PUBLIC FORUM : TAPES WON'T MAKE `LIAR' LEWINSKY CREDIBLE.Over a year ago, Monica Lewinsky said during a conversation that ``my whole life is a lie.'' Because she has been taped telling Linda Tripp that she had sex with the president, does this make her believable? And why should Lewinsky have immunity? Immunity from what? Since she is an admitted liar, is there any reason to believe her now? Linda Tripp and her Judas tapes should be declared null and void. It is obvious that Ken Starr and his acolytes are aiming to discredit the president. Will the American public allow this calumny calumny n. the intentional and generally vicious false accusation of a crime or other offense designed to damage one's reputation. (See: defamation) to continue? It is time to stop the demeaning de·mean 1 tr.v. de·meaned, de·mean·ing, de·means To conduct or behave (oneself) in a particular manner: demeaned themselves well in class. charade. - Jean D. Bull Lake Isabella Safire's `sour grapes' Regarding ``Triumph in China phony'' by William Safire, Opinions, June 30: I say sour grapes, sour grapes. Safire just cannot give our great president credit for anything. Let's be thankful that we have a gutsy, articulate, freedom-loving president who is willing to stand before the Chinese and ``tell it like it is.'' Clinton may have his weaknesses, but he is a strong leader and I am proud to have him leading our great nation, proud to call him my president. - Harry F. Miller Reseda Snowboarders convicted On July 2, two snowboarders were convicted of skiing out of bounds on Angeles National Forest The Angeles National Forest (ANF) was established by executive order on December 20, 1892 as the San Gabriel Timberland Reserve. It covers over 2,600 km² (650,000 acres) and is located in the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County, just north of the metropolitan area of Los land that is open to the public. Some local newspapers have editorialized that the individuals should be forced to pay estimated rescue costs of $23,600 as a deterrent to future National Forest trespassers and have opined that recovering rescue costs, and the attendant costs of litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. , will not cause hesitation on the part of individuals to report missing persons. This opinion is contrary to that expressed by the experienced Mountain Rescue Association, to which about 50 local, national and Canadian volunteer rescue teams belong. The people of California, who pay to enjoy state and federal land resources and have a reasonable expectation of help in time of need, deserve to have unambiguous recreation laws equally enforced throughout the state. If the costs of rescue have become too burdensome for county coffers, then alternate sources of financing, such as designating a portion of state and national recreation-oriented fees for rescue costs, should be implemented. Perhaps the volunteer rescue organizations should be affiliated with a statewide organization less politically volatile than county sheriff's and district attorney's offices. - Jo W. French La Canada Flintridge Power lines and cancer ``Panel splits over risk of power-line cancer,'' Daily News, June 25, concerning the potential hazards of low-frequency electromagnetic radiation electromagnetic radiation, energy radiated in the form of a wave as a result of the motion of electric charges. A moving charge gives rise to a magnetic field, and if the motion is changing (accelerated), then the magnetic field varies and in turn produces an from power lines, is an example of ``fish out of water'' expertise. Those who were deemed experts may be, but not in the scientific investigation of electromagnetic wave effects upon living tissue. There are at least two fundamental factors to consider; the radiation wavelength and the energy per photon carried by such waves. The wavelength of power-line emissions is 3,100 miles, considerably more than the length of the tallest human. Also, the photon energy carried by such waves is millions of times less than that needed to break a hydrogen bond hydrogen bond n. A chemical bond in which a hydrogen atom of one molecule is attracted to an electronegative atom, especially a nitrogen, oxygen, or fluorine atom, usually of another molecule. and thereby damage living tissue. These are some of the reasons why no one has found significant, credible reasons for alarm. - Edward Lovick Jr. Northridge UTLA UTLA United Teachers of Los Angeles (California) advertising I was stunned by the specious spe·cious adj. 1. Having the ring of truth or plausibility but actually fallacious: a specious argument. 2. Deceptively attractive. half-page ads by United Teachers Los Angeles in the Daily News June 29-30. The image of a blackboard with a phrase in German placed above a vacuous argument is not only misleading but reprehensible. First, let me point out the de facto [Latin, In fact.] In fact, in deed, actually. This phrase is used to characterize an officer, a government, a past action, or a state of affairs that must be accepted for all practical purposes, but is illegal or illegitimate. official language of the United States is English, not German. Comparing or using this unmitigated un·mit·i·gat·ed adj. 1. Not diminished or moderated in intensity or severity; unrelieved: unmitigated suffering. 2. ploy in an attempt to support bilingual education is preposterous. Bilingual education as they have had it, and continue to want it, doesn't work. And the voters have clearly voted thus in the recent election. As for the Stanford 9 testing in subject areas they say the students have not been taught: This is the clearest admission of the incompetence of the educational system in our state you'll ever see. So they would have us kill the messenger - the Stanford 9 test results. With the teachers unions on one side, and the administrative structure on the other, we may as well close and padlock the school doors. I feel sorry for the current populace of students and the good teachers that do exist. Sad to say they will all be shortchanged or crushed by the so-called experts whose true agenda is only to enlarge and protect their own power structures. What can be done? Let's start with breaking up the LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) . Have merit and punitive pay written into the teachers' contracts. Hold both the teachers and the administrators accountable for the education of our children. Demand that the teachers are not only certified but qualified to teach. And start firing the incompetent workers, be they teachers or administrators. - C.M. James Encino Parade vs. culture There was a show of music and dancing June 28 by the children of the West Hollywood Russian community, who brought a wonderful culture with them from Russia. I think I was probably the only native-born American adult there. Then to come home and turn on the television and watch the Gay Pride Parade A gay pride parade or LGBT pride parade is part of a festival or ceremony held by the LGBT community of a city to commemorate the struggle for LGBT rights and pride. . One of the commentators bragged how the parade brings $20 million into West Hollywood. I don't see much culture in that - just embarrassment to those in the gay and lesbian community who do bring culture into the community. It only sets back the strides for respect in the gay community, and the majority of the gays don't deserve a setback like that. I think it would be better to take pride, not in being gay, but in gay and lesbian humanitarians, writers and artists who give so much culture to the world. - Bob Greene West Hollywood New LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. complaint process Re ``LAPD complaint procedure aids city, residents'' by Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks, Opinions, June 30: Just ask any working cop in your neighborhood if the ``new complaint procedure'' will help police do their job better, make you safer, or save the city money. Stop to consider what is involved in this complaint process: A supervisor, usually a sergeant, has to be taken ``out of service'' to go interview the complainant A plaintiff; a person who commences a civil lawsuit against another, known as the defendant, in order to remedy an alleged wrong. An individual who files a written accusation with the police charging a suspect with the commission of a crime and providing facts to support the allegation . This interview should be done on tape, and the process can take hours, including required paperwork. This assumes the complainant is cooperative, responds to phone calls to set up an interview, doesn't ``play games'' with the investigator, doesn't have to involve a lawyer in the process, and so forth. The complaint then has to be written up in a long, tedious format that has to be ``just so'' on a word processor. The formal complaint then wends Wends or Sorbs, Slavic people (numbering about 60,000) of Brandenburg and Saxony, E Germany, in Lusatia. They speak Lusatian (also known as Sorbic or Wendish), a West Slavic language with two main dialects: Upper Lusatian, nearer to Czech, and its way up the bureaucratic ladder through lieutenants, captains, commanders, deputy chiefs, even the chief himself. All of these people are being paid. Time spent on this process is time not being spent on dealing with plans and operations to fight crime, not to mention dealing with loud parties, unruly juveniles, public drinking and all the other disorderly conduct which is the bane of the quality of life in our fair city. Perhaps that's just as well, because policing those types of disorders are likely to generate another ``complaint.'' When a cop has to resolve a dispute between two or more people, let alone place someone under arrest, heaven forbid, generally someone is left unhappy in the aftermath. So we have a complaint system which will accept any complaint, not involving misconduct or violation of the law by an officer, from the intoxicated in·tox·i·cate v. in·tox·i·cat·ed, in·tox·i·cat·ing, in·tox·i·cates v.tr. 1. To stupefy or excite by the action of a chemical substance such as alcohol. 2. and drugged, the mentally and emotionally disordered, the violent and vindictive, and this is supposed to reassure us. Well, no doubt it is reassuring to the American Civil Liberties Union American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nonpartisan organization devoted to the preservation and extension of the basic rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution. , which has the chief's full attention in his tidy career care package. As for the rest of us (abuse) for The Rest Of Us - (From the Macintosh slogan "The computer for the rest of us") 1. Used to describe a spiffy product whose affordability shames other comparable products, or (more often) used sarcastically to describe spiffy but very overpriced products. 2. , most realize that basing the safety of our city and its people, let alone that of the cops, on the concerns of the ACLU ACLU: see American Civil Liberties Union. is somewhat like throwing baby chicks into a nest of rattlesnakes. - S.A. Waggerby La Crescenta CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Bernard C. Parks Bernard Parks (born December 7, 1943 in Beaumont, Texas) is a member of the Los Angeles City Council, representing the 8th District in South Los Angeles and former Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. Parks attended Los Angeles City College, received his B.S. |
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