Dealing with a nuclear Iran; America’s wealth inequality; dentists trying new ways to drum up business

No saber-rattling

Re “The Iran threat,” Opinion, Dec. 1

I read Max Boot’s article carefully, but nowhere did I find any mention in the tallying of Iran’s aggression against the West the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq’s government by the CIA in 1953, our installing the shah and our close relationship with that oppressive regime as possible reasons for Iran not liking or trusting us.

With regard to Iran’s possibly developing nuclear weapons: I am opposed to nuclear proliferation, but it should be noted that it was Israel that introduced nuclear weapons into the Middle East, and it should be included in this discussion.

Theresa McGowan

Santa Monica

If Boot is so concerned about Iranian power, he has himself to blame. Eight years after he and his fellow neoconservatives got us into the Iraq war, we’ve succeeded in toppling Iran’s worst enemy and replacing it with a pro-Iranian Shiite regime.

Our ill-defined Middle East wars have cost us thousands of lives and nearly $1 trillion. Boot apparently just wants more of the same.

True conservatives should heed the old axiom, “War is the health of the state.” Those opposed to government at home should also oppose it abroad.

Chris Norby

Fullerton

Do Boot and others really believe that Iran would aggressively use nuclear weapons, knowing that doing so would result in its destruction? Iran should have the same rights as other small countries with nuclear weapons, looking out for itself in the event it needs protection.

Iran cannot afford to initiate an attack.

Andre Landzaat

Studio City

How the rich stay that way

Re “Rich-poor gap worries people on both sides,” Nov. 29

You don’t need a high IQ to realize that Congress tends to favor those living in higher tax brackets. Nearly half of all senators and representatives are millionaires, a disincentive to do anything to diminish their wealth.

Russell Grate, the unemployed warehouse worker from Reading, Pa., mirrors the 99%. The town, once an industrial hub that now has a high poverty rate, reflects the rest of the nation. If this is class warfare, it is not a fair fight.

It baffles me why those in dire straits elect the very people who are holding them down. The battlefields in Reading, Flint, Mich., and elsewhere won’t level out until the 99% uses its ammunition more wisely.

Don A. Norman

Los Angeles

The “near-sacred belief in American culture of the notion of economic opportunity” sounds like a modern version of an “opiate of the masses” used by the party of the powerful to con us into voting against our own interests.

Not surprisingly, this is the same party whose leaders so effectively use religion as a wedge issue.

Mike Foster

Goleta

A healthy mouth

Re “Dentists feeling a little down in mouth,” Column One, Dec. 1

I have never seen the logic in separating routine dental care from regular healthcare insurance. Aren’t our teeth a part of our bodies?

I am fortunate to have both medical and dental coverage; however, my dental coverage is limited to $1,000 a year. When I recently needed a root canal, my yearly limit was quickly reached.

Of course, cosmetic dental treatments should not be covered. But until a new approach to insurance for routine dental care is considered, I cannot feel any pity for dentists seeing a drop in business.

Cynthia Murphy

Chino Hills

401(k) solution

Re “Pension security,” Opinion, Nov. 29

Dave Low notes the “deterioration of private sector pensions,” but he overlooks the reason.

Both defined-benefit plans (pensions) and defined-contribution plans, many of which are 401(k) plans, depend on stock market income earned on contributions. The former requires employers to guarantee benefits if the market performs poorly.

The flight by employers to defined-contribution plans, particularly after the 2008 market crash, resulted from their refusal to pay again for past employment. The most dramatic example was General Motors’ roughly $30-billion unfunded pension liability when it entered bankruptcy.

Private employers have refused to assume the role of insurers. Perhaps taxpayers should do likewise to public employees.

Jack Eiden

Pico Rivera

Not so tweet

Re “Think first tweet later #duh,” Opinion, Dec. 1

Meghan Daum insightfully writes about a teenager who made waves with her crude Twitter post, which said the Kansas governor “sucked, in person #heblowsalot,” a statement for which the teen refused to apologize.

Daum says it exemplifies “how crude public discourse has become.” She says Emma Sullivan is “victim and (perpetrator) of cheap talk [and] a casualty of a culture so saturated with mindless chatter that it can’t separate truth from hyperbole.”

Teens in years past grew up with fewer opportunities to publicly display ignorance. Now kids are exploited by crude music, profane and violent movies, raunchy websites and the likes of Kim Kardashian and Charlie Sheen.

But to me it isn’t just casual, mindless chatter. Rather, kids do have minds, and they are being damaged.

John Holmstrom

Hollywood

The jobless

Re “America’s army of jobless,” Opinion, Nov. 30

David B. Grusky’s piece, and particularly its title, reminded me of what Karl Marx called “the reserve army of the unemployed,” which Diego Rivera beautifully illustrated in one of his murals, “Frozen Assets.” This was Rivera’s reflection on the Depression.

Grusky’s article stating four different kinds of unemployment or underemployment should be taken into account in current jobless statistics, which not only offer an incomplete picture of our reality but, at times, appear better suited for a narrative of magical realism.

Berta Graciano-Buchman

Beverly Hills

Unsound idea

Re “Noisy mob? Cops shoot back with sound cannons,” Dec. 2

“A device known as the sound cannon is joining Tasers, rubber bullets and pepper spray in law enforcement’s expanding arsenal of nonlethal weapons.” All to be used against U.S. citizens protesting U.S. policies.

And while those citizens protest severe cuts in, say, education, our government spends thousands on a gadget to shut them up.

It would suggest to the casual observer that “our” government no longer answers to citizens but to higher (moneyed) powers.

Russ Woody

Studio City

Jails on the Web

Re “Baca’s jails are Baca’s problem,” Editorial, Dec. 2

I have no idea how to solve the jail problems, which are of great concern to Los Angeles politicians and L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca. But I do have a suggestion.

In the Internet era, webcams placed strategically throughout jails that streamed video to any Internet viewer would go a long way toward solving the issues of brutality. I doubt any opposition to this idea would come from inmates, but I would expect the sheriff and his deputies to call such a plan an invasion of privacy.

What do you think?

Roy Wilson

West Covina