: re: Mike Pence’s Galling Amnesia

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/05/opinion/mike-pences-galling-amnesia.html?src=me

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: barry levine

Date: Thu, Oct 6, 2016 at 6:00 PM

Subject: re: Mike Pence’s Galling Amnesia

To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

Mike Pence has long made clear his disdain for theories, especially the Darwinian theory of evolution. Tuesday, he demonstrated his disdain for facts as well, lying unflinchingly about what his running-mate has indeed said and endorsed. We're left to wonder on what basis he does take the positions he does. If he is not guided by theory or by fact, does he rely only on revelation? Is this public revelation? Or would our vice president be acting on voices in his head no one else hears?

Barry Haskell Levine

re: Let’s Get Putin’s Attention

To the Editor:

   in 2016, Russia is a superpower only in military matters. She still has tanks, missiles, submarines, and atomic weapons that could destroy life on Earth. But in any other realm, Russia is a third-rate power; her economy is the size of Brazil's, and relies wholly on exports of arms, natural gas, and oil.  Vladimir Putin is accordingly eager to make all our interactions military interactions. President Obama has deftly, patiently repeatedly demurred to take the bait. Let Putin wade into a Syrian quagmire that he can't win and can't afford.

   As to cyberwar, the U.S. presents far more targets than does Russia, and has far more to lose. Why would we choose to wrestle with that pig?
Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/05/opinion/lets-get-putins-attention.html?_r=0

EpiPen outrage continues

To the Editor:

    The author lazily conflates market exclusivity granted by patent (as per the U.S. constitution) with barriers to market competition erected after the patent's expiration. Neither Shkreli's Turing Pharaceuticals (in the earlierDaraprim episode) nor Bresch's Mylan (in the EpiPen episode) had done the R&D on the product. Each was gouging the public on a drug that had long been in the public domain, but which enjoyed post-patent barriers to market competition.

    The U.S. patent system is a clever Enlightenment-age invention that lets the market reward innovation and disclosure, enabling competitors to duplicate a new product or process and drive the price to the fair level--after a period of protected exclusivity. Although current U.S. IP law does not work in some sectors (e.g. software) it continues to underpin investment and innovation is other sectors of the  U.S. economy (e.g. drug research). It has no part in the price gouging of Shkreli and Bresch.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/opinion/the-epipen-outrage-continues.html

playing at history

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 7, 2016 at 8:03 AM
Subject: re: Obama, Acknowledging U.S. Misdeeds Abroad, Quietly Reframes American Power
To: "letters@nytimes.com" <letters@nytimes.com>

To the Editor:

    triumphalism warps our teaching texts

real history includes what we've done wrong
the causes get divorced from the effects
mere lyrics in a silly children's song
internment camps must never be forgot
what in good conscience no law could allow
how farmers had to leave their crops to rot
and sweat the war-years out in the hoosgow
if we're the sov'reigns here, we need to read
the sins our fathers wrought, not just the good
ideals they didn't manifest in deed
although they knew what it was that they should
the whitewashed version helps kids sleep at night
but doesn't educate them to what's right

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/world/americas/obama-acknowledging-us-misdeeds-abroad-quietly-reframes-american-power.html?_r=0

Peace without partners

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/opinion/peace-without-partners.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 10:22 AM
Subject: re: Peace Without Partners
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
     Sometime around the end of the first century c.e, Rabbi Tarfon
said: "It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task, but neither
are you free to absolve yourself from it" His words are as apt today
as they were then.  For too long, Israeli governments have been
content to cling to power by blaming Palestinians for intransigence.
The status quo is unsustainable and unacceptable.Those who claim to be
political "leaders" must not be content with finger-pointing and
whining.
Barry Haskell Levine

: re: Insurers, Pushing for Higher Rates, Challenge Key Component of Health Law

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 7:49 PM
Subject: re: Insurers, Pushing for Higher Rates, Challenge Key Component of Health Law
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

     As you note, "subsidies to help pay premiums" shield consumers partially from drastic hikes in insurance costs. But they do nothing to reduce the total cost of healthcare in this country. Americans currently pay more for healthcare than anyone, anywhere, has paid since the invention of money, and we don't have superior health outcomes to show for it. RomneyCare (AKA Affordable Care Act) guarantees the profitability of our Insurance Companies rather than optimizing the delivery of health care. Against this background, some version of Single Payer would represent a vast simplification of administrative costs, an vast improvement in tracking medical records and--if dozens of foreign experiments are any guide--a substantial saving of  money over our current fee-for-service hodgepodge.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/us/politics/insurers-pushing-for-higher-rates-challenge-key-component-of-health-law.html

re: Hillary Clinton has clinched nomination, survey reports

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 9:20 AM
Subject: re: Hillary Clinton has Clinched Democratic Nomination, Survey Reports
To: "letters@nytimes.com" <letters@nytimes.com>

To the Editor:

this Clinton nomination's in the bag

if you believe the 'papers in her sway

they risk the reputation of their rag

preempting California's polling day

her fictive inevitability

collapsed like smoke in Two Thousand and Eight

when delegates showed that their loyalty

was to the most compelling Party Slate

this year, it's Sanders, advocating CHANGE

appealing to the liberal and hip

to turn our course, not merely rearrange

the deck-chairs on our rudderless State-ship

like Bush-the-first, she lacks that "vision thing"

but fiercely strives to grasp that big brass ring Barry Haskell Levine