PUBLIC FORUM.Patrolling border Oh, please, give me a break. ``U.S. officials credit Mexican troops, not American Minutemen volunteers'' for slowing the border crossing of illegal immigrants (``Fewer slip past border,'' April 7). If it weren't for the American Minuteman volunteers manning the border, we wouldn't have stepped up border patrols in the Naco-Douglas region. Arrests are down by 80 percent from the previous year in this area. Let's give these Minutemen patriots the credit they deserve. If I lived anywhere near the Naco-Douglas corridor, I would be right there with them. - Bill Hamburg Woodland Hills Painted Lady invasion Re ``Butterflies invading Valley'' (March 27): Your article about the Painted Lady butterfly was greatly appreciated. It helped explain the massive cloud of Painted Ladies For other uses, see Painted Lady (disambiguation).
Painted Ladies that came down the homesteader's road from our upper canyon and flew into our lower canyon field for a brief moment and then headed across Mulholland Highway  This article or section may be confusing or unclear for some readers.Please [improve the article] or discuss this issue on the talk page. . It all happened so quickly, with only a few stragglers, that we had trouble identifying them, even though we have the ``Butterfly Garden'' by Jerry Sedenko. Our upper canyon backs up on Calabasas Peak and the ridge dividing Calabasas from Topanga to the east and Mountain Park to the north. The Painted Ladies seemed to come from the southeast heading northwest. - Robin Gensley Mitchell Calabasas Enjoy the ads In response to ``Eye opener'' (Your Opinions, April 5) with his thoughts about the advertising all over Dodger Stadium • • [ , I might share a related thought. DePodesta got rid of a winning team, especially the infield. (Must have got dangerously close to the World Series and it scared him.) So, since he has turned the Dodgers into what looks like a Little League team, it appears that the only thing left to look at is the advertising. Let's enjoy it, shall we? - Terry Arford Arleta Worthless paper? The president said ``the retirement security for future generations is sitting in a filing cabinet'' because a list of the treasury bonds held in the Social Security trust fund is kept in a three-ring binder in a file cabinet, and that ``there is no 'trust fund,' just IOUs.'' That is like saying that the money in my bank account doesn't exist, it's just a bank statement. Or that the cash in my pocket is just small green pieces of paper. Or that my IRA Ira, in the Bible Ira (ī`rə), in the Bible. 1 Chief officer of David. 2, 3 Two of David's guard. IRA, abbreviation IRA. is just electrons because I go online to check the balance. I hope the IRS An abbreviation for the Internal Revenue Service, a federal agency charged with the responsibility of administering and enforcing internal revenue laws. doesn't mind that I paid my income taxes with a check, which is apparently just a worthless slip of paper. - Chad Jones Granada Hills Keeping SS afloat Re ``Illegals subsidize Social Security'' (April 5): Your headline makes it seem like the illegals are the only ones keeping Social Security afloat. How ridiculous. They may not be getting anything back, but that's the chance they took when they came here illegally. And it helps to make up for the millions of dollars that they send out of our country instead of putting the money back into our economy. - Sheila Cooley Van Nuys The Bay Area Re ``Disturbing trend'' (Editorial, April 6): Your editors, pointing to upticks in anti-Semitism in California, try to paint the usual sordid picture of hate crimes against Jews and defacing synagogues as entirely due to skinheads Noun 1. skinheads - a youth subculture that appeared first in England in the late 1960s as a working-class reaction to the hippies; hair was cropped close to the scalp; wore work-shirts and short jeans (supported by suspenders) and heavy red boots; involved in attacks and neo-Nazis. While those relics of a fringe culture do exist, even a little research will tell you that the bulk of anti-Semitic hate crimes in the past four years have emanated from the Bay Area ... home of the most virulent pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli sentiment this side of France. So much for peace, love and tolerance in the land of flower power. - Marc Atkinson Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. Voucher initiatives Re ``About power'' (Your Opinions, April 5): John Green is absolutely correct that vouchers will not destroy public schools. He clearly shows that. But the previous two initiatives were obfuscated. Parents who would like to choose the type of education they prefer were forced to continue the present one-size-fits-all format. The opponents spent $20 million each time. The principle was exactly the same as John Green's illustration, but the ratios varied. But either formula would have given public schools more money per pupil. If the issue is made as clear as John Green made it, next time the public will understand and pass it. - Jack Schlicht North Hills Incomplete picture Re ``The kids are all right'' (March 30): In the article ``The kids are all right'' we were given an incomplete picture of the ``overall'' well-being of children in our nation. Where were the statistics on sexually transmitted diseases Sexually transmitted diseases Infections that are acquired and transmitted by sexual contact. Although virtually any infection may be transmitted during intimate contact, the term sexually transmitted disease is restricted to conditions that are largely among teenagers? What about suicide rates among children and teens? Why was there no data concerning the rate of abortion among teens? Does obesity really overshadow o·ver·shad·ow tr.v. o·ver·shad·owed, o·ver·shad·ow·ing, o·ver·shad·ows 1. To cast a shadow over; darken or obscure. 2. To make insignificant by comparison; dominate. these issues when considering the health and safety of our nation's youth? - Glenna Andersen Valencia What about women My reference is to the stream of letters concerning the death of Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, Polish: Jan Paweł II) born Karol Józef Wojtyła . I had a chat with my mother this morning. She'll be 86 next month. She wonders why there is so much sobbing and weeping about the late pope. After all, what did he do to raise the status of women, the beasts of burden of every civilization? - Albert L. Navarrete Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Cruel and unusual Re ``Civilized'' (Your Opinions, April 7): I imagine Jeanette Birnbaum is a very kind person, but would she want to be kept alive in Terri Schiavo's minimally conscious state A minimally conscious state (MCS) is a condition distinct from coma or the vegetative state, in which a patient exhibits deliberate, or cognitively mediated, behavior often enough, or consistently enough, for clinicians to be able to distinguish it from entirely unconscious, ? To me, that would be ``cruel and unusual punishment Such punishment as would amount to torture or barbarity, any cruel and degrading punishment not known to the Common Law, or any fine, penalty, confinement, or treatment that is so disproportionate to the offense as to shock the moral sense of the community. .'' After 15 years of no improvement in cortical function, it was merciful to remove the feeding tube feeding tube n. A flexible tube that is inserted through the pharynx and into the esophagus and stomach and through which liquid food is passed. . Yes it would have been more civilized to end her misery more quickly, but laws based on medieval religious principles prevented it. My mother died on Monday. I could have kept her alive with extraordinary measures, but, just as Rep. Tom Delay did with his father in Texas, I let my mother's suffering end naturally and peacefully. - John Wisdom Dancer Canoga Park What was wrong Re ``Civilized'' (Your Opinions, April 7): This letter writer's response sums up what was wrong about the Schiavo case Schiavo case, the legal battles over the guardianship and rights of Theresa Maria Schindler Schiavo (1963–2005). Terri Schiavo was incapacitated and hospitalized in 1990, after she collapsed when her heart stopped beating due to a potassium imbalance, and her . Michael Schiavo Michael Richard Schiavo (born April 3, 1963) was the husband of Terri Schiavo, who became a public figure in a national debate over end-of-life issues. Following his wife's collapse, he led a seven-year but ultimately successful and controversial campaign to remove her feeding tube must be controlling and brutal, not because of any evidence, but merely because we say so. How can we claim to be a civilized nation when we skip directly from unfounded allegations to guilty as charged? How do we appear to the world when we confuse an atrocity and the right to die or punishment and the right to refuse medical treatment? Whatever happened to the concept of ``innocent until proven guilty?'' The true tragedy is how long well-meaning meddlers kept us from letting Terri go. - John Kurt Reseda Hoping for justice There is something rotten in the state of Florida. What Michael Schiavo did to Terri Schiavo was an abomination, a mortal sin so gross that it may have placed his wretched soul beyond the scope of redemption. When he is in the deepest pit of hell thirsting for water, I hope Terri Schiavo refuses to bring him any. I am not so presumptuous pre·sump·tu·ous adj. Going beyond what is right or proper; excessively forward. [Middle English, from Old French presumptueux, from Late Latin praes to speak for the creator; I am just hoping there is justice someplace some·place adv. & n. Somewhere: "I didn't care where I was from so long as it was someplace else" Garrison Keillor. See Usage Note at everyplace. in the scheme of things. - Steven Dale Ahern Woodland Hills |
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