LTEs Striking Out (Life of Julia and Not Skeptical Enough)

[mark.d.crowley]

I've been striking out with LTEs for quite some time now.  Here two recent ones submitted to the Pittsburgh PG that got nowhere.  I guess I'm losing my touch.  How do you break a bad streak?


Dear Editor:

The Obama campaign has a slideshow (barackobama.com/life-of-julia) describing how government programs help a fictitious woman, Julia, during her life.  Its nanny state downsides aren't shown, so let me illustrate several likely ones.

4 years old - Hospitalized.  Reaction to government-mandated vaccine.

17 -- Detained.  Objected to TSA pat-down at Victoria's Secret.

18 - Drafted.  Toured Afghanistan, Pittsburgh and Iraq.

28 -- Graduated college with BA.  $225,000 in debt.

30 - All bank deposits federally taxed.   Fed Chair said it was "necessary."

33 - Diagnosed with cancer. FDA denied breakthrough treatment.

34 - All 401(k)s and pensions converted to IRAs.

35 - All IRAs standardized.  Replaced with bonds dumped by China.

38 - Arrested during cancer surgery.  Didn't properly obtain permissions to temporarily deactivate subcutaneous, government-mandated, tracking chip.

39- Received bill for SWAT team damages to operating room.

40 - Died.  Armed police observation drone crashed into stands at football game.

That's why it's called "cradle-to-grave."

Mark Crowley
Plum


Dear Editor:

There's an uneasy familiarity with this passage from the interview with Penn State's Michael Mann ("Earth Day: Climate scientists battle the global-warming skeptics", Don Hopey, 4/22/2012):

". . . policymakers cannot wait until all the scientific questions are answered before they act because then it will be too late . . ."

The unease is with words from another crisis that substituted "intelligence" for "scientific."  The context was Iraq, not climate.  The chief promoter was George Bush, not Michael Mann.

We're bombarded with doomsday scenarios urging immediate action before it's too late.  Today, we call those actions "preemptive attacks."  They're now national policy and have a very high price.

Against terrorism the price is perpetual war, occupation, the TSA and the NDAA.  Against marijuana it's global crime syndicates and overflowing domestic prisons.  Against the inevitable failure of too-big-to-fail banks it's the poverty inherited by your great grandchildren.

I, too, see a hockey stick graph.  This one charts the disastrous consequences of not being skeptical enough.

Mark Crowley
Plum

[mark.d.crowley]

I must be impatient.  The day after I post this, the Pittsburgh Trib prints a variation of the Julia letter I had sent them even before I sent the one to the PG.   

http://triblive.com/opinion/letters/1817341-74/julia-government-arrested-cancer-chairman-confiscated-corzine-john-mandated-obama

The Trib used to print letters soon after submittal, but now they seem to be holding them for longer and longer periods of time. My bad streak with the PG, however, is still in progress.