Letters
LETTERS to the Editor Sixty Seconds Over Moscow As an atomic veteran exposed to ionizing radiation during the first atomic bomb test involving troops closer than eight miles to the hypocenter of...
...Michio Kaku New York, New York The Lett and the Law In "The Left and the Law" I (June issue), Bill Blum and Gina Lobaco implied that until the recent past, almost no lawyers were associated with the American Left...
...A First Amendment absolutist weakens the rights of many people to speak freely...
...His most serious error is to believe that the current drive toward first-strike capability is nothing but the idle bluster of "fringe groups in this country, including some retired military officers," rather than a systematic, long-term build-up in the most advanced, most costly forms of weaponry...
...Hecht underestimates the power requirements for lasers because he has omitted several important factors which force designers to increase their estimates of killing power, such as the extra power needed to pierce the skin, destroy the warhead, overcome the spinning of warheads or the painting of nosecones, penetrate decoys, etc...
...Consumers ought to know the difference between a doctor, an audiologist, and a dealer...
...Hecht's naive faith in technology, comparing laser battle stations to the miniaturization of computers, is the kind of blind faith shown by Ronald Reagan when he compared building space weapons to "a new Manhattan Project...
...Hentoff never bothered to ask for the evidence we collected on de Toledano's paid expenses, or on any other aspect of the case...
...For example, a malicious campaign of libel against some citizens in a textile, paper mill, or timber company town by corporate moguls can stifle, without the prospect of a libel action, civic challenges to such company power...
...Though the legal profession, like other professions, protects the status quo, is conservative, and resents change, throughout American history there have been lawyers representing the Left, if not in droves at least in sufficient numbers to promote change...
...This nation not only needs its own public sources of information on gas reserves (your stated solution) but public ownership of energy resources located on public lands...
...Articles like yours foster fear and encourage procrastination by ignoring these positive steps...
...The National Hearing Aid Society confers the title "Certified Hearing Aid Audiologist" on some salespeople, misleading the consumer who is apt to think the salesman has an advanced university degree in audiology...
...William H. Slavick Portland, Maine Stepping on the Gas Your comment, "Stepping on the Gas" (June issue), certainly hit the nail on the head in describing the nature of the problem with gas price controls...
...I would be the last to say that space-based laser battle stations will be easy to develop, but Kaku's confusion over power-supply requirements makes them seem absurdly difficult, which they are not...
...Both of us were represented by capable pro bono lawyers...
...I've never voted for a Republican...
...They included Thomas Cooper, Alexander J. Dallas, Moses Levy, Matthew Lyon, and others...
...There always were and will continue to be progressive lawyers...
...CLEC, however, also must deal with the realities of the existing Congress...
...But Hecht does correctly point out some typing errors in the manuscript...
...This country's nuclear war fighting strategies are not passing fads or empty speculation, but are reflected in the hundreds of billions sunk into developing the present generation of weaponry...
...I think of myself as a socialist...
...My suit against de Toledano's libel did not arise from numerous erroneous articles he wrote about our programs, including an article containing a precise declaration that he would welcome my suing him...
...You can help them by emphasizing the positive aspects of hearing-aid purchase rather than making the hearing-impaired afraid to even look for help...
...My guess is that you arrive at that false labeling by ARNOLD ROTH ignoring the central issue, that abortion is homicide practiced on one's sons and daughters, in a wish to defend it via the mindless feminist slogan that a woman has a right to her body...
...Most of these lawyers became conservatives, but they began as defenders of the American Left...
...James Schwab Iowa Citizen/Labor Energy Coalition Iowa City, Iowa Wasting Space Ispotted a number of serious misstatements in Michio Kaku's "Wasting Space" (June issue): The High Frontier proposal advocated construction of a first-generation system of orbiting battle stations equipped with special types of missiles...
...Certainly the technology seems far off, but twenty years ago so did the idea of shrinking a roomful of computer hardware to fit onto a single chip of silicon...
...Surely not the Democrats...
...A large number of CLEC members and affiliates, I am sure, would agree with the more drastic steps I have mentioned...
...But to those who live in a community where a local chapter has taken hold and is growing, the Citizens' Party offers new programs in economics, disarmament, equal rights, day care, the environment, and a host of other issues...
...That is where I draw the line between free speech and actionable libelous speech...
...You stated that the Citizen/Labor Energy Coalition's proposal for recontrols on prices ignores the origins of the problem...
...Ralph Nader Washington, D.C...
...How the author could assume that anarchism in any way resembles fascism was left to the reader's imagination...
...The Reagan Administration's budget request for fiscal 1984, currently being worked over in Congress, is close to $500 million...
...One West Coast hearing-aid manufacturer told me I had a responsibility to the hearing-impaired, especially the elderly, some of whom "need to be talked into" wearing an aid...
...The Navy's "mysterious Chair Heritage Project" and the supersecret X-ray laser experiments conducted under the code-name Dauphin by physicists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are entirely separate...
...LETTERS to the Editor Sixty Seconds Over Moscow As an atomic veteran exposed to ionizing radiation during the first atomic bomb test involving troops closer than eight miles to the hypocenter of the blast, I read with great interest Bryan Johns's "Sixty Seconds Over Moscow" (August issue...
...Consumers do need to be more aware of where to find answers to their questions on hearing loss and hearing aids, of how beneficial a hearing aid can be, and of where to find a competent, ethical hearing aid specialist...
...It is by no means the New Right's strategy alone to limit the present legalized killing of the unborn...
...In 1980,1 was attracted to a new party which offered the same type of analysis offered by Moody and reached the same conclusion about who would implement a new program: surely not the Democrats...
...It derived its energy from a chemical reaction, so there wasn't a "power supply" per se, but it's probably safe to assume that at least ten to 100 times as much power was generated by the chemical reaction as emerged in the laser beam...
...We also advocate licensing in every state...
...It took almost eight years for de Toledano to admit in writing that his charge was defamatory...
...I was particularly interested in his last question and his answer, or lack of answer to it: "Who will put such a program in place...
...We can help them...
...People have bought hearing aids when they needed immediate surgery...
...These decisions are made by policymakers and scientists at the highest levels of government...
...One major reason the Left in America has not been able to unite is that a few desperate people refuse to see what more and more of us see every day: Authority from either of the two prevalent political persuasions stinks...
...The author went to great lengths to reprint slanderous remarks of those on the German Right who label the Greens "fascists" or, worse, the mirror image of fascists...
...Chair Heritage gave rise to Livermore's Advanced Test Accelerator, which is designed to try to get a powerful beam of electrons through the air...
...Perhaps he found it inconvenient to discuss communism (totalitarianism of the Left) as the more appropriate analogy to fascism (totalitarianism of the Right...
...Larry C. Pray Loveland, Colorado Nader and Libel Law Whenever Nat Hentoff writes about the First Amendment and libel cases ("Free Speech: The Price Is Going Up," May issue), he should inform his readers about his opposition to any public libel actions whatsoever...
...Senator, wrapped in a false conclusion alleged to be in this Senator's report, about my representations under oath before a Senate Committee...
...Through the end of fiscal 1982 last October, the Pentagon officially acknowledged having spent a total of over $2 billion trying to develop laser weapons of all types, for use on the ground and in space...
...JeffHecht Auburndale, Massachusetts The author replies: Jeff Hecht's letter suffers from serious errors and misconceptions...
...E. Luca Reiner Washington, D.C...
...I am contributing the entire sum to the Center for Auto Safety to endow the newly created Nat Hentoff Auto Safety Intern Fellowship...
...Hecht relies on press reports, rather than primary documents, for his facts...
...By those who see only the national headquarters of an organization, the Citizens' Party has ceased being taken seriously...
...Only someone like HentofF who works on a newspaper, flanked by lawyers and with ready access to the media through his weekly column, can be so remote from the chilling effect on free speech that a few can inflict in a libel-proof society of unequals...
...Let's work together to develop communities of people mutually supportive, where improved communication and diversified responsibilities are shared...
...In reality, the 175-page document describes, in considerable detail, a three-layered, two generation program for space weapons, encompassing a comprehensive strategy including microwave beams, lasers, particle accelerators, etc...
...It will continue to hurt those who betray their long humanitarian records by endorsing this horror...
...You casually dismiss 197 years of bipartisan rejection of abortion and insult millions like me with your labeling...
...He probably has never seen the report itself, which clearly says on its cover, "A Project of the Heritage Foundation...
...It is far from obvious that laser weapons, or other types of beam weapons, are feasible for missile defense, but it's far too early to write them off...
...The existence of people within the United States who want to nuke the Soviet Union to oblivion is nothing new...
...Hecht says High Frontier only receives rands from the Heritage Foundation...
...But I abhor the legalization of abortion: It affronts the dignity of man like nothing save the mass genocides of our century...
...Fringe groups do not make policy, nor do they plan such weapons as the MX, the Pershing, the Trident, and now the laser battle station...
...I marched with Father Groppi...
...To those who get their information from the national media, it is a personality cult around Barry Commoner...
...No amount of money thrown at space weapons by the President and those with limitless faith in technology can solve a fundamental problem: You cannot legislate or buy off the laws of physics...
...The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...The abortion issue, because it involves homicide, will not go away...
...Others who aided the American Left were Walter Nelles, Albert DeSilver, and Alexander Meikeljohn...
...Further, HentofF accepted, without checking, de Toledano's expense and savings figures...
...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness...
...Saul C. Dowries New York, New York Green Anarchy t is unfortunate to see a so-called progressive magazine print such reactionary and negative ideas as were presented in William Sweet's "Can Green Grow?' (May issue...
...what I worry about most is whether they have the decision-making power to do anything of the sort...
...He was hardly under the duress of any significant legal expense...
...Yet studies show that of all hearing-impaired people, between 30 and 50 per cent would derive no benefit from a hearing aid...
...For, after all, there should be some redeeming value to Hentoffs intellectual folly...
...Two decades ago, there were fringe groups in this country, including some retired military officers, advocating an immediate declaration of war on the Soviets...
...Anthony DiRocco Executive Vice President National Hearing Aid Society Livonia, Michigan The author replies: It was not my intention to frighten people into neglecting their hearing problems but to educate the hearing-impaired so that they might do a lot of thinking before buying hearing aids...
...Tim Joseph Brooktondale, New York High Pitch, High Volume Marilyn Zeitlin's "High Pitch, High Volume" (May issue) made some good points in urging consumer awareness, but then negated any motivational good by attempting to scare the reader...
...The National Hearing Aid Society and a number of other agencies have established consumer-advocacy programs to provide assistance to the hearing-impaired who are so often reluctant to seek help...
...I favor ERA...
...As the inventors of the lasers have said on several occasions, there are clear unresolved conceptual and feasibility questions regarding space weapons...
...I joined the Citizens' Party, which has developed a network of local and state chapters with the ability to seriously contest elections...
...The media sometimes portray the High Frontier study as advocating exclusively "off-the-shelf technology...
...The study itself was published by High Frontier, Inc., of Washington, which received funds from the Heritage Foundation, but which is separate from the foundation...
...Citizens' Party In "Going Public" (July is-Isue), Kim Moody offered an instructive overview of the Left's search for an economic program...
...Winning recontrols on gas will be a big enough battle in itself for now...
...Johns mentions that B-29 aircraft crews were sent to Alaska after World War II in preparation for a possible nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union...
...One way the consumer can be sure of dealing with a competent, ethical hearing-aid specialist is to select a member of the National Hearing Aid Society...
...James Otis, although a lawyer for merchants in the Eighteenth Century, took radical positions...
...While it is true that, by themselves, recontrols do ignore the source of the problem, they are an important intermediate step toward meaningful public control over the amoral energy industry...
...George Vanderveer, the Western lawyer, though not as well known as Clarence Darrow, was one of a group of lawyers who defended the IWW...
...First Amendment absolutism is a prescription for inequality of free-speech rights wherever people are up against unequal political, economic, or media power...
...Besides telling us who isn't going to implement the program, he can only say that independent political action is essential but that no vehicle exists...
...The 300 W figure for the laser test should have been 300 kW and the sentence "The Navy set up the mysterious Chair Heritage Project, which runs a test series called Dauphin at the Lawrence Livermore weapons laboratory in California," was mistyped and should have read, "The Navy set up the mysterious Chair Heritage Project at the Lawrence Livermore weapons laboratory in California, which runs a test series called Dauphin...
...Consumers have been intimidated and sometimes forced into buying aids they could ill afford and didn't need...
...He is correct in his assessment of what is needed, but he is wrong about the lack of a vehicle...
...Salespeople have convinced potential buyers that hearing aids can perform miracles, and have posed as medical personnel and misdiagnosed medical conditions...
...Their continued existence is unsettling but not surprising...
...Energy beams were mentioned as a more distant possibility, and were not specifically advocated in the study...
...The figure of 300 watts from a building-size laser power supply is ludicrously low...
...Rest assured we shall not sit on our laurels after such a victory...
...I always suspected that plans for such an attack were behind the atomic tests conducted from 1946 to 1963, but had never seen any confirmation in print...
...In the first years of our nation, a number of radical lawyers defended and sympathized with the "Jacobins, Turks, Jews, Dogs...
...People have paid out hundreds of dollars for useless hearing aids...
...The $500 million figure I quoted was exclusively for advanced space weaponry, while Hecht's figure of $2 billion is for laser development "of all types...
...But the Senator's report stated that my charges "were made in good faith"—just the opposite of what de Toledano asserted...
...Marilyn Zeitlin Pacific Palisades, California The Court and Free Choice Your comment, "The Court and Free Choice" (August issue), disappoints in slipping over the issue and indulging in false labeling and factual misrepresentation...
...Support your local anarchist...
...There are indeed serious problems inherent in trying to build powerful lasers small enough to get into space, but Kaku's figures grossly overestimate those difficulties...
...I saw a certificate bearing this NHAS title on the office wall of Floyd Lupot, NHAS gov-ernor-at-large, and it was in Lupot's waiting room that I met the elderly farmer I quoted in my article—the one who said he was waiting to see "the doctor" so he could have his ears checked...
...Writers on the Left would do well to stop ignoring an organization that is doing what they say must be done...
...Rather, the litigated libel was rooted in de Toledano's use of the credibility of a U.S...
...For example, the claim that the printing costs for appealing this simple case to the Supreme Court were $5,000 is preposterously inaccurate...
...Now I'm sure...
...HentofFs misguided zeal led him to term Ralph de Toledano's assertion of what Senator Abraham Ribicoff found on the Corvair matter "a reasonable reading...
...In the final court-approved judgment agreed to by the parties, de Toledano consented to a payment of $5,000 in two installments...
...The laser used in the San Juan Capistrano tests produced a beam with power of about 400,000 watts...
Vol. 47 • September 1983 • No. 9
