Readers Write for Wednesday, Dec. 16

As I was cutting price tags off of various Christmas purchases, I was disheartened to see what I purchased had been made in China or another foreign country. There was not one "Made in USA" tag.

These were good deals, and my family has been counting the pennies closely, but did I really help the economy with my purchases? With car purchases, we've always gone American.

This week I spotted a sticker on my cat's chin, and it said "Made in the USA." No kidding, and she really was. I'm not sure where she found that sticker, but I helped get it off her fur and put it in a little keepsake box.

SHERRAYE LINDSTROM, BLOOMINGTON

What's the deal with this so-called Climategate scandal? All Climategate is is some scandalous ethics activity among scientists who study climate change. There were only a few ratty scientists of the many who study (and the vast majority support) climate change. No counter-evidence has been uncovered during Climategate to debunk already documented climate change.

Bottom line, we still have seemingly infinite environmental problems that appear to be caused by the same causes of climate change. We still need to solve the numerous other problems our environment faces, whether climate change is real or not.

PATRICK FREESE, ST. LOUIS PARK

A Dec. 15 letter puts Al Gore in the same category as Sarah Palin. Although Gore is not a scientist, he has worked for the last 30 years to present the concerns of scientists such as NASA's James Hansen. What have Palin, George W. Bush, and other Republicans done? They rely on fear and ignorance, while collecting millions from the fossil fuel companies that are resisting any reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Republicans failed us on national defense, disaster relief, the economy and the environment. Yet they disparage people like Gore who try to present the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change to change policy while we're still able to do something about it. When Disney World has an ocean view, it'll be too late.

BILL LUBANOVIC, EAGAN

Every day we hear of a new Ponzi scheme, and I would suggest that what Wall Street did to the economy and to millions of Americans was at best brainless gambling of our money on the idea that real estate values would go higher forever and at worst just another more refined and politically enabled Ponzi scheme, not that much different from what Bernard Madoff created.

Now those who frothed at the mouth for less and less regulation are shouting the same absurd mantra all over again. Obama calls them "fat cats," a very subdued euphemism compared with what I would call them. Any politicians who echo their disastrous pleas for deregulation should be challenged to give a reasonable rationale for their support of such nonsense.

GREG VAN HEE, PERHAM, MINN.

Katherine Kersten's recent columns about the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development and its Race, Class and Gender Task Group raise several questions:

First, when did teaching become "thought control"? All institutions that teach education address race, gender and class issues in some way, even if that is by failing to address them adequately (with such failure quite possibly contributing to the current, persistent and shameful achievement gap we have in Minnesota). Reading the quotations from the work of the task force without Kersten's intended sarcasm reveals that the university is planning to use new methods of teaching, backed up by solid data and academic thought, to try to better prepare teachers to teach in a diverse society. Simply because Kersten does not agree with the methods does not make them "thought control."

And what, exactly, is Kersten's objection to the Task Force proposals? That they would expect students to examine the ways oppression operates in our society? That they would ask them to work against racism, classism, sexism and other intolerance? Apparently Kersten finds it scoff-worthy that a goal of higher education would be for students to "recognize the benefits of dismantling systems of oppression." Would she prefer that students build and maintain systems of oppression?

And one final question: Why does the Star Tribune continue to publish Kersten's intolerant, inflammatory and ill-informed invectives?

In the Dec. 15 Letter of the Day, the writer defends the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama, claiming that the president "had already succeeded in making peace with countries that were once a threat to our well-being." The writer failed to name what countries she was referring to.

With former Vice President Al Gore saving the planet from destruction and President Obama bringing peace on earth, is it too optimistic to hope that the next Nobel Prize will be awarded to the person who eliminates all disease from the world?