Category: Letters
The Morality of Legislation – Dear Senator Lautenberg
December 9th, 2010, No Comments
Dear Senator Lautenberg, As the most recent legislator to introduce a bill on “Toxics”, I have sent your office copies of the following correspondence because you and your colleagues in Washington need to know that we, the people, are unable to safe-guard our own health from one of the most common hazards around today—modern pesticides. [...]
The Whistle-blower Express: Calling Lisa Jackson!
October 17th, 2010, No Comments
Administrator Lisa Jackson is one of the busiest people in America. Her recent appointment to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is of enormous importance to citizens throughout the world. Not since Carol Browner’s tenure in the Clinton White House, have we seen anyone as committed to the reduction of toxic substances in our personal [...]
The Morality of Litigation – Part II
August 15th, 2010, No Comments
Remembering the Principles (Part 1, ‘Forgetting the Principles’ is here and Part 3, ‘Enforcing the Principles’ is here) By now, you’ve gotten your cup of hot, McDonald’s coffee as suggested at the end of my last post on litigation. Our court system was designed to compensate victims and rectify social injustices in America. These principles [...]
SISYPHUS MUST HAVE BEEN A WOMAN
July 17th, 2010, No Comments
Our national attachment to reality—often hanging by a thread– is illustrated in our newspaper columns. The culture is basically represented in the way in which newspapers choose their columnists who proceed to comment about our culture. Choices vary depending upon the stature of the publication; was its reputation earned for journalistic integrity or entertainment value? [...]
A ‘Public Option’ Means Independent Scrutiny of Medical Research
July 6th, 2010, No Comments
A recent editorial in the New York Times tallied up statistics from more than 225,000 elderly diabetics taking Avandia or anther drug called Actos. These statistics were available to the public, courtesy of Medicare insurance being available to these patients. It appears to confirm the findings of another study that Avandia patients have a significantly [...]
The Free Market Economy Requires Freedom of Information
July 2nd, 2010, 2 Comments
or Must We File A FOIA Request to Go Shopping? This post began with an ad for perfume. For infants. The fragrance industry has been under scrutiny by various consumer watch-dog groups given the fact that they are not subject to FDA regulatory oversight for product safety. Nonetheless, some fragrance chemicals have been identified as [...]
Public, Meet “Sound Science” and get the facts about Second Hand Smoke
June 22nd, 2010, No Comments
The current New England Journal of Medicine (June 17, 2010; No. 24V.362:2319-2325) has an important article offered as free full text to online readers entitled, “Regulation of Smoking in Public Housing” (Winnikoff, Gottlieb and Mello). The introduction summarizes how the regulation of smoking in public and workplaces has led to very significant improvements in public [...]
A Nation of Patients
March 8th, 2010, 2 Comments
I’m convinced that failure to legislate access to health care for all Americans is a means of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Where’s the Patriot Act when you really need it? Between 1956 and 1998, the conflict in Southeast Asia (Vietnam War for my fellow oldsters) caused the deaths of approximately 58,193 military personnel. [...]
Veterans Day – Let’s Add the WTC Workers to Those Being Recognized
November 21st, 2009, No Comments
This suggestion is the result of an article which recently came to my attention, appearing in a UK newspaper instead of one of our own publications. The Word Trade Center (WTC) workers are certainly veterans of the war declared upon the US by terrorists. Therefore it is logical that they receive similar attentions on this [...]
Dress Codes for Women say more about Male Fears than Feminine Modesty
September 11th, 2009, No Comments
There has been very limited coverage of the prosecution of women for non-compliance with dress codes for Muslim women. A recent New York Times Article, “Sudan Fines Woman Who Wore Pants” by Jeffrey Gettleman and Waleed Arafat (9/7/09) breaks that silence. The woman, Mrs. Lubna Hussein, was found guilty but spared flogging. She has refused [...]
