PUBLIC FORUM.

Pressuring Google

Re ``Feds try to google Google'' (Jan. 20):

Go! Go! Google. Keep protecting our right to privacy, and shame on Yahoo, MSN and AOL for capitulating to the government's demands for their search records. With the Bush administration's track record of playing fast and loose with the facts, are we to believe they want to mine search engines to ``estimate the prevalence of online material ... deemed harmful to minors''?

It certainly sounds like a ploy to dig for anything they ``deem'' suspect, including terrorists. I've googled ``Osama bin Laden,'' ``al-Qaida'' and others to spell-check so my letters to the editor are not error-filled. Does that make me a terrorist or sympathizer? If they really want to keep us safe, how about protecting us (and NSA's computers) from spam and pop-ups?

- Sandy Sand

West Hills

Some call it treason

Re ``Bin Laden alive and taunting U.S. on tape'' (Jan. 20):

Proof that anti-war Democrats are undermining the War on Terror, and aiding and abetting our enemies is openly demonstrated in bin Laden's 19th and most recent propaganda recording. The tape, predictably aired by the jihadists' preferred news agency, Al-Jazeera, includes references to ``Bush misled and lied,'' ``al-Qaida is winning in Iraq due to U.S. financial and human losses'' and ``polls show majority of Americans want U.S. troops out of Iraq.''

Such Democrat leaders as Kennedy, Pelosi, Reid, Gore, Sheehan, Dean, Murtha, Durben and their clients in the Bush-hating elite media should take partisan pride in having scripted and proliferated propaganda points for our sworn enemy, al-Qaida, in a time of war.

- Paul Taylor 

Los Angeles

Useless investigation

Re ``Clinton White House officials accused in possible cover-up'' (Jan. 19):

The article on the Barrett report just blew my mind. ``Clinton White House officials accused in possible cover-up.'' Twenty-one million dollars spent over more than a decade investigating the Cisneros case and ending with ``no definite conclusion.'' The man was found guilty but pardoned by Clinton. We know that. We knew that over a decade ago.

To spend $2l million over that period of time just proves how viciously vindictive some are in trying to smear the Clinton administration. Just remember those were our tax dollars that supported Barrett and his staff for all those years. Thank goodness the present administration's guilt is so obvious.

- Marilyn Sims

Reseda

Counting Pluto dust

Re ``NASA craft blasts off on 9-year trip to Pluto'' (Jan. 20):

How exciting! Will somebody please tell me how important is it to spend $700 million to send a dust counter to Pluto? Seems to me that $700 million could go further to feed poor children or even rebuild New Orleans. Is Pluto that important? What a waste.

- Earl D. Howitz

North Hills

Day-laborer center

Re ``New day-laborer center OK'd'' (Jan. 19):

I am appalled the City Council is encouraging the hiring of day laborers by setting up these centers and coercing business such as Home Depot to financially support them. These workers are neither licensed nor insured and compete unfairly with legitimate businesses that carry workers' comp insurance, pay taxes, etc. And I suspect that a large percentage of these day laborers are also undocumented aliens.

I am not a construction worker or contractor, just a homeowner who believes illegal activities (however noble) are still illegal. I do appreciate that I will not have to drive through crowds on the sidewalk trying to get some work, but perhaps there should be a law prohibiting congregating on the sidewalks soliciting employment.

- Harry N. Hirschensohn

Sherman Oaks

Assisted suicide 

Thursday's Daily News Poll result that 52 percent of respondents don't believe in assisted suicide is typical. My own poll shows that this crowd is usually on the wrong side of every issue, whether it's torture, spying, turning a blind eye to killing civilians in false wars, allowing big business to outsource and pollute, and a host of other issues.

Here's my message to you ``Holier Than Thous'': If, at the end of my days, I am wracked in pain or hopelessly losing my faculties and I choose to meet my end peacefully ... and if anyone interferes ... they're coming with me!

- Chuck Heinold

West Hills

Pandemic?

Re ``State braces for pandemic'' (Jan. 19):

The blaring headline gave me the clear impression that a raging surge of bird flu cases was just over the border in Arizona and would be here any day now. Although the second paragraph stated that no cases have yet to be reported in the U.S., that it's not known to spread between humans, and that a pandemic would only be likely should the virus mutate, your headline attributed an alarmist sense of urgency that is inappropriate at best and irresponsible at worst.

Wouldn't it have been more accurate and reassuring to just state that state health officials have released a draft of a contingency plan to implement emergency procedures in case it becomes necessary?

- Janet Hedke

Saugus

Live and learn

I've been reading the Editorial section of the Daily News since it was the Green Sheet, and never a week has gone by without an article or letter to the editor about the terrible woes of the LAUSD. When in this lifetime (hopefully) are they going to sort themselves out? What was so wrong with McGuffy's Reader (or equivalent), times tables, spell-downs and teachers who were allowed to teach their students?

Any teacher who actually wants to dive into this morass has to be either insane or admirably courageous and dedicated. My high schools in Chicago had 48 desks bolted to the floor in each classroom, and, by George, we were bolted to 'em until we learned. Our parents had no lines except to ``encourage'' us to behave and to see that we learned.

- Vicki Wagner

Sherman Oaks

Mean revisited

Re ``Mean definition'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 19):

The two dictionary definitions of the mean as an arithmetic average and as the midpoint (median) of a distribution are not necessarily inconsistent. The mean is in fact the median when the distribution is symmetric about its midpoint. In the case of a set of numbers, the average and the median are always the same when the numbers on either side of the midpoint are symmetrically spaced about it.

For example, the average, or mean, of 10, 20, 50, 80, 90 is 50, which is also the same as the median. I emphasize this is only true for data symmetrically distributed about the midpoint. I hope this clears up the confusion.

- Ron Siskind

Sherman Oaks

The secret name

How has it escaped the collective minds of intelligentsia that Arnold is an anagram of Ronald?

- Vince Garofalo

Burbank

Singing the anthem

The singer who will sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl has been announced. I hope sheet music was given to that person with the request our anthem be sung exactly as written. Nothing gripes me more than a singer changing our national anthem to his or her version.

When the song is sung correctly, I get goose bumps. Any ninth-grader can sing the song right; why can't the professionals? Wouldn't it be great for the 300-million-plus Americans and our fighting men abroad to be able to stand proud as our national anthem is presented to the world?

- Truett Sparkman

Woodland Hills