Letters

Re "Stem cells are made by cloning method," May 16 Cloning a human serves no purpose, so the arguments against making stem cells using a cloning method are ludicrous. On the other hand, cloning organs makes sense - the rest is just jibber-jabber from Luddites. Mike Benbrook El Cajon ALSO: Letters: Dying but not wanting to know Letters: Addiction treatment that works Letters: Election billboard ads may backfire

Re "FBI probes death in Kern County," May 15 Why do we allow mad dogs like those accused of beating a Bakersfield man to death and tampering with evidence on our police forces? If guilty, they should be sent to jail. Richard Sparks Santa Monica ALSO: Letters: Pot's place in medicine Letters: It's UC, not McDonald's Letters: America's well-paid workers

Because of the scarce print space allocated among the 60 to 70 letters to the editor that run each week, submissions replying to other letters are only occasionally published on the regular pages. When an unusually high volume of "letters on letters" are sent to letters@lames.com , a selection will run in this space. This week, more than three dozen readers weighed in on other letters, most of them responding to discussions on freedom of religion vis a vis the Obama administration's rule on mandatory contraception coverage, and on Israeli President Shimon Peres' take on a two-state solution.

Re "Former CIA officer sentenced in leak case," Jan. 26 The Justice Department will not prosecute CIA officials who approved or conducted "enhanced interrogations," and yet it goes after the man who blew the whistle on these practices. I suppose it is too much to hope that Obama will commute the sentence of John Kiriakou, as President George W. Bush did for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Jean Koch Los Angeles ALSO: Letters: Researching marijuana Letters: Women deserve a fighting chance Letters: Who should pay for illegal immigration?

Re "Let the taxi app roll," Opinion, Dec. 4 Jonah Goldberg perpetuates the myth pushed by Uber, a car service customers can hail using their smartphones, that our laws may be selectively enforced. It is Uber, not the apps that compete against it, that has been ticketed by authorities for violations of public safety regulations. It is Uber that is being sued by cities, individual drivers and other transportation companies. Uber provides what amounts to a taxicab service at a rate up to 60% above the regulated fare.

The Times' two recent news articles on Mitt Romney's taxes - the first last Saturday on the GOP presidential candidate's feud with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the second on Monday detailing the reassessment of his La Jolla home to lower his property tax liability - drew about a dozen reader letters between them, a respectable haul but nowhere near the week's top topics. As if to prove that the discussion on Romney's taxes is more about the buzz and less about the topic itself, the four letters published Wednesday and Thursday responding to The Times' articles drew nearly 20 reader submissions, nearly twice the tally for the two news stories.

The Times receives between 500 and 1,000 printable letters each week, of which we publish about 70 among six pages. Though the letters draw plenty of eyeballs, they seldom draw huge volumes of response. But sometimes, a few words of the weekly thousands change that. In his July 22 letter responding to a Times editorial supporting abortion rights, reader Vincent Sheehy wrote: "Sex is for procreation. If a woman does not want to become pregnant, she should refrain from sexual activity.

Re "Crucial CO2 gauge hits key level," May 11 Our failure as a nation to address the climate change crisis is heartbreaking. We must transition off fossil fuels, period. And we have at our disposal a simple mechanism to make that happen: a carbon tax. Tax carbon at the mine or port and invest the money in clean energy. It is ridiculous to insist that we can't afford it. We should be putting every resource available into the fight to maintain a habitable planet. Vicki Kirschenbaum Burbank ALSO: Letters: Sen. Warren speaks up Letters: Tax breaks for tea parties?