Correspondence

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 5, 2001

Clintons' Haughty Conduct Shows Need for New Rules

Again I write to commend Managing Editor Paul M. Rodriguez. His article "Clintons Get Last Laugh on Taxpayers" [the last word, Feb. 26] proposing a "Hillary Rule" for congressional members-elect was right on point. Hillary Rodham Clinton's calculated move to thwart the Senate rule for members was so obvious, so haughty and in-your-face, that we must do something. I fear we will never be rid of these people.

Pat Cove Lakewood, N.J.

The Environmentalists' Goal in California Is Shocking

I am an engineer/M.B.A, who has spent much of my life designing and building power plants. John Elvin in "Electric Crisis Shocks California" [Feb. 26] captured the William R. Gould that we read about in the industry press -- thoughtful, forward-thinking, modest, accommodating, but always looking for a way to meet his view of the public trust.

Elvin's view of the underlying motivation of the environmentalists is exactly what I always suspected. I have never seen these statements made in a mainstream publication. When negotiating with these people, it quickly becomes clear the particular technical issue they are currently addressing is a means to an end, and the end is to find a way to stop the development of a new power plant.

Ironically, I just started reading The Ultimate Resource 2 by Julian Simon, which thoroughly debunks the Club of Rome and Paul Ehrlich's population nonsense.

Marry Cuerdon via the Internet

Thank you for this excellent, detailed and well-researched piece. I am one of many who have seen this coming for a long time. Arthur Hailey's novel Overload foresaw this years ago, and now it reads like the daily news. I especially appreciate Elvin's description of the philosophical roots of the current environmentalist movement. Rousseau's "noble savage" writ large now has become a virtual human death wish, as Elvin noted. It is ironic to see people who believe in Darwin's "survival of the fittest" theory, yet decry that survival as in some manner repugnant to ecohistory. The refusal to allow for power eventually may be seen as a delayed genocide. I suspect at that time that the people who are dying for lack of food, water and power will not take comfort in the goal of an Edenic paradise without people.

Marvin B. Crow via the Internet

The PC Thought Police Are in the Corporate World, Too

Thank you for the Picture Profile [Feb. 12] about Thor Halvorssen and his organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. The article gives new hope to those of us who recognize political correctness for what it truly is and constantly fight against it. Just this week, my employer sent a notice to all employees requiring us to attend classes on diversity and sexual harassment. Seems like the thought police are everywhere these days!

Rick Stanger via the Internet

Liberals Reveal Themselves to Be the True Extremists

While I agree with the major point in Stephen Goode's "Campus Conservatives Still Under Attack" [for the people, Feb. 19], I do not think that there should be much alarm about the intelligence of the liberal faction at Brandeis University. By demanding the bomb-sniffing dog, metal detectors and the extra blood for Charlton Heston, among other things, the liberals have sent a most serious message, which is that liberals are the extremists and militants, as opposed to the presumed school of thought about the "vast right-wing conspiracy." The measures were for the liberal activists who had threatened violence and terrorism. That fact should be publicized and made eminently clear to the students.

Rick Stanger via the Internet

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