PUBLIC FORUM.

Politician's dream

Re ``Advantage, Antonio'' (Editorial, Jan. 2):

Before you go all dewy-eyed over Mayor Villaraigosa's campaign to take over LAUSD, you might consider: he has no legal standing or mandate to do anything with LAUSD. He can bash them every which way over their failure to educate our kids and not be held accountable for either his criticisms or their failures. Only the Legislature and an agreeable governor can put him in charge and it may take an amendment to the California Constitution to do it. That may take a couple of years.

All this makes it a politician's dream issue: no responsibility for his highest-profile issue, no accountability for it either, and plenty of smoke and flame over education failures anytime he needs it to obscure his actions in the job you elected him to do - mayor of Los Angeles. How is that going, by the way?

- Walt Meares

Burbank

City perk?

Re ``Winner for best perk is two tickets to the Oscars'' (NewsLite, Jan. 18):

Councilman Dennis Zine got two tickets to the Academy Awards for supporting Councilman Alex Padilla's bid five years ago for council president. That's fine, but when Zine goes to the Academy Awards he should not use a tax-paid-for, city-take-home vehicle for noncity business.

- Morton Sherman

Woodland Hills

Wal-Mart protest

Re ``No Wal-Mart in Northridge, retailers say'' (Jan. 17):

As a former protester to a Wal-Mart in my Porter Ranch neighborhood, I have changed my mind regarding this retailer. They have great prices, fast and courteous service and aim to please. Instead, Nordhoff Boulevard will continue to have the blight of old mattresses, weeds and ``tent'' sales on the old lot that has been an eyesore for over 10 years where a Levitz and Best Buy store used to be.

Tell me, Northridgers, which would have been better - a clean, new store to compete with Costco Warehouse (membership required for good prices) that is always jammed and somehow loved by the public, or this unsightly place in our once-beautiful community that keeps going downhill?

- Monika Poe

Northridge

Are those real?

Re ``Angst over exit exams'' (Jan. 15):

I understood the anxiety of the kids and parents until I saw the list of questions they must be able to answer. Are those real? When I was in school, way back in the last century, the English grammar questions were addressed in about the third or fourth grade. Admittedly, the algebra didn't come until the seventh grade. But then, we all lived with the knowledge that if you didn't do the work and didn't learn the material, you didn't deserve to graduate.

Before I retired, I was occasionally in a position to hire employees. You didn't need an MBA to work for me, but if you could not answer questions like the ones shown here, you would be considered illiterate and would not get the job.

- Jerry Schwartz

Granada Hills

Homeless capital

Re ``L.A. capital of homeless (Jan. 13):

Seemingly insurmountable evils may at times be remedied by ingenuity and open, caring minds. Such an evil is our nation's shameful treatment of huge multitudes of outcasts freezing, starving and dying on our streets.

For those who may care - and are open to viable solutions - listen to this creative concept: Our numerous closed military bases could be stripped of all military accoutrements, and opened to the disadvantaged - providing, food, clothing, shelter, health care, social equality and insightful employment - with interim military administration. Indeed, a transformation for which our nation could be rightfully proud.

- Fred W. Coble 

West Hills

Not tough enough

In her ``Immigration bill too tough'' (Viewpoint, Jan. 15) column, Cindy Rodriguez has demonstrated clear hypocrisy. The major crises with the illegal immigration invasion are the unwilling politicians who refuse to support the enforcement of the existing immigration laws and sanctions against employers who employ illegals.

Instead, they are deceiving the public with additional new laws, which very likely will not be enforced as well. The death of the illegal border crossers will be reduced when the leaders of foreign countries stop encouraging their economically deprived citizens to traverse illegally into the U.S. Also, when we disallow the generous benefits and employment to these law breakers, they will no longer come.

- Mort Arditti

Los Angeles

Iraq elections

Re ``Two dramatic ambushes kill 11 in Iraq'' (Jan. 18):

After three elections in Iraq, things are changing from bad to worse. Where's Osama? Got WMDs yet? Mission accomplished, Mr. War President?

- Victoria Iannone

West Hills

Above the law

Re ``Just a ticket?'' (Your Opinion, Jan. 16):

The all-too-painful realization that we are not all equal under the law came to Linda LaCour as a result of Arnold's not being cited for his foolish escapade of riding a motorcycle without a license and crashing into a car, which resulted in his earning a damaged upper lip as reward.

That those luminaries of civil service she cites - the D.A., LAPD, DMV and Highway Patrol - are duty-bound to see to it that the citizenry uphold the law (it is often convincingly stated no one is above it), they are undeniably derelict in their duty in this instance. But in politics one hand washes the other, and we hapless fools lacking outrage obligingly offer them the water, soap and towel.

- Stephen Pettine

Canoga Park

Mean is the average

Re ``Mean that averages'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 17):

Mean is the average of a set of numbers. It has not evolved over the last 70 years as Bill Zelenka claims. In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean of a set of numbers is the sum of all the members of the set divided by the number of items in the set (cardinality). The arithmetic mean is what pupils are taught early on to call the ``average.'' If the set is a statistical population, then we speak of the ``population mean.'' If the set is a statistical sample, the resulting statistic is called a ``sample mean.''

Using Zelenka's example numbers (65, 73 and 90), he states that the mean is 73 when in fact it is the median that is 73, and the average - or mean - is 76.

- Jim Grohman

Granada Hills

Confirming Alito

The most important characteristic of our judicial system is honesty. We expect our judges to explain their views, whether they are based on precedent or personal opinion, which justify their rulings. In the confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito, he has shown an unwillingness to explain his views, or how he arrived at them.

He is using his ``humble'' beginnings and ``everyman'' persona as his prime selling point, but his failure to explain, or even admit, his past actions that warrant examination indicate to me that he considers himself above the law. I am particularly concerned about his view of executive power. Let us remember that Congress makes the laws, and judges interpret them. I believe he would vote to grant the president unlimited power.

- Nicholas Stewart

Tarzana

Who elected him?

So New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin promised that New Orleans will be a ``chocolate'' city again. Does this mean that New York City is a ``spumoni'' city, or that Atlanta is a ``peach'' city, or that Salt Lake City with a population percentage of 89 percent white is a ``vanilla'' city or that Los Angeles with its diverse population is a ``Neapolitan'' city? This is the same mayor who said the CIA will ``wipe him out'' in September of 2005. Who elected him mayor?

- Lolly Hellman

Quartz Hill