Correspondence
Correspondence Spam, Spam, Spam ... WHEN CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL refers to the decision to leave the Internet unregulated as "a serious, ideologically driven mistake" in "You've Got Spam" (June 16),...
...The remark in Caldwell's article that troubles me the most is the one suggesting that Internet sales ought to be taxed because it is "unfair" not to do so...
...The fact that the catalog is now online does not change the constitutional principle...
...Second, the opposition to the war was shallow...
...The election results across Europe and in Australia indicate that while people did not like the war, their hostility did not result in a political sea change in European attitudes or E.U.-U.S...
...The way of life, rights, and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong people will not be affected by our proposed national security law...
...There is simply no truth to Tucker's claim that the efficacy testing process is "becoming obsolete...
...First, the opposition was inchoate— apart from a general feeling that war was a bad thing, the various groups of protesters had almost nothing in common...
...In fact, FDA-required efficacy testing has been a tremendous boon to patients, ensuring a level of quality of new medicines that would not have been reached without such regulations...
...I have two e-mail accounts and receive essentially no spam, maybe because I'm careful about where I leave my addresses...
...There are already laws making it illegal to transmit obscene material via an interactive computing device...
...But it is equally true that between 15 and 20 percent of Radio Sawa's 24-hour broadcasts is devoted to news and interviews, as well as features that reflect Bush administration policy...
...There is no need for Caldwell to become overwrought about this, or to adopt the environmentalists' tactic of darkly predicting "the end of the world as we know it" in an effort to advance legislative proposals...
...JEROME S. SHIPMAN Potomac, MD...
...In fact, all cancer trials today use standard effective treatments—not placebos—as controls in efficacy trials...
...Existing FDA regulations provide only a minimal safeguard that the medicine your doctor prescribes is safe and effective...
...Furthermore, most practicing physicians are ill equipped to understand the subtleties of efficacy research, and many would prescribe new treatments without adequate evidence of effectiveness...
...Later this year we will add a direct-to-home satellite Arabic television service to our radio and Internet services, and are confident that it will be a major escalation in the same war...
...This is absolutely false, as the number of patients participating in trials has continued to increase...
...However, this fact needs to be viewed in light of two other considerations...
...His article reads like the preprogrammed reaction of any liberal: Here's a problem, let's pass a law...
...While Boot is right to point out that in Germany the Christian Democratic Union's attitude was cautious, the party did not jump on the antiwar bandwagon, and it did criticize Schroder's handling of the dispute...
...Our National Security (Legislative Provisions) Bill is in full accord with the "one country, two systems" principle, and there is no question of extending mainland laws to Hong Kong...
...True, we have succeeded in attracting a large number of listeners by offering them popular music...
...Muravchik rightly agrees in his article that Makiya and other thoughtful writers should be given platforms to state their case on behalf of moderate Islam...
...Finally, Tucker argues that patients are increasingly unwilling to participate in efficacy studies...
...PATRICK PETERSON Versailles, KY HONG KONG SECURITY THE ARTICLE "Severe Acute Tyranny Syndrome" by Ellen Bork (June 9) contains serious misconceptions about the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government's proposals to implement our constitutional duty under the Basic Law to protect national security...
...Even if spammers figure out how to wiggle through spam blocker software, the next update will plug the hole...
...IT IS TRUE THAT EUROPEAN HOSTILITY to the war in Iraq was broadly based, as Max Boot suggests in "Continental Divide" (June 9...
...As the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, I can vouch for the fact that we are doing this...
...LEIGHTON ANDERSON Wittier, CA ONE THING Christopher Caldwell's "You've Got Spam" fails to mention is that studies have consistently shown that 19 percent of all unsolicited e-mail is adult in nature...
...Opinion polls can tell us only so much—elections tell us a lot more...
...JACQUELINE A. WILLIS Hong Kong Commissioner, USA Washington, DC U.S...
...However, the article was marred by a misinformed portrayal of the role of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA...
...In Australia, Prime Minister John Howard's Liberal party held its ground in the New South Wales state election with 24.94 percent of the vote—marginally up from the first time...
...However, this did not translate into punishment at the polls...
...relationships until some resolution of that conflict takes place...
...DANIEL WEISS Focus on the Family Colorado Springs, CO RADIO SAWA'S SERIOUS SIDE JOSHUA MURAVCHIK's aim is true in his observation that we are again involved in a war of ideas ("America Loses Its voice," June 9...
...But the argument wobbles with its criticism of Radio Sawa, the U.S...
...Indeed, one of the influential experts whom Radio Sawa journalists have interviewed is the distinguished Iraqi writer Kanan Makiya...
...While Boot is right to insist that the United States still has an important interest in the shape of Europe, the challenge to the United States is less significant than some think and the difficulties less profound than is often stated...
...WHEN CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL refers to the decision to leave the Internet unregulated as "a serious, ideologically driven mistake" in "You've Got Spam" (June 16), he neglects to mention that the relevant ideology is conservatism...
...While FDA-required efficacy testing of experimental drugs is immensely expensive, the article suggested that such testing is unnecessary and that the process of FDA approval was "rapidly becoming obsolete...
...KENNETH Y. TOMLINSON Washington, DC EFFECTIVE FDA...
...Other prominent figures who believe in the possibility of democracy in the Arab world and whom Sawa has interviewed recently include Fouad Ajami, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald Rumsfeld...
...The bill has proposed that all its provisions must be interpreted, applied, and enforced in accordance with Chapter 3 of the Basic Law, which provides constitutional guarantees on fundamental rights and freedoms...
...ALWYN THOMSON Belfast, Northern Ireland COMPOSER CONFUSION UNLESS THERE ARE two contemporary composers named Frank Martin, "the sublime choral works of American composer Frank Martin" that Lee Bockhorn (The Standard Reader, June 16) believes deserve great exposure were actually written by the Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890-1974...
...The main antiwar party—the Liberal Democrats—failed to gain any seats in either Wales or Scotland, and while Blair's Labour party lost heavily in the local elections in England, it lost to the equally pro-war Conservative party...
...Most states obligate the consumers in those transactions to report the sales and pay a use tax on the purchase, a requirement that consumers (including Caldwell, I bet) routinely ignore...
...Juvenile cries of anti-Semitism from some American commentators will not change the fact that the Palestine/Israel issue will continue to poison E.U.-U.S...
...international broadcasting effort to reach mass audiences in the Arabic-speaking world...
...Caldwell should know that the rule against taxation of Internet sales merely reflects long-established constitutional law under the commerce clause, which disallows one state from taxing sales of goods sold by a catalog house in another state...
...These interviews and others that we routinely conduct make radio a sharp instrument in the war of ideas...
...AND E.U...
...America's international broadcasters today face a large gulf between the increasing requirements of the post-9/11 world and the level of funding to which we sank during the nearly decade and a half after the end of the Cold War...
...This is why they were unable to come up with a coherent alternative agenda and ultimately posed no serious challenge to political leaders in Europe who decided to ignore them...
...WILLIAM TUCKER'S "I Want a New Drug" (June 16) effectively illustrated the looming danger of price controls in the pharmaceutical industry...
...I hate to find them in The Weekly Standard...
...In the state elections in Hesse and Lower Saxony on February 2, 2003, the CDU increased their share of the vote by 5.4 percentage points in the former and 12.4 percentage points in the latter...
...Patients continue to enthusiastically participate in clinical trials because in many cases a clinical trial will ensure the highest overall care the patient can possibly receive...
...relations...
...But spam is (if you'll forgive the mixed metaphor) small potatoes...
...As an economic conservative and a scientist working within the pharmaceutical industry for Eli Lilly and Company, I understand the impulse to view FDA regulations as an impediment to progress...
...Muravchik is also squarely on target in his assessment of the resources required to rebuild our defense in the war of ideas...
...Like many commentators on this issue, Boot fails to consider the implications of the wider Middle East situation on European attitudes...
...In those countries that have held elections during the period of the Iraq crisis there is no indication that people considered the war such a defining issue that it changed their voting patterns...
...New laws may make a higher percentage of e-mail illegal, but they won't make much of an impact until the Department of Justice makes it a priority...
...Much of this clearly violates existing federal obscenity laws...
...If I want to read spurious arguments for new taxation, I can go to my daily newspaper...
...Schroder's socialists dropped by 10.3 percentage points and 14.5 percentage points respectively...
...In Spain the local elections of May 25 resulted in only a small drop in the vote for Prime Minister Aznar's Popular party—33.9 percent as opposed to the Socialists' 34.7 percent—not a bad result for a prime minister in power for seven years...
...However, I believe this is one instance where regulations have actually assisted medical advancement...
...Indeed, this outcome is illustrated today with widespread "off-label" prescriptions, many based on little or no evidence substantiating such usage...
...and the U.S...
...As with most issues involving obscenity, the problem is not lack of law, but lack of enforcement...
...Tucker uses the bogus example of a patient dying of cancer not wanting to take the chance of receiving only a placebo...
...viewing this industry from within, I can guarantee that without the FDA requirements, inferior treatments would flood the medical marketplace...
...In the U.K., regional elections were held in Scotland and Wales, and local government elections were held in England...
...His argument that victory in this war will not come from seduc-tion—that it must be waged through persuasion—also hits the mark...
...These results contradict the dire predictions of a collapse in support for him as punishment for his support of the coalition...
...The current process, if successful, could also facilitate a significant, positive development in the relationship between the E.U...
Vol. 8 • June 2003 • No. 41
