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Oil companies' PR effort shows a lack of common sense

Re: Oil firms mobilize to defend windfall, May 8.

This article in the Business Section said that "the big oil companies and their trade groups have stepped up their campaigns, spending millions of dollars on television, radio and newspaper advertisements in hopes of blunting the blacklash" caused by soaring gas prices.

In other words, some of the inflated price we pay at the pumps is going for advertisements to try to convince us that they are not really the bad guys.

I have to ask the obvious: Instead of spending millions on ads, why not just lower the price of gas? The result: Consumers are happy, there's no backlash, and no need to spend millions trying to make themselves look better than the greedy, money-hungry gougers that they are.

Oh, I'm sorry, I lost my head. That would make sense. That even smacks of "common sense," and why would we expect that in this day and age.

Carry on!

Karen Gordon, St. Petersburg

Don't gut growth management

So the 2006 Legislature has decided to gut the 1972 Environmental Land and Water Management Act via House Bill 683. What an act of stupid political nonsense, given that the state's population has now grown from about 6.7-million people in 1970 to about 17-million folks in the intervening years. Most responsible politicians and business leaders, not to mention numerous environmentalists and ordinary citizens, have come to take growth management seriously as a social and political issue, and for good reason. Frankly, no less than the very future of our state is at stake. Our state, not theirs. Apparently, the legislators just don't get it.

Gov. Jeb Bush should have the courage and the wisdom to veto this ill-conceived measure dead in its tracks, and convene more responsible parties to find a better reasoned approach to growth management in Florida, for the sake of all of us who live here. And please, tell your local legislators you don't appreciate being short-changed on your own quality of life for the sake of a few powerful big developers.

Jim May, former chief, Florida Bureau of Land and Water Management, Tallahassee

Martyrdom denied

Zacarias Moussaoui wanted to have the American justice system do what he was incapable of doing himself: make him a martyr for Islam. One of the beauties of our jury system is that juries often make decisions that don't quite follow what people expect.

While I personally oppose capital punishment, one of the primary motivations for my hope that the jury would give him a life sentence was that it would be a far more just punishment for someone who aspired to martyrdom. The world has seen far to many individuals who have tried to die to promote their religion. I don't believe in revenge, I believe in justice. These two results are not the same.

Sentencing him to death would have given him the martyrdom he wanted. Sentencing him to life denied him that glory. The fact that his confession and the explanation of the judge at that time make appeals impossible is fitting justice.

Richard Hallmark, Largo

End our arbitrary death penalty

Re: How can you choose who dies? May 8.

On the subject of the death penalty, the short but rational answer to this barbaric practice is to eliminate it! We in the United States are but one of a few backward nations still using it - along with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia and that lot.

Glenn A. Paul, Indian Rocks Beach

Malpractice suits getting out of hand

Re: Doctor kills self after malpractice verdict, May 4.

I read your article and feel sorry Dr. Lawrence Grey's family. I am a practicing anesthesiologist at Tampa General Hospital and have never met the deceased doctor. But on a daily basis I perform risky procedures on patients and never know what will happen when things do not turn out perfectly.

Whatever the cause of the lawsuit, the attorneys will never experience what it feels like to get sued for something that we physicians perform on a daily basis with our hearts and souls. I am perplexed by the comment that the attorney was just suing his business, yet the good doctor had to pay the difference! In short, a physician in his 50s, who had another productive 15 years of his life in which to offer his expertise to humanity, was destroyed by sheer greed.

Do not get me wrong. Negligence happens and physicians should be held liable, but it is getting out of control. Humanity suffers. Just watch what will happen in the next five to 10 years in medicine unless some drastic reform happens. Disgraceful!

Devanand Mangar, M.D., Tampa

Consider diver's errors in judgment

Re: Disabled while diving in gulf, man sues, May 7.

I read the story of the paralyzed scuba diver and felt a great deal of compassion for him.

At the same time I also have a great deal of empathy for the Coast Guard officers who responded "voluntarily" to aid this scuba diver and now face the stress for themselves and their families in awaiting future court hearings due to an individual who did not heed his own warnings that his health and life were in danger.

The story itself did not stress the errors in judgment made by the diver. On his first dive he apparently slipped a disc when he tried to dislodge the 150-pound boat anchor, but continued to dive after taking Advil. On his second dive he began to feel the effects of a diving illness, but ignored the warning signals and continued with his dive.

He then said his vision went blurry and he saw flashes of light like electrical charges but continued to attempt to retrieve his spear from a fish stuck in a crevice. During this action he noticed that he had only nine minutes to surface 120 feet to safety.

He paid a dear price for his own inaction and judgment and now he wants the Coast Guard officers to share his pain.

Van E. Vergetis, Holiday

Is it a gender trait?

Re: Scientology nearly ready to unveil Super Power, May 5.

So Matt Feshbach believes he has superpowers, sensing danger faster than most, appreciating beauty more deeply and outperforming his peers in the money management industry. I wonder if he realizes he has just described a woman.

Caryl Mathis, Tampa

A challenge stands

Re: Scientology nearly ready to unveil Super Power.

This foundation stands prepared - as always - to award our million-dollar prize to any Scientologist who can demonstrate any of the special abilities that their religion says it has given them. They have studiously avoided applying for the prize, to date. Why?

Refer to www.randi.org/research/index.html for details.

James Randi, James Randi Educational Foundation, Fort Lauderdale

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[Last modified May 10, 2006, 06:34:44]