Correspondence

...The point is it was totally unnecessary...

...Mills, founded in 1852, is one of the oldest colleges for women in the country and one of the most distinguished, a worthy example in the West of what Wellesley, Smith, and Mount Holyoke are in the East...

...Current production is confined to about 700 square miles...

...At the time I wrote the article, only 12,000 French women had taken RU-486, although the number has increased to more than 20,000 by now, perhaps as many as 30,000...

...There is a population explosion (see China...

...How rapidly alternative supplies arise is evidenced by the fact that when Turkey managed to suppress the growing of opium poppies there, Southwest Asian countries immediately became a large supplier to the world market...

...Even though I erred in recalling his name, I nonetheless cherish the memory of the hour or two I spent in his company...

...Gold overlooks some essential points in his discussion...

...Baulieu is assuring audiences that this is so...

...In commenting upon the length of Karl's tome, for example, Nolte stated, ". . . of its 600,000-plus words, at least 300,000 are not only unnecessary but actually deleterious...

...Baulieu, the developer of RU-486, at the recent Lasker Awards Presentation in New York City (at which this reader was present) discussed this myth at length to the satisfaction of his more scientific peers...

...Foundation Santa Monica, California Victor Gold replies: As one who recognizes a superior satirist when he sees one, I tip my pen to Lynn Scarlett...

...It's true that I have "no knowledge of the agricultural requirements for growing cocaine, heroin or marijuana," but Ms...

...It is unusual of your otherwise esteemed paper to parent such poor quality journalism...

...Cortines alone...

...Gretchen Berger New York, New York Charlotte Low Allen replies: I was using the term "fetus" generically (as in "fetal protection policy"), but, yes, at eight weeks, it's a fetus, at seven weeks just an embryo...

...Yet, surely a book review is not the place for the reviewer to digress on his own "once upon a time" trip to Oxford, Mississippi, or upon his recollection of an Oxford druggist's view that racial integration would not come to William Faulkner's hometown...

...Second, Mr...

...Among his remarks that I chose to type directly into my word processor were: • "Some parents were hysterical, and I think that was encouraged...

...Cortines also expressed anger at the White Lung Association, an organization consisting primarily of occupational asbestos sufferers, who he said he thought would give an honest appraisal of the need for abatement but "I found that instead of assisting me, they were more...

...At no time did I indicate that removal of asbestos was "unnecessary...

...Few writers have done justice to the genius from Oxford, but I do not think Mr...

...He is wrong on two counts...

...Nolte'sbook review has aided the cause...

...He declares that no one has been able to duplicate the rabbit results on rats or monkeys but cites no written studies...

...that remark was attributed to Mr...

...Gold seems to exhibit no knowledge of the agricultural requirements for growing cocaine, heroin, or marijuana—requirements that make it highly unlikely that anyone could monopolize supplies...

...However, I might note that there are a few licensed suppliers who do furnish cocaine and other drugs, such as marijuana, to researchers and to some medical users...

...Ticked Off I recently reviewed your article by Michael Fumento entitled "The Asbestos Rip-Off" (TAS, October 1989...

...The Christopher Longest Lectures Fund was established in 1960, the year before Dr...

...Karl did not do justice to William Faulkner, whom Nolte identifies as "my hero...

...I'm a Mills Man In your August issue Professor Robert Ferrell, in a review of a book on Dean Rusk, called Mills College a "backwater school...

...In fact, Dr...

...These statements, along with the vast majority of those made during our 1015 minute conversation, had nothing to do with court orders but dealt directly with the issue of the danger of asbestos and the need for abatement...

...First, he asserts that parallels- with alcohol prohibition from 1919 to 1933 do not apply to drugs...

...I understand that many a statement made to a reporter one day is regretted the next and that pressure must have been put on Mr...

...The implication in your article that the San Francisco Unified School District or myself believes that the asbestos removal was unnecessary is misleading and blatantly untrue...

...I have no complaint with her complaint...

...Opium poppies for heroin can grow in virtually any country in the world...

...The drugs that Mr...

...The chemical structure of RU-486 does not have any correlation with DES, the infamous morning sickness pill...

...I liked the people I met in Oxford, and I am obviously a great admirer of Faulkner's fiction—no matter what shortcomings he may have had as a man...

...Scarlett's own unique research into that field—especially her revolutionary discovery of how to "grow" cocaine and heroin—is clearly the answer to the nagging problem of how we can save the American...

...I have no doubt that his ghost will forgive the slip in my memory...

...It is exceedingly unlikely, then, that any single group, or indeed, set of groups, could control supplies under these conditions...

...And yes, I confused trade and generic names...

...Mifepristone" is the generic name of the drug, not the trade name (oh come on already...

...But no long-term testing has been done...

...Gold, with his cries of monopoly, has not hit upon even one of them...

...continued on page 50) THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1990 9 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 9) Swallowing the Abortion Pill I take umbrage at Charlotte Low Allen's article "The Mysteries of RU-486" (TAS, October 1989), which I'm sorry to say is pregnant with scientific non-facts, half-truths, and inaccuracies...

...Gold believes would be subject to monopolistic supplies can be grown in a much larger number of countries, require little capital expenditures, require little lead time before a crop is produced, are cheap to transport, and are relatively easy to process...

...Johnson questions the propriety of my remarks about the Oxonians with whom I visited thirty-one years ago, and evidently believes that I have performed a disservice to the memory of Faulkner...

...Just to mention a few of those blemishes: "Fetuses" become fetuses after the first eight weeks of pregnancy...

...interested in organizing...

...RU-486 is the drug's trade name, while mifepristone is the generic...

...Moonlighting at the New Yorker...

...This is entirely a myth dragged up by some media hack...

...I want no doubt whatsoever as to my position or the position of the District on this issue...

...Christopher Longest, who became president of the First National Bank of Oxford after retiring from the University of Mississippi, where he was a professor of Latin and chairman of the Department of Modern Languages...

...Allen writes that 12,000 French women have used the pill...

...Cortines said exactly, "I think the abatement' should not have taken place," or else I didn't bother to type it in because while it was a nice bit of irony it was hardly an important point...

...Lthink we have not been realistic, I think we should have spent dollars on education that went to asbestos...

...The rabbit tests were real enough, and Baulieu cites the research in the JAMA article and a virtually identical article in the September 22, 1989, issue of Science magazine...

...Marijuana can also be grown in a wide variety of locales...

...I think we still do not know the reality of asbestos...

...Either I never sought to get a quote where Mr...

...These are hardly the conditions in which monopolistic supply is likely to be a problem...

...Indeed, RU-486's molecular "backbone," its three-dimensional structure, is virtually identical to that of DES...

...Indeed, there is now evidence that it is currently being grown in all fifty states in the U.S...

...Despite valiant efforts, OPEC has had difficulty acting as a monopolistic cartel though it need only coordinate the oil-producing activities of relatively few oil-producing countries...

...He was 87 when he died, which means he was 84 when I met him...

...There may be other difficult issues that must be addressed to make legalization work, but Mr...

...Lynn Scarlett Research Director Reason...

...RU-486 and DES do their job in a chemically similar fashion, competing with progesterone to bond with progesterone-receptor hormones...

...Of course, since drug prohibition has now been in effect for seventy-five years, these suppliers no longer furnish cocaine...

...I am both saddened and angered at the way that my remarks regarding this issue were completely distorted and taken out of context...

...Ms...

...before that they are embryos, blastocysts, or just plain fertilized eggs, none of which exhibit fingers or toes...

...While this information might be a part of the total Faulkner fabric, its sole purpose in this review is simply to allow the reviewer to insert his own bit of "Oxford Remembered...

...At least 2.5 million square miles of land have been identified as suitable for the growing of coca leaves...

...Bobbie Stevens Johnson Humanities Reference Librarian The University of Texas at Arlington Arlington, Texas William H. Nolte replies: Ms...

...It has a superior faculty of teacher-scholars, a highly qualified student body, a long record of skillful and dedicated administration, and a stunningly beautiful campus in Oakland...

...I want to take this opportunity to thank Rebecca Larche Moreton of Oxford for correcting my faulty memory concerning the banker who was so kind to me...

...One gathers that Professor Nolte thinks that Mr...

...Only in the deep South...

...The "rabbit" studies to which the author alludes—claiming to cause birth defects—are also imaginary...

...Prior to drug prohibition in 1914, numerous reputable firms supplied cocaine, among other drugs...

...I think that some reason should be used...

...In contrast to DES, the abortion pill may prove to be perfectly safe, and it may be comforting to know that Dr...

...No such legal suppliers ever existed for drugs, asserts Mr...

...p. 1812), the studies regarding birth defects were done on monkeys, and their offspring exhibited no defects at all, even when exposed to high doses before birth...

...Cortines to issue a public denial...

...Ferrell also calls Davidson a "poor boys' Princeton," an inaccurate characterization...

...Ramon C Cortines Superintendent of Schools San Francisco Unified School District San Francisco California Michael Fumento replies: First, I never said that the San Francisco Unified School District said that the abatement was unnecessary...

...What happened to the fact checkers that day...

...Mysteries;indeed...

...Claremont, California The editors mourn the death of former colleague Terry Krieger and send condolences to his splendid parents...

...I did state that because of court orders requiring us' to vacate and then return to McAteer High School we were compelled to incur extra costs for salaries and overtime expenses associated with these moves...

...I think that advocates tend to incite parents, students, and staff...

...50 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1990...

...To the best of my knowledge (see JAMA, 10/6/89...

...My dictionary defines "backwater" as "isolated and backward:" Mills is nothing of the kind...

...family farm...

...Longest's death...

...Bad Reference Re: William H. Nolte's review of Frederick R. Karl's William Faulkner: American Writer (TAS, November 1989): This reader found it both interesting and ironic that in reviewing Frederick R. Karl's William Faulkner: American Writer, Professor Nolte committed some of the same transgressions of which he accused Professor Karl...

...Coca leaves, for cocaine, can begrown cheaply and easily in some seventeen countries in the world...

...CORRESPONDENCE Strawberry Fields Forever In his article "The Year They Legalized Drugs" (TAS, November 1989), Victor Gold attempts to dismiss the arguments for drug legalization by raising the specter that existing cartels supplying illegal drugs would monopolize the market...

...These remarks were inappropriate in an otherwise competent review...

...He notes that legal suppliers manufactured alcohol prior to Prohibition and were ready in the wings to recommence manufacture upon repeal, thus ensuring that the mafia could not continue to monopolize supplies...

...At seven weeks, an unborn has hands and feet, although it is true that fingers and toes don't appear until a week later...

...Unfortunately, the chemical structure of RU-486 does bear a striking resemblance to that of DES, and also to progesterone, the female hormone that facilitates implantation by triggering the thickening of the uterine wall...

...The Chinese government certainly believes there is a population explosion and makes life highly unpleasant for parents who want their children to grow up with siblings...

...That number, according to health officials, is closer to 30,000...

...He has now done SO...

...His name was not Gilchrist, as I recalled it, but Dr...

...Those who advocate abortion as a form of population control should be honest with themselves and others, however: they are not the slightest bit "pro-choice...

...DES was thought to be a sort of superior synthetic form of progesterone, while RU-486, by usurping progesterone's place, prevents it from doing its work...

...Might I suggest thatshe forward her ideas on developing these lucrative cash crops to Senator Jesse Helms or some other member of the Senate Agriculture Committee...

...Emery R. Walker, Jr...

...I demand you-retract the statements attributable to me in as prominent a fashion as they were originally published...

...At the risk of belaboring the point, I might draw a comparison with OPEC and oil production...

...Mr...