Letters for November 1, 2007

Thank you Becca

Re “Altared states” by Becca Costello (SN&R Nothing Ever Happens, October 25):

I’m so bummed! I just read last weeks Nothing Ever Happens column by Becca Costello and found it is to be her last. I have followed Becca’s writing since I first met her as an intern nearly 10 years ago and every week her column has gotten better and better. I’ve looked forward to her column every issue and pretty much every one has made me think and smile.

She is so much better a writer than Anita Creamer and others at the Bee (and way better than many at your own paper) and I was looking forward to her getting to Rachel Leibrock status.

Her humor and thoughtfulness will be missed and hopefully you have something even bigger and better in store for her (and her readers).

I know this letter won’t change anything but at least whoever made this decision will know that this reader, one who has been a weekly reader since the paper was founded, is very disappointed.

Thank you Becca!

P.S. Interesting that her last column references David Barton, another great writer that was poorly utilized by his own paper.

Jay Spooner
Midtown

Becca happens

Re “Altared states” by Becca Costello (SN&R Nothing Ever Happens, October 25):

I’m sorry to read that Becca Costello’s column Nothing Ever Happens will be gone. I’ve found her musings to be intuitive and sincere. Reading her column is one of the more worthwhile events in SN&R.

Laurie Ferns
Sacramento

No Nothing! You’re kidding?

Re “Altared states” by Becca Costello (SN&R Nothing Ever Happens, October 25):

Are you kidding? SN&R is getting rid of Becca Costello? She was one of the main reasons I browsed through your paper each week. Her writing was insightful, witty and poignant and I always looked forward to reading of her adventures in and around Sacramento. I have never met Ms. Costello but I connected with her writing because it was honest and vulnerable and she always made me laugh. It sounds as if you are planning on making changes at SN&R and moving in new directions without Ms. Costello. I hope the best for her and for SN&R. I am quite certain that Becca will go onto bigger and better things and may even write a future best-selling novel or screen play. Too bad for SN&R.

N. Williams
via e-mail

Kloss, meet Jim Morrison

Re “Cartoon” by John Kloss (SN&R Opinion, October 25):

I don’t know about John Kloss’ satanic Santa Ana winds cartoon. The winds come, since forever. The subdivisions crowd into the canyons and cover the hillsides. As Jim Morrison said, “I see your hair is burning / Hills are filled with fire.”

William J. Hughes
Sacramento

Keep it in yer pants

Re “Unreasonably sexist” (SN&R Letters, October 25):

In Mr. Fred Hayward’s zeal to twist the facts of my letter (“Where’s the responsibility,” SN&R Letters, October 18), he missed the point. First, I do not think that the law is “reasonable”; that is his term. The law is the law until it changes or is changed. The only way that a man can truly protect himself is to keep it in his pants. If he cannot (and under the current unreasonable laws) then he had better be prepared to pay for his act for the next 18 years. Yes, the woman has all the options once the baby is conceived. But, it is the man that has the option to not conceive in the first place. It is called personal responsibility.

Dennis Johnson
Woodland

Diplomacy, phooey

Re “Doomsday gap” (SN&R Letters, October 25):

In 1978 while teaching in Iran, my students kept telling me of an impending revolution. When I queried the American Embassy in Teheran, they knew nothing about it. Jimmy Carter’s state Department and CIA were clueless. It turns out that Carter and his CIA head, Stansfield Turner, had decided to cut loose “boots on the ground” and rely solely on electronic surveillance. That was the beginning of the destruction of the American intelligence capability, and we have yet to recover.

In his letter, Ron Lowe expresses great confidence that the highly politicized, risk adverse “U.S. intelligence agencies” will get it right on Iran’s nukes, that President Bush is a madman acting alone, and one assumes Mr. Lowe believes, as Carter does, that diplomacy will resolve the problem. But couldn’t get one hostage released in 444 days through diplomacy. More importantly, the disgraceful “diplomatic community” in Iran at the time of the hostage crisis went about their business as if their precious diplomatic immunity had not been violated by the Iranians. So much for diplomacy.

As for Bush, he has on board all the most important European heads of state for military action against the nuke sites in Iran if they fail to capitulate. You see, Mr. Lowe, these European nations are within missile range of Iran’s non-existent nukes.

Dennis McMurray
Nevada City

Nice courage

Re “State of shock” by R.V. Scheide (SN&R Feature Story, October 18):

I loved your issue about the “State of shock.” You’re one of the few news sources with the courage to cover this issue.

Not mentioned: Since U.S. domestic oil production peaked in 1971 at $1.75 a barrel, when we imported only 30 percent of our consumption, and the United States is now importing more than 70 percent of consumption at nearly $90 a barrel, we can either learn to conserve (the easiest “alternative” fuel) or try to bully the rest of the world into providing that shortfall.

Oh yes, and all the oil projected to be in Alaska and offshore will not return us to that peak. None of this is controversial.

Meanwhile, I had to laugh at Roger Dickinson’s remark, “You have to show elected officials that you get loved when you do something different, not hated.”

Great! When do we get the chance for Roger to feel the love? When will he do something different?

Mark Dempsey
via e-mail

Required reading

Re “State of shock” by R.V. Scheide (SN&R Feature Story, October 18):

Your article “State of shock” should be required reading in Sacramento and beyond. Your analysis is the most accurate I have read about our energy future. My family and I have been in the energy business in California for over 70 years, and have worked on everything from hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, wave power, nukes, and gas turbine generators, and I have no idea how we will meet the demand in the future. I am truly scared that we are beyond the tipping point. I for one am adding solar panels and batteries and a small wind turbine to my back yard and praying that I am wrong.

Frank Wylie
Global Resources, Chico

SN&R not for me

Re “Dicks, balls and a-holes, oi!” by Josh Fernandez (SN&R Music, October 18):

I picked up your magazine for the first and last time this week. I happened to open it to page 63 and was treated to “Dicks, balls and a-holes, oi!” I read the article by Josh Fernandez and at first thought this guy was still 16, to promote some fourth-rate, obscure, fringe band, gleefully referring to 9/11 as “Super Tuesday” is, to say the least, in poor taste. Couple that with a crude, sophomoric article about dicks, balls etc. and I decided this was not the publication for me.

I then did the following. I glanced at the advertisers, making a mental note to avoid these companies. Not that I will be needing a massage from a “Russian beauty” anytime soon, nor will I be schlepping down to my local cannabis clinic. I then searched for and found your mission statement, and let’s just say you may want to revisit that last line. I have not been able to reconcile “dicks, balls and Super Tuesday” with a “positive impact on our communities.”

Before you label me a conservative prude, please know, I am gay woman, registered Democrat recently transplanted from the San Francisco Bay Area. However, I do know crap when I read it!

In closing, I am very aware that your publication appeals to a certain segment of our society, thankfully I am not of that ilk!

Diane (Dee Dee) Smith
Sacramento