Where’s the proof?
Please reference any peer reviewed scientific studies that back any “analyses of the war in Syria and its relationship to climate change [Re: “Local org still sending delegates to upcoming climate summit in Paris,” Nov. 19].”
Sounds worse than bogus; sounds alarmist, political and manipulative.
An unchecked eco-religious approach to climate change discredits the real science. I wish scientists of integrity would step up and fight against the politicization of CO2 concerns. Then credibility can return to the cause.
Karen Lin/Longmont
PETA says don’t eat animals
At least 19 people in seven states, including Montana, Utah and Colorado, have been sickened by an E. coli outbreak linked to packaged chicken salad. Since health officials have been blaming celery and onions for the outbreak, many people may not realize that meat consumption is the root cause of the problem. Plant-based foods don’t naturally harbor E. coli bacteria. It lives in the intestinal tracts and feces of warm-blooded animals. When cow or chicken manure is used to fertilize crops or leaks into waterways, fruits and vegetables can become contaminated. (Cross-contamination can also occur when produce is placed on the same surface as meat, or when someone doesn’t practice proper hygiene.) When more people adopt a vegan diet, fewer animals will be bred for food, lessening the threat of E. coli contamination. See www.PETA.org for more information and free vegan recipes, including one for mock chicken salad.
Heather Moore, The PETA Foundation/Norfolk, VA
Higher minimum wage helps economy
I huff and puff reading lament over a higher minimum wage or, generally, higher compensation for the 99 percent. One of my closest friends runs a coffee shop, and I know what “margins” mean to him. But I also am convinced few if any of the rest of the business owners have ever studied economics or truly appreciate “markets,” though they claim to worship same.
Fortunately, no business operates in a vacuum. What this means in a practical sense is that workers who are paid more spend it. No, they don’t drop it all at their place of employment. But a rising tide really can lift all boats. What seems to creep out some business owners (who may not even pay themselves; that’s another problem) is when every entity is required to up the ante to labor. With a more level playing field, a single business raising wages won’t necessarily have much of a recruiting advantage over those who leave wages static.
The idea of an economic multiplier is much more than an idea. Don’t accept the idea that entrepreneurs must wait for micro “equilibrium.” There is no equilibrium. But there are sales. And multipliers can work in reverse just as readily as they do on the upswing.
Fear of losing engenders the very result dreaded. Play to win, and pass out some healthy raises. After a little while you won’t be sorry. And if you see a month or a quarter or two (try to look farther, please) that looks a little slow or even sick and you can’t bear it, then why did you go into business in the first place?
Reward goes with risk. The new school that says these must move inversely is totally wrong. That’s what I learned of applied economics, the only kind worth really studying.
Greg Iwan/Longmont
I like Lindsey
Of all the candidates who are likely to favor the cutting of emissions, perhaps Lindsey Graham is the best one to count on to reimpose sanctions and get a safer deal with Iran. Of all the candidates who are likely to pursue a better deal with Iran, perhaps Lindsey Graham is the best one to lead the way for the world to cut emissions and reduce global warming — which, regardless of its cause, is creating droughts and floods.
Alex Sokolow/Santa Monica, CA
Who is the real censor?
It’s a shame that Tim Redmond’s recent article on Project Censored [Re: “Project Censored,” Nov. 12] chose to start out by denigrating the 9/11 truth movement. Mr. Redmond states that the current authors of Project Censored “have veered at times into the world of conspiracies and 9/11 ‘truther’ folks.” By “truther folks,” I wonder if Mr. Redmond is referring to the 220 senior U.S. military and intelligence officers, law enforcement veterans and government officials who have expressed significant criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report or have made public statements that contradict that report. Or perhaps he’s referring to the 2,393 licensed architects and engineers who are demanding a new investigation into the destruction of all three World Trade Center skyscrapers since the official story defies the most basic laws of physics. (See www.ae911truth. org). Or maybe “truther folks” include the thousands of firefighters, scientists, pilots, doctors and other professionals who question the official story.
It’s especially shameful that a supposedly independent journalist, writing about media censorship, himself discounts any story associated with the word “conspiracy.” Isn’t the government’s story that 9/11 was perpetrated by “19 Arab terrorists” under the control of Osama Bin Laden itself a conspiracy theory?
Volumes have been written, including peer-reviewed scientific articles, disproving the government’s version of the events of 9/11, yet 14 years later, media censorship remains the primary obstacle to educating the public about the available science surrounding 9/11. Truth movement advocates have requested that Boulder Weekly examine and write about this evidence, but the response to date has been silence. Perhaps Mr. Redmond and Boulder Weekly would do well to look under their own hood when it comes to the suppression of information, which, as the founder of Project Censored stated, “prevents the public from fully knowing what is happening in the world.”
Marti Hopper/Boulder
Meat and cigarettes
Thank you to the World Health Organization for having the courage to speak truth to power: meat, like cigarettes and asbestos, does cause cancer! No U.S. health agency would ever say this for fear of losing congressional funding.
The World Cancer Research Fund and a number of other international health agencies have been advising for years that meat consumption raises the risk of colon and other forms of cancer, but the WHO panel was actually able to determine a causal effect.
The 630-page report was drafted by a panel of 22 experts from 10 countries who reviewed 800 studies of the link between meat and cancer. These included animal experiments, studies of human diet and health and research into cellular processes that cause cancer.
The panel’s conclusions evoked strong responses, with obvious resistance from the meat industry and calls for warning labels, akin to those mandated for cigarettes, from environmental groups.
Cancer of the colon is expected to kill nearly 50,000 Americans this year, mostly through a self-inflicted diet. Fortunately, annual per capita U.S. meat consumption has dropped by 15 percent from a high of 121 pounds in 2002, as consumers switch to healthier, more convenient, and tastier plant-based alternatives.
Rudolph Helman/Boulder
Destroy Islamic terrorists in Syria
The Western world has to go into Syria and Iraq to eliminate ISIS. ISIS has established a caliphate, and if we destroy it in Syria and Iraq its tentacles in other countries will hopefully tend to wither away. The Islamic terrorists in Europe take their instructions from ISIS in Syria, and maybe we can draw the terrorists in other parts of the world back to Syria where they can be eliminated.
We cannot continue with limited air strikes and tepid ground action against ISIS, because contrary to President Obama, ISIS is not a “contained JV” organization. Unfortunately, the West (U.S., Great Britain, France, etc.) and some Arab countries have to put together a coalition for a large scale military operation against ISIS. This could require tens of thousands of ground troops, armor units and air forces to annihilate ISIS.
The White House does not understand the serious threat ISIS poses to the free world. We cannot continue with a piece meal approach to an enemy that is growing and wants to destroy us.
Donald Moskowitz/Londonderry, NH
