Pat Haden, USC’s new athletic director; legalizing marijuana; and why Americans are getting larger

A change at USC

Re “Haden in, Garrett swept out as USC cleans house,” July 21

As a graduate of USC and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, I am delighted to see the selection of Pat Haden as the university’s next athletic director.

Haden’s commitment to scholarship, ethics and integrity will help make dramatic improvements in the way the university’s athletic programs are managed.

Haden was the ideal scholar-athlete when he studied at USC, and he stands as a role model to all students today who pursue excellence in athletics. Going to USC today is not just about being a star athlete; it is also about the pursuit of high academic achievement and success.

Christian Teeter

Yorba Linda

I can’t imagine a better way for USC to restore the integrity and excellence of the USC athletic program than by involving Haden and J.K. McKay — two men with impeccable credentials and tremendous integrity of their own.

Way to go, USC (and I’m not even a USC fan).

Richard Hormel

Los Angeles

UC system for Californians

Re “UC gets smarter about cuts,” Editorial, July 20

I am a math teacher busily preparing my students for pursuit of a higher education.

Not only have these students worked to be top achievers, but their parents have paid taxes to build and improve the California college system.

The UC colleges were built for California students, and we send an incredibly gifted and diverse group of applicants to them to choose from. No out-of-state or out-of-country student should take these students’ spots. Your support for this practice makes no sense.

Suzan Davis

Irvine

Marijuana, legal or not

Re “Down to grass facts,” Opinion, July 18

There is much to agree with in professor Mark A.R. Kleiman’s Op-Ed arguing that legalizing marijuana in California “can’t be done.”

But what he fails to address is that passage of Proposition 19 is necessary to prod the federal government to correct its Alice in Wonderland marijuana policies.

California’s Proposition 215, which legalized and regulated access to medical marijuana, has since led 13 states to follow our example. The war on drugs has failed miserably, but officeholders are reluctant to support its end.

California needs to lead the way. The alternative is war without end.

James Goodwin

Mt. Washington

Re “Oakland sees pot as even more of a growth industry,” July 20

I find it interesting that marijuana activist Dale Gieringer opposes corporate involvement in the production and sale of marijuana.

Supporters of legalized marijuana predict a huge flow of new tax dollars for California. How is that going to be accomplished with mom-and-pop marijuana shops scattered throughout the state? Only by large-scale sales of marijuana to consumers, facilitated by the lower prices a big box producer can provide, will their claim possibly come to fruition.

And marijuana retailer Steve DeAngelo contradicts himself when he says that “any new system that is created needs to have a role for these pioneers. It’s not the role of government to decide the winners and losers in the marketplace.” If marijuana is legalized, shouldn’t he hope “the role of government” will be to create a “system” of protectionist rules to maintain a place for “pioneers” such as himself? If not, free-market rules will decide the “winners and losers” for him.

Blaine Shimazu

San Gabriel

Our celebrity criminals

Re “Lohan raises Hilton specter,” July 20

Nonviolent minor offenders are being let out of jail long before their terms are served. We have too few jails and not enough people to staff them. If every criminal, regardless of how minor his or her offense, were required to serve the entire term of his or her sentence, chaos would ensue. We need more jails, but they cost money, and in Los Angeles County the popular refrain “not in my back yard” is the message being sent to the lawmakers.

Lindsay Lohan should not be held for the full 90 days of her sentence because that would be special treatment. As an inmate, she should be treated like any other prisoner — and if persons committing similar crimes are being let out early, then Lohan should be treated equally.

Allen P. Wilkinson

Laguna Woods

Please, please, remove Lohan from your newspaper and all other media.

I hope she appreciates all of this free publicity and media coverage. If it weren’t for the media, I would not even know who she is.

Let’s try something more important with this media space: Show photos and remind others of children who are missing.

Lisa Yeager

Thousand Oaks

Don’t dismiss Germany

Re “Germany poised to slash cherished welfare system,” July 18

It’s easy to pick a symbolic excess to focus on when writing a dismissive article on cuts to social programs, as The Times does in its article on cuts to the German social welfare system. The piece seems intended to mock Germany’s commitment to social solidarity: the principle of helping those whose circumstances have dumped them at the bottom of the community.

This belief in social solidarity, scarcely mentioned in the article, underlies opposition to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s draconian cuts to social programs. Germans understand that anyone could end up at the bottom of the heap, and that a society that keeps people in their homes, rather than living on the street, helps the whole neighborhood and larger community as well as the unemployed themselves.

E. Richard Brown

Santa Monica

That’s a park

Re “Germans let loose at Nazi airport,” Column One, July 19

Berlin lets Tempelhof Airport become a park, providing its citizens a 950-acre green space to enjoy.

This is an impossible dream in L.A. Within a nanosecond, the developers would have grandiose plans, quickly passed by the City Planning Commission (which apparently approves everything), and another blot on the landscape would emerge.

J. Kingsley Fife

Pacific Palisades

There’s a reason you’re fat

Re “Advice that’s hard to swallow,” Opinion, July 18

Steven Malanga’s assertion that “Americans have dutifully complied” with federal dietary guidelines and, as a result, “the rate of obesity has increased sharply” is misleading.

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February 2009, “Reduced-calorie diets result in clinically meaningful weight loss regardless of which macronutrients they emphasize.”

When people reduce calories, they lose weight. Blaming government guidelines for the increase in the rate of obesity is misguided.

Eileen Timmins

San Diego

The writer is a registered dietitian.

Darwin today

Re “New life for old bacteria fighters,” July 19

Pathogens do not “outsmart” modern antibiotics, as articles about them like to say; their populations evolve according to Darwinian principles.

Perhaps if we used truer terms to describe this phenomenon, more citizens would be up to date in their biological thinking about their own origins.

Peter Yates

Culver City