Abortion defined in 15 words

Chicago PM Saturday 12 October 2013

Editors, The Wall Street Journal

Gentlepeople:

The Wall Street Journal prints 1833 thoroughly readable words reviewing
a book [How the Court Made the Choice Saturday 12 October] on a
subject that can be completely defined in 15 words:  Abortion is always,
and only, done for the convenience of a woman who was never aborted.

Arnold H Nelson

5056 North Marine Drive Chicago 60640
773-677-3010   ah_nelson@yahoo.com

Michelle Obama and school lunches...

Chicago PM Monday 11 March 2013

Editors, The Wall Street Journal

Gentlepeople:

Buried deep in Michelle Obama's article “The Business Case for Healthier Food”
[WSJ Thursday 28 February] she writes "...we've seen Republicans and Democrats
working together in Congress to pass groundbreaking legislation to improve school
lunches.”  Mrs. Obama has a Harvard Law Degree, so she must be familiar with the
United States Constitution.  Could she tell us where in those 8,000 words there is any
mention of the US congress having anything to do with school lunches?

If she thinks “General Welfare clause”, she should read Federalist Number 41 where
James Madison (The Father of the Constitution) wrote: "Some . . . have grounded a
very fierce attack against the Constitution, on the language in which it is defined. It
has been urged and echoed, that the [Constitution's] power '. . . to provide for the
common Defense and general Welfare of the United States,' amounts to an unlimited
commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the
common defense or general welfare.

"Had no other enumeration or definition of the powers of the Congress been found
in the Constitution than the general expressions just cited, the authors of the objection
might have had some color for it . . . But what color can the objection have, when a
specification of the objects alluded to by these general terms immediately follows,
and is not even separated by a longer pause than a semicolon?"

Following that semicolon is a list of 17 other congressional powers, from "borrow
money on the credit of the United States" to "make all Laws which shall be necessary
and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers," but not a word about
school lunches.

Arnold H Nelson

Chicago  ah_nelson@yahoo.com

To UK Financial Times, refering to Obama as...

... "A Unique political figure"....

Chicago USA Sunday 10 March 2013

Editors UK Financial Times

Gentlepeople:

The Financial Times' article "Obama’s money in politics stance criticized" [Friday
8 March 2013] quotes Bill Daley, President Obama’s former chief of staff. describing
the president as "a unique political figure." We might better understand the veracity
of that statement by reviewing his three immediate predecessors: Ronald Reagan was
an actor, but was elected governor of the largest state for 8 years. That's unique. Bill
Clinton was attorney general of a small state, but went on to serve as governor for
11 years, quite unique. George W Bush was elected governor of the 2nd largest state,
and re-elected by a two to one vote, certainly unique. A common thread here is that
all of these presidents had extensive governing experience before becoming president.

President Obama was elected to the US Senate, served only 4 years, the last two spent
getting ready to run for President. The only other position he was ever elected to was
the Illinois State Senate, a job requiring no more skill than sitting at a little desk
waiting for his party leader to come around and tell him how to vote on the next
question. The only unique experience Obama brought to the Presidency was that if
he had been non-black, he would have needed to buy his own bus ticket to Iowa in
2007, and been lucky to be met by his grandmother.

Arnold H Nelson

Chicago  ah_nelson@yahoo.com

'Global warming put down'

...sent to Chicago Reader (a local paper that comes out every Thursday.  Letter in
response to a column responding to a reader  questioning global warming.)  I've
sent so many letters on this subject they almost write themselves now.

Chicago  Saturday AM 9 March 2013

Mr Cecil Adams, Chicago Reader

Mr Adams your Thursday 7 March 'Straight Dope' column [cli-change/global
warming ] was your usual high standard of presenting interesting information on
a current topic (how many people realize you've been maintaining that standard
for 40 years?).  But it does seem to suffer from a defect common to majority of
articles on the subject:   the pathetically small amount of data available to back
up these claims.

You mention climate change models, which are the backbone of climate change
claims.  A model can be used to demonstrate  just how lacking the amount of
data available to back up these claims:  projecting the 4.5 billion year age of the
planet on  an 80-year human lifetime.  Such a model  shows a single year of earth
time equivalent to 0.562 seconds of that 80-year lifespan.  In this model humans
first appeared on earth 39 days ago. They had no idea of measuring temperature
before Galileo's 1593 thermometer invention, 4 minutes ago to our geezer.
Discovery of carbon dioxide in 1630? 3 minutes 30 seconds ago.

Your article starts out with a major example of this defect referring to “the trend
from 1878 to 2008”  showing “the average annual total of hurricanes increasing
from seven to twelve.”  This is equivalent to 73 seconds in the model.

Your article further says “some scientists ,,, say the average annual number of
category 4 and 5 hurricanes, which together cause nearly half of all hurricane
damage, has more than doubled since the early 1970s.” Put this in the reality
model, 23 seconds to a senior citizen.  

But I continue to enjoy, and profit from, reading your weekly column in
The Chicago Reader.


Arnold H Nelson in Chicago ah_nelson@yahoo.com

A surprising response!

Here is a note I sent to 30 regular contacts on Wednesday 6 March…

… describing a minor thing that bugs me:

"One of the" whatever...

"... this phrase always bothers me.  It seems like such a throw away.  Does the
writer not have the time to do a little research?  which one?  Best, worst, biggest,
smallest?

"I finally got around to doing a quick count on some majors:  On Tuesday 5
March the NYTimes used it 39 times, the Chicago Trib 21 times,
WSJ...87 times?!?!?"

Going thru my copy-in list I off hand checked a top Chicago Tribune writer.
Wow! I got the following reply from that writer:

"I’m not quite sure what your point is, Mr. Nelson. It’s a perfectly reasonable
phrase, though anything when overused is annoying, I know.  Thanks for taking
the time to read so thoroughly."

Red State Blue state distortion...

Chicago Sunday 3 March 2013

To: "Erick Erickson"/Human_Events

Mr Erickson, I am sure you are not only a great American,
but a great American CONSERVATIVE, but it just galls me
every time I see right wing Republican  patriots refer to
themselves as RED! Red State, Red whatever.  I think this
goes back to the 1994 Gingrich take-over of the House of
reps.  I remember Rush L remarking the next day about a map
published in that absolutely inconsequential news rag USA
today (the newspaper whose street sales boxes try to look like
TV sets)  describing a map they printed showing the Repub
districts as red - I don't think he was making a point about the
color, just on the extent of the take over.

But somewhere along the line I think the Dems started
referring to the Red/Repub Blue/Dem thing, which is just
reverse of what it should be:  Blue is the color of the party
that won the civil war, red is the color of revolution,
communism. and everything the Dems stand for.

I've sent this to Rush many times, but of course, getting an
email to him personally is a monumental task.  But I think if
he ever gave it thot he'd start referring to the colors/parties
the right way, and I think Sean and Laura and Mark L would
quickly follow him,

I'm just a nobody out here, but I had a super letter in WSJ
Wenesday 5 January 2011 on James Madison explaining the
General Welfare clause. a knockout letter in the Wednesday
21 September 2011 Chicago Tribune explaining the Social
Security scam. And if you search for 'Arnold H Nelson' in the
UK Financial Times you will get two hits: one about a key
statement by FDR in his 1932 campaign, which not one
person in 10,000 usually would believe (he campaigned on
CUTTING federal spending!)    The other FT letter is about
Branch Ricky and Jackie Robinson.)

I have a blog (fosterbeachchicago.blogspot.com)  that has
copies of over 300 letters I've sent to major publications over
the last 10 years.  It has a 22 August 2009 Contract for
America I emailed to Newt Gingrich, then personally handed
to him in October when he was here plumping book.  It is
1900 words long, and he said he would read it, but I never
heard from him.

I certainly wish you nothing but good fortune. but I will
never get excited about reading a right wing pub that
swallowed the Red Republican BS whole.

Arnold H nelson
Chicago ah_nelson@yahoo.com

Real tax reform: return responsibility to voters

Chicago Sunday AM 3 March 2013

Editors, The Wall Street Journal

Gentlepeople:

The Wall Street Journal addresses a serious subject in its
column “The GOP Takes Back Tax Reform” [Friday 01
March]. Not addressed is the Statistical Abstract of the US
annual disclosure that 73% of all federal taxes come, not
from citizen voters, but from employers.  

The employer regularly informs the employee that if he wasn't
forced under jail threat to send this money to DC, he would
give it to the employee.  The first step in tax reform should be
returning the monthly responsibility of writing checks to the
federal government to the 90% of wage earners who are voters.

 This could not be done overnight, but if a small randomly
selected group of citizens were informed quarterly of their
responsibility to send checks to cover their federal tax
obligation every month under jail threat, we would soon see
a whole new set of federal law makers elected.

The Journal column also discusses tax rates.  There is a
widely held opinion that the wealthy should pay higher
tax rates.  The problem here if you raise rates long enough,
you end up with everyone paying the same rate.  Examples
of  this being tried are the Soviet Union and North Korea.
How about trying a single rate of 20%?  To protect the very
poor, replace our forest of exemptions with a single
exemption for all:  The first $30K is tax free.  

Our Constitution says we can tax individuals' incomes.  What
is income?  Money an individual has today that he didn't have
yesterday.  If the individual joins a group  (AKA corporation)
formed to make a profit, taxing the corporation is taxing the
same income stream twice.  Stop taxing corporations.

Arnold H Nelson

Chicago  ah_nelson@yahoo.com