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Letters to the Editor

Compiled by Vail Daily staff
Vail, Colorado CO

‘Very likely’ problem

In a letter to the editor released in the Vail Daily on Feb. 8 entitled “Certainly bizarre,” D. Farrell Cordes writes of the lack of scientific language used in the recently-released IPCC report on global warming. Mr. Cordes indicates that because the term “very likely” is used to describe the human populations role in current climate changes the study holds no real scientific value and should be seen as no more than an incomplete study into a problem that could have just as easily been caused by “flatulence.”

As Mr. Cordes explains, “very likely” translates into a “more than 90 percent certainty that man causes global warming.” Mr. Cordes’ issue seems to be with the term “very likely.” Apparently it is not a scientific enough term and used only so “we poor laymen can be kept in the loop.”



Mr. Cordes is missing the point. However stated, the IPCC report indicates a real problem, one that can be attributed to human actions with 90 percent certainty. More than 2,000 scientists in 150 countries who spent six years culling the latest research conducted the IPCC study. Mr Cordes’ comments reflect the ignorance that has lead to the current global crisis and need for studies like this to be done in the first place. Mr. Cordes argues that neither this nor any other study has properly addressed historic global warming trends and that thousands of years ago dinosaur flatulence may have been the cause of an episode of global warming. Science has time and time again addressed the issue of historic climate change. Scientists recognize that the earth has gone through repeated cycles of warming and cooling. At no period in measurable history however, has the earth reached the extremes of our current situation.

If the dinosaurs would have been told with 90-percent accuracy that they were destroying the earth, well then maybe there would be a few of them around today to talk about it. But the dinosaurs are extinct. Humans hold high court at the top of the food chain now and we have been warned.

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I don’t think there is a person reading this, including Mr. Cordes, that if given a “very likely,” 90-percent chance of winning the lottery would pass on the opportunity to buy a ticket. Why then would we risk the health of the planet and the future of mankind on the same odds, no matter how they are phrased?

Ryan Sutter

Avon

No one wants war

“Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship … Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” ” Hermann Göring ” Nazi Germany second in command in an interview while on trial at Nuremberg ” he was sentenced to death.

My pathetic pacifist butt is exposing us to danger! Our leaders are sending us to die in a war that has created more terrorism, and we are the ones paying the until-now $456.1-million bill for it (http://national priorities.org).

Yes, that is what 456.1 billion dollars is. Yeah, the 0.1 is only 100 million. Why even bother? That’s $1,540 for every one of us 300 million Americans. And those who cry “Democrats will save us!” just look at how much they have listened since being voted into office in November: “Symbolic” opposition to troop increases and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s pledge to provide U.S. troops with “everything they need to do their jobs.”

Funding will not be cut off, which is the “check and balance” provided to our Congress. This is the military-industrial-congressional complex that good ‘ol Ike Eisenhower was talking about, but I will save that for another day. Sorry I got off track. Who is it we should hate ” Eurasia or East Asia? I always get so confused.

Patrick Tvarkunas

It’s not fair

I am sending this letter in regards to the printing of my picture, and the charges that have been brought against me, in the Vail Daily on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007.

I believe in my own personal opinion that unless a man is found guilty of any charges in a court of law, his own personal affairs should not be printed in the newspaper of any county. This I believe could cause embarrassment, not only for me, but for my loved ones as well. To me I feel this is a clear-cut case of my own name being pulled through the judicial mud of this county. Regardless of any charges that have been filed against me by the District Attorney, how unfair is this to me? Well, how does this look to future employers or any employers of my past?

I consider myself an upstanding citizen who has lived in the Vail Valley for 10 long years. I came to Eagle County to start a new life for me and my family. How can the Vail Daily be allowed to print such things about a person unless that person is found guilty of the charges that have been filed?

The Vail Daily staff writer who wrote the article (Edward Stoner) should not even have access to this information about me or my own personal affairs, so on my own behalf, as well as on the behalf of others in the same situation, I hope the Vail Daily will take into consideration the life of others and how any article they print about anyone’s personal affairs in this world that have got to be more important to read about than my own personal life. So please, I ask that my picture be reprinted with this letter that I am sending to the editor, because I do not think they had the right to print such things without my consent.

Also, a majority of the time, articles like this are only printed, I believe, because of the race of the accused and their background. Which brings me to my point again.

How could the Vail Daily be allowed access to such pictures and information without my consent or any permission from myself?

So, I close with this comment, “God is the only true judge in my life.”

Josue Delgado

What is Christian

I was dismayed by the reporting of Paul Shockley concerning the Grand Junction Library controversy. Accuracy requires that the Alliance Defense Fund, “an Arizona-based organization that litigates Christian causes” be identified instead as “an organization that litigates religious-right wing causes.”

Many who call themselves Christian celebrate the full library display called “Love makes a Family.” For instance, The United Church of Christ, a 1.8-million-strong church descendent from the Pilgrim fathers, hears God speaking to us that gay and multiracial love lived in faithful relationships are equally authentic expressions of God’s love as is heterosexual love among heterosexuals.

Perhaps most of what the Alliance Defense Fund litigates we would object to as contrary to God’s still-speaking call to honor the full diversity of God’s creation. Ms. Anderson may feel, “led by the Lord to speak the truth” but I feel just as led by the Lord to challenge her definition of the truth.

I also define myself as Christian and thus advocating a Christian cause. News media must stop promulgating the notion that what is “Christian” is what right-wing, fundamentalist Evangelicals say is “Christian.” After all, they were deeply complicit in giving us the current incompetent administration in Washington, which has totally ignored the latter half of the Ten Commandments and just about all of the Sermon on the Mount.

Bob Kinsey

Edwards

Courageous column

Dear Dana Jurich,

While visiting Vail for a skiing trip, I had the pleasure of reading your article, “Africa, our next frontier.”

Congratulations for having the courage to speak out and put things as bluntly as they are. Too often, people in this country lack the wisdom or the guts to recognize situations that are obvious for the rest of the world.

Keep it up and continue to open your readers’ minds with article such as this.

Dan L. Dusleag, M.D.

Bloomington, Ind.

A different view

First off, the level of intelligence of Dana Juruch needs to be seriously questioned. We burned the bridges with Venzuela? Correct me if I’m wrong, but was it not Hugo Chavez who said “death to the gringo?”

The spread of another bubonic plague, Christianity? You have got to be kidding me.

If you hate this country so much why don’t you wrap yourself in a towel, go to an Muslim country, walk three feet behind your master and tell me you are better off there than here.

Roger Elvis Neshem


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