CORRESPONDENCE
ITS A STEAL I am a new subscriber to The Am&n Spectator and must say I am thrilled to be getting it. I read it virtually cover-mcover. My pmblem is that I generally receive it quite late; i.e.,...
...I strongly suspect that someone at the Post Office may be mking it home and mdmg it before delivery...
...And where were all of Clinton's predecessors on the issue...
...I noticed an intripng change in the February 2001 issue, but when I began to read the March 2001 issue I was simply bowled over...
...i.e., I just got the March issue on April 5th...
...I(ENnnmY I am very happy to tell you how much I like the new TAS...
...However, in this case I feel I must respond...
...Langhorst cites information gleaned from the Muscular Dystrophy Website and the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Human Genome Therapy...
...Why isn't everyone a member of the Rotary or the Neighborhood Watch...
...Langhorst is appalled "at the number of inaccuracies" in my article but he does not have "time or inclination to r&te them...
...First...
...Considmng how you may feel about the P. 0.i pmposal to suspend Saturday deliveries, that may be doubly so...
...There are many other inaccurate inaccuracies, statements in your article, which I do not have time or inclination to refute...
...Since that isn't possible, I will instead thank him and the others involved for confi-onting the government on the "cIipper chip" and related issues...
...JOHNlE COX, mlANA...
...Langhorst shows no sign of having bothered to study the project...
...In the interest of accurate reporting and creation of a high quality m a w e I think you should consider having your scien&ic articles fact-checked by people with scientific mining and experience...
...Inaccurate reporting of these issues can only do harm to your readers...
...That trial wouId not be possible without knowledge of the sequence of the gene in question...
...This is so good I hardly know where to begin.The magazine is now vgr ap- visually and I love the cartoons, but what really ges me going is the content...
...Clinical trials are not even on the horizon...
...cures...
...mdausa.org/ news/990902genetherapy...
...Regarding the rest of his comments, I sincerely hope the intention of TAS was to provoke and, if so, well done...
...I I 1 that my suspinot sure I can read it before M h e anymore because it gets my mind going so that I have a hard time gehg to sleep (of course living in the great state of Califbrnia, this may not be a problem since I may not be able to turn a light on to read by anyway...
...Therefore we THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR . June 2001 cannot read them...
...So it seems to me that the responsibility for all those deaths which have occurred and will continue to occur as a result of a ban on the use of DDT should be shouldered by presidents from Nixon on down, not just Clinton...
...Plus, if you are working for the USPS, I am fairly sure that you could a60rd your own subscription...
...It is in fact the case that increased understanding of the source of a dsorder does lead to improved therapies...
...your statement "With many of these diseases the defective gene has responsible journalism in the future...
...This disease was not well understood until the sequence causing the disorder was found in 1986...
...JACK JENSEN, RIDGE MANOR, FLORIDA NET LOSSES Following that long-stanhng motherly April 2001...
...Early in the interview, in response to a question about the ultimate importance of the Net, Mr...
...The research at Penn was described in the Wakington Post in March...
...I've always looked f o d to Tom Bethel, John Corry, and Ben Stein, but they have risen to new levels in these last issues.When you add contributions by the likes of George Gilder, the magazine is just amazing...
...If however, this reflects the "new" Spectator, I am deeply saddened...
...By nature and inclination the majority of people wdl always choose to spend their time in the physical company of others...
...Barlow says, "There isn't a great deal going on more important than laying the foundation of the place where practically all commercewhether social, economic, or political-will be conducted for the next couple thousand years...
...what did any one of them do to reverse the ban...
...I would in fact argue that the Net isn't a social venue at all, not in any complete sense...
...I have en m@t want to read it also, I wnuld become accustomed prefer to be able to read it k t . I live in a strongly Democratic community, so perhaps hs subversive reader d m not want others know to of Wher interest in conservative matters...
...Constitution ofTom Bethell's "A Map to lithagraph was mking...
...Extensive hearings on DDT were held in 1971-72 before an EPA administrative law judge...
...Keep it up...
...The reality is commerce on the Net is antithetical to everything consumer society really wants except for ease of purchase...
...In general, he seems to have confused the notions of "trial" and "treatment...
...The serious danger of a "knowledge divide" between science and the public can be prevented by accurate, clear reporting of scientific issues...
...the subtitle of thls article contains an obviously inaccurate statement...
...Who would prefer to sit at their keyboard instead of on a barstool at the local sports pub to carry on a conversation with a &end or acquaintance...
...See www.med.upenn.edu/ ihgt/info/chctor.html for information on a possible therapy for Cystic Fibrosis...
...LANWQCtST, EXETER, NEW HAMPSHIRE TOM B m E U RESPONDS: Mr...
...This information was readily avdable on the same Website that Langhorst cites...
...1 cannot be bothered to correct all the problems with this article but I wiU provide you with rehtation of at least a few so that you can be confident that I am not merely ranting because I do not like the author's tone...
...The one "obviously inaccurate statement" that he finds is the claim that "we can't read" the genome...
...The clinical trial that Langhorst cites was begun, in September 1999, under the aegis of the same institute at Penn, shortly before the patient there died in an unrelated gene therapy experiment...
...The Muscular Dystrophy Association reported in August 2000 that "shortly after the MDA's trial began, an unrelated situation involving a separate gene therapy trial at the University of Pennsylvania caused the Food and Drug Administration to put on hold all trials with which this institution was involved, including the [muscular dystrophy] gene therapy trial...
...He feels he "must respond," but then "cannot be bothered to correct all the problems...
...Nowhere" (TAS, While I appreciate that oth- April 2001...
...Why doesn't everyone attend the symphony or cheer for professional wrestling...
...And to whoever is out there covebng my TAS If you'll just call me, I will gladly share afier I read it...
...His indignation is exceeded only by his ignorance...
...I don't know if it's possible, but I was wondering if you could send my TAS to me in a p h manila envelope so as to camouflage it so that I might have an opportunity to read it first...
...The owrwhelming majority of them, perhaps 98 percent, remain cryptic.We do not know what the sequence means...
...freshwater fish, estuarine organisms, wild birds or other wild life," Ruckelshaus (a member of the Environmental Defense Fund, which opposed DDT) overruled the EPA judge and banned DDT in 1972...
...I am "I am appalled at the number of indeed been discovered...
...The hearings lasted for seven months, but Ruckelshaus never attended a single session and aides said that he did not even read a transcript of the hearingyet after the judge had found that "DDT is not a carcinogenic hazard to man...
...While acknowledging that, through the study of the human genome, we have determined the causes for many diseases, you assert that we are still no closer to 6n&ng effective treatments or...
...to reading inaccuracies and rnissmtemenn about scientific work in the popular press and usually take no notice...
...When more people than not are buying their homes and cars and furniture and appliances and groceries on 3 4 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR . June 2001...
...Everyone will say that the long anticipated breakthrough has at last occurred...
...Rick Weiss reported: "Scientists in Philadelphia have combined pieces fiom two of the world's deadliest microbes, the ebola virus and the virus that causes AIDS, to make a hybrid virus they hope d someday cure cystic fibrosis when sprayed into patients' lungs...
...DDT SET FREE In "Deadly Green" (TAS, April 2001) Mark Hemingway very quickly skims over the facts surrounding the person largely responsible for the banning of DDT in the U.S, a ban which was picked up and followed by countries around the world, one William Ruckelshaus, who was the EPA administrator in 1971-72 under President Nixon...
...Obviously because they don't care to...
...The technique "is not yet ready for human testing," however...
...JOMW USf, CARMICHAEL, C A U F O ~ l q GENOME INACCURACIES CORRESPONOENCE I cions were confirmed I am appalled at the number of inaccuracies, misleading slant, and base, fear-mongering tone center spread for the U.S...
...We can hardly be said to be "reading" cgcaaacgcg, for example, if we do not know what that sequence is doing in that 1ocation.And with the overwhelming majority of such sequences, we do not know...
...Wdl the Net change that...
...Consider the example of Muscular Dystrophy...
...The genome has been reduced to a string of over 3 bdhon nucleotides...
...Currently a gene-therapy trial is underway (see www...
...htrnl...
...There have been many, many gene therapy trials...
...What a cheap shot...
...There is ample room for criticism of the genome project, however it must be done with facs-not empty, inaccurate assertions...
...Universal social commerce or interaction irrespective of race or place sounds fantastic but is for all practical purposes nonsensical...
...He accuses me of making "irresponsible" and "empty, inaccurate assertions...
...I sin- misleadingslant,and , , , ~ , h . , , ~ , ~ , , ~ ~ , , t i ~ , ~ ~ , base fearmongering #I tone...
...It is simdarities between people and congruities of interest that drive interactions, and the wider opportunity of the Net will not change that...
...But it hasn't yet...
...His letter contains, in abundance, just those defects...
...It is no more than an intellectual transaction which doesn't satis@ the social commerce requirements of most people...
...The problem is that a cure is still no closer" defies logic...
...By saying "we can't read" the code, you are not only incorrect, but later portions of your article reference the publications where you can literally read the genome...
...Weiss added that the institute at Penn "has focused on inventing new gene delivery methods since the FDA ordered it last year to halt all human clinical studies after a young gene therapy patient died there...
...If, one day, a trial yields a cure, it wdl be on the fiont page of newspapers around the world...
...Second...
Vol. 34 • June 2001 • No. 5
