The Inland Empire’s economic recovery; PETA’s campaign against a Rose Parade float; Republicans vs. the EPA

A shaken Empire

Re “Down but not out,” Oct. 23

The Inland Empire was the last to feel the economic boom and first to feel the bust. My wife and I moved here in 2000 and have seen countless homes foreclosed on and countless businesses fold.

As we slowly crawl out of the recession, something we definitely do not need more of are cheaply constructed, overpriced new homes. We have a plethora of quality existing homes in good neighborhoods at reasonable prices.

Revitalization will come from reinvesting in our current stock of modestly priced homes, thereby creating a sustainable economic model, not the boom-and-bust cycle that speculators thrive on.

Thomas McGovern

San Bernardino

Elephant-sized task for PETA

Re “C’mon, PETA, get serious,” Editorial, Oct. 23

The Rose Parade is watched by millions, so it’s a powerful platform to speak up for elephants. No matter how it’s floated, elephants in circuses are not free.

Elephants are highly social animals who lavish affection on their family members. In the wild, each day is filled with socializing, exploring, playing and participating in other activities. Their level of self-awareness continues to amaze researchers.

In circuses, an elephant’s world extends only as far as a chain. They live in fear of being hit with a bull hook — a heavy baton with a sharp metal hook on the end. Reaching out to exchange greetings with a friend or hesitating when asked to engage in a confusing headstand results in punishment.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals would be remiss not to use every opportunity to speak on elephants’ behalf.

Jennifer O’Connor

Norfolk, Va.

The author is a staff writer at the PETA Foundation.

When you state that PETA has a knack for annoying even its supporters by turning respect for animals into what looks a lot like equivalency between animal rights and civil rights, I failed to see exactly what you intended your insult to be.

Why is it that when humans, as animals, mistreat other humans, it is a much more heinous crime than when another species of animal is mistreated? Respect should be extended to all species, if we care to live in balance on this planet.

Heide Jenkins

Culver City

Pondering the need for the EPA

Re “ ‘Too dirty to fail’?,” Opinion, Oct. 21

Lisa Jackson is quite correct. When will our current politicians realize that the Environmental Protection Agency was created because a previous generation of “job creators” so poisoned America’s air and water that no amount of corporate or lobbyist money could prevent Congress from passing laws to stop the abuse?

We need the EPA. Not to mention the SEC, the FAA, the USDA, the FDA and all the other federal agencies that were created when the “free market” harmed the average American (remember us?).

John Nachreiner

Redondo Beach

Jackson not only ignores the steep costs of environmental regulation but actually argues that it creates jobs. James C. Robinson’s comprehensive analysis, published in the 1995 Yale Journal of Regulation, found that environmental and safety regulation slowed manufacturing productivity growth 11.4% between 1974 and 1986.

Jackson and the Obama administration are pushing the most significant regulatory expansion since the 1970s, regardless of costs or benefits. A study last year by the Small Business Administration estimated that the annual price tag of complying with federal rules and regulations was a staggering $1.75 trillion in 2008.

These regulatory policies are consistent with Obama’s promise to focus on jobs, but apparently he means exporting them.

Michael O’Guin

Rancho Santa Margarita

Eliminating the EPA, as the Republicans seem wont to do, will send us back to the days when the Cuyahoga River caught fire, air stung the eyes and groundwater caused cancer and birth defects. And all this in the name of jobs.

Hey, there was no EPA in the 1930s. How was unemployment back then? Can we also go back to the 1950s, when everybody had work and the top marginal income tax rate was more than 90%? President Eisenhower was a Republican.

Wait, wasn’t the EPA created by a Republican? Now they don’t like anybody’s ideas, including their own.

Derek Lovett

Torrance

Foreigners’ homes in U.S.

Re “Buy a pricey home, get a U.S. visa?,” Business, Oct. 21

This is what’s wrong with America: You can buy your way into anything.

Sure, giving foreigners who buy property in the U.S. a visa would be a “boon” to California, but at what expense? The increased demand would make it more difficult for the average person to own a home. If we make it easier for foreigners to buy our real estate, prices will escalate.

Let’s focus on helping our own people keep their homes and purchase new ones. That’s the way to get this country back on track.

Patricia Mascolo

Toluca Lake

The article made me wonder if we should change the quote on the Statue of Liberty from “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” to “Give me your rich, your willing investors yearning to spend freely.”

Marjorie Popper

Solvang, Calif.

Doctors’ profits

Re “Murray’s words may seal his fate,” Oct. 22

Michael Jackson’s doctor treated him more like a customer, satisfying his demands for drugs, than as a patient, demanding that he fight his addiction.

The reason behind this is money. A doctor depends on the payments by patients for his living. His patients are more like customers, to be satisfied, than patients, to be wisely advised.

Our free-market system puts doctors in a bind — they need to make money, of course. Having rich clients and satisfying their needs, even if they are addicts, is a good way to fulfill the money-making side of medicine.

But what about “do no harm”? And what about advising patients to try to overcome their addiction — even at the risk of losing customers?

Gabrielle Grossman

Oakland

Bias at the FBI

Re “The wrong way to fight terrorism,” Opinion, Oct. 19

Salam Al-Marayati’s piece on the anti-Muslim training material used by the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office is an important article for all Americans. The Jewish community knows all too well about the danger of such hate literature.

That the material in question was published for the FBI and not by some radical fringe group out in the woods is chilling. Al-Marayati is completely right to demand a full apology from the FBI and that stringent reform measures and oversight measures be put into place immediately.

Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels

Santa Monica

Short memories

Re “Why we quit spending ...,” Opinion, Oct. 23

Scott Martelle writes, “Our sons, having witnessed this at an impressionable age, are not likely to become profligate.”

He should not get his hopes too high. Immigrants aside, there are still a few elderly people around that lived through and remember the Great Depression. They, their children and grandchildren all lived through the recent bubble.

Memory is short, especially when large amounts of money begin sloshing around.

Eugene Crowner

Bell