Real Message

I am watching an NBA playoff game. It's commercial time and an NBA player comes on and says don't do drugs. Next is a message which says don't drink and drive. Then comes four commercials pushing beer, a mind-altering drug. Is this not a double standard, or is the whole world just going crazy? STEVE URBANOVICH Burbank

Like a door slamming shut, the conventional wisdom is hardening. The chances that Congress will take up comprehensive immigration reform this year are increasingly seen as poor to nil. What killed the prospect, many think, was the Massachusetts special election to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Democrats and Republicans both heard the message: Voters are angry at Washington, and incumbents are at risk for their political lives. And many lawmakers drew what seemed like the obvious conclusion: Don't touch anything controversial between now and election day in November.

Re "High, and at Risk," Opinion, June 13: Very true, many lives have been ruined due to crystal methamphetamine: loss of jobs, homes, self-respect and, yes, unprotected sex leading to HIV infection. However, unprotected sex has become unbelievably common among sober men as well. A deeper issue is the failure in truly educating men about what reinfection and different strains of the virus entail. Has reinfection already occurred in this country with untreatable strains? What are the odds of it happening, and what is its history?

I didn't have to figure out how to break the news of Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy to my kids. Disconcertingly attuned to all celebrity news at ages 10 and 12, the girls broke it to me at the dinner table -- along with an explanation of who, exactly, Jamie Lynn Spears is. It turns out, in case you are a fellow inhabitant of Planet Clueless, that: (1) this is a different person from Jamie Lee Curtis; (2) Britney Spears has a younger sister; (3) she is the "good one."

The loss of individuality, a disregard for nature, the corporate affability that lonely people mistake for real intimacy--these are the ingredients in the Mark Taper Forum Improvisational Theatre Project's "The Bear That Wasn't," currently touring Southland public and private elementary schools. A heavy message for young children? Not with the treatment it gets here.

Re "What's so wonderful about it?" Opinion, Dec. 10 While Annie Korzen thinks "It's a Wonderful Life" unfairly mocks personal ambition to the potential detriment of the world as a whole, the real message of the film is that selflessly helping others creates a different kind of wealth from what Mr. Potter or Sam Wainwright have. If anything, it's a message that has more value than ever in an era that celebrates the exact opposite. Pete Tittl Bakersfield

If converting the Santa Monica Ferris wheel to solar energy (Oct. 23) is an attempt by Edison and the Department of Energy to educate people on solar energy, perhaps their real message is that it's expensive. A project costing $350,000 having a savings of $7,000 per year takes 50 years to pay itself off. Maybe Edison isn't promoting solar energy after all. HARRY L. CAPORUSCIO JR. Topanga

What is the real message in your editorial? Be date raped by a man who looks and acts like a thug in public and he will be convicted? Why are we just pointing fingers at high-profile and powerful men? What about the man next door who seems OK--the one your daughter or sister would date? "No" still doesn't mean very much in the game of "he said-she said." It seems "he said" still wins if a man appears to be less of a brute. This is hardly a victory; we're still in the first round.

Commenting on the special election for the congressional seat representing California's Central Coast ("Huffington's Legacy Still Afflicts the GOP," March 12), George Skelton dutifully parrots the liberal Democrat spin that suggests Republican candidate Tom Bordonaro "was just too right wing." Skelton conveniently fails to mention that Bordonaro was outspent by 2 to 1. And in addition to the $1.6 million spent by the Lois Capps campaign itself, outside interest groups contributed another $700,000 in ads attacking Bordonaro.

Robin Swicord deserves a standing ovation for her insightful and enlightening article ("Youth Must Be Served--With Respect," May 30). I am so tired of hearing TV and film producers relinquishing responsibility, singing their well-worn song, "We're only giving the public what it wants." Bull! Children don't know what they want--it is our job, as the adults in society, to help them learn. And, no, Mr. Violent Movie Producer, you can't always rely on parents to teach and police their children.

Re "What's so wonderful about it?" Opinion, Dec. 10 While Annie Korzen thinks "It's a Wonderful Life" unfairly mocks personal ambition to the potential detriment of the world as a whole, the real message of the film is that selflessly helping others creates a different kind of wealth from what Mr. Potter or Sam Wainwright have. If anything, it's a message that has more value than ever in an era that celebrates the exact opposite. Pete Tittl Bakersfield

Re "A drill can't fix LAUSD," Opinion, April 28 The rest of the world scores quick and easy political points by bashing our public school system. Virtually alone in the world of punditry, Sandra Tsing Loh identifies the successes of public schools. As a parent with children in public school, I love her work on this front, because school staff are properly more concerned with teaching than with rehabilitating their battered image. For readers who merely skim headlines, "A drill can't fix LAUSD" cynically echoes the conventional wisdom that our school system is broken beyond repair.

Set 30,000 years into the future, the video game Anarchy Online seems an unlikely place to see billboards advertising the newest CD by Motley Crue or the "Family Guy" on DVD. But such ads are increasingly showing up in the virtual realm of video games as corporations pursue potential customers into their escapist fantasies.

Re "High, and at Risk," Opinion, June 13: Very true, many lives have been ruined due to crystal methamphetamine: loss of jobs, homes, self-respect and, yes, unprotected sex leading to HIV infection. However, unprotected sex has become unbelievably common among sober men as well. A deeper issue is the failure in truly educating men about what reinfection and different strains of the virus entail. Has reinfection already occurred in this country with untreatable strains? What are the odds of it happening, and what is its history?

"Cheaper by the Dozen" apparently means to celebrate family life, but it's as synthetic as a plastic Christmas tree. Not for a second will an only child find anything to envy about the Bakers of Midland, Ill., where a household of 12 children means that sometimes a parent cannot always address an offspring by his correct name. It's hard to imagine that director Shawn Levy and his writers, in reworking the autobiographical novel by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr.

Re "No Rap on Eminem," Nov. 11: Have we really crossed over into never-never land, where we believe that the person on the silver screen is the "real" person? Eminem is a "doll"? Everything the guy has done for years proves he is closer to a Nazi than a doll. Yet the moviegoers think the guy on the screen in "8 Mile" is the real Eminem Eminem's music is real; it is his songwriting, his words, his thoughts. But the movie is fake. It cost $41 million to make; someone has written a part for Mathers to play.

Like a door slamming shut, the conventional wisdom is hardening. The chances that Congress will take up comprehensive immigration reform this year are increasingly seen as poor to nil. What killed the prospect, many think, was the Massachusetts special election to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Democrats and Republicans both heard the message: Voters are angry at Washington, and incumbents are at risk for their political lives. And many lawmakers drew what seemed like the obvious conclusion: Don't touch anything controversial between now and election day in November.

In reference to reader Leo Guerra's opinion that "American Me" will cause "dishonor, betrayal and death to a whole generation of Chicanos": Guerra only has to turn on a TV news broadcast to see that this is already being done by gangs. In his film, Olmos is trying to show the violent side of gang life in an effort to save our youth from destroying themselves. I would suggest that Guerra picket those who have turned our educational system into a shambles, and not those who are using their time and talents in a desperate effort to save our society from destruction.

For a day, Michael Dell looked like the hero who stopped the Great Tech Stock Meltdown of 2001. His company's upbeat--or at least, not downbeat--earnings preview late Wednesday helped spark a massive rally in depressed tech shares Thursday, sending the Nasdaq composite index up 146.20 points, or 8.9%, to 1,785.00. But there was a message behind the message in Dell Computer's announcement that it wouldn't revise sales or earnings estimates lower for the quarter ending May 4.

Robin Swicord deserves a standing ovation for her insightful and enlightening article ("Youth Must Be Served--With Respect," May 30). I am so tired of hearing TV and film producers relinquishing responsibility, singing their well-worn song, "We're only giving the public what it wants." Bull! Children don't know what they want--it is our job, as the adults in society, to help them learn. And, no, Mr. Violent Movie Producer, you can't always rely on parents to teach and police their children.