Letters
Letters Crunched Numbers Although I am not an expert in defense spending issues like Lawrence Korb (“The Myth of the Two-Front War,” March 1997)’ I do recognize that the $127 billion that...
...This is what “we the people” spend year after year on this aspect of crime alone...
...With the upkeep of one felon for one year around $25,000, this gives us a total annual cost of around $40 billion dollars...
...Lemann is entitled to his optimism, but I would rather be “included out,” as Goldwyn said...
...Hodges’s statement that Advocates “put PR concerns ahead of public safety...
...Winch is correct...
...military spending...
...Glenn Hodges responds: I did err by implying as fact that Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety had “put PR concerns ahead of safety,” since I do not know with certainty why Advocates made the comments it did...
...Why does Fussell deserve credit for defending his own nation’s atrocities...
...Never mind caviling that Peters limits his advocacy to vouchers to be used at the District of Columbia’s Catholic schools by D.C.’s educationally deprived children...
...DAVID WINCH New York, NY Lawrence Korb responds: Mr...
...Winch‘s pointing this out, and I regret the error...
...Fussell has argued that use of the bomb was justified so long as it saved a single American soldier-an attitude which is quite congenial to the ruling powers he claims to oppose...
...One might think that the 59 percent of Americans who believe that the bombings were criminal are displaying that enlightened skepticism which Shugar admires...
...At the time Advocates made the statements excerpted by Mr...
...Felons on death row: plus or minus 3,200 for an average of eight years (some as long as 15...
...Corn states that I was surprised that John Brademas, while serving as the Chairman of the Board of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), sat on the Comptroller General’s Consultant Panel and that the situation troubled meimplying that I saw a conflict of interest...
...Perhaps, but the facts are still as follows: There are approximately 1.6 million (and counting) felons behind bars...
...Hodges’s article distorts history by reporting Advocates’ statements as if they were made with knowledge of events that only transpired after Advocates’ stated position was filed with the government...
...In the real world, it is the opinion-making elite who celebrate the atomic bombings, while the dissenters and skeptics challenge the morality of the massacre and exposed the deceptions concerning it...
...a man who has shown an “intense skepticism about official utterances” and has revived the “great American trait of thinking for yourself...
...Winch’s number and mine...
...As Peters should h o w if anyone does, given the hordes of pro-voucher wolves slavering at every legislative door in America, trying to open up only to selected vouchers in selected places is no more feasible than getting a little bit pregnant...
...Such anachronistic juxtaposition violates both the professional obligations for accurate reporting and standards of conduct for the publishing industry...
...The grand total-$62 billion...
...Corn that I was troubled by this situation nor did I state or imply that a conflict of interest existed...
...Just Say No Because public schools, enrolling the children of all sorts of people, are the essential foundation for whatever sense of community this nation has or hopes to recover, I felt a terrible sinking sensation on reading (“Tilting at Windmills,” March 1997) that Charles Peters, of all people, has broken faith and gone over to favoring school vouchers...
...But it begs another and very important question: How would it serve the nation and its children to have taxpayers begin subsidizing their enrollment not only in Catholic (or Mormon or Muslim or Buddhist or Pentecostal or Unitarian) schools but presumably also in schools that might teach that the world began in 4004 B.C...
...However, air bags had already saved hundreds of lives, and the lifesaving benefits of air bags have been well-documented...
...Brademas tried to pressure us...
...would invite the deluge...
...I am concerned about the accuracy and implication of certain aspects of the article...
...This accounts for much of the difference between Mr...
...Brademas, and other GAO staff, Mr...
...Peters says the First Amendment problem could be solved by letting the vouchers be used at any place, public, private, or parochial, that calls itself a school...
...March 1997) To mention just one “for instance,” he indicates that crime is declining...
...I appreciate Mr...
...Or did someone just misplace a decimal point...
...In an October 1991 memo, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was “aware of one half-dozen or so cases in which it is believed that the air bag caused the death of the occupant” in low speed (less than 10 mph) crashes...
...In the section of the article on air bag warning labels, you published Mr...
...But the fact remainscontrary to your assertion-that there had been airbag-related fatalities prior to February 1993...
...Brademas served as a member of a Comptroller General’s Consultant Panel...
...That’s what Peters should use his usually wise voice to push rather than giving up and going over to the enemy-protecting and improving what, in many minds, is America’s greatest invention and most vital institution: free universal public education...
...Corn, citing a former GAO official, reported that at a meeting between myself, Mr...
...They would indeed...
...Letters Crunched Numbers Although I am not an expert in defense spending issues like Lawrence Korb (“The Myth of the Two-Front War,” March 1997)’ I do recognize that the $127 billion that Clinton proposed to cut from Defense’s $1.4 trillion budget for 1994-98 was more than 9 percent of total U.S...
...It seems to me that Nicholas Lemann is as optimistic as he seems to be because this is a case of “none so blind as those who don’t want to see...
...It’s Not As Bad...
...ANN T. BERRY Releigh, NC...
...This was a significant reduction proposal, and not the trivial “less than one percent” that Korb calculates...
...This did not occur then nor at any time during my involvement in the review...
...The way to fix the D.C...
...But I did not “distort history” by stating that air bag-caused deaths preceded Advocates’ public comments...
...It is, as he says, 9 percent...
...My comment to the author on Mr...
...As it is written, a $127 billion reduction in a $1.42 trillion budget is more than a trivial one percent...
...ERWIN FUCHS Seattle, WA Traditional Skeptics Scott Shuger (“The Birth of a Skeptic,” December 1996) praises Paul Fussell as a skeptic in the tradition of Twain and Veblen...
...Perhaps, given today’s courts, that is true...
...Hodges desist from hypocrisy and heed their own advice- “misleading the public is no way to make the world a better place.’’ JUDITH LEE STONE, PRESIDENT ADVOCATES FOR HIGHWAY AND AUTO SAFETY Washington, D.C...
...or that little green men from Alpha Centauri invented it, or that it is flat...
...Brademas’s involvement was to the effect that in prior GAO reviews of NED we usually worked with the President of NED and his staff to obtain their views on our work rather than with the Board of Directors...
...Congress needs to be shamed into doing exactly that...
...I would suggest that The Washington Monthly and Mr...
...Perhaps, then, the consensus on maintaining high military spending is not quite as wide or as deep as Korb believes...
...And setting a precedent in D.C...
...This statement is based on an obvious manipulation of fact that, at best, displays a willful ignorance of the truth, and at worst, deliberately ignores the truth...
...As the man said, a billion here, a billion there, and soon we speak about real money...
...I did not inform Mr...
...Hodges and your publication, February 1993, no air bag-related fatalities, involving either children or adults, had been reported...
...AARON CARINE Dover, NH Full Disclosure I would like to comment on the January/February article by David Corn entitled, “Muzzling a Watchdog...
...It is my fault for not explaining in the text that Clinton and Bush used different assumptions for pay and inflation in their respective five-year programs...
...If Advocates for Highway Safety was unaware of those incidents in 1993 and submitted its comments to NHTSA believing in good faith that airbags did not pose a danger warranting a warning label, I apologize for insinuating otherwise...
...Curiously, Shuger considers Fussell’s defense of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be an example of these qualities-in contrast to the “opinionmaking elite” who deny the righteousness of the act...
...government...
...I was fully aware at the time of our review that Mr...
...The upkeep of one felon on death row for one year due to special security, suicide watch, OT, etc., is plus or minus $100,000, for a total of $2.5 billion...
...schools is to fix the D.C...
...In the article “When Good Guys Lie,” by Glenn Hodges, your magazine published distortions and half-truths that misled the public and damaged the reputation of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety...
...Worst of all, Peters’s argument wholly fails to answer his own accurate statement of the key objection: “The Monthly has opposed vouchers because we fear that they would inflict too much damage on the public schools...
...JOSEPH E. KELLEY FORMER DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, GAO Fairfax Station, VA Air Bag Blow-up I am responding to the biased and inaccurate article published by The Washington Monthly in your January/ February 1997 issue...
...Felons on the “bridges to freedom” of parole, probation, etc., total (plus or minus) 5 million, and according to the best available estimate they cost us around $20 billion...
...See No Evil...
...Also, Mr...
Vol. 29 • April 1997 • No. 4
