Slaking California’s thirst for water; Jonah Goldberg and feminism; the separation of church and state

Roberts’ rules

Re “Chief justice sees reason to shun State of Union event,” March 10

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is concerned about the criticism, during the State of the Union address, of the Supreme Court’s decision allowing an even greater intrusion of corporate money into our electoral process. So concerned, Roberts says, that justices should perhaps not attend the speech in the future.

Well, la-di-da. I am concerned that we appear to have a Supreme Court that, far from being sobered or chastened by its weighty responsibilities to uphold the Constitution of the United States, appears to have allowed ego, hubris and a distinctly pro-corporate bias to derail common sense.

We may be a nation of laws, but laws are made by people, and neither laws nor people -- not even Supreme Court justices -- are flawless.

Lewis Redding
Arcadia

Quenching the state’s thirst

Re “Dam project would be the largest in decades,” March 9

The Times’ article on the proposed Temperance Flat project mischaracterizes the reservoir as an “agribusiness” project. California needs new storage to meet environmental commitments made to benefit fish protected under the Endangered Species Act.

California also needs locally produced, affordable, safe food -- and some farmers are running out of water because of what the article describes as “increasingly severe pumping restrictions” in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

New storage will be needed as one part of a comprehensive program to restore the environment while assuring reliable water supplies to California cities and farms. That program also must include improved water-use efficiency, additional water recycling, desalination and every other responsible tactic to address water shortages.

All Californians would benefit from that type of balanced approach.

Paul Wenger
Sacramento
The writer is president, California Farm Bureau Federation.

The article does not mention that Temperance Flat would have the potential, in a good year, to increase water storage on the San Joaquin by only about 250,000 acre-feet.

The proposed Madera County Water Bank, a few miles downstream from Friant Dam, would store about the same amount of water but at a small fraction of the cost of a new dam, and accomplish this without flooding one of Fresno County’s most scenic and much-used recreational resources, the Bureau of Land Management-administered San Joaquin River Gorge Management Area.

Robert Lovell
Fresno

Another vote for JFK

Re “Revisiting JFK,” Editorial, March 10

John F. Kennedy’s position on the role of religion in politics, expressed in his 1960 speech, absolutely is the correct one. Which is to say that the position of the Catholic Church is, in Archbishop Charles J. Chaput’s terminology, “wrong.”

The law -- and thereby the policy of government -- is clearly defined. To impose a religiously-based ethic on government policy would be appropriate only in a theocracy.

Church representatives would be well advised to defer to the counsel of their teacher: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s . . .”

John B. Johnson
Newport Beach

I remember Kennedy’s speech. He delivered it because he feared many Americans would not vote for a Catholic for president, lest the country come to be ruled by the pope. His narrow victory may have rested on his reassurance that it would not. Now comes Chaput, saying that it should.

The archbishop’s views on abortion are determined by the pope, and if this or some future pope should change the church’s position, the archbishop would change his own.

The question for American politicians should not be what pronouncements are made in Rome but what is in the best interest of the American people.

Donald Schwartz
Los Angeles

One cannot serve two masters. Choose Mammon or choose Christ. Politicians who choose expediency over truth are cafeteria Christians. They pick and choose whatever serves their ambitions.

Abortion is murder. Only the possible death of the mother allows for the death of an innocent one.

Sorry -- priests and ministers have the right and obligation to teach their parishioners moral truths. Politicians, make your choice and accept the consequence.

Robert R. Park
Hermosa Beach

Jonah Goldberg, feminist?

Re “Where feminists get it right,” March 9

In his column on the subjugation of women throughout the world, Jonah Goldberg has finally proved he is capable of sound, rational, bipartisan writing. His argument is cogent: “Around the world, women -- girls -- have to pay the price for the barbarity of boys.”

His examples are concrete, and his commentaries on those examples are clear and convincing. His summation is memorable too: “Liberate women from this barbarism, and male decency will soon follow.”

If I were Goldberg’s writing advisor, I would tell him: Here you are at your best. You are a much better writer when you are rationally bipartisan, as opposed to your more disappointing circulations of partisan bathos. Nice job this time. Keep it up.

Bruce Stevenson
Newbury Park

I was pleasantly surprised to see Goldberg endorsing even one aspect of feminism. But then, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

In this instance, the “feminist” idea is the notion that women should not be physically mutilated or imprisoned inside burkas or black-painted windows so that men won’t be tempted. Perhaps Goldberg will follow this tiny ray of enlightenment to its logical, breathtaking conclusion: that the most fundamental of all human rights is the right to control one’s own body.

From there it’s a small step down the slippery slope to agreeing with other radical feminist positions, such as equal pay for equal work or the best applicant gets the slot. Once he’s gone that far down the rabbit hole, he might discover that he has come to agree with -- gasp! -- the Equal Rights Amendment: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

I won’t hold my breath. But it’s a nice fantasy.

Roberta Quiroz
Los Angeles

A lot more than artifacts

Re “The artifact suicides,” March 10

Non-Indian citizens of Blanding, Utah, have been collecting and selling Native Americans’ grave goods for decades. They knew that what they were doing was illegal and immoral. For anyone to state that “prosecutors have been overzealous” is outrageous. These individuals were robbing graves.

Had anyone despoiled the graves of the ancestors of the Blanding residents, the Blanding residents would have sought prosecution. Don’t let them kid you: They were not just picking up arrowheads.

Pamela Ford
Redlands

The suicides associated with the federal case concerning the looting of archaeological sites in Utah are indeed tragic. Local traditions, however, are not an excuse for breaking the law.

There are other voices in this discussion, particularly those of Native Americans, which did not appear in this article. Would the digging up of a Los Angeles cemetery and the keeping of teeth for souvenirs be tolerated?

James E. Snead
Los Angeles