Tucking Carbon Into the Ground

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/business/energy-environment/31CARBON.html?_r=1&ref=businessspecial2

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 1:53 PM
Subject: re: Tucking Carbon Into the Ground
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  The world in which humans evolved was made possible by the sequestration of gigatons of carbon during the carbonaceous era. Until then, the abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide sustained a climate more friendly to giant insects than to what we call higher life.  We, and all the life-forms around us evolved because that carbon was stably buried as fossil fuels. We may hasten our own extinction by  undoing that sequestration. Coal is the time-tested stable and nearly ideal form in which to sequester carbon. To dig it up and burn it while promising to then re-sequester the carbon is folly.

Barry Haskell Levine

Iraqi Hostages Die in Attack on Leadership of Province

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/world/middleeast/30iraq.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=iraqi%20hostages%20die%20in%20attack&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 9:09 AM
Subject: re: Iraqi Hostages Die in Attack on Leadership of Province
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Across Iraq, sectarian militias are waiting for the moment our forces are gone to resume the civil war in earnest. The Obama administration continues to spend billions to obscure that moment.  Tuesday's test showed that American troops are still on point, enforcing the cease-fire. There will be more tests. The day that the yanks don't intercede, the civil war will be on. 

Barry Haskell Levine

F.B.I. Casts Wide Net Under Relaxed Rules for Terror Inquiries, Data Show

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/us/27fbi.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=f.b.i.%20casts%20wide%20net&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 5:40 PM
Subject: re: F.B.I. Casts Wide Net Under Relaxed Rules for Terror Inquiries, Data Show
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The freedom from unreasonable search recognized by the Fourth Amendment is not only for times of tranquility. The Due Process of Law guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments is a matter to be interpreted by the Courts.  Neither Attorneys General Ashcroft and Mukasey, nor even the Congress of the United States have the authority to waive or suspend these rights of the citizens. If this president and his Attorney General don't respect the Constitution, We the People will keep on voting for Change until we get it.

Barry Levine

Settling the Afghan War

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/opinion/23brahimi.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=brahimi&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 10:09 AM
Subject: re: Settling the Afghan War
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The political solution proposed by Messrs. Brahimi and Pickering to the Afghan war would make sense if the problem were political. Alas, the problem is one of tribal identity rather than of political convictions. The Taliban is an entirely Pashtun movement, seeking to impose the mores of the Pashtun minority on all Afghans.  Afghanistan  will never function as a  legitimate State while  most of the 17million Pashtun there recognize only their own laws.  No application of force or diplomacy can create a legitimate Afghan State. The tribes of Afghanistan much choose to build a State or to go their several ways. It makes no more sense for the U.S. to defend the arbitrary boundaries of Afghanistan than it would to force the Serbs and Croats back into Yugoslavia and tell them to play nice.

Barry Levine

Target in Libya Is Clear; Intent Is Not

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/world/africa/21assess.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 4:10 PM
Subject: re: Target in Libya Is Clear; Intent Is Not
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   It is a mystery. President Obama has decreed the death of Anwar al-Awlaki, but not of Muamar al-Qaddafi. The one is an American citizen, charged with no crime and the other seems to be involved in killing crowds of his own subjects daily. Yet president Obama has hired the (now wobbly) Yemeni armed forces to rub out al-Awlaki and has pointed part of our (already over-stretched) military at Qaddafi.  Is the one at risk of death just because he is an American citizen? Is the other immune because he has an army in his pocket? Is there any justification for such an extra-judicial slaying in either case? 

  It is a nice change to have a president with a good command of the English language. It would be nicer if he would communicate what's going on.

Barry Levine

The Prison That Won’t Go Away

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/opinion/09wed2.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=the%20prison%20that%20wont%20go%20away&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 7:24 AM
Subject: re: The Prison That Won’t Go Away
To: letters@nytimes.com

To the Editor:

      Candidate Obama announced that he "oppose[d] any form of immunity" for telecom spying in violation of the FISA statute; Senator Obama voted for immunity. Professor Obama taught constitutional law; president Obama has ordered  the extra-judicial slaying of a U.S. citizen.  Candidate Obama promised to close the prison at Guantanamo;  president Obama has perpetuated this outrage.  I voted for Change. I am disappointed to instead get changes.

Barry Levine

For Lawmaker Examining Terror, a Pro-I.R.A. Past

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/us/politics/09king.html?scp=1&sq=peter-king%20ira&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 9:57 AM
Subject: re: For Lawmaker Examining Terror, a Pro-I.R.A. Past
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   It is interesting to learn that representative Peter King has a sense of fairness. As long as their complexions are fair enough, terrorists are not a problem. It's only Muslims who seem menacing to him, not IRA bombers. All very educational.

Barry Levine

Radical Cleric Still Speaks on YouTube

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/world/middleeast/05youtube.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=anwar%20al-awlaki&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 9:58 AM
Subject: re: Radical Cleric Still Speaks on YouTube
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   The U.S. Constitution provides that one guilty of "levying War against [the U.S.], or in adhering to [ the U.S.'s] Enemies" has committed treason. It follows that Anwar al-Awlaki should long ago have been charged with this crime. Due process of law would then require that he be apprehended and tried by a court of law. Instead, the Obama administration has issued his extra-judicial killing, has hired the Yemenis to make the hit, has paid them to lie about our role in it, and has tried to silence him in a public forum.  It all shows a lot of imagination, but it hasn't worked. Now let's try abiding by the law.

Barry Levine

Why Monogamy Matters

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/opinion/07douthat.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=why%20monogamy%20matters&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 7:02 PM
Subject: re: Why Monogamy Matters
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Mr. Douthat slides lazily from evidence of correlation to a presumption of causality. The data presented could as easily mean that unhappy young women are quicker to seek solace in sex than those who count themselves happier.  As long as this paper is paying his salary, it cannot dodge all blame for his intellectual laxity. Indeed, if he is the best public intellectual who could be found on the American Right, that pool is very poor indeed.

Barry Levine