Letters to the Editor
ELYDOG
Published Letters: 498 Editor's Choice: 43
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Trees
[Read the article: Desperate times, desperate scientists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ok, the natural solution to global warming is to plant trees. Good. I have also heard of algae farms on the ocean. Another idea.
I do not know the exact math as to whether plainting trees ALONE will actually stop global warming, but that is not my point here. I'm sure it won't...
However, capitalism is destroying the forests at a record rate throughout most of the world. Only a global agreement to protect the forests will lead to retaining trees. Let's say the assholes who want to put cane ethanol in their SUVs encourage Brazil to cut down the Amazonian rain forest, which they are doing right now. Who's going to stop them? Is mother earth going to stop them? Or the poor people who have been provided no other fuel but wood, how are you going to stop them destroying the forest, like they destroyed Haiti's forests, for instance?
Or the pricks who buy expensive wood furniture from some endangered hardwood in Indonesia?
Assuming nature is going to start planting it's own trees and stay the hand of the chainsaw in this present world is clueless at best. Perhaps after the human species has destroyed itself partly, it will.
Ignoring the human role in global warming, and 'doing nothing' will, even by the sole "tree" or "Algae" solution, lead to ... increased global warming. We really need to control the market in order to address this problem, and that is what the tiny minority of U.S.A. Republican global warming deniers are really afraid of. They think the 'market' cannot be tampered with. At the root of their denial of global warming is support for laissez faire capitalism, and nothing more, as most of their funders are in the polluting and global warming industries... auto, coal, oil, etc.
Growing trees requires a restraint on the present 'market'.
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Democrats will never change
[Read the article: Democrats show Beltway "strength," avoid being depicted as weak]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]More than 40 years ago, I saw a Democrat organize an invasion of Cuba. I then saw Democrats act as the main supporters of the Vietnam war. The next Democrat announced the Middle East was an area of U.S. national security, and could be intervened in at any time. He gave billions to jihadists in Afghanistan. Another Democrat advocated, supported and joined a military intervention in the Balkans for 'humanitarian' reasons. Then the majority of Democrats voted to go to war in Iraq twice.
"Politics' stops at the water's edge." is the phrase to justify Republican-Democrat unity on international politics. It is still going on. It will never stop. Your children will be complaining of the same thing you do. And their children.
This country's leadership is in a terminal condition. Face it. The Democrats only reflect us - the voting cattle or base - like a fun house mirror reflects a face. Sometimes it gets close, like the present environmental bill. Most times it looks nothing like the base or the voting cattle, but reflects the face of the corporate controllers of the Democrats.
We need a new party.
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Taking care of business
[Read the article: The whole "working mother" thing actually works]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was a stay at home Dad for two years during one of the Reagan recessions. Couldn't get a job. Took care of the toddler from .5 years to 2.5 years.
That was undoubtedly the most unpleasant thing I've done in awhile. Not that it didn't need to be done. Not that my daugther isn't great. It was just plain demoralizing. Not much free time really. Isolation. Other mothers thought I was nuts, and avoided me at the sandbox.
Now, I'm a man and not socialized to think that cleaning up shit and having little to talk about with a child is the apex of my life. (Have you noticed how hyper-actively vocal so many new mothers are with children? Yap, yap, yap, desparate for a real conversation, are you?)
But I don't think it's just being a man. It is a difficult and not entirely satisfying job for most people. That is why individual families should not be on their own when it comes to it.
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The blues are giving me the blues
[Read the article: Flirting with disaster]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If Winehouse thinks she needs to do heavy drugs to be talented, I don't think it's working. She's derivative. And how many John Coltrane's paraded their drug use for the paparazzi?
Another self-involved publicity clone. My career is my tabloid time. Talk about fake.
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I think Marx said it already...
[Read the article: War and peace and trade]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...but it's nice to see further confirmation. "Trade" has never been a robotic, standard process, operating magically and efficiently, like the 'market' or 'talent' or all the other fictions.
As we saw in NAFTA, 'trade' is similar to the relationship between the horse and rider. "Free" trade is not really free. I ride, you trot.
Sounds like a great book.
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Solarpower, change your name first
[Read the article: Desperate times, desperate scientists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dishonest advertising.
It is obvious that there are some business interests, backed by Gore, who want to get into green energy, etc. There is a wing of the capitalist class that is betting on this angle, including a large chunk of venture capital firms, though maybe not as many as there are betting on 'security' products.
However, that does not then make the established science on climate change or peak oil somehow 'wrong.' Even capitalists and bourgeois leaders who have any foresight can see a world dominated by climate change will:
1.) Endanger profits.
2.) Create social strife.
3.) Endanger them physically.
4.) Ruin the fucking world.
Much as I hesitate to give the rich any compassion at all, it is common sense to try to preserve yourself...which might lead to preserving everyone else by accident.
I think capitalism will actually be unable to handle climate change. Class struggle will pick up, the magic 'market' will need to be controlled by government, capitalist 'growth' strategies will go into the toilet, and only a cooperative world-wide society will be able to handle the new conditions.
It's either that or Blade Runner.