Wednesday, December 30, 2015

: re: Cleveland’s Terrible Stain




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 9:24 AM
Subject: re: Cleveland’s Terrible Stain
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
   A prosecutor who wants to prosecute can get a grand jury to indict
a ham sandwich. A prosecutor who doesn't want to prosecute should be
fired.  There is no third path for Timothy McGinty. He has shown
interest in neither pursuing justice not in protecting the public.
Rather, he has made himself an arm of the police force, and part of
the problem.
    A complete solution would institute special prosecutors--not
dependent on local police--for every accusation of police violence.
But that begins with firing Timothy McGinty.
Barry Haskell Levine



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/opinion/clevelands-terrible-stain.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

: re: The Importance of Retaking Ramadi




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 9:15 AM
Subject: re: The Importance of Retaking Ramadi
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
     If the U.S. has indeed " helped train thousands of local Sunni
tribal fighters, who oppose the Islamic State, to secure neighborhoods
captured from the militants" while " excluded Iran-allied Shiite
militias from the battle", we are acceding to the sectarian break-up
that L. Paul Bremer initiated by deBaathifying Iraq's army. Sectarian
partition may well be the best outcome for the region. But if that is
what we are pursuing, our government should stop lying to the American
people about our support for a unified Iraq.
Barry Haskell Levine


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/29/opinion/the-importance-of-retaking-ramadi.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

Monday, December 28, 2015

: re: ISIS Influence on Web Prompts Second Thoughts on First Amendment


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 8:27 AM
Subject: re: ISIS Influence on Web Prompts Second Thoughts on First Amendment
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
    A guarantee of Free Speech that didn't protect noxious speech would be a sham. Of course, the First Amendment must protect academics even as they critique that same amendment and its interpretation. But the discussion is too late; four years ago, the President of the United States dispatched Anwar al-Awlaki with a HellFire missile for exercising his right to engage in noxious free speech. Our Supreme Court should be considering this fact, and not a hypothetical restraint on social media.
Barry Haskell Levine



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/28/us/isis-influence-on-web-prompts-second-thoughts-on-first-amendment.html?_r=0

Friday, December 25, 2015

: re: The Democrats’ Family Squabbles




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Dec 25, 2015 at 8:32 AM
Subject: re: The Democrats’ Family Squabbles
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
    As chair of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman
Schultz has failed in matters large (the 2014 mid-term elections) and
small (misappropriating DNC resources for her Hillary project). That
she has become the news story in the middle of a presidential campaign
is bizzarely inappropriate. She must go.
Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/25/opinion/the-democrats-family-squabbles.html

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

: re: The Security Council Wakes Up on Syria




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 8:12 AM
Subject: re: The Security Council Wakes Up on Syria
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
         The boundaries of Syria are a vestige of imperial clashes in
the First World War; they never corresponded to an ethnic or cultural
nation. So while "the abrupt removal of Mr. Assad now would only
destabilize Syria", we must ask what are our interests here. Where
stability and legitimacy are at odds, I as an American stand for
legitimacy; if stability were our sole guiding principle, the United
States would still be British colonies.
Barry Haskell Levine



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/opinion/the-security-council-wakes-up-on-syria.html?_r=0

Sunday, December 20, 2015

: re: Bernie Sanders Falls Behind in a Race Centered on Security


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 20, 2015 at 8:00 AM
Subject: re: Bernie Sanders Falls Behind in a Race Centered on Security
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
   We all eagerly await senator Sanders' second paragraph; there must be more than economic opportunity and justice in a campaign for president. But to conclude that he "lacks moxie" is silly. In the current cycle, he is the champion of government of the people, by the people, and for the people, while secretary Clinton carries water for WallStreet.
Barry Haskell Levine



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/us/politics/bernie-sanders-falls-behind-in-a-race-centered-on-security.html

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

: re:Qaddafi Son Arrested by Lebanon in New Twist on Missing Imam Mystery


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 9:01 AM
Subject: re:Qaddafi Son Arrested by Lebanon in New Twist on Missing Imam Mystery
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
     Logically, Hannibal Qaddafi could have had nothing to do with the murder of Moussa al-Sadr; he was only a toddler at the time. But the Lebanese know that State-level crime is a family enterprise. If Hannibal Qaddafi can be linked to a murder committed by his father, then Bashar al-Assad can be hanged for the assassination of Rafik Hariri--even if his father Hafez al-Assad played the larger role.
Barry Haskell Levine



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/world/middleeast/qaddafi-son-arrested-by-lebanon-in-new-twist-on-missing-imam-mystery.html

Thursday, December 10, 2015

: re: The Trump Effect, and How It Spreads


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 9:14 AM
Subject: re: The Trump Effect, and How It Spreads
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:

When father Coughlin railed against the Jews
he wasn't running to be president
and didn't sport orangutans' hairdos
and couldn't yet know Hitler's full intent

but fascism is back in vogue this year
among what we don't call "a certain class"
embracing policies of greed and fear
or whatever spews out of Donald's ass

the Trumpen proletariat fear jobs
too often go to those born overseas
and offer threats and violence by mobs
in what seems less and less Land of the Free

the nativists' appeal's always the same
to fall for it once more is our deep shame


Barry Haskell Levine


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/opinion/the-trump-effect-and-how-it-spreads.html

Sunday, December 6, 2015

: re: President Obama’s Tough, Calming Talk on Terrorism


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 6, 2015 at 8:43 PM
Subject: re: President Obama’s Tough, Calming Talk on Terrorism
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
     If we take the constitution of the United States seriously, "to bear arms" is a "right" and--unlike e.g. the privilege of air-travel--cannot be curtailed without due process of law. That cannot be satisfied by any secret office or process.  And if we do not take our constitution and rights seriously, what are we fighting to defend?
Barry Haskell Levine


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/opinion/president-obamas-tough-calming-talk-on-terrorism.html

Friday, December 4, 2015

: re: Republicans’ Climate Change Denial Denial


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Dec 4, 2015 at 3:37 PM
Subject: re: Republicans’ Climate Change Denial Denial
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
     There is, as professor Krugman notes "no counterpart abroad" to American climate denial and it's privileged position in our political discourse.  But there was a parallel that should chill us. That was the ideologically driven unscientific biological theory of Trofim Lysenko that crops would evolve not through Darwinian selection, but under instruction from their harsh environment. Lysenko's theory--enforced on Soviet farmers by his patron Stalin--contributed to millions of needless deaths of Soviet citizens by starvation. Foot-dragging on addressing and remediating our changing climate could cost more.
Barry Haskell Levine


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/opinion/republicans-climate-change-denial-denial.html?ref=opinion&_r=0