Letters from the issue of October 21, 2010

Death of Innocence

Brain-dead: Leaving a child alone in a car is the most irresponsible thing anyone can do with someone who depends on them for love and support ("Left Behind," Michael J. Mooney, October 14). Death is the most tragic outcome, but what if there is brain damage? What then? Unforgivable.

Richard

No excuses: How can anyone forget that their child is in the car? No excuse whatsoever! It is a crime.

Sally Turch

Guilt-ridden: Why should we fill our jails with these people? They will suffer forever knowing they killed their child. I know of nothing worse than to live with that thought every day.

Barry

Extended sentence: Antonio Balta, the man whose 9-month-old girl died after he left her in a hot car, is mentally deficient and had no business being a father in the first place. Stupidity does not excuse gross negligence. It's unfathomable that this guy knowingly left his daughter in the car for that period of time. I have no sympathy for him, and he deserves to spend another 20 years in prison. What a disgusting human being.

JP

Reduced time: I agree that certain people should get a sentence, but I think a minimum of five years is enough. He will suffer forever knowing he killed his own child.

Kristin Nicole

No more: This is so horribly heartbreaking for all. The issue of right or wrong is useless after the fact. What's crucial is to prevent it from ever happening again. Something has to be done for the children's sake.

Alex Ru

Not again: Antonio Balta is definitely not as innocent as people seem to think he is. And the situation is, in fact, different from other cases. Not only had he endangered his child in a similar way more than once, but also he is a deadbeat dad. If he ever gets out of jail early, do you think he would do the right thing with his two kids from his previous relationship?

John

Living hell: What happened to Balta's daughter Veronika is very tragic. Antonio Balta is not going to live well with that. Why punish him twice?

Eddy Dorce

Alien Wars

Pop that pill: Luke, I hope you get to observe something in the sky someday that defies any conventional explanation and then have this type of attempted character assassination done to you ("Luke's Gospel," Luther Campbell, October 14). Until then, if you are offered the blue pill or the red pill at any point, take the red pill.

Richard

Not alone: Sarcasm and bons mots are not the way to approach a phenomenon whose existence is undeniable. Also undeniable is the inability of our species' scientists to explain the nature of this phenomenon. The bottom line is that this unexplained phenomenon underlines our ignorance, if not our intellectual limitations.

Sonia

Disarmed: I don't think UFOs want our nuclear weapons. However, it appears that unidentified objects were busy "disarming" the nuclear weapons. For some reason, the topic of UFOs seems to frighten a lot of people. And those people, reacting to fear, like to trash the idea that we are not alone in our vast universe.

Jerry H.

Coverup: Nobody has suggested that the aliens are our enemies or that they want to attack us. The aliens for a long time have been concerned about nuclear weapons and their ability to destroy the planet. They have been sending messages to the U.S. military warning about this. Periodically, they disable U.S. nuclear missiles as part of this warning. The U.S. military/intelligence community does not want the truth about advanced aliens visiting from outer space to be revealed because that would undermine U.S. military and economic dominance of the world. This elaborate coverup has been going on for almost 60 years.

David

Hidden agenda: I think the government has been hatching this plan for several decades and it's just now coming into full swing. UFO sightings are way up and are beginning to happen in new places around the world. What better way is there to justify a new and beefier defense budget, not to mention a single, global economy and governing body?

Chris Rowley

So long, Luke: Last time I follow your column. I'm really glad you've shown your mentality. Goodbye forever, stupid.

Peter