Letters to the Editor
audioscape
Published Letters: 12 Editor's Choice: 3
-
another calculated leak?
[Read the article: What Dick wants, Dick gets]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Pardon my paranoia, but is it possible the White House leaked this list to subtly reinforce Cheney's no-alcohol claim in the Texas shooting incident? As Vice President, it's unlikely you go to the hotel bar. You enjoy an occasional drink, but stock only sparkling water in your room? I find it suspect.
-
Federal money for a morally objectionable war?
[Read the article: No, wait, it's not murder after all]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Where does the President stand on the billions of federal dollars (much borrowed) spent on a war many Americans find morally objectionable? How does that percentage stack up against the number of Americans who find stem cell research morally objectionable?
Both cost innocent "human lives". Perhaps if stem cells forwarded, "The March To Freedom," we'd be gutting those innocent blastocysts like wolves on a kill.
Brian Whitlock
-
Malaysian food? Ugh.
[Read the article: The Julia Child of Malaysian food]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've spent a fair amount of time in SE Asia. The best three things about Malaysian food?
1. Chinese food
2. Thai food
3. Malaysian food's distinct absence from most places in the world.
Fish heads soaked in palm oil anyone?
-
Obama's Experience
[Read the article: Make no mistake: He's running]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Barak Obama needs to remind people how much more experience he has than President Bush did when he was elected. Obama's lack of experience is gaining too much momentum too quickly. He needs to get of ahead of this now.
-
Dakar, the worst?
[Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Can I suggest a trip through Bangui International Airport in the Central African Republic?
-
SINOPEC dirty deals
[Read the article: It's good to be Mitt]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Mitt Romney's involvement in SINOPEC is really ugly. In addition to working with Sudan, SINOPEC recently signed an illegal deal with Gabon.
A government minister gave SINOPEC a contract to drill for oil in Loango National Park. This was without Gabonese President Bongo's knowledge. The area's tribal chief wasn't even notified that an oil company would be detonating seismic charges in the lagoon of the National Park. SINOPEC also built illegal roads and camps inside the Park.
Bad form, Mitt.
-
Giuliani on "Meet The Press"
[Read the article: Rudy survives the Russert crucible]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I came away from Giuliani's "Meet The Press" appearance with an entirely different impression than Michael Scherer.
I found Giuliani strident, defensive and largely unlikeable. But I podcasted "Meet The Press" which deprived me the images of Giuliani's striking and expensive smile.
How many Republicans, juggling Sunday morning children, pancakes and church clothes, only listened to the television and came to the same conclusion as me? Sunday morning news shows are notorious drones for many people, often little more background noise. Trite as it may sound; given the choice between the folksy sing-song of Huckabee or the fast, edgy gab of Giuliani, I think many Republicans will be swayed to the former.
-
Golden Tablets
[Read the article: McCain's lucky night?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hi Tim,
Weren't the Golden Tablets found somewhere in Upstate New York? Maybe The Good Lord took them back in Missouri. Or was that where Adam and Eve lived? I can't keep these facts straight. For sure there are no endemic monkeys in Missouri, so we know this evolution malarkey will go away if Mitt Romney is President.
-
Still More Hubris From The Peanut Gallery
[Read the article: The sun blotted out from the sky]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Benford lost credibility after the first paragraph. Shooting millions of tons dirt into the Arctic Atmosphere? Never mind the immense carbon release getting it up there. Won't that dirt eventually settle on the the Arctic Icesheet, absorb more solar radiation and drastically accelerate it's demise? The white icesheet reflects massive amounts of solar radiation back into space. When the Icesheet is gone life will get truly surreal down here.
This fantasyland notion of engineering our way toward guilt-free fossil fuel consumption has got to stop. Conservation is the only way out of this debacle. Yet it always fall to the bottom of the solutions list.
Benford, the "realist" might find my views pollyannaish. But Rarely in history have cynics like Benford later emerged as visionaries.
-
Factcheck.org veracity
[Read the article: FactCheck.org: Obama statement "a little too slick"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wait, "Factcheck.org's Viveca Novak"? the same Viveca Novack who covered the Outing of Valerie Plame?
The same Viveca Novak who contacted and allegedly warned Karl Rove's Attorney, Robert Luskin, that the Grand Jury was aware of his client's lies?
The same Viveca Novak who then failed to disclose this conversation with said attorney to the same Grand Jury?
Wow. Veracity should be stricken from her vocabulary, especially when picking nits on with Obama's fundraising.
-
The Art of Diplomacy
[Read the article: We are all appeasers now]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The White House's hardline refusal of diplomacy was borne out of necessity. It's both a product of Bush's hardheaded personality and his complete lack of diplomatic skills.
Diplomacy requires a sophisticated set of skills and education, built up over decades of experience; you do not hire a freshman architecture student to redesign the new World Trade Center and you do not hire a poorly read, C-student with sophomoric communication skills to negotiate on behalf of the free world. However ideologically rigid Bush's team is, they are not stupid. They have supported - even built - this no-negotiation platform around Bush to protect our country from embarrassing and disastrous results.
The rest of the world has moved on without us, negotiating in the diplomatic vacuum we have created. Barak Obama plans to rejoin the world community after nearly a decade of diplomatic isolation which has spurred another round of inexplicable defensiveness from the right wing. Is it possible this change of policy would further underscore Bush's incompetence and further embarrass the White and their supporters?
I'm ready for a legal scholar and gifted orator to take the diplomatic reigns and steer this great country back on course.
-
The threshold of necessity
[Read the article: Did you hear that Alaska has more oil than the Middle East?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What's tragic is the low threshhold of inconvenience it took to create this overnight offshore drilling sensation.
Offshore drilling was banned for good reason. It's ecologically very dangerous. But all it took to start the drumbeat for drilling was presidential politics and gasoline prices comparable to Europe.
What ecological throat are we willing to cut if gas prices double again, fuel is rationed or manufacturing is limited by supplies?
Unfortuntely, once real fire-and-brimstone style fuel hardship hits Americans, we'll render our dead parents into diesel and drill every available wilderness to keep the gerbil wheel going.