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Hernando Today

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 25, 2008

Recidivism: Society's Curse?
Career criminals are in the news daily; we are the victims.

Last week several multi-felons continued their reign of terror, assisted by the lack of a concerned juvenile criminal justice system. Judging from the lack of community indignation and disinterest by most everyone, except the victims, it appears as if it was sort of not a big deal!

Several residential burglaries in Hernando County, a multi-county pursuit, an interstate high speed crash, with a stolen car loaded with stolen property, and, of course, the thugs fleeing on foot. Pretty much a standard day for a young career criminal.

Diligently, law enforcement caught two of them - again! Their prior criminal histories and tender age would indicate a reinforced disregard for us, and our values, as well as a desperate need to be removed from our neighborhoods.

I'm sure at some point, someone will say, "one or all was about to turn their lives around." I think we should help. Society must demand that they be held accountable at the onset of their criminal behavior, and thereafter.

Curtis Reeves

Brooksville

Refuting Reiniers

John Reiniers would not be so undecided about manmade global warming if he would read the scientific writings of climatologists. The state of the science is that climatology has moved on. Manmade global warming is so well established that scientists are no longer trying to determine whether it's happening. They're looking into the expected effects on weather, desertification, polar ice cover and so forth.

The phony "debate" is kept alive by a network of right wing propaganda institutions (e.g. the Heartland Institute), which circulate the writings of a small group of global warming deniers. The deniers get most of the press because the scientific community isn't out there selling a point of view. The fact that the hated environmental community and the doubly hated Al Gore are the chief explainers of manmade global warming drives the right wing to attack the science.

To refute a couple of Reiniers' points:

The Web site Realclimate.org recently did a survey of climatology literature in the 1970s. They found 44 studies that predicted that the climate was warming. Only 7 predicted global cooling. The "coming ice age" idea was hyped by the popular media, but had little support among scientists, even during the 1970s.

It is true that last January was extremely cold in the United States. But elsewhere, the winter was not exceptional. A cold spell is not inconsistent with an overall warmer earth. By the way, last March was the warmest in history worldwide. Every year since 1998 has been among the 25 hottest in history.

I would urge anyone who is confused about global warming to read the IPCC report. Also, check out Realclimate.org. That is a Web site maintained by a group of climatologists. There is so much misreporting, distortion and outright lying about global warming in the popular press that your best hope of understanding the issue is to consult the science itself.

Dallas Dunlap

Brooksville

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