Letters

Toss greens and cook thoroughly

I just wanted to thank the Weekly for Seven McDonald’s article “Baby Greens” [January 17–23]. I am 19 years old and have always leaned toward the Green Party, although I didn’t have very much knowledge about it until this past year. Since then I have been trying to spread the word and educate more people about it. Well done!

—Alanna Wong Alhambra

Thank you for the “Baby Greens” article and for your coverage of the peace movement. Well done! I look forward to more such coverage, and to more stories about the political parties and their candidates. When I read about the people in office today, I laugh and cry at the same time — except when I read about Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Then I smile. I know there is hope and that I am not lost.

—Madelon Rose Logue Los Angeles

BABY REDS

Re: Judith Lewis’ “March on Melrose” [February 7–13]. Young Sam Hixon is the product of hippie radical parents, who are responsible for teaching him that rioting is a method to get your point across. Hixon should have been arrested and charged with crimes under the Patriot Act, and should be awaiting trial at the Federal Detention Center downtown. Instead, the Weekly makes him out a hero.

—Brian Chandler Pasadena

Steven Kotler’s article on stem cells [“The Final Frontier,” January 31–February 6] was brilliant. I know many of the principals in the story, and he captured them perfectly.

—Larry Kedes Los Angeles

Steven Kotler’s cover article was informative but, sadly, flawed. He quotes bioethicist R. Alta Charo’s comment that “The stem-cell debate is a debate about everything but what it’s about,” then proceeds to fall into the trap of braying about abortion, George Bush’s nefarious agenda, and the poor getting screwed — anything but stem cells. The fact is, the Supreme Court should return us to the pre-Roe status, where states, not the feds, have the right to make or not make abortion law. Likewise for ill-informed laws regarding research. Even Kotler reports that if such anti-research laws get passed here, the industry will simply move to Malaysia or Bimini or Europe. The hoped-for results will materialize in the marketplace anyway, so what’s the big deal? I’d prefer a piece heavier on the science and much lighter on the hackneyed views of poorly informed paranoid politicos.

—Paul Bonnette Los Angeles

WOE TO THE THUNDERING MASSES

Thank you very much for Ian Williams’ excellent “Missing Evidence” [January 31–February 6]. All empires must fall, and the way events are developing, it looks like the fall of the American empire is coming. Thanks to journalists like Williams, the flame of integrity and truth is kept alive, while left and right the ignorant masses stampede to their certain extinction.

—Chris D. Nebe Los Angeles

Re: “Missing Evidence” by Ian Williams. Anyone interested in the reasons for the lack of U.S. diplomacy by our current administration needs to research the Project for the New American Century and the letters on its Web site from 1998 and 1999, signed largely by current administration officials. There is no question what the Bush White House is about, and it isn’t diplomacy. It’s domination.

—Yana Hytlon Bellingham, Washington

In “Missing Evidence,” Ian Williams certainly makes good points. But as is the case in media coverage in general as regards war in Iraq, there is failure to mention the most compelling reason of all for dismantling this regime. Rogue states with billions of dollars and nuclear, biological and chemical weapons can support and assist terrorist Islamic extremist networks in attacking the U.S. and the rest of the West. By eliminating these sources of assistance and proving that liberating oppressed populations is best, the world will be a more peaceful, safer place to live . . . period.

—Terry Mulvany Pasadena

SPACE CAMP, INDEED

Re: “My Own Private Spaceship” [Deadline Hollywood, February 7–13]. I enjoyed Nikki Finke’s article remembering that amazing day in 1981 when the Columbialifted off, and also the sad one in 1986 when the Challengerexploded. I’m surprised Ms. Finke didn’t mention the eerie similarity betweenThe Core, scheduled for release in 2003, and Space Camp, the mediocre shuttle movie of 1986 with similar bad timing. NASA may need to check with Hollywood before sending its shuttles up. There seems to be a correlation.

—Marc Norman New York

Re: “Coming Back to Earth” [On, February 7–13], I have to admit that this week’s installment of ludicrous nonsense from John Powers packs a lot into one easy portion of tit-for-tat bullhockey. Yes, John, how dare some obscure college professor suggest there’s some symbolic sting in the space shuttle’s being strewn across Texas. Why, he doesn’t even have the decency to tie his metaphor into a movie in current release, like you or Mo Dowd would. And I’m glad such fans of democracy as Chris “Bush won Florida” Hitchens have convinced you there is a solid, progressive case for taking over Iraq. How is the government we installed in Afghanistan doing, by the way? Well, that was last year, and I guess that one is ready for Blockbuster.