Stampeding for Reform
Stampeding for Reform Your article on the so-called Flood Prevention and Family Protection Act ("Who's Endangered Now?," July 28), entirely mischaracterized that bill and my amendment to it. It...
...Though the Office of Civil Rights does not provide us with sufficient data to judge, the difference is probably not even statistically significant, even if it would explain a small proportion of the variation in admissions between legacy and other students...
...The Endangered Species Act still needs additional reform, but that ought to be accomplished through open and honest debate...
...Stanley Rothman Northampton, MA Reviving the Future My vote is betrayed by the House Republicans' lack of agenda, but I'm not surprised...
...Citizen Action betrayed consumers, not labor...
...The article is also dead wrong about my amendment and the similar Senate language that was signed into law...
...To the contrary...
...National testing is merely more hokum foisted upon society by the so-called experts...
...Boehlert's substitute amendment and the similar Senate language are full of extreme limitations and constraints that simply reflect the fact that Washington has an incredibly difficult time ceding back to states and localities the power it has grabbed through the ESA...
...The market does work...
...But air conditioning is not nearly what guests miss most about my residence...
...and education will improve...
...Rep...
...But he neglected to note that such a waiver would occur only where necessary to "address a critical, imminent threat to public health or safety...
...The House had the choice to pass an extraordinarily broad bill that was certain to be vetoed, or to approve an amendment that would actually amend the Endangered Species Act, prevent floods, and get signed into law...
...Joseph C. Shapiro Ridgefield, CT Semitic Senescence Shulamit Reinharz says that "After 2,000 years of nearly total exclusion from the prestigious processes of learning and creating knowledge, Jewish women are ready to take their place at the table" ("Scrapbook," July 28...
...He then goes on to discuss Harvard's legacy policy, which results in classes in which one-fifth of the students' parents went to Harvard...
...This language was intended to strike a reasonable balance between the need for the protection of human life and that of other species, and it does just that...
...or to comply with Federal, State or local public health or safety requirements...
...The amendment allows work to be done only in a manner already outlined in complex regulations developed by the U.S...
...states that a national academic test is needed to reform U.S...
...Lind cites the report elsewhere for support, but does not tell us that it found a difference of only 35 points on the combined SAT between legacy and non-legacy students (excluding athletes, whose scores were significantly lower...
...It might have helped if your correspondent, instead of rehashing the floor debate, had actually bothered to read the bill...
...but, conversely, when there is irrefutable proof that government laws and regulations kill people, there is no stampede to repeal or even slightly modify them...
...One hopes that a generation from now, the conservative principles of thrift, individual responsibility, and personal virtue will be revived, and that welfare policy will be stricter, most annual budgets will balance, and liberalism will be on the wane...
...Ilana Ron Washington, DC Episcopalian Lite Tucker Carlson managed to cap-sulize one of the theological messes that have led to a loss of almost 30 percent of the Episcopal Church's membership ("Gay Rites," July 28...
...Hogwash...
...You may think that's a good idea, but it's not what anyone would view as a narrowly tailored, emergency bill—the claim made by its sponsors and your article...
...That dubious honor goes to the television that I gladly scrapped a few years back...
...Without a TV, there is little danger of becoming a modernist caveman who leaves the cave only for a mad dash to Blockbuster or Taco Bell...
...Rather, tube-less living allows ample time for pleasing music, refreshing conversation, and lots of relishable reading...
...The relatively high admission rate of legacy students is largely a function of their high scores (and other achievements) and a slight preference for them, other things being equal...
...Not Abreast of Benefits Iwas saddened that you found Pete Wilson's gubernatorial proclamation publicizing the benefits of breast feeding so funny that you published it as "Not a Parody" (July 28...
...The "Republican revolution" euphoria was too good to last...
...As a result, I have chosen to discommuni-cate myself from the ELCA...
...address a catastrophic natural event...
...The thin majority margin, the Democratic propaganda machine, and the opposition's near-total lack of principle are huge mountains to climb...
...Jim Rongstad Woodbury, MN Sans Civilization Ienjoyed reading Christopher Caldwell's "Keeping Cool" (Casual, July 28), for I too leave the office to retreat to a home sans climatisation...
...schools and boost student academic achievement ("This Isn't Only a Test," July 21...
...In addition, federal, not state or local, officials would have the authority to determine when the "necessary emergency repairs" are done and when the exemption no longer applies...
...Lost are the good old days of the Lutheran synods, when guidance was congregational and direct, not politicized and hierarchical...
...Ellen Paris Falls Church, VA On Hogwash and Hokum Chester E. Finn Jr...
...Fish and Wildlife Service for California and only in areas declared federal disaster areas between 1997 and the end of 1998...
...Answer: Highly paid labor-union members who man and maintain the high-cost power plants that couldn't compete if there were there a real market for electricity...
...Boehlert points out, the Pombo-Herger bill does waive the ESA for any reconstructing, operating, maintaining, or repairing of flood-control projects...
...Second, the bill would have waived not only the requirement to consult with federal officials in advance of any action, but also the requirement to mitigate any damage after the fact...
...Now, they are Episcopalian lite...
...Wisely, the House overwhelmingly took the latter road...
...The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights study of Harvard admissions in 1990 cleared the university of charges of discrimination against Asian students...
...George C. Leef East Lansing, MI Angela Antonelli responds: As Rep...
...As for Harvard, Lind grossly exaggerates...
...Why does Finn believe that he and some other select few should determine what my children should learn...
...July 28), one is driven to ponder the question: Why is it that when there is even a suspicion that leaving people free might lead to some harm, the government rushes in with laws and regulations that usually make things worse when you take all of their consequences into account...
...Give parents the means (tax credits, vouchers, etc...
...Why do we need a national test to improve education...
...Rep...
...Susan F. Scarborough Mountain View, CA...
...but Judaism has thrived for close to 6,000 years...
...It's time for Washington to get out of education...
...Evidently, the Republicans do not have the experience required of political winners...
...It just happens that on the deregulation issue, Big Labor and many big utilities are on the same side...
...The nutritional superiority of breast feeding is universally recognized in the medical community...
...Before Reinharz can bring Jewish women to the table of "learning and creating knowledge," she should brush up on her dates...
...Contrary to your report, the bill was not limited to emergency situations...
...Unfortunately, Reinharz's timetable of Jewish history seems to be off...
...That language does indeed allow exceptions to the Endangered Species Act for emergency work before a flood occurs...
...Your article, by simply retailing inaccurate statements from months ago, has done nothing to further the cause of reform...
...Pace Lind, Harvard does not have a legacy quota...
...This is a plain reading of the language, and it requires a willful ignorance (at best) to describe the amendment in any other way...
...Surely Reinharz did not mean to suggest that Christianity and Judaism are equally long-lived...
...Laurence G. Hawk San Francisco, CA Last Action Anti-heroes You argue that Citizen Action—the supposedly squeaky-clean government "watchdog" group funded in fact by boxcars of cash from unions and trial lawyers—is betraying its union paymasters by backing the electric-utility industry's campaign to "go slow" on deregulation ("The Sins of a Self-Styled Citizen Lobby," July 28...
...Brett M. Decker Alexandria, VA All in the Family Christopher Caldwell is too trusting of Michael Lind ("The Meritocracy Dodge," July 14...
...In short, one cannot tell whether students are legacy admits based on their SAT scores...
...Surely a proclamation is a cost-efficient way for government to address a public health problem—-especially one where the needed antidote is publicity about its benefits...
...Think about it: Who stands to lose if the 100-year-old electric-power monopoly is busted up...
...Christianity has existed for roughly 2,000 years (hence the current year, 1997 A.D...
...and allow them to choose the method (private schooling, tutoring, home schooling, etc...
...The pagan lovefest in Philadelphia will be followed by a convocation next month of my soon-to-be-former church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America...
...They will be voting on joint communion with the Church of Henry VIII...
...Evidently, he wishes his readers to believe that the SAT differences are characteristic of Harvard...
...Sherwood Boehlert Washington, DC Upon reading Angela Antonelli's "Who's Endangered Now...
...It would have waived the Endangered Species Act for any maintenance, rehabilitation, replacement, or even operation of any flood-control project...
...The difference in scores is not large...
...Lind cites an unidentified Princeton dean as the source of his assertion that at "one Ivy League college" the difference in combined SAT scores between alumni children and other students is 70 points...
...The Episcopalians have given new meaning to the phrase "brotherly love...
...The actions of Newt Gingrich suggest that wonderful planners and thinkers are not the best implementers...
Vol. 2 • August 1997 • No. 47
