Letters to the Editor
Combo
Published Letters: 2
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Evil Is As Evil Does
[Read the article: A tragic legacy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]By acknowledging the existence of evil, do I automatically throw in with the mob who believes any response to evil is a just or at least justifiable response? Of course not. And neither does President Bush. That is a choice, as calculated and clear as an overseas invasion.
Case in point: I believe some powerful people in the Bush administration are evil. Their evil behavior can't be attributed to illness, organic defect, trauma or even a sense of destiny or godly duty. The justifications they offer for their overreaching and monstrous behavior may give them comfort and keep the base happy, but you can't expect me to accept that they really believe what they say, can you? They're not stupid. They're not blinded by a sense of divine purpose. Certainly Mr. Cheney isn't. They're evil. They're greedy, desire power, take it, and use it to their advantage, heedless of the damage they do to others along the way.
Let's call this what it is: evil. Let's respond to it how we should: civilly and powerfully. A double lesson, there, yes?
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George Frost... economist?
[Read the article: Obama is wrong about the gas tax]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I would very much hope that the next time Salon publishes an article weighing in on the merits of a complex economic issue, the editors opt for commentary by at least one economist. Last I checked, Mr. Frost is a very able lawyer, as you can tell from his cultivated ability to argue--using post-hoc fallacy, magical thinking, and straw men--all of the points except the chief one: is a gas tax holiday a legitimate and useful policy tool?
He fails to mention that there is no elasticity now in the market place, that the current price of gasoline at the pump does NOT reflect the high cost of oil--the refiners and retailers are taking the hit on the margin, not passing along their increased costs for crude--and the fact that making it illegal for the oil companies to increase prices in the absence of a gas tax would not have any bearing on the perfectly legal ability of retailers to increase prices at the pump.