Blowback Archive

Blowback is an online forum for full-length responses to our articles, editorials and Op-Eds. Click here to read more about Blowback.

For Blowbacks published before 2008, click here.

BLOWBACK
By James C. O'Brien
Although some fear that prosecuting Sudan's president could halt progress in the region, it is the only way to secure lasting stability.
July 28, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Hillel W. Cohen and Judith Wylie-Rosett
Unless the cost of food is reined in, expect to see obesity levels continue to climb.
July 25, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Pati Poblete
The menu-labeling bill would help California fight the obesity crisis, opponents' arguments notwithstanding.
July 24, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Charles Horner
The company insists its refueling craft is best, but the Air Force should stick with Northrop-EADS.
July 23, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Trice Whitefield
Nutrition is more complex than a few figures can convey. And who wants to count while they're eating?
July 22, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Kenneth Noonan
California students have met seemingly unattainable standards before.
July 21, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Curtis Sliwa
L.A. needs to stop trumpeting rosy statistics and get tougher on crime and illegal immigrants.
July 18, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Blair Hamilton Taylor
Maybe not, if the recent New Yorker cover is any indication.
July 17, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Paul H. Chatman
With budget cuts too deep to fund sound instruction, schools won't be able to teach algebra properly.
July 16, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Sandra Tsing Loh
Sandra Tsing Loh would have more to say about a recent Prop. 98 Op-Ed, but she has to get back to baking.
July 15, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Robert Jacobson
The key figure behind California's Telephone Privacy Act says the new legislation shatters the rule of law.
July 14, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Daniel K. Gardner
What China's success at the Summer Games would mean for American athletic and global leadership.
July 11, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Amy Payne
Rebutting John Stagliano and John Wright.
July 10, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Raul A. Reyes
A fellow Latino attorney addresses the former attorney general's recent Op-Ed article.
July 8, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Jacob Kuriyan
A focus on chronic disease would mean lower costs and easier access.
July 7, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Lazaros Papademetropoulos
People -- no matter their ethnicity -- move freely when they have the money to do it.
July 3, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Dan Milchovich
It's not the gangs, it's the cops. L.A.'s law enforcement agencies should stop the playground antics.
July 2, 2008

Blowback
By Cy Bolton
Let Cy Bolton count the memos.
June 27, 2008

Blowback
By Britt Allcroft
His collaborator on the PBS children's show 'Shining Time Station' looks back.
June 26, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Keith Baker
America ranked second to last in a 1964 test of students worldwide. Those students went on to transform the American economy.
June 25, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Stuart Rhoden
Locke High School tried to reform under union and district leadership, but the obstacles were too great.
June 24, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Lara A. Bazelon
A back-and-forth on Judge Alex Kozinski's stash.
June 23, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Pamela Felcher
A body count doesn't capture the atmosphere of a classroom.
June 20, 2008

BLOWBACK
By John Wright
Alex Kozinski isn't a hypocrite or a disgrace to the judicial bench. He's normal.
June 19, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Arthur Z. Przebinda
Wine aficionados and their fancy words are just like sports fans and their stats.
June 18, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Lara A. Bazelon
The misconduct standards the porn-collecting judge advocated might now be used against him.
June 17, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Mathew C. Taylor
The movement to privatize education has a friend in The Times.
June 16, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Robert Lee Hotchkiss Jr.
Creating a chair of conservative studies makes a discipline out of a political fad.
June 13, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Allen Jones
Building beds for the mentally ill is a fine goal, but why not reduce overcrowding first?
June 12, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Jack Scott
They cause blackouts that lose California businesses and utilities tens of millions of dollars a year.
June 10, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Kurt Christiansen
Without federal or state-level rules, it's up to local governments to take on greenhouse gas emissions.
June 9, 2008

BLOWBACK
By David Benkof
It's the right response to lawsuits that seek to define marriage contrary to many Americans' beliefs.
June 5, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Timothy Rieger
Politicizing nuclear policymaking could have devastating results.
June 4, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Jon Coupal and Joel Fox
Thirty years later, it's still giving the state and taxpayers what they want -- predictability.
June 3, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Adam L. Marangell
The policy protects the public by meting discipline while maintaining law enforcement morale.
June 2, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Roger A. Forsyth
A former Kaiser board member suggests universal coverage for the most vulnerable, and individual accounts for routine care.
May 30, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Russell Beckley
The primitive mind isn't all bad, and sometimes it's essential.
May 29, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Raoul Lowery Contreras
President Bush was right to call it appeasement.
May 27, 2008

BLOWBACK
By William Ernst
Charging $15 for a checked bag isn't going to win the hearts of consumers who like their freebies free.
May 23, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Chad Hazlett
The problem with nonconsensual aid to the Burmese isn't about numbers or neo-imperialism, it's about logistics.
May 22, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Jasmyne Cannick
Many black religious leaders support gays and lesbians, but they don't show up in media coverage.
May 21, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Rodger Lewis
It's about how to think, not about how to do.
May 20, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Esther A. Jantzen
School programs like Reading First can't do the job until parents do theirs.
May 15, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Philip L. Christenson
The South African president is a diplomat, not an appeaser of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.
May 14, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Matthew DeBord
East Coast snobs with Old World sympathies take cheap shots at a great product.
May 12, 2008

BLOWBACK
By George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson and Gray Davis
Without one, the entire California economy is at risk.
May 8, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Alex Walker
Enough about Obama and Wright. This election is about Bush.
May 7, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Philip Blumel
By pushing to dismantle them, Fabian Nuñez is defying the will of California voters.
May 6, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Mark Cromer
Our future depends on advocating sustainable population growth, however politically incorrect.
May 1, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Michael Eshleman
Congestion pricing more accurately reflects the cost of commuting.
April 30, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Bernard Lechowick
The Writers Guild has an obligation to judge the actions of members who worked during the strike.
April 29, 2008

BLOWBACK
By James N. Thompson
Don't just tally how many doctors were disciplined. Boards need adequate funding and staffing to investigate physician competency.
April 28, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Homayoon Khanlou and Michael Weinstein
When even scientists acknowledge that 25 years of research haven't born any fruit, it's time to stop searching for an AIDS vaccine.
April 25, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Rodger Pardee
Policymakers should respond to fact, not fear, on Special Order 40.
April 23, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Sen. Sam Brownback
If the Guantanamo Bay prison does close, Ft. Leavenworth isn't the place to house them.
April 18, 2008

BLOWBACK
By William J. Sydeman
Looking at long-term trends, the ocean, and climate change for clues.
April 17, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Peter MacLaggan
Conservation alone won't cut it -- California needs desalination.
April 16, 2008

BLOWBACK
By David Baltimore and Seth Berkley
A brief letter from David Baltimore and Seth Berkley
April 14, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Dave Long
Creating a reliable funding stream would save schools from budget cuts.
April 11, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Joe R. Hicks
Debates over symbolic gestures rob those who are victims of gang violence and their families.
April 10, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Christopher D. Greene
A California librarian did the right thing by calling the police on a patron reportedly viewing child porn.
April 9, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
What Martin Luther King might have said in response to a Times editorial ridiculing a murder moratorium.
April 8, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Terry Kibbe
Outlawing payday lenders limits consumer choice.
April 7, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Michael Weinstein
The U.S. should focus its funds on providing treatment to people in need.
April 4, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Steve Zimmermann
An S & P managing director explains.
April 3, 2008

BLOWBACK
By John Kness
Oaths aren't mere McCarthy-era tools of oppression -- they've been around for centuries.
April 2, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Akifa Khan
An L.A. Unified grad gives some gratitude during a hard time for schools.
April 1, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Cüneyt M. Serdar
A Turkish American takes Justice and Development Party leaders to task.
March 28, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Robert Ellis
The ruling party is corrupting the country's secular character.
March 28, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Kathleen Jaeger
Rigorous standards ensure their high quality, but misapprehension about generics remains.
March 27, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Pamela Felcher
Thoughtful evaluations would do better job of measuring teacher success.
March 26, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Egemen Bagis
A member of the Justice and Development Party says his country deserves advanced democracy.
March 24, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Michael Meyers
What the candidate should have said about race.
March 20, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Hugo Schwyzer
Feminism is going strong even though the 'Bitch' author has left the spotlight.
March 19, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Jennie Dusheck
Claiming that male infidelity has roots in nature ignores important findings about the females of the species.
March 18, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Lee Karr
More medical training for Americans would mean better care here, and around the world.
March 14, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Walter P. Coombs and Ralph E. Shaffer
A court ruling is right to examine the seemingly elitist and illiberal practice.
March 13, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Raoul Lowery Contreras
Mexican American war vets and Eastside teachers did more for Mexican Americans than a small protest.
March 12, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Steven Wilhoit
Travel to the U.S. has nearly recovered to its pre-9/11 level.
March 7, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Karin Pally
Jonah Goldberg resurrects Red-baiting techniques against Obama and Clinton, says a reader.
March 6, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Lydia C. Watts
Blaming rape survivors for their clothes or habits betrays a fear of female independence.
March 5, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Patrick Cronin
A University of Virginia student explains why campus assault is underreported and rarely prosecuted.
March 4, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Rodger Pardee
The awards don’t play well on the small screen, so make them an industry-only event again.
March 3, 2008

BLOWBACK
By SreyRam Kuy
When patient health is at risk, doctors would do well to follow the example of their California peers.
February 28, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Nora Niedzielski-Eichner
A student activist reacts to an Op-Ed claiming that there is no campus rape crisis.
February 27, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Jerry Gaines
The graduated driver license law isn’t the only thing to blame for higher fatalities.
February 26, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Darrell Issa
Foreign intelligence gathering requires different tools from criminal investigations.
February 25, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Jean E. Rosenfeld
The vilified church is no stranger than many a long-established religion.
February 22, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Paul Clement
A Times article neglected to mention key criticisms of the president’s AIDS program.

BLOWBACK
By Dallas Weaver
Intellectual property’s social value may trump copyright law.
February 20, 2008

BLOWBACK
By David Holcberg
Public schools should be accountable to parents rather than to the government.
February 19, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Sarah M. Miller
A former Chicago constituent asks her candidate of choice to start talking real politics.
February 15, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Jeffrey R. Henig
There’s much yet to learn about privately operated public schools; we needn’t be so polarized about them.
February 13, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Walter P. Coombs and Ralph E. Shaffer
Philanthropists say their donations help create a winning system; two professors say the game is rigged.
February 12, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Timothy Rieger
A weak secret court is to blame for abuses of foreign surveillance.
February 8, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Matt A. Barreto and Ricardo Ramírez
It’s not racism that’s been making the difference, it’s a 16-year head start.
February 7, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Raoul Lowery Contreras
A San Diego columnist disputes Gregory Rodriguez’s claims on blacks, Latinos and voting.
February 5, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Nathan Kravetz
It’s a fair idea, but it could sow discord among teachers.
February 1, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Dan Adomitis
The last word on the company’s Liberian operation.
January 31, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Lucinda Marshall
How a fraternal culture and a habit of blaming the victim leave sexual violence unexamined and unpunished.
January 30, 2008

BLOWBACK
A Firestone executive and an author square off over the company's role in this troubled nation.
January 29, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Fabian Nuñez
Critics haven’t offered a viable alternative to the reality-based, progressive AB X1-1.
January 28, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Richard R. Marcus
Contrary to The Times’ descriptions, violence in Kenya has many roots.
January 24, 2008

BLOWBACK
By George Petrolekas
A Canadian military officer explains why the U.S. Defense secretary’s comments upset allies.
January 23, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Matthew Hetz
Why not give commuters the pleasure of an easier trip?
January 22, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Mike Goodridge
The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s VP strikes out at ugly American journalists.
January 21, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Robert J. Elisberg
A screenwriter explains the strategy behind separate agreements.
January 18, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Brian Doherty
Reason magazine’s Brian Doherty responds to Michael Kinsley.
January 17, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Husain Haqqani
The Pakistan Peoples Party is right to keep her family in charge.
January 16, 2008

BLOWBACK
By David M. Axelrad
Public salaries should rival private ones to attract a diverse and talented bench.
January 14, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Frank Pierson
A former Writers Guild president explains.
January 14, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Artur Davis and Eric Cantor
Two supporters of Israel in Congress say it isn’t about the lobby.

BLOWBACK
By Malakkar Vohryzek
A raid at L.A. Trade Tech is the latest proof.
January 11, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Mitchell Bard
Shared history and values, not the lobby, unite Israel and the U.S.
January 10, 2008

BLOWBACK
Robert Lee Hotchkiss Jr.
Why should mall shop owners have more rights than employees or shoppers?
January 9, 2008

BLOWBACK
By John Ridley
The “Undercover Brother” screenwriter defends his move to return to work.
January 8, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Elliot Slosar
The Times should have highlighted the inconsistencies in the presidential candidate's positions.
January 4, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Giuseppe Del Priore
Denying potentially life-saving transplants is an insurer M.O.
January 3, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Ed Mirmak
The Times’ L.A. Visions profile of the Clinton-era prosecutor was too friendly by half.
January 2, 2008

BLOWBACK
By Anthony M. De Marco
Plaintiff’s attorney says don’t trust stats on clergy abuse.
January 1, 2008