U-T Letters: Rolling into the White House

Rolling into the White House

Since Gen. Stanley McChrystal was fired by President Obama (“McChrystal bids farewell,” July 24), he now has two years to position himself as the Republican candidate for president and return the favor in 2012.

With what he probably knows about the president and his administration and with his connections at Rolling Stone, it would be an interesting military campaign and election.



Quest for research costs

Regarding the expense of conducting research in the life sciences (“Cost of discovery,” July 26): I think that your reporter, and perhaps the scientists themselves, needs a bit of recalibration.

I am retired from a career as an experimental physicist (Los Alamos, General Atomic, UCSD). During that career, I worked both in large teams and small groups comparable to Dr. Sam Levy’s. In many instances, even in my smaller groups, our equipment budget would run to several million dollars.

I would guess that in Dr. Levy’s lab, the major expenses are still salaries and overhead costs rather than equipment. I would also guess that the tone of astonishment in the article arises from the fact that historically, biological research has been inexpensive, where now it is becoming less so. By modern standards (consider astronomy, particle physics or fusion research), it is still very cheap.


Professor of Physics, Emeritus, UCSD San Diego

Transparency in government

After reading about Bell, Calif. (“Group calls on Bell City Council to resign,” July 23), I agree with Carl DeMaio regarding transparency in government but from a different view.

  1. Post finances on a Web site for any official making more that $125,000 a year. Included would be the reason for the salary. This would include all expenses presented for travel, lunch, dinner, gifts, etc.

  2. All salaries should be tied to not more than four (maybe five) times that of the lowest-paid person in our governing body. That includes all office help, including janitors.

  3. Any pension plans would be put on the ballot, requiring a majority vote for approval.

I am sure someone who knows how to write an initiative would be able to do this. I doubt you would need to pay any person to get signatures. I, for one, would go door to door in my neighborhood.


San Diego

Deficit spending for unemployed

There is nothing more important than getting the unemployed back to work! Unemployment feeds on itself, producing more unemployed. Conversely, re-employment also feeds on itself, producing more jobs and prosperity.

This is not the time to be screaming negatively about increasing the deficit spending. Now is the time for the government to spend much more on stimulus programs and in extending the unemployment aid funds.

There seems to be no problem with deficit spending for our war efforts! Let us either divert some of that money or assign new money to where it will do continuing good. We have so many important new programs that require funding: alternative energy, medical research, transportation and the immense need for restoration of our aging infrastructure.


