Dealing wisely
with nuclear power?
Re: the April 13 article "Dealing wisely with climate change."
Pundit Ambrose repeats the canard that the "obvious" problem with solar panels and wind turbines is "unreliability." Instead, he again touts nuclear power: "reliable" until it catastrophically isn't. Think Chernobyl and Fukushima. And he assures us that small modular nuclear reactors are "far cheaper" (only on paper because none have been built for commercial production), can be built more "quickly" (despite none having been) and "safely" (an optimistic and certainly premature projection). Sure, nuclear navy reactors are of similar size, but they work on a different technology using different fuel than their still-imaginary commercial cousins, have never been built or operated in a competitive market, and the operators are permitted higher radiation exposure levels than in the commercial sector. Apples to oranges.
It seems to me the wiser, simpler, cheaper, and inherently safer engineering challenge is to store energy overnight rather than to store nuclear waste essentially forever.
Jack Cohen-Joppa, co-coordinator of the Nuclear Resister
Midtown
Epidemic, Part 3
Re: the April 12 letter "Epidemic."
The so-called epidemic of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) might be a problem for some, but it is not abhorrent. However, suggesting that a boycott of CNN and the Daily Star will solve the massacre of children and innocent citizens is abhorrent.
The fact that FOX is being sued for $1.6 billion in damages is a problem for them, but knowing they have willingly continued to lie to their viewers about the 2020 election is abhorrent.
The fact that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in vacation “gifts” from Republican billionaires is abhorrent.
The fact that my daughters and granddaughter have fewer reproductive rights than I did 50 years ago is abhorrent.
The fact that our Republican Arizona legislators deny climate change and voted to allow guns on school grounds (SB1331) is abhorrent.
The fact that those same Republican legislators lavish money on school vouchers to those who need it the least but refuse to adequately fund our public schools is abhorrent.
Rachel Rulmyr Ed.D.
Oro Valley
Aquarius Engine
With all the hype of gas versus electric — check this out. Revolutionary Israeli car engine: 1 cylinder, 1 piston, 86 horsepower, Double the efficiency, 40% energy efficiency, and double the best performance of the best standard engine today.
Ordinary engines produce a circular motion, while the Aquarius Engine produces a longitudinal movement. Aquarius does not drive the wheels directly but serves as a generator charging a battery. The battery operates the electric motors to drive the wheels. There are no valves, a crankshaft or other related parts. The engine can be set up to run on different fuel sources. The engine is lightweight and can easily be picked up by one person.
Why are we, as a nation, not jumping all over this? Saves gas, runs forever (as long as the fuel source lasts) and has NO downtime to charge for hours.
David Shelton
Northwest side
At the end of a bullet
The Second Amendment has left in its train of countless casualties and countless grieving relatives and friends. And it probably won't stop. There is way too much money in the sale of weapons and too many men who feel powerless without them. To them, it is worth the sacrifice our nation's citizens have to pay in order for the bullets to fly. Cowards are made of such stuff.
Ron Lancaster
North side
Thinking ahead?
The sanctimonious clique of the Supreme Court wants to outlaw abortion. To what end? Do these immaculate legal masterminds think that abortion will be eradicated by that action? Should they achieve their goal, they will no more abolish abortion than Prohibition eliminated alcoholism. It will surely increase lawbreaking, though. Their lack of foresight should have prevented them from membership in the Supreme Court.
Trying to inject their religious beliefs into government law in direct opposition to the preferences of the majority of the American populace makes these justices more hypocritically pious than Hawthorne's Reverend Dimmesdale. Transforming a woman's health issue into a criminal activity shouldn't be part of a justice's duties.
Rick Cohn
West side
Guns
Fire requires three elements: Heat. Heat is necessary for the ignition of fire. Fuel. Fuel is any combustible material. Oxygen is everywhere. Take away one element, and there is no fire. Killings also require three elements: Victim — found everywhere. Weapon — found everywhere. Shooter — found everywhere. Take away one element, and there is no killing. Which element is easier to take away so there is no killing? The weapon. Not all weapons need to be banned; only those that were designed to kill as many humans as possible or wound them so terribly they will not present a danger to the shooter. Hunting does not require a weapon that can fire multiple rounds in a very short period unless you are a terrible shot. Likewise, targets do not require a weapon that fires multiple rounds in quick succession. Home defense? Unless that weapon is always at your side, it is useless for self defense. So which element to remove from killings?
Jerry Lujan
SaddleBrooke
Supreme Court
ethics not political
I am a liberal. If one of the liberal-leaning Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court was taking tens of thousands of dollars worth of illegal gifts and not reporting them, that Justice should be investigated and should resign. Same if that Justice has a spouse or partner who has been unethically involved in the cases considered by the Court.
This is not a matter of political parties. It is a matter of ethics, integrity and criminality. Time for Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and John Roberts to be investigated. It is definitely time for Justice Thomas to resign.
John Higgins
Southeast side
Why does this
keep happening?
I asked earlier why five people were not allowed to live. A Texas politician bravely suggested that the gun used wasn't the problem ... what was needed was some mental-illness treatment.
As I write this letter, that number is now 14 people in Texas now dead in only a matter of days, including a 5-year-old child! My question to that Texas politician is, while we're getting that mental illness program up and running ... and then while it is continued ... what number of gun deaths would be acceptable?
What if there weren't all these guns around for any person not easily identified nor cured in advance to suddenly decide to kill someone? And then there is perhaps a more straightforward way of looking at this problem ... why all the guns anyway?
Seems to me it's sort of like burying a huge number of explosives ... under sidewalks, in shopping centers, in hospitals and churches .... so we can experience avoiding them, hopefully safely, as we get on with our lives.
Why?!
Frank Parsons
Northeast side
The real reason
for Trump's anger
No. 45 is furious that he was quickly found guilty of all but one charge and ordered to pay 5 million dollars to his accuser. Despite his lies, he is guilty on ALL counts, and he knows that is the truth.
This case was another link in his chain of boasts about existing above the law. "I could shoot someone, etc." "I could declassify documents just thinking about it, etc." "When you're a star, etc."
The real reason for his anger is that he is being compelled to pay the consequences for his behavior. He finds it incomprehensible that the jury didn't understand that nobody is supposed to do that to him.
It won't be long, though, before he experiences this anger over and over, again and again.
Rick Cohn
West side
