endorse the neocon-generated climate of fear that allows thefts of liberty and privacy, continuing military aggression, and unbelievable deficit spending. None of those on the dais objected to the farcical assumption that this was an issue of first importance. Once again, Dennis Kucinich would likely have identified the question as being stupid and manipulative.
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*except Ron Paul
[Read the article: GOP to voters: Be afraid, be very afraid]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ron Paul has told us that the only thing we have to fear is the arrogance, hubris, and stupidity of our leaders. He's right. The real threat is not from the phoney "islamofascism", of which the OTHER Republican candidates never seem to tire of reminding us, but the home-grown variety of fascism they themselves are cultivating.