Letters to the Editor
Tom in Central Illinois
Published Letters: 200 Editor's Choice: 13
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Jews and the Christian right
[Read the article: Jews and the Christian right: Is the honeymoon over?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually, there are other Christians who are less than pleased
with the ascendance of the Christian right. My Catholic faith
has always inclined me towards liberal and leftist causes and
the agenda of the conservative Christian right feels more and
more like the agenda of people like Eichmann, Hess and Hitler.
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Not all coal mining is "mountain top mining"
[Read the article: Muckraker]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Far too many people assume that only in the Appalachian hills or out in the Rocky Mountains, will be found large coal deposits in the USA. The state of Illinois, which sits in the heart of the American Midwest and which is a "flat" area, has the bulk of the coal deposits in the USA. True, most of this coal is high sulfur coal which requires massive scrubbing and filtration after burning. I sincerely doubt the existence of a "perfect" fuel, or of a "perfect" method, for electrical energy production. Fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, natural gas) can be readily at room temperatures but they pollute the water, ground and air. Nuclear power avoids the immediate environmental pollution at the cost of leaving behind poisonous substances with an extremely long duration. Electrical power generation using solar cells and wind turbines suffers from how to reasonably and efficiently electrical power for use during the night, on cloudy days and on calm wind days. Hydrogen as a fuel will depend on how it is produced:
ideally, it should be electrolyzed from sea water using either solar cell or wind turbine generated electricity.
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This Modern World for July 10 2006
[Read the article: This Modern World]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I surf over to the Salon web page on Mondays precisely for the current 'This Modern World' cartoon for the breath of fiercely leftist, liberal attitude that I know is not available elsewhere in the Main Stream Media. I would encourage all of the neoconserative, reactionary readers out there to petition their local tabloids to carry a cartoon strip that reflects their viewpoint; that cartoon strip is "Mallard Fillmore", who is a very conservative duck. 'Get Fuzzy' is about a sociopathic Siamese cat, a downtrodden dog and the long suffering human who cares for them.
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unfortunately, this cartoon is quite true
[Read the article: WayLay]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]a usually sweet and placid housecat can turn into a snarling demon from Hell without any advance warning for any variety of reasons and then change back
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And the identity of the "New Rome" is.................
[Read the article: Apocalypse soon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]the United States of America.
Face it: there is only one country in the world today that matches the might of ancient Rome, there is only one country that matches the same degree of decedence as ancient Rome, there is only one country that has the same disparity of wealth distribution between the classes of society as ancient Rome, and that country is the United States of America. The multi-headed beast is the USA. At the head of the USA is a man who has proclaimed himself to have been anointed by God to be President of the Imperial United States of America, namely, George W. Bush.
Far from the USA being on the side of the angels, the USA is increasingly on the side of the demons.
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alternatives to air travel
[Read the article: Threat level elevated to red (lip gloss)]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1) gas up the old automobile and drive along the scenic highways of America
2) simply stay home
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Deja vu.....all over again
[Read the article: Inside the Iraqi forces fiasco]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That rear-echelon troops will always have the best and most up-to-date uniforms and gear while the front line troops make do with second-hand junk, is really nothing new in the U.S. military. This is a scandal that has existed since World War II: the late Bill Mauldin commented about this scandal in his book "Up Front". Mauldin related an anecdote wherein a group of front-line soldiers waylaid a group of rear-echelon soldiers: the front-line soldiers ran away with the nice uniforms and gear while leaving their rags for the rear-echelon soldiers.
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George W Bush compared to Abraham Lincoln
[Read the article: You, sir, are no Abe Lincoln]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is sacrilege to even allege that George W Bush, the Shrub from Texas, could be compared to Abraham Lincoln, the Rail Splitter from Illinois. Lincoln self-educated himself into a skilled and able lawyer while Bush frittered away his time at the University of Texas as a cheer leader. Unfortunately, even here in Springfield, Illinois, the city where Lincoln lived and worked before he was elected President, there are idiots who would slavishly construct a Bush next to a statue of Lincoln.
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Professor Richardson has some good advice!
[Read the article: Why we can't win the "war on terror"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The late author Robert Heinlein once commented in an essay that, your foe never sees himself as being an evil person and that it is important to bear this point in mind because it will give you a chance to try to persuade your foe to change his ways and possibly become a friend; Heinlein further comments that if you are unsuccessful in changing your foe's mindset, you can then simply kill him in an efficient, emotionless manner. Al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas and similar groups see themselves as the defenders of the Muslim faith, the Muslim way of life, the Palestinian cause and other things. These groups are using violence because nonviolent methods have been ineffective in advancing their causes. It is quite possible that the truly hard-core member of Al-Qaida or Hezbollah is firmly committed to a path of violence but if we can persuade the soft-core members to adopt the path of nonviolence then we may well have far fewer homicidal fanatics out there as well as more people willing to show us where the homicidal fanatics are located.