Carbon-based fuel is destabilizing our climate Re: “Energy issues are Tim Pawlenty’s Achilles heel,” May 9
What I didn’t see in Conn Carroll’s commentary was concern that continued carbon fuel consumption is destabilizing the climate. Things were at equilibrium when that carbon was locked away as coal, oil, or natural gas deep underground. Pumped out for cheap energy, the carbon is released as carbon dioxide when the fossil fuel is burned, which traps heat.
It seems that the weather statistics follow nicely with the carbon dioxide statistics from ice cores and deep ocean sediments.
We have the luxury now to complain about little things like money and jobs when the lives of millions (billions?) are not immediately at stake. But when even an oil president with a less-than-smart reputation can plainly see the threat, it will clearly be too late.
Christopher Marsh
Alexandria
Obama gets no credit for catching Osama
Re: “O-slimy bin Laden had it coming”, May 9
Reading the opinions of Gregory Kane (whose pontifications regardless of the subject matter at hand invariably seem to be about the same thing), I am reminded of Samuel Johnson’s quip on meeting a bore: “That fellow seems to me but to possess one idea, and that is a wrong one.”
This so-called Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist has railed ad nauseum against President Obama’s fitness for office, particularly when it comes to his duties and responsibilities as commander in chief, but nary a word from him about Obama’s role in bringing Osama bin Laden to justice.
It is as if those Navy SEALs were acting on their own and not at the behest of the commander in chief.
Craig Taylor
Alexandria
Harry Reid’s tortured syntax says it all
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has demonstrated a mortifyingly low level of literacy. What bothers me most is that many people who hear his bad English will emulate him since, after all, Reid is a major national leader.
On May 2, Mr. Reid’s official comments on the assassination of Osama bin Laden were repeatedly broadcast on radio stations. Mr. Reid referred to the U.S. military personnel, who acted as people who put “their lifes on line.” First of all, the plural of “life” is “lives”. Second, “on line” means on the Internet, whereas to endanger one’s earthly existence is to put one’s life on the line. The second part of the phrase is an inadvertent but painful jest, though Mr. Reid obviously had no inkling of that effect.
Worse yet, Mr. Reid even repeated the doubly wrong phrase a few minutes later.
He should be replaced right away. Such an undereducated speaker mortifies literate Americans whenever any of his pronunciamentos are on the airwaves. Can’t some sort of recall groundswell be instigated?
Cay Hoagland
Silver Spring
