Letters to the Editor

What You Say

View Master

You phrased beautifully what I was striving for; it's a rare satisfaction that someone could write about one's work as clearly as you did here. You really zeroed in on the crux of the matter for me. I had been experimenting with abstraction in the studio a bit, and when planning for the show at Gallery Joe I was troubled, uncertain as to where things would land.

Anyway I appreciate your clear observations and generous remarks. (I'll go visit Gross McCleaf tomorrow!)

Emily Brown
Artist

As a native Philadelphian who's lived in Portland for the last three years, I have to say Philly has a ways to go to even come close to the quality of the beer scene out here [Cover Story, "Beer. Here," Tim Hyland, Feb. 28, 2008]. Philly is a great beer town, but Portland is totally out of control with a staggering variety of easily accessible (and very affordable) locally produced stuff. But I generally prefer brewpubs to imports, so I'm biased. If it was the other way around, then Philly wins as mentioned in the article. Overall, it's just nice to have so much good stuff in both cities.

Dave
Via citypaper.net

You make several assertions in your review [Movies, "Uneasy Ride," Sam Adams, Feb. 21, 2008] for which you provide no evidence:

1. "Waterboarding" is torture.

There is no consensus that this or any other form of strong interrogation involving reward/punishment sinks to the level of true torture. All civilized people would agree that actions causing permanent injury/scarring would qualify; waterboarding does neither.

2. Waterboarding used as torture does not serve to obtain valuable intelligence, "despite all evidence to the contrary."

There is plenty of evidence that torture works, as noted by liberal Alan Dershowitz: "There are some who claim that torture is a nonissue because it never works — it only produces false information. This is simply not true, as evidenced by the many decent members of the French Resistance who, under Nazi torture, disclosed the locations of their closest friends and relatives." Waterboarding of al-Qaida members has disclosed vital information, according to the CIA.

3. At Guantanamo, these "techniques ... and almost certainly worse, are employed in total secrecy."

If you have evidence that severe torture is used in Guantanamo, please write the exposé which will certainly win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. The problem with complaints such as yours is that they are totally uninteresting to any normal person. Only the hand-wringing liberal overlooks the possibility that his mistaken principles may lead directly to his own demise. That is precisely why no liberal has been elected to the presidency since 1976.

John Nernoff Philadelphia

Due to an editing error in last week's roundup of Philly Beer Week events [Cover Story, "Best of the Fest," Felicia D'Ambrosio, Feb. 28, 2008], the Philly Beer Geek Finals Competition (phillybeergeek.com) was incorrectly dated. The event will be held on Thu., March 13 at 7 p.m. at Johnny Brenda's (1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-844-0100, johnnybrendas.com). CP regrets the error.