LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Road plan likely driven by politics
7/29/2013What a coincidence: A little less than a year and a half before the gubernatorial election, Gov. John Kasich wants to initiate more than $300 million in northern Ohio highway projects, more than a decade earlier than planned (“Ohio plans to speed up road work; Several local projects to start years sooner,” July 23).
I’m not implying political motivation, because the law requires these funds be spent within 75 miles of the Ohio Turnpike corridor. But it seems many of the accelerated projects are in counties that went to former Gov. Ted Strickland in the 2010 election.
Yes, as Gov. Kasich said: “It really is amazing what you can do when you think a little differently...”
BRUCE KIACZ
Whitehouse
Columnist behind times on science
In asserting that “global temperatures have been flat for 16 years,” columnist Charles Krauthammer identifies himself as a member of the Flat Earth Society — a club that refuses to acknowledge scientific facts inconsistent with its beliefs (“Obama’s folly on climate change,” op-ed, July 7).
Peer-reviewed scientific literature is the gold standard in separating fact from fiction in scientific controversies. Scientists have documented the global temperature increase, a global rise in sea level, loss of glaciers — particularly at low elevations — and habitat changes that have continued over the past 16 years.
If a critical response to any of the papers I have read on this topic has been published in equally prestigious journals, climate change skeptics have yet to bring any such papers to my attention.
It is hard to get a paper published in the face of data that contradict a hypothesis, so it is not surprising that Mr. Krauthammer fails to cite authoritative peer-reviewed sources for his “flat for 16 years” assertion.
DON STIERMAN
Associate ProfessorDepartment of Environmental SciencesUniversity of Toledo
President dupes media on climate
President Obama will use an executive order to push his personal agenda to combat what he sees as global warming. He relies on complicit media to push his “green” agenda. He knows they will fall for the carbon-dioxide myth without doing any real research on the subject.
RAYMOND ELIEFF
Suder Avenue
Baptist church ad hits sour note
In response to the Monclova Road Baptist Church advertisement in your July 20 Religion section: The condescending comments made by the church explain why many have run from Baptist membership in recent years.
To imply that any bigger, thriving church is an “entertainment center” seems peevish and a tad envious. The core message of those larger churches is the Bible.
Everything else they do is just a bonus, encouraging those who are God-curious to come and learn more about Him, minus the staid, holier-than-thou attitudes.
CYNTHIA BENSCH
Sylvania Township