Posted: Sunday, September 7, 2008 12:00 am
Pregnant at 40? Poor judgment
Debra Saunders terms Sarah Palin "a conservative's conservative" and credits her with "impeccable credentials" (Aug. 31). I'm not a Saunders' conservative, but I doubt anyone will find that Gov. Palin has "impeccable credentials."
Gov. Palin has the right to choose to be against abortion, but I question her judgement in allowing herself to become pregnant after reaching the age of 40. She certainly must have been aware that for a woman of her age there is a high risk that the child will be born with Down's Syndrome.
John McCain's judgment too needs to be examined in light of his selection of her as his running mate. His reputation as a maverick (Webster: "a person who takes a stand independent of others in a group") is deserved and is a plus in the Senate where a maverick can introduce fresh thought where mindset is too often the rule. That different point of view can stimulate discussion and receive thorough evaluation by the group.
A maverick presidential candidate who seeks a maverick running mate is a whole different story. Sen. McCain's first choice was maverick Independent/Democrat Joe Lieberman, but was convinced finally that a relatively unknown maverick, Gov. Palin, a "conservative's conservative" and a vivacious woman, would produce more votes in November. Mavericks have a place in public life, but the White House, where points of view can go unchallenged, is no place for reckless behavior.
Mike Wolf, Corvallis
Palin, feminism and gays
Debra Saunders' opinion page column (Sunday, Aug. 31) said Sarah Palin is a feminist. I don't know of any true feminist who would abandon her children to run for vice president.
Saunders repeated John McCain's propaganda that Palin "supported awarding benefits for same-sex couples." In fact, she supported a bill to eliminate health benefits for spouses of gay state employees, but vetoed it only because she believed it should be a stricter constitutional amendment instead.
Although none have been named, Palin claims to have "gay friends."
Palin's discrimination against gays has no excuse.
Perhaps McCain's excuse is the preposterous claim that he was tortured as a POW by "the Soft-Soap Fairy" and other "homosexual" Vietnamese he derogatorily called "gooks." McCain paradoxically claimed nobody was homosexually raped. (Source: U.S. News & World Report, May 14, 1973, p. 51-52, usnews.com Jan. 28, 2008.)
Saunders also missed that Palin advocated teaching creationism, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the teaching of creationism is an unconstitutional injection of religion in public education. The Republicans' platform agrees with Palin.
Will Republicans also require teaching the alien "theories" of Scientology in science class?
Thomas Kraemer, Corvallis
Don't blame E10 for mileage drop
Ethanol may not be to blame for lower MPG.
Linn County reports that E10 has reduced the fuel economy of its fleet of vehicles (DH July 16 and July 30), but according to data presented in a 2007 research paper by Minnesota State University and the University of North Dakota titled "Optimal Ethanol Blend-Level Investigation," that may be the fault of the auto makers, not the fuel mixture.
Pages 15, 16 and 17 of the report show the change in MPG of several recent vehicles with various blends of ethanol. The fact that some vehicles performed well with E10 and some poorly implies that it is the design of the vehicle and not the fuel that is responsible for the loss in MPG.
Since all major U.S. manufactured gasoline vehicles since 1980 have been warrantied for use with ethanol blends of up to 10 percent, and this country has blended ethanol with gasoline at various times since then, it should be no surprise that E10 might be used in a vehicle. That the auto makers have shown so little effort to optimize its usage while steadily marketing large, fuel inefficient vehicles to the consumer, indicates their lack of interest in fuel economy or alternatives to oil and demonstrates their inability to lead.
I believe that E10 legislation is an effort to invest in a future domestic fuel supply and, like all investments, bears an up-front cost. This country has thrown away nearly 30 years of innovation waiting for the auto manufacturers to make an investment in ethanol.
I fail to see how revoking E10 legislation because of irresponsible automotive design can have any positive affect on our nation's future energy security.
Coburn Wightman , Albany
Facts count: Prepare for cooling
Is reality optional? Apparently it is for true believers in human-caused climate change.
The banter between Laurance Padman and Joe West on global warming has been entertaining, but the climate change website that Mr. Padman gave was sorely disappointing for its lack of content. Mr. Padman and others like him would benefit from the real science discussed at http://icecap.us.
Now OSU's Evelyn Sherr has weighed in (Letters, Aug. 31). Dr. Sherr warned of serious consequences of global warming if we don't act soon and cites NASA's James Hansen as her authority.
In 1988 Hansen testified to Congress that unless carbon dioxide emissions were greatly reduced catastrophic global warming would occur. He used three scenarios to predict future temperatures: Scenario A, do nothing; Scenario B, freeze CO2 emissions at 1988 levels; and Scenario C, drastically reduce CO2 emissions beginning in 1990.
How well did Hansen do? If you Google "ordinary eyeball," click the first hit, and scroll down to Figures 2 and 3 you will see that Hansen's predictions were an epic failure.
The average global temperature today is less than it was when Hansen made his claims, despite the steady increase of CO2 since 1988. Global average temperature has been on a downward trend since 2001 and has declined rapidly over the past year. Why?
The Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the great ocean current, has shifted to its cool phase. This shift correlates to naturally occurring solar cycles that will produce global cooling in the coming years.
Nature, not people, rules the climate.
John Jones, Philomath
SUNDAY LETTERS should be e-mailed to news@dhonline.com with "Sunday letter" on the subject line. Please send letters as plain e-mails, not as attachments.