Get-out-the-vote efforts; Israel’s raid on a Gaza flotilla; baseball’s perfect game that wasn’t

Fed up with calls

Re “Campaigns hope their calls ring true,” June 5

If I get one more phone call urging me to vote for someone, I am going to vote for their opponent.

For more than a week our phone has been ringing off the hook with endless pleas for our votes. From what I hear from friends, no one even listens to these calls anymore. We too just click them off immediately and feel annoyed with whoever it was.

For the next election, I want a law passed that politicians will be included in the Do Not Call list.

Susie Dougherty

Santa Barbara

The candidates and the issues

Re “ GOP voters are in a quandary,” June 4

Republicans who vote Tuesday have a real devil’s choice.

Carly Fiorina says she wants to cut taxes because “job creation” is done by small business? I guess taxes, in her world, prevent small business from creating jobs faster than she and her fellow CEOs are killing them or shipping them offshore.

Meg Whitman says she will create more jobs by firing 40,000 state employees. How does adding 40,000 more to the already swollen ranks of the unemployed create new jobs?

Is this what “Republican principles” means? Please, people. Vote for the RINOs.

Donald M. Buynak

Hacienda Heights

There is no quandary for this moderate Republican voter. Tom Campbell all the way.

Barbara Boxer is an ultra-left-wing ideologue who is out of touch. If the GOP finally offers a viable alternative, maybe the voters will sign her retirement papers.

David R. Gillespie

Bonita

Re “Our choices,” Editorial, June 7

Why is so much of the information about Proposition 16 coming from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and various Chambers of Commerce?

The ads have cleverly avoided the actual issue of local production of power and made it into a “taxpayer protection” issue. The real kicker is the “two-thirds approval” requirement. It’s an attempt by the anti-tax minority to eliminate taxes and by PG&E to avoid competition.

Everyone knows it takes an act of God to get two-thirds of Californians to support anything. This tax rule has contributed mightily to the pit into which we have dug ourselves.

A vote for Proposition 16 is a masochistic and uninformed wish to dig ourselves in even deeper.

Allan Rabinowitz

Los Angeles

Get out and VOTE!

Taxed enough already? Then vote Tuesday.

Mad about illegal immigrants breaking the law without punishment? Then vote Tuesday.

Fed up with backroom dealing? Then vote Tuesday.

Sad to see America turning to socialism? Then vote Tuesday.

Angry at waste and corruption? Then vote Tuesday.

Think everything is fine just the way it is? Then stay home Tuesday, or go to the beach.

H.A. Brown

Palos Verdes

Fallout from the flotilla raid

Re “Islamic charity defends its actions,” June 6

No investigation of the flotilla incident should be made without including the Turkish government’s relationship with the terrorist IHH charity group.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government’s cynical attempt to exploit the raid ought to be of utmost concern for the United States and other NATO members.

In recent years under Erdogan, our allies in Turkey have taken an abrupt turn toward Islamism. We in the West who value the secularism the Turkish people have enjoyed for decades are rightly concerned.

We can either peacefully confront the Islamists in Turkey through diplomacy or face the consequences of inaction later.

Brian Elfand

Hollywood

Re “Israel’s only friend,” Opinion, June 3

Doyle McManus hopes against hope that Israel can be coddled into doing the right thing.

But nations can sometimes behave like unruly children, getting into fights at school and acting out. When this happens, a parent shouldn’t encourage unsocial behavior by coddling the kid and preventing the school from disciplining the child.

Rather, effective parenting requires that disciplinary action sometimes includes grounding (boycott, divestment and sanctions) and cutting the kid’s allowance (cutting off military aid).

Apartheid ended in South Africa not by coddling but by strong international pressure. Israel needs some tough love from its only friend.

Paul McDermott

Los Angeles

Blaming baseball

Re “Baseball’s only human,” Column, June 4

When is a perfect game not a perfect game?

When an umpire can’t see the catch at first base. When officials cling to outdated rules that modern technology can improve. When commentators are afraid to change current and future simply because they can’t change past errors.

These are merely excuses to justify an obsolete practice. The fans know a perfect game when they see one. The record books should show perfect as, well, perfect. Let’s not stop at forgiving mistakes. Let’s fix the problem.

Sam McCarver

San Juan Capistrano

I disagree with Bill Plaschke’s remark that instant replay will make our national pastime no longer special. Try telling that to Armando Galarraga, who may never again have the opportunity to pitch a perfect game during his career.

If we have the technology to make the game more reliable and fair, we should use it. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig should step in and overturn that disastrous call. It makes

no change to the game’s outcome but gives a perfect game to a deserving pitcher.

Arthur Senzy

Santa Monica

All this time I thought umpire Jim Joyce was upset that he blew a call that robbed Galarraga of a perfect game. Now I realize Joyce was actually crying tears of joy at the “beauty” of such a “special” moment.

Thanks for clearing that up, Bill.

Jon Emery

Montrose

Youth sports organizations such as the American Youth Soccer Organization and Little League should rush to use this instance of human error, an honest mistake and, most of all, good sportsmanship to teach parents and children how to behave. It cannot be said enough that people make mistakes and that you don’t have to win at all costs.

Perhaps this could have helped in a recent all-star playoff game that I officiated. I had to send off a parent (wearing his referee uniform) due to his constant criticism of my officiating, and then had a parent come up to me after the game just to tell me how bad my officiating was.

And what level was this? Ten- and 11-year-old girls.

Stephen Resnick

Los Angeles

Law and order

Re “Souter, on the Supreme Court,” Editorial, June 4

Years from now, Americans of all backgrounds will look back and thank God for Supreme Court justices like David H. Souter and John Paul Stevens, who understood that the Constitution is a living, breathing document that needs interpretation and invigoration from time to time. It is not an anachronistic writing that cannot be considered in light of present circumstances.

The framers also understood this, and their prescience in creating the Constitution is with us.

This remarkable document was designed to protect us all.

Darrell Forgey

Los Angeles