Let’s be that shining city on the hill

To the editor:

Your Monday editorial headlined "Leftist drivel" falls into the same trap of everyone else who tries to justify the use of torture by the United States.

The message always gets framed as "these are mean and nasty people who do bad things to others, therefore, we must be as mean and do bad things to them."

Who decided the best way to combat terrorism is a race to the bottom? The best way to combat terrorism is to uphold our principles and our laws. We need to become that shining city on the hill once again.

Our government sanctioned the same forms of torture we prosecuted and executed German and Japanese military officers for using during World War II. We even prosecuted lower-level operatives who claimed they were "just following orders" as a defense. We disallowed the "Nuremberg defense" then, and signed the Geneva Conventions after to try to prevent it from happening again.

As a nation, we instituted and signed treaties with other countries on what constituted torture and how it must be prosecuted.

We are a nation of laws. If I rob a bank using my starving children as an excuse, there is no court in the country that will allow that as justification. Upholding the Constitution is not and should never be considered "drivel."

David Black-Downes

LAS VEGAS

Failed policies

To the editor:

When making Nevada my resident state more than a decade ago, I became aware of a controversy pertaining to whether many of our legislators held office in violation of our state constitution. A provision ostensibly prohibiting public employees from holding state legislative offices was ignored, as a large number of legislators were in fact public employees.

Whether legal or not, the situation created a serious conflict of interest problem. Public employees were directly enacting legislation that affected the public's money spent on public employee benefits. With the highest fiduciary duty owed exclusively to the state's taxpayers, how could these dual-interest legislators act prudently with unselfish motives? They couldn't.

It is obvious that these "progressive" legislators continue to value public employees and government institutions as their special-interest priority. Their failed fiscal policies of the past have created a crisis, and the secret agenda is more taxes from an already devastated public.

But then, how could a university actually educate students without a department devoted to inclusion and bias policies?

JOHN TOBIN

LAS VEGAS

GOP turncoat

To the editor:

Re: "Specter's defection" (April 30 Review-Journal editorial):

Almost 46 years ago, in his capacity as a junior counsel to the Warren Commission, Arlen Specter turned his back on, not only his country, but the memory of John F. Kennedy by giving birth to the deceitful monstrosity known as the "single-bullet theory." (For a thorough understanding of Arlen Specter's whitewash of the JFK assassination, read Harold Weisberg's "Post Mortem.") With his prospect for re-election in 2010 in jeopardy, Arlen Specter, as is his nature, turned his back on the Republican Party.

Good riddance.

NEIL GOTTLIEB

LAS VEGAS

Warming up

To the editor:

The recent column by Phyllis Schlafly showed a lack of understanding of science and the careful assessment of the global warming issue. Most scientists are trained to be skeptical, reserving their conclusions for definitive evidence. Ms. Schlafly's references to the Heartland International Conference in March is a case in point.

But more informed statistical scientists know that decision theory is a more relevant approach to global warming than the usual scientific caution. Here we must consider the outcomes of our actions. Fighting an assumed global warming caused by humans would cost many billions of dollars, but a failure to act could cause damage many magnitudes greater, not to mention the suffering of millions of displaced people.

Ask the Las Vegas pros which bet is better.

Ms. Schlafly's reference to 24,000 polar bears as data that they are not threatened is weird when we consider an Earth 'infested' with 6.3 billion humans.

The anecdotal approach to problems is really not science at work. But since everyone seems to like this kind of thing, let me recall that this cold, horrible winter was accompanied by record high temperatures in Australia and the ensuing fires. Also, I recall a winter in Madison, Wisc., in the '50s when it did not get above zero at any time for eight straight days. That is a cold snap.

Finally, look at some really relevant data. In the past few years, ocean levels have gone up by half an inch. And the pictures of glacial melting and Antarctic breaks speak loudly.

If you wish to theorize, study the planet Venus for a greenhouse-gas lesson that is really frightening.

Daniel Lordahl

KINGMAN, ARIZ.