Jun 27, 2008

Letters

Gay marriage

Dear Editor: This is in reply to Joseph Dierking's letter (June 20) regarding the basis for claiming homosexual "marriage" as unnatural. There is no historical precedent for the institutionalization of marriage between two persons of the same sex. Societies have for millennia only sanctioned marriage between men and women.

Thus, homosexual "marriage" must use the historical heterosexual institution as a model and attempt to imitate it in some way. The physical relationship is sterile since everyone born is a product of a heterosexual relationship. Therefore they must always obtain members from the heterosexual population, including any children who live in their home. From an evolutionary view, it is a biological dead end.

A same-sex couple will have similar psychological perspectives creating a relationship lacking fundamental diversity. Furthermore, love by itself is not enough to base the marriage institution upon. That is because love can manifest itself in inappropriate forms such as that of an adulterous relationship. So this imitation of marriage reveals itself in reality as a counterfeit. Therefore, a societal foundation propped up with counterfeit and unnatural premises means that the whole lacks proper support and will be subject to failure at some point.

Rick Young,

San Jose



Unplanned growth

Dear Editor: California has another year of drought and power shortages. I hear nothing about generating more power or making plans for more water projects. So why do planning commissions throughout the state issue more permits to build shopping centers, casinos, hotels, apartment houses and condominiums? I wonder if the powers that be ever think of this fact. It is only common sense.

Bill Leary,

Millbrae



Barack Obama

Dear Editor: Barack Obama made some serious blunders. He falsely claimed, despite having no military experience, that he accurately predicted an American defeat in Iraq, and the contrary is happening. As a result, the Muslim world is turning against al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. Much more cooperation is now coming from European leaders.

His cynical calculation paid off politically in South Chicago and among defeatist Americans after the Vietnam War but it has run into raw reality.

Obama's opposition to drilling offshore is another loser. Reality again got the better of him, at least for the immediate future.

His wooden view that legalism trumps existential concerns even in a terrible war is rightly ridiculed by grown-ups like Justice Antonin Scalia, James Woolsey and Charles Krauthammer.

Every American kid once knew "All's fair in love and war." He never was an American kid.

Robert Greer Cohn,

Menlo Park



The U.S. lags

Dear Editor: Hank Lawrence's warning that European-type socialism, if it takes hold in the U.S., will stifle innovation and lower our standard of living (Letters, Tuesday) is without merit.

Indeed, people in European and other developed countries are in many ways far better off than Americans. Whereas medical care is available to all citizens of other developed nations, 17 percent of Americans do not have access to health care; as a corollary, the U.S. ranks 22nd in the world in longevity, and of the developed countries, the U.S. has the highest rate of infant mortality.

The European and Scandinavian countries are spanned by a world-class public transportation system consisting of bullet trains, financed with taxes on gasoline. Of the developed countries, the U.S. has the highest rates of incarceration, poverty, homelessness and divorce. Our students in comparison to those of other developed and even some undeveloped countries fare poorly on standardized math and science tests. Women in other developed countries are mandated to receive five to 18 months of maternal leave with pay; the U.S. mandates four weeks without pay and that's only for companies having more than 100 employees.

With the exception of Germany, still feeling the pangs of reunification, most European countries have a much smaller ratio of debt to gross domestic product; indeed our growth has been fueled by unsustainable debt, putting us in the position of being the biggest debtor nation in the world. An investment in euros when Bush took office would have, as of today, shown a far greater return than an investment in American blue-chip corporate stocks.

Nick Jaffe,

Sunnyvale



The petroleum crisis

Dear Editor: The gas crisis doesn't just affect a few people driving SUVs. And it isn't just gasoline, it is petroleum. Petroleum is more than gas and oil. It is used for many products such as plastics and a host of others.

Oil in the form of fuel delivers every product that we purchase - boats, trains and trucks use diesel oil or gasoline. Aircraft use jet fuel. Food production also requires diesel or gasoline for tractors and trucks. Other products such as cotton require the same equipment as food production.

Nearly all plastic and polymers are petroleum based.

The cost of everything that we consume will cost more according to how much petroleum is required for production and transportation.

What are our elected officials doing about this serious problem?

They are holding hearings about possible steroid use in horse racing.

Keith C. De Filippis,

San Jose