Portrayal of C.I.A. Torture in Bin Laden Film Reopens a Debate

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/us/zero-dark-thirty-torture-scenes-reopen-debate.html?ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 10:16 AM
Subject: re: Portrayal of C.I.A. Torture in Bin Laden Film Reopens a Debate
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    As Scott Shane notes, our CIA's use of torture under president George W. Bush was "morally and politically treacherous".  As much as anything else, the American electorate rejected this in voting for change and for president Obama. But the CIA's actions were also illegal, and it is to "take care that these laws be faithfully executed" that we elected a new Executive. Law enforcement necessarily looks backwards, not forwards, because that's were the evidence of crimes is. 

   Even as we go forward in setting policies for our future, we must be investigating and prosecuting our crimes of the past.

Barry Haskell Levine

In a Farewell Speech, Lieberman Reflects on His Political Journey

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/nyregion/lieberman-in-senate-farewell-speech-reflects-on-his-political-journey.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 9:53 AM
Subject: re: In a Farewell Speech, Lieberman Reflects on His Political Journey
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Save the schmaltz for his obit; Joe Lieberman ain't dead yet.  On this occasion of his departure from the U.S. Senate, we need to take account of his signature achievement. This is the man who defeated the Public Option, preferring to keep the big Insurance Companies in charge of our health care.    

   And so in the twenty-first century, insurance companies control ever more of America's wealth and political influence, while Americans pay more than any ever has since the invention of money for health care, while achieving less than nations that pay a fraction as much.

Barry Haskell Levine

Spy Chief’s Attacker Hid Bomb in Groin, Afghanistan Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/08/world/asia/afghan-spy-chiefs-attacker-hid-bomb-by-his-groin.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Dec 8, 2012 at 7:49 AM
Subject: re: Spy Chief’s Attacker Hid Bomb in Groin, Afghanistan Says
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     Any government too prissy to detect weapons in an assailant's underwear or under a burqa cannot effectually safeguard the people's rights.  It follows that individuals will turn to vigilanteism and both security and liberty will be diminished.  

   Privacy is a great right; the U.S. Supreme court has found it implicit in our Constitution. But this means that our police and courts must demonstrate a compelling state interest before invading privacy, not that the State is impotent here.

Barry Haskell Levine

High-Speed Trades Hurt Investors, a Study Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/business/high-speed-trades-hurt-investors-a-study-says.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 7:58 AM
Subject: re: High-Speed Trades Hurt Investors, a Study Says
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor: 

   In the normal course of events, potential profits on stock sales motivate investors to underwrite growth and innovation in industry.  Recently, high-speed trading has broken this system. A few computer-driven traders have found ways to realize profits on the stock market as if it were a casino, while doing nothing to drive industry. Now it emerges that--in doing so--they are undercutting the stock market's founding purpose.

    There are two ways to redress this. One is to make the capital gains tax much more sensitive to time. Let any profit on an asset held less than one hour be taxed at 95% and let that taper to the long-term capital gains rate over a year. The other is to impose a transaction fee.  Over time, the two approaches aren't very different. If the "fee" has a better chance in Congress because it's not called a "tax", let's go with that.

Barry Haskell Levine

Marine Life on a Warming Planet

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/opinion/marine-life-on-a-warming-planet.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 7:07 AM
Subject: re: Marine Life on a Warming Planet
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     While it is urgent that the world "reduce industrial emissions of carbon dioxide", that cannot be enough. Even if we were miraculously to reduce worldwide industrial emissions to zero there would still remain the burden of carbon dioxide that we have pumped into our atmosphere and oceans since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.  If Earth is to remain inhabitable, we have to capture and sequester that carbon.  The only technology at hand that can do this is photosynthesis. Worldwide, minute by minute and year by year, photosynthetic plants strip twenty times as much carbon dioxide from our atmosphere and oceans as ALL human activities contribute. In time, of course, this carbon is reliberated when that plant material is burned or digested. What we have to do is take some of that plant material out of the carbon cycle as biochar.

   It is in our power today to start repairing our atmosphere and oceans. If we don't, there may be no future generation to blame us for our failure. 

Barry Haskell Levine

Letter From Syria

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/opinion/sunday/friedman-letter-from-syria.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 9:09 AM
Subject: re: Letter From Syria
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If it is Mr. Friedman's intent to extol the multiculturalism of Syria, why does he offer us the example of Antakya? Antakya is in Turkey.  We all know that--despite the expulsion of the Greeks and persecutions of Armenians and Kurds--Turkey is a multiethnic nation. But what is this supposed to teach us about Syria? That the modern national borders are arbitrary? Has Thomas L. Friedman achieved such august stature as a pundit that no editor dares tell him that he's making no sense?

Barry Haskell Levine

To Save Congo, Let It Fall Apart

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/opinion/to-save-congo-let-it-fall-apart.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 7:35 AM
Subject: re; To Save Congo, Let It Fall Apart
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   In 1980 Josip Tito died; by 1991 Yugoslavia--which had been arbitrarily hacked from the Austro-Hungarian empire by the victors after WWI--had fallen apart. Forty-six years after the U.N. charter, the several Peoples finally were free to pursue  their rights to "national self-determination".  Bizarrely, the UN security council still pledges to preserve the "sovereignty, independence unity and territorial integrity" of equally unnatural countries elsewhere. It is an indefensible policy. Instead of the Beacon of Liberty, the U.S. has signed on as the guarantor of imperial caprice. 

   Of course the Spanish are afraid of Basque separatists, and the Chinese fear the aspirations of Tibetans and the Turks want to pretend that the Kurds have no legitimate national aspirations and Joseph Kabila wants to claim all the wealth of the Congo. But if the United States has any role in those conflicts, it must be on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressors.  

   No sane person would advocate jamming the Serbs, Croats and Bosnians back into Yugoslavia and expect them to play nicely together. We should grant the various Peoples of the Congo the same dignity.

Barry Haskell Levine