Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 78 Editor's Choice: 28
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Value of Life
[Read the article: The catastrophe that never ends]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"…That the world sees the life of an Arab as infinitely less valuable than that of an Israeli; that no amount of suffering by innocent Palestinians is too much to justify the return of a single Jewish soldier."
By this reasoning, do the Palestinian leadership (Hamas) share the same viewpoint? After all, they can end the Israeli attacks by releasing the soldier.
This is not a case (as Israel publicly claims) of a terrorist group attacking the armed forces of an occupying nation. This is the armed forces of one nation-state –Palestine - attacking and kidnapping a soldier of another state –Israel – on Israeli territories. That is an act of war. Of course they have been at war more or less for a while. But consider, if Mexico or Canada started to kidnap American soldiers, what would America do? Most probably take a response similar to Israel’s. And many innocent civilians would suffer the consequences.
My point here is that Hamas, which has proclaimed the objective of wiping out the State of Israel (and therefore, in many Israeli’s minds, the objective is to wipe out the Jews), has rejected any path towards peace. They made a direct attack on Israel’s military. Yet you wonder why the world does not speak out against Israel?
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riots in Suzhou
[Read the article: 87,000 Chinese riots: Good news, bad news]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In response to the last letter…I’m pretty sure the protesters equate corruption on the local level with corruption at the higher levels. At least they feel that whatever problems they in their area would not have taken place if The Party was still the party of Mao and Zhou.
I’m in Suzhou. About two months ago there was a small riot / protest in the South part of the city. As I hear it, the government / developers / whoever where coming to knock down some old peasant houses and the locals felt they were not getting enough compensation. So there was a protest. And someone vandalized the local police station. And then maybe someone got beat up and died by the hands of the police (I heard...not in the newspapers of course). Then protestors started blocking traffic at night. And then two months ago the entire neighborhood was covered with police and “militia” (I think the Chinese equivalent of national guard…they call themselves People’s Army, but they are not the real People’s Liberation Army). . I thought this sort of stuff does not happen in the more prosperous cities like Suzhou. I thought wrong.
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Contradictions
[Read the article: Happy 14th Amendment Day!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ironclad first says: “I don't think the current "hysteria" over immigrants is racist or anything of the sort - the simple motivation is economic. The tax base of many cities, states and municipalities is being pushed to the wall by the influx of people that are not paying taxes to support the schools and social services that they use. That is not racist - it is simple survival where you see your local taxes raised over and over.”
Your point is not racist, but you contradict yourself:
“Why is it when an employer is presented with a falsified social security number by a perspective employee, it is not immediately flagged as invalid? They have to enter a number so the employee/employer can pay taxes.”
So employers pay taxes…which is basically a large deduction from their paycheck. They don’t receive Social Security services or medical care. True, if they go to a hospital it is a drain…but that’s the same for anyone who is not insured. They rent apartments, and tax gets taken out of that fee. They buy things in stores, and they pay (in California anyway) a rather large sales tax. In what way do they not pay taxes?
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Sorry, I don't believe you
[Read the article: The "hiding among civilians" myth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So you make the statement that Hezbollah does not “hind among civilians”. Then you give some…not that much anecdotal evidence supporting your claim. OK. But then this question that came up: How does a guerrilla army maintain military bases on the border with Israel for many years, but still maintains guerrilla-fighting mode of operations (and therefore survives aerial bombardment)? The whole mode of Guerrilla fighting is to blend in with the environment – whether civilian population or deep jungles – and attack with hit-and-run. If Hezbollah does not hide with civilians, where do they hide? In caves? Sure, but Israel has had many years to scout and reconnoiter the mountains and hills of Lebanon. Your article did not answer this question and it’s a pretty obvious question.
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Your problem and my question
[Read the article: Squeezing out local produce]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I disagree with some of the letters here. I think they frame the problem about cheap illegal immigrant labor in the wrong way. Our food sources are always going to come from cheap labor inputs. And if it has to come as the product of cheap labor, why not cheap labor from foreign-born farm workers in the US rather than cheap farm labor from peasants in China? The problem here, as I see it, is how to legally get the labor into the US, and have them receive basic worker's rights.
For the record though, I do not view the success of US farmers –organic or otherwise – as more important than the success of Chinese farmers. But if the end product is better in the US, then its better to support US organic farms.
The question I have is: do economies of scale in organic farming actually save resource inputs and benefit the land? Does a local farmer who trucks his produce to the farmer's market consume more or less strategic inputs (water and oil) than organic food shipped from China by container-load. I question whether organic produce shipped in from China is not only cheaper because of labor resources, but ultimately may consume less non-renewable resource inputs. But I really don't know the answer to this. Is there a study about it?