Plans to eliminate California’s Office of Inspector General; the path to peace in the Middle East; an iPhone app to help find parking spots

Terrorist mind-set

Re “Suicide bomber kills 45 in Pakistan,” Dec. 26

How sad that on Christmas Day, a misguided insurgent killed at least 45 people and injured more waiting in a food line in Pakistan.

Certainly, I am far — both in mental and physical distance — from understanding the twisted minds of such attackers, but it hurts nonetheless. Those killed and injured were innocent bystanders and human beings like myself. They were trying to survive in a hostile environment they call home.

As history has repeatedly shown, the good prevail and the wicked eventually succumb to their wickedness and disappear into the abyss that they came from. So let it be written; so let it be done.

Joel Greenman

Woodland Hills

Laura Chick’s lost job

Re “Brown will eliminate Chick’s job,” Dec. 21, and “The spirit of Laura Chick,” Editorial, Dec. 23

Eliminating Laura Chick’s job is a good example of being penny wise and pound foolish.

The elimination of the Office of Inspector General will save $700,000 for fiscal year 2010-11. Total waste in Sacramento has to be much larger than $700,000. So what is really saved?

Chick did an outstanding job as Los Angeles city controller, consistently pointing out significant waste in the city’s operations. California needs the competent oversight that Chick demonstrated in Los Angeles.

Al Moggia

Los Angeles

I must take exception to (and offense at) a description you used in the news article:

“Schwarzenegger praised Chick’s ‘impressive track record,’ telling the Sacramento establishment that the outspoken grandmother was ‘uniquely qualified’ to ensure that stimulus money went where it was meant to go.”

How is “grandmother” remotely relevant to this article? Chick is a professional with many years of experience, not someone who was plucked from a rocking chair or something.

I wonder if this description would ever be used to describe a male in Chick’s position.

Karla Bagley

Woodland Hills

This advice missed the point

Re “Mideast muddle,” Opinion, Dec. 23

Aaron David Miller states that the Israeli and Palestinian governments are more comfortable with the status quo than taking risks for peace. His advice for the Obama administration to hold off on pushing hard for a peace deal misses the point.

The Obama administration must begin promoting change in the Palestinian positions. Here are two ideas to move both sides toward peace:

First, the U.S. should recognize that the only source of the conflict is the rejection of any Zionist entity in the Middle East. This is why the Arabs have attacked Israel from 1948 on. It is unresolved, and until it is, peace is impossible.

Second, the U.S. should forcefully support ending the Palestinians’ Nazi-like propaganda against the Jewish people.

Gary Dalin

Venice

If Miller is interested in “a process that could work instead of hooking ourselves again on one that won’t,” he would be talking about the only viable and ethical solution: a single, nonracist, Palestinian-Israeli state in which Palestinians, Jews, Druze, Bedouins and all others have absolutely equal rights.

That means Israel would have to be transformed from a Jewish supremacist state into a genuinely democratic one.

Steve Kowit

San Diego

Some people just don’t count

Re “State calls census count flawed,” Dec. 24

I have lived and worked in Malibu and Topanga for 45 years, and I have never seen a U.S. Census Bureau form. This year, just like every time before, I repeatedly called the Census Bureau and complained and asked that a form be sent to me. As usual, I was promised someone would be contacting me. As usual, I never heard from anyone.

Several people in my office told me they have had the same experience. It makes one wonder how many other Californians the Census Bureau has never counted.

Gary Harryman

Topanga

Regarding our part of the $400 billion at stake: Why do we send the money to Washington only to hope to get some of it back?

Let’s use the considerable congressional clout that California has to keep our share here. That way, it won’t get lost in the administrative red tape that Washington is so good at unraveling.

Thomas F. Brands

Los Angeles

Not sold on this app

Re “iPhone app helps find a spot to park,” Dec. 23

We’ve seen the effects that distractions have on motorists, so is it really the best idea to create an application that promotes the use of a hand-held device while driving?

The iPhone parking app requires drivers to fiddle with their phones while on the road, likely creating even more traffic problems. Not only that, but when people are trying to find a parking spot, their attention is already diverted.

This is an accident waiting to happen.

Jennifer Luxton

Winnetka

The Hollywood parking iPhone app was released with great fanfare. It is supposed to reduce traffic congestion and pollution.

The app is, in fact, another example of a growing technological divide. It’s the parking equivalent of the highway toll lanes.

This app will get iPhone users into the parking spots first. I don’t have an iPhone; neither do many other people. We’ll still be circling the block in our older, gas-guzzling, higher-pollution cars while the iPhone users have parked their hybrids and are shopping or running errands.

Douglas Hileman

Van Nuys

Rave bill rebuke

Re “Bill seeks to ban some raves,” Dec. 23

The profound short-sightedness of this nanny-state legislation enrages me.

I don’t attend raves, but I do attend other electronic dance music events that this bill would deem illegal. For the record, I’m almost 42 and I don’t drink or use other drugs.

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma’s bill would devastate several thriving artistic subcultures as well as individual freedoms for everyone. I don’t hear about anyone legislating against bars because of the enormous number of alcohol-related deaths.

We all want to reduce teenage drug deaths; as a social worker, this is part of what I do for a living. This legislation would simply drive raves underground, increasing the risk for California’s youth.

Andrea L. Bell

Long Beach

Legal catch

Re “Driver who killed pitcher is sentenced,” Dec. 23

Certainly, the 23-year-old drunk driver who killed Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and his friends deserves to do time.

However, when I read about the 51-years-to-life sentence, I couldn’t help shaking my head at the arbitrariness of our legal system. Does anyone imagine that such a harsh sentence would have been imposed if the three victims had been mostly unknown?

Sentences should only be based on the magnitude of the crime.

Janet Weaver

Huntington Beach

Unjust politics

Re “No resolution on Armenia killings,” Dec. 23

Again, the House avoided voting on a resolution to officially recognize the Armenian genocide. The speaker of the House, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have again put politics ahead of principle. Shame on them.

Warren Mullisen

Culver City