In a February 10 column printed in the Boston Herald, Jonah Goldberg repeats the anti-global-warming canard that severe snowstorms are evidence against global warming. In response, I sent the following letter to the editor:
To the editor:
Jonah Goldberg’s recent suggestion that severe winter weather disproves global warning shows an alarming ignorance of basic science. In particular:
When the air is warmer, more water evaporates into it.
When there is more water in the air, it snows more.
Once you get below freezing, colder temperatures actually decrease snowfall.
In short, the simple truth is that global warming causes more snow, not less.
Of course, ideologues like Goldberg rarely let something as inconvenient as the truth stand in the way of their agenda.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Kamens
Brighton
Not only did the Herald not print my letter or any other letter or opinion piece making a similar point, they have run at least two idiotic editorial cartoons mocking the idea that more snow supports global warming theories. (more…)
I enjoyed Joe Fitzgerald’s recent satire of the pro-life movement. I laughed so hard coffee came out my nose when I read that “the only choice [the pro-choice movement] will tolerate is its own.” It was obvious that he was joking, since it’s so patently absurd to suggest that people protecting a woman’s right to choose are trying to deny her a choice.
Wait, what’s that? He was serious? Are you sure? Oh, in that case, never mind.
Fitzgerald is right that pro-choice extremists sometimes say stupid things, but I’ll take them over the extremists on the other side who think it’s God’s work to assassinate doctors performing legal medical procedures.
Last November, I posted on my blog a copy of a letter which I faxed to Congressman Robert Wexler, in which I chastised him for giving my email address (which I gave him when I made a donation to his campaign, so that he could send me a receipt) to another politician’s campaign and demanded that he remove my address from all lists and databases under his control.
A friend, Michael Burstein, commented on that blog entry, “Wexler is a good guy, so I can’t I imagine that he and his staff won’t take steps to fix this. Let us know once he has.”
Alas, my friend was incorrect. I received no response from Wexler or anyone on his staff, and today, I received another piece of spam at the email address I had given to Wexler, from the campaign of yet another politician, Ted Deutch. Although the spam came from “campaign@tedforcongress.com”, the letter in it was signed by Congressman Wexler, making it all the more clear that he provided the mailing list to Deutch.
Many are saying that one of the reasons why the Democrats lost yesterday’s special election in Massachusetts is because they are acting like elitist snobs. I’m not fan of the Republicans and I voted for Coakley yesterday, but I can absolutely understand why people feel that way. I think there’s a lot of truth to it, and I think that this unrepentant spamming from Wexler is a symptom of it.
Congressman Wexler: What you have to say to me is not so important that you get to say it when I’ve told you to leave me alone. Your fellow Democratic politicians are not so critical to the future of this country that you get to share my email address with them when I’ve never given you permission and indeed asked you not to. You are not so high and mighty that you get to ignore my letters to you with impunity. You, sir, have lost my trust, and you will not soon regain it.
The Israelis do not use racial profiling for airport security (“European response mixed to new U.S. security demands,” Jan. 4). They use profiling, which includes patterns of behavior, coordination of intelligence and sophisticated modeling of which country of origin as but one factor. Interviews at the airport are by trained army personnel and they are watching and listening to everyone, even Florida snowbirds. They are just doing it right.
Of course the U.S. should be profiling instead of harassing passengers and crippling the industry, but our technique of rounding up suspicious black men won’t catch Nigerian bombers, and it certainly won’t catch British ones.
I’ve just sent the following letter, with minor variations, to Sen. Kerry, Rep. Capuano, State Sen. Tolman, State Rep. Honan, and Martha Coakley (who will almost certainly soon be Sen. Coakley). If you’re as fed up as I am with this state of affairs (the incident described below is not the first time we’ve been charged a large ER copayment for something which really, truly, required an ER visit), please contact your elected representatives and ask them to do something about it.
Dear Senator Kerry,
Recently, my wife was woken in the middle of the night by persistent abdominal pain so intense (she described it as much worse than natural childbirth) that it caused her to vomit and prevented her from sitting up. Of course, I drove her straight to the emergency room of our local hospital.
Thirteen hours later, she was diagnosed with a kidney stone and discharged. This diagnosis was confirmed by her primary care physician in a followup visit several days later. Both the ER staff and my wife’s PCP confirmed that going to the ER was both necessary and appropriate.
Several days later, I received a bill from the hospital for the $100 ER copayment required by my insurance company. Herein lies the crux of the issue about which I am writing.
Last week, I received, via email sent to one of my synagogue’s contact email addresses, a flyer from someone at the Westboro Baptist Church, announcing the protests they were planning on holding this week in front of Jewish institutions in Boston.
I was appalled, and my initial reaction was to make a big deal out of it. I emailed the institutions listed on the flyer to warn them about the protest, made phone calls to personal contacts I had at some of those institutions, posted about it on my blog and on UniversalHub.com, and sent tips to the news media.
Some people commented in response that the WBC thrives on publicity, and the best strategy for dealing with them is to essentially pretend they don’t exist. I argued that things had gotten so bad in this country that the WBC was no longer completely on the lunatic fringe, and a response was therefore called for. My argument was legitimate; it’s not at all a clear-cut issue. However, as Bob Sutton says, one should always argue as if he is right and listen as if he is wrong. That’s what I did, and I’ve decided that I was wrong.
Congressman Robert Wexler
2241 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Fax: (202) 225-5974
Dear Congressman Wexler,
In May 2008, a letter from you to one of your supporters was forwarded to the Jews for Obama listserv with the introduction, “As you all know, Congressman Wexler has been a strong Obama supporter and advisor to the campaign. Please help him in his re-election bid. Thanks.”
In response, I sent a donation to your campaign, one which I couldn’t really afford given how much I had already spent to help Obama.
When I donated to you, I specified a unique email address, [elided]. Today I received an email message to that address from “Marcy Winograd for Congress”. Since the only time I’ve ever given out that email address to anyone is when I donated to your campaign, the only way Winograd’s campaign could have gotten the address is from you. Shame on you.
I sent email to the mayor’s office last week asking him to comment on the two vehicles from his office which were spotted downtown parked illegally in a bus stop. There has been no response.
One of my rules about when to vote for a challenger over an incumbent is this: when the incumbent starts to act like he’s above the law, it’s time for a change.
Several years ago, I wrote to Congressman Michael Capuano asking why he didn’t sign an ad published by the CJP which many other politicians signed, attesting to Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks. A friend has pointed out that I was remiss in not posting Capuano’s response, which seems somewhat more significant now than it was then, since Capuano is now running for the Senate.
A member of Capuano’s staff responded in an email message which read as follows:
Congressman Capuano has referred your email message to me. You ask why he did not sign the CJP ad in the Globe and Herald. As I recall, we had a rather short time to review the text and no opportunity to contribute to its drafting.
I hope you know that he did vote, that same week, in favor of H. Res. 921, in defense of Israel’s right, as a sovereign democratic state, to take appropriate action to defend itself. He also wrote a letter of support, which I attach and which was posted on JCRC website.
Please feel free to call if you have further questions.
In a letter to the editor in the September 21 edition of the Boston Herald, one Christine Giroux wrote:
At the core of the health care controversy is the question of whether health care is a basic right held by every American citizen… We all need food, clothing and shelter. Are these basic rights too? … The truth is that these things are not rights and neither is health care.
I found her letter so astoundingly offensive that I had to write a response. Unfortunately, the Herald printed neither my response nor any other objecting to Giroux’s assertion that food, clothing and shelter are not basic rights. Perhaps this is because they felt the issue had already played itself out, or perhaps it’s because they agree with Giroux, or perhaps it’s because they didn’t think my letter was controversial enough, or perhaps they think they’ve printed too many letters from me recently . In any case, here’s what I wrote:
To the editor:
Attempting to contrast with the right to health care, Christine Giroux asks, “We all need food, clothing and shelter. Are these basic rights too?”
According to the millennia-old traditions and ethical code observed by me and my fellow Jews, the answer is clear and unequivocal: yes, of course they are!
Supporting the poor is not merely something to do if one feels like it. It is an obligation placed both on individuals and on the community (i.e., the government). Not only is it a good deed to support the poor; it is a grave sin against man and God to do otherwise.
While I would not presume to speak for other religions, I find it difficult to understand how many who deny these basic rights profess to follow a religion whose holy texts teach, “Let the man with two tunics share with him who has none, and let him who has food do likewise,” and, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor.”
American culture encourages the mistaken beliefs that poverty can be eliminated and that the poor are responsible for their own condition. While that may be true for some, the truth is that there will always be people who need the help of others, and help them we must.
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. In any case, here’s what I wrote: