Moreover, meat and dairy production dumps more animal waste, crop debris, fertilizers, pesticides, and other pollutants into our waterways than all other human activities combined.
Let's replace meat and other animal products with more healthful, eco-friendly food. More information, including recipes, is available at www.greenyourdiet.org.
Allen Shannon
Philadelphia
Tell me
the difference
I just read Robert Diamond's commentary ("Obama proves his toughness," Friday) and heartily agree. But please explain to me the difference between the execution of three Somalian teenagers caught stealing for food, and the attempt to get lifesaving information by waterboarding terrorists.
Obama is proclaimed by both left and right as proving his toughness, while Bush and advisers are castigated as torturers. One involves death for apparent evil intent, while the other involves a frightening, unpleasant experience given by professionals in the pursuit of lifesaving information. One man is acclaimed as proving toughness, while the other is condemned as a torturer. Is this hypocrisy, ignorance, or just political bias?
John DeVol
Wayne
There are
no limits
Re: "There has to be a limit," Wednesday:
The editorial, which questions Gov. Rendell's awarding of a contract to a campaign contributor, says, "This anything-goes system of campaign financing leads people to think they have a government in which special interests call the shots."
Does The Inquirer have evidence that there is any government in the United States, including the federal government, in which "special interests" don't "call the shots"?
Louis Harris
Cherry Hill
Tea-party
favoritism
President Obama is very open about the trillion-plus dollars he is budgeting to lift us out of the recession he inherited. Where were the "tea parties" when the Republicans raised our national debt from $4 trillion in 2001 to $12 trillion in 2008? For our $8 trillion-plus debt, we got the financial disaster that has destroyed the world economy.
Anthony N. Ricci
Springfield
anrsr@comcast.net
Selling
the war
In his zeal to discredit anything and everything Obama is doing to heal the damage done by 25 years of conservative deficit spending, Charles Krauthammer discredits his own advocacy and those of his party by referring to that "largest spending in peacetime."
Peacetime? Who has been consistently selling terrorism as reason for war since 9/11? Conservative opinion such as Krauthammer's is a steady reminder of the kind of thinking that brought down our economy, our middle class, and our moral leadership.
Karl Kofoed
Drexel Hill
kkofoed@rcn.com
Not so fair
and balanced
I always get a chuckle out of letter-writers who claim The Inquirer is fair and balanced, then complain about the two or three conservative op-ed writers The Inquirer prints. It would be interesting to see how many conservatives the fair and balanced Inquirer has endorsed over the past 15 or 20 years.
C. A. Galle
Willow Grove
calgalle1@juno.com
CHOICE WORDS
Unfair attacks against the turnpike commission
As a professional engineer who has practiced in Pennsylvania for the better part of 30 years, I am compelled to respond to the media's ongoing attacks directed at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
The simple fact of the matter is that the turnpike is a major business enterprise, managed by professionals in a professional fashion. My firm has worked with both the turnpike and PennDOT, as well as with dozens of local public and private entities.
The turnpike commission earns high marks in terms of managing and delivering projects on time, demanding accountability, and ensuring that all projects have a minimum impact on motorists.
The turnpike has provided the state with more than $1.4 billion in new funds for transportation projects around the state - including hundreds of millions for mass-transit agencies, including SEPTA.
Given the staggering amount of money that the turnpike has generated, I think it is safe to say that the professionals who manage the agency must be doing something right.
David A. Brinjac
Brinjac Engineering Inc.
Harrisburg
