The lowest abortion rates are found where it is legal:: The world-wide link between contraception & fewer abortions

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/story/james-veverka-3-9


The world-wide link between contraception & fewer abortions  


To the Editor,


The Pro-Life position, while lofty sounding, is harmful, anti-family and costs us a great deal. Its time for some hard facts to prove how dangerous and counter productive the conservative position is. These questions must be answered: Does outlawing abortion make it rarer? Is making contraception difficult to obtain good for families or society? 


In both cases the answer is an emphatic no. Like prohibition and the drug war, the conservative position causes more problems than it solves.  As a whole, the policies of the right do not work while progressive harm-reduction policies do. The proof is in the numbers. The highest abortion rates are found where abortion is illegal. The lowest rates are found where abortion is legal. 


Here are the latest numbers from a global study (Guttmacher/WHO) covering 2003 to 2008 which was recently published in the journal Lancet. The world rate for abortion is 28 per 1000 women. The lowest rates are found in western European nations where abortion is legal and family planning is easily accessed.  Here is a sampling from the study. Belgium is 7 per 1000 women; Germany 8; Netherlands and Switzerland 9; New Zealand 18; USA 21. As you can see, we could do much better.


Now let's look at the fruits of the so-called pro-life agenda. Next are places where abortion is criminalized. Peru 56 per 1000; Uganda 54; Dominican Republic 47; Philippines 27.  Most of the 47,000 deaths and 8.5 million women who had serious medical problems from unsafe abortions were in "pro-life" nations in Latin America, Africa, or eastern Europe. Pro-life becomes pro-death and pro-sickness in these places

Do you want fewer abortions in America? Do you want less poverty and welfare? Happier families? If your answers are yes than you must vote for those who support progressive harm-reduction policies. All family services must be legal and easily accessible. Healthcare must be a part of our national "commons".


James Veverka
Tilton

religious liberties do not trump equality under the law.

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/

To the Editor,


I noted an exchange between Nancy Parsons and Thomas Lemay. Some things to consider:


Firstly, religious liberties do not trump equality under the law. If one wants to be a religious fanatic, a bigot, a sexist or a homophobe, they can do it in their own home, church, or private affiliation. People have used religious beliefs to support wars, cruel and unusual punishments, beating children, religious oppression, slavery, miscegenation laws, segregation, antisemitism, anti-suffrage, polygamy, and homophobia, and its all a failed Medieval argument. The courts have already ruled on a variety of these issues and the religious conservatives have lost.  For a bunch of tea bags who are concerned with abortion and welfare, they sure haven't thought this one out in the slightest. If one wants fewer abortions and less welfare families, family planning, sexual healthcare, sex education, and contraception education are the only answers. Making contraception unavailable and abortion illegal is about as intelligent a solution as the drug war is for drug use or banning guns is to end violent crime. 


Not only have the courts ruled in NY & CA against religious conservatives on the contraception rule, the EEOC has made a similar ruling. In this nation, church and state are separate entities.  A person's free excercise of religion STOPS when they infringe upon another's liberty and equality under the law. Using the plastic religious liberty card does not trump equality or the immunities guaranteed by the Constitution. 


A person might have a religion that prohibits medicine for their child's healthcare and for that they deserve to lose their child until that child's home is safe. Churches can't infringe on matters of equal protection under the law. Religious belief can not be used to limit the freedom, health or safety of others. These are settled issues and all this belly-aching by right wingers is going down in flames, shot down by 2/3 of Americans who support the President on this.  While the Catholic Bishops go off in their frenzied medievalt attack on women, even Catholic hospitals are okay with the plan. Nancy Parsons is correct. It IS about contraception and it is about healthcare equality under the law which cannot be touched by any religious meddling. Equal healthcare under the law IS the law now. Women's contraception will be covered and nothing can be done to stop it. The Fox noise machine won't stop it nor will that bunch of narrow minded fools in Congress.


In 1960, Republicans were concerned that if elected President, John F. Kennedy would be influenced by the leadership of the Catholic Church. Kennedy answered these fears by stating, 


"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute--where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference--and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him."


My, how things have changed in a half century. Today's Republican Party has become the pep squad for the Prelate's Bishops and the craziest fundamentalists.  The Republican party of today is shamelessly in bed with fanatical religious leaders and voices whose intent is to molest our politics, oppress our liberties, and poison our notions of equality. Mr Lemay says if you don't like the Catholic Church you don't have to join. He misses the point completely. If conservatives like religious intrusion so much,  I suggest a move to Iran or Saudi Arabia. I'll help you pack.


James Veverka
Tilton

28 states already have contraception laws like Obama's

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/story/james-veverka-2-15-b

Feb 16, 2012 12:00 am

To the editor,

Every day I open the morning paper to see that the state is under attack by glassy-eyed American theocrats. Speaker O'Brien is overseeing attacks on education, womens' rights, gay rights, and womens' health. Isn't it about time Mr. O'Brien grows his beard real long so he can reveal to us who he really is? He is New Hampshire's very own screaming, bullying, Ayatollah O'Brien.

May I remind the Ayatollah that 28 states have a contraception law identical to the president's. In both N.Y. and California, the laws went to the highest courts, where they were ruled constitutional.

And how about Harry Accornero's "Fatherland" bill to force kids to stand to say the pledge of allegiance. Heil Harry!

May I remind Harry and his minions that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1943 in WV State Board of Education v. Barnette that public school students are not required to say the pledge. The court ruled "compulsory unification of opinion" violates the First Amendment. In a later opinion, the court ruled students are not required to stand for the pledge.

Oh, poor Harry!

James Veverka

Titlon

Reasoning does not work right with the lunacy of the birther

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/story/james-veverka-2-15

Reasoning does not work right with the lunacy of the birther

Feb 18, 2012 12:00 am

To the editor,

Steve Earle and Jack Stephenson need to know a couple of things about life. The first is that it is not up to a person to prove a negative in most debates or trials. In a court of law, one is usually brought up on charges of what one did according to evidence obtained. In a scientific debate, evidence must be provided for the hypothesis. Birthers provide zero evidence and ignore the evidence that debunks them. Reasoning does not work right with the lunacy of the birther alternate reality. Any person making an accusation or claim has the responsibility to "prove" his positive assertion. It is much like the argument over the existence of God. It is up to those who say there is a God to show evidence. Until evidence is shown, the logical default position of a critically thinking person is that there is no evidence for God — yet — so one should remain unconvinced but open. People convinced by non-evidence in any matter are people who don't think clearly nor long enough about things.

And so it is with the birther insanities and the flawed reasoning of people like Harry Accornero, Jack Sephenson and Steve Earle. They have not shown one solid molecule of evidence for any of their cases so why should we take anything they say seriously? All this secrecy nonsense only appeals to the soap opera types. And they wonder why we mock them as fools and tools. If they believe this kkkrap, what other craziness to they embrace?

In June of 2008, Mr. Obama released the only legal document used in Hawaii, a Certificate of Live Birth. If Obama had been white and had a Christian father, that would have been good enough. But for the right wing fascists and racists of the birther movement, it was not enough. In 2011, Hawaiian officials also inspected and certified the legitimacy of the president's long-form birth certificate. Loretta Fuddy, director of Hawaii Department of Health certifed the document. Was that enough? Of course not because these people are mentally unbalanced and can't face reality.

Although his birth certificate prove his Hawaiian birth, another ridiculous claim is made by the crazies that Obama was born in Kenya. The problem with that is that Kenya did not exist until 1963 so no document at the time of Obama's birth could have said Kenya on it. Duh! Two newspapers from the time of Obama's birth printed the news of his birth, too. Was that enough for the wackjobs? Nope! Space aliens went back in time and planted those articles in those newspapers! Just ask Orly, Jack, Steve, and Harry.

As far as Obama's college records, he certainly did fine in saw school. Obama graduated from Harvard Law School, Magna Cum Laude, which is awarded to the top 10-percent of Harvard Law School students.

Birther nuts should find something important to think about for a change but I doubt they have the intellectual capability for it — as THE EVIDENCE clearly shows.

 James Veverka

Tilton

SHALE-OIL IS NEITHER SHALE NOR OIL

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/story/james-veverka-2-6

Feb 07, 2012 12:00 am

To the editor,

I am flattered that Steve Earle takes such a liking to my letters but I have to correct him on some things he claimed. In his letter, "Anything that threatens to raise the cost of oil is indeed my business", he makes some odd claims. Firstly, Neil Young's letter was a joke, not something to cite. The meanest people on the planet are right wingers. Secondly, I did not viciously attack Christianity; I attacked the fundamentalist wing of all religions. Fundamentalists of all religions seem to hate true liberty and the right to privacy. It's their DNA.

In this country it's the right wing Christians that are the dangerous ones. While they rail against Islamic Sharia, they embrace the same kind of religious madness, so it is not Muslims nor Jews I worry about here, its the crazy wing of Christianity. Liberal Christians are people I am proud to know. If I lived in a Muslim country, it would be the Muslim fundies I would be against. I am against religion in government because it just always makes a divisive mess of everything. That is why the founders left God out of the Constitution, banned religious tests for oaths and ended state sponsored religion. There is no hate in my letters; just scorn where scorn is deserved, disdain where disdain belongs. Would you like a hanky, Steve? I feel your pain.

Mr. Earle says the Keystone pipeline was approved but actually it was not yet approved by the State Department. Further studies were required in order to move the pipeline away from the water supply for three entire states. If you look at the present pipeline, it goes around the water supply. Smart! The State Department was eventually going to approve it with a new pathway but when the House GOP forced the State Department to make a decision within 60 days, they stupidly blew it. The pipeline will come but only after it is steered away from the aquifer under the three states.

Mr. Earle also passes off the statement that we have "the largest proven oil reserves in the world". The problem with this statement is that the oil he speaks of is really "Kerogen" which is a pre-petroleum hydrocarbon substance which has not completed the petroleum formation process. It is commonly called shale-oil but the rock is not really shale and the hydrocarbon is not really oil. But it certainly does have potential if we get desperate. First, there needs to be a freeze wall surrounding the deposits in order to prevent heavy metal contamination of ground water. Nice! With freeze wall in place the deposits are heated in some manner to 600-700 degrees Celsius. The heat causes the Kerogen to accelerate the natural process to oil. It takes about four years of heating then we have to bring it up. At this time, these methods have only been tested in small locations. It is a costly way to get energy at this time. But like renewable energies, the costs will come down when technology improves. Mr Earle also errs in that he seems to think the reserves are a new discovery. In fact, the knowledge of these locked up reserves of immature hydrocarbons dates to the first quarter of the 20th Century. President Taft saw the fields as future fuel for the Navy. The March, 1874 Scientific American reported Shale-Oil was first discovered when rocks used as a barricade by workers caught fire.

The question is whether we wish to develop natural renewable energies that don't leave huge environmental problems or do we wish to stick to the old ways held on to by people who desperately cling to their own past and can't envision the future world of their children and grandchildren.

And as far as blaming the non-approval of the Keystone pipeline for any increase in gas prices, that is simply hilarious. The real culprits in these matters are usually Wall Street speculators and the volatility of the Middle East. We will never learn it seems. Dead soldiers for oil, decade after decade.

James Veverka

Tilton

It's not about equality of outcome, it's about equality under the law

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/story/james-veverka-2-1

It's not about equality of outcome, it's about equality under law

Feb 02, 2012 12:00 am

To the editor,

My wife and I both shook our heads in amazement while reading Bob Meade's lastest column — "Equality of outcome: the impossible dream" — because it was a column about an alternate reality that only exists in the minds of conservatives. Mr. Meade claims "some politicians are offering up the promise of equality of outcome as a way to divide the country". First of all, not one politician has offered any promise of "equality of outcome". I hear that claim in the right wing noise machine but it is a twisted lie designed to hoodwink gullible people who will then spread the same twisted lie to other conservative puppets.

If you have been fooled by the radical right, let me tell you what people want when they speak of income inequality. Firstly, nobody is seeking a world where we all make the same amount. What progressives mean by growing inequality is that the system has been rigged in a way by bought politicians so that a higher and higher percentage of capital is being moved upward to the wealthy. Cornered. A powerful ari$tocracy is being created. While wages have been flat for 30 years, the rich enjoy hundreds of percent growth due to changed tax and regulatory laws, they lobbied for, not harder work. As Warren Buffett clearly said, there is a class war waged by the rich in which the rich are winning because they have all the weapons. If anyone is dividing us, its the lawmakers and their puppets who support and pass laws crafted by right wing corporations that make the middle class poorer and weaker (and sicker due to "cost effective" unregulated hazardous waste).

Laws like "Right to Work — FOR LESS" is typical right wing pandering to this unclean aristocracy of avarice.

Not since the 1920s, right before the crash, has this country had such a gulf of income inequality. And that is the world that right wingers are successfully returning us to. Our gulf resembles many developing nations now. We have gone backward since Reagan. Mr. Meade quotes Jefferson: "that all men are created equal". Maybe before God we are equal but under the laws of the United States we are not. We should all be equal under the law but we are not when a system is designed so a Mitt Romney pays 13.9-percent on an income of $20,000,000,  some major corporations pay no taxes at all, and someone who makes $200,000 pays over 30-percent. This has absolutely nothing to do with "equality of outcome", it is all about equality under the law. This has nothing to do with envy, it is about fairness and justice which the right gets boils thinking about. Conservatives are quick to attack any group they think is getting "special rights" but are silent when it comes to the special rights taxes of those with the highest incomes. In America, under the laws created by bought politicians, there is no level playing field for all. The rich have their playing field of lowest taxes, special treatment, and lobbyists while the middle class has a different field with a higher tax rate than people that make an entire year's middle class wage in a day. Our Republic is sick because of right wing politicians..

Mr. Meade, this has nothing to do with equality of outcome; its about equality under the law. That is certainly missing in economic America. Don't believe the right wing clown car's noise machine. Change the channel.

 James Veverka

Tilton

DID THE RIGHT FORGET UNEMPLOYMENT WENT UP TO 10.8% UNDER REAGAN?

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/story/james-veverka-1-9
Did Tony forget unemployment rate in 1982 went up to 10.8%?


Recently, Russ Wiles gave Tony Bouton' s year end assessment, titled "Obama's established unprecedented record of socialist failure", a big thumbs up. Russ starts by calling the president delusional and narcissistic. We heard that wingnut noise about Clinton, too. Myself, I think its the religious right and the tea party that are terminally deluded with an overdose of pie-in-the-sky. Tony's point by point article is pretty much what Fox Snooze has told him to say. In fact, I could almost hear FBN's Eric Bolling a-hollering from the back. Set in the economic complexities of the last decade, Tony's claims are anything but accurate after some digging.

Tony's #1 claims that consumer confidence is the lowest in 30 years. Have you ever noticed that righties never mention the Crash of 2008? Even before the crash, the market was on its way down. From October of 2007 to the crash in October 2008, the market lost 46-percent of its value. Almost half of the market wiped out and Tony forgot! Tony's #1 isn't even true because from 2006 to Dec 2008 consumer confidence dropped off a cliff. From late 2007 to January 2009 consumer confidence was lower than it had been for many years and lower than it is now. When the president took office it soon shot up a notch. It's still not high enough but that is due mostly to the Road Block Congress which 86-percent of Americans now disapprove of.

In #2, Tony reminds us that unemployment has been above 8-percent for quite a while but again forgets the job destroying Crash of 2008. Almost half of our net worth lost and Tony doesn't seem to remember how that would effect investment, production and jobs. Hello! Anyone home? Mr. Boutin also neglects to note we have had 22 straight months of adding jobs since we got our head out of the water in late 2009. Unemployment dropped again last month and over 350,000 jobs were added.

In the matter of #3, our present upswing in poverty levels began in 2006 under Bush, not Obama. I can even remember the news articles then. Bush was a corporatist that did the bidding of those who seek to corner America's capital through legislation. The OCCUPY movement is a response to such anti-democratic, aristocratic behavior.

Then Tony really steps in it on #4. He blames the president for the credit downgrade when Moody's statement made clear it was the recalcitrant Congress, especially in regards to raising revenue that warranted the downgrade. You can't pay the bills without raising capital. Never in our history has Congress held raising the debt ceiling hostage to other demands. Tony forgot that, too.

Tony's #5 is that Obama has the worst job record in 50 years. Did Tony mention that the unemployment during the Reagan recession went from 7.2-percent in July 1981 to 10.8-percent in December 1982? Those supply side tax cuts really worked! Then Reagan raised taxes 11 times and the debt ceiling 17 times. Tripled our national debt, too. And don't forget the crash of 1987, which wiped out 23-percent of the market's value and $500-billion in one day. The fact that in the last year of Bush's presidency we lost at least 2.6-million jobs is also forgotten by Mr. Boutin In the last four months of 2008 the country bled over 2-million jobs. It was the worst job loss since 1945 and the first time in 70 years that there were two months in a row of over 500,000 jobs lost. That is the economic wasteland Obama inherited and Tony blames it on Obama.

In my next letter I will cover Tony's claims 6-10. Charts for all my claims can be found at  

http://lakes-region-politics.blogspot.com

PART TWO:


http://www.laconiadailysun.com/story/james-veverka-1-12
No other recession compares with this one; recovery will take time
Jan 17, 2012 
To the editor,
In this letter I would like to continue on Tony Boutin's year end assessments of Obama's alleged "socialist" failures. First, though, I would like to correct an error I made in assessing Tony's #1-#5. I mistakenly used the jobless claims figure instead of the jobs gains. 200,000 jobs, not 365,000 were added.


In #6, Tony mentions the unemployment rate of African-Americans. It peaked around 16-percent in this recession but peaked at 22-percent under the Reagan recession of 7/81 - 6/83. In his "Obama worst in history" letter, Tony must have forgotten that along with the recession of 81-83 and the crashes of 1987 and 2008. In fact, the unemployment rate of blacks began to rise as soon as Bush was inaugurated. It flattened slightly in 2006 but shot straight up in 2007, increasing from 8 to 13-percent before Obama took office. It has risen a bit more, leveling out in 2010.


Tony's #7 states:"Worst HOUSING CRISIS since the great depression, with home values STILL IN FREE FALL, down more than 35-percent on average." The free-fall began in 2004 in the biggest cities and in 2005 nationally after home prices had been over-inflated. From 2005 to President Obama's inauguration, home prices dropped about 35-percent — DURING BUSH'S TERM. When Obama took office, home prices rose 23-percent until the middle of 2010 when they stalled and dropped some.


In the matter of #8 claim on food stamps, again, Tony still forgets there was a crash in 2008 and almost every indicator began to drop off a cliff by 2007. Almost 3-million jobs lost in a year and millions losing homes and Tony doesn't think the newly unemployed might need some food stamps. Food stamp participation jumped under Bush I, dropped under Clinton and began a sharp climb under Bush II which continued right into and beyond the crash of 2008.


In #9, Tony claims Obama compares to the Depression rates. The Depression wasn't just one period; it was several. From 1929 to 1932 was one. The data from 29-32 mirror the last years of the Bush terms. CRASH! Obama does much better than President Hoover, stopping the jobs bleeding far quicker. The next chapter was from 1932 to 1938. By 1934 the unemployment rate had reached 25-percent. FDR then applied Keynesian strategies and the unemployment rate dropped to 11-percent by 1937. Wow! Conservatives in 1937 then demanded austerity measures, which FDR agreed to. Then we dove into another deep recession and unemployment shot back up to 20-percent. FDR immediately applied another stimulus plan and a year later we were back on track. Unemployment dropped steadily for almost a decade. Today's Congress is anti-Keynes & anti-Obama so they will block the same plans that could bring similar improvements.


In #10 Tony claims its "The SLOWEST recovery from ANY recession since WWII". Well, Tony, that's because we are recovering from the biggest crash since 1929-1932. During Bush's second term, 46-percent of the market's value and 35-percent of housing values were wiped out. No other recession compares with the depth of this one. Recovery will naturally take longer because the crash was deeper and the problem is now made tougher by the GOP obstructionism. The original stimulus was too small and the present jobs act is being thwarted. Every recovery since the crash of 1929 has been aided by Keynesianism, yet righties rail against Keynes. They tell you that the present recovery is slower than others but then they fight the same strategies that worked in the past. The Tea Party says no to everything that could help Americans.


Charts for all my claims can be found at 

http://lakes-region-politics.blogspot.com

James Veverka
Tilton

FUNDAMENTALISTS OF ALL STRIPES JUST HATE YOUR RIGHT TO PRIVACY

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/story/james-veverka-1-31

Fundamentalists of all stripes just hate your right to privacy

Feb 01, 2012 12:00 am

To the editor,

I always enjoy Harry's tantrums against the president. This time its contraception, which 98-percent of all Catholic women DO use. But not to miss a beat, ole Harry uses the occasion of the Catholic battle against contraception to accuse the president of being anti-American and anti-Christian. Broken record alert! What senseless drivel comes from this old man full of hate and intolerance. Harry likes a church which seeks to control women's bodies and tells them how to live. That is the same control freak disorder that radical Islamists suffer from. They fight contraception, too. Like the Taliban, The N.H. GOP House loves UNPLANNED PARENTHOOD!

Recently, the president was informed by The Institute of Medicine, an independent group of doctors and researchers. They concluded that birth control is not just a convenience but is medically necessary “to ensure women’s health and well-being." I agree and think that religion is a poor excuse to keep women from attaining their best health and well-being. Government decisions that help the health and wellness of women are ethical and transcend any religion's ridiculous reason to control women's bodies. But that is the Jewish, Muslim and Christian fundamentalist way; to control women as if they are second-rate citizens; chattel. Cattle!

What a bunch of Fuhrer wannabees we have in the U.S. Bishops conference; a bunch of old men who decide for families, which they themselves are barren of, how they may engage sexually and manage their families. Did you know the 1930s Fascists in Italy, Spain and Germany outlawed contraception, family planning clinics and abortion? Harry keeps good company with his ideology.

So here are Harry's allies against contraception availability: Spanish fascists, Italian fascists, German "family values" Nazis, radical Orthodox Jews, radical Islamists and radical Christians. All represent ZERO respect for a women's right to choose their reproductive future. Harry's vision is the American nightmare.

Lately all the right wing Christian fanatics have come out of their mausoleums of plastic piety to tell us contraception is not right. Rick Santorum actually criticizes the 1960s Griswald v. Connecticut USSC case which made contraception a privacy right. Fundies just hate YOUR RIGHT to privacy. And CONSERVATIVE religion of every kind is afflicted with an age long overdose of obsessive compulsive disorder that tirelessly intrudes into people's personal lives, especially the lives of women.

The president did the right thing. Obama Rocks!

James Veverka

Tilton

EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION IS UNDER OUR NOSES

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/story/james-veverka-1-20

We can find evidence of real evolution right under our noses

Jan 26, 2012 8:10 pm

To the editor,

The latest attempt to inject creationism into science classes will fail as it always does. The Supreme Court has already ruled in Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) that states cannot require public schools to balance evolution lessons by teaching religious creationism. In the most recent court case, Kitzmiller v. Dover (2005) the judge called the attempt to inject creationism into Dover, PA schools, “breathtaking inanity”. No appeal was filed.

One of the greatest ideas Americans came up with is the separation of religion and government. When one intrudes on the other we get terrible trouble. Millions have died due to religious wars. What those that support religion in government don't realize is that once religion becomes part of politics, it can be legitimately attacked as bad politics. After all the belly-aching about being attacked, we should just tell them "you asked for it" by making it political.

John Demakowski tells us that teaching children evolution leads to godlessness. How about teaching "hellfire and brimstone" to children creates lifelong inner conflicts in believers and makes them slaves to irrational fear and guilt? Or that a good man is more apt to commit evil? Mr Demakowski erroneously claims "What we know of history seems to support that the early chapters of Genesis". Nothing exists to support such a claim. There is not a shred of geologic evidence for a world wide flood. In fact, the flood story is a knock-off of a more ancient Babylonian myth, "The Epic of Gilgamesh". Because civilizations almost always sprung up on oceans and rivers, oral traditions of floods are understandable but nothing in the geological record supports a global flood.

Atop that, the vast majority of 'Biblical archeologists' will tell you there is no archeological evidence for any Exodus or Conquest. We can find prehistoric bones and campsites all over the world but we can not find any evidence for a mass of people living in the Sinai for 40 years and then conquering Israel. The Egyptian civilization was one of the first great civilizations to invent an alphabet and were real record keepers yet there is no record of a Jewish captivity. One thing is true, though; the Semitic Hyksos Dynasty in Egypt was toppled in the 12th century BCE and these rulers and their families fled but nothing about the story resembles the Biblical one.

Contrary to what Mr Demakowski wants you to think, we can find evidence of evolution right under our noses. One of the most glaring examples of natural selection at work is the story of a moth, the Peppered Moth. The story is set in the English industrial revolution. This moth's color is controlled mostly by one single gene. Before the industrial revolution, 98-percent of these moths were quite light but some were dark. This coloring provided adequate camouflage from predators UNTIL the black soot of the industrial revolution darkened the Birch trees the moths landed on. Because of the soot, they were easily seen and eaten by birds. Guess who survived? The Dark Moths! By 1900, 95-percent of the moths were dark. The environment changed and so did the species with it. Macroevolution is simply the mass accumulation of microevolutions.

Another example of evolution is the existence of ring species. When a species is split up into different environments, they each adapt to their environment accordingly. Each species is able to interbreed with another who is close by within that ring but not with those farther away. The ones that they can't breed with have become genetically too different yet they were originally the same species until natural selection pressures occurred. Ring species and the moths are examples of the continuing process of "speciation" which is successfully explained and predicted by evolutionary sciences.

James Veverka

Tilton