Kind of funny, in a sad way: The Press Herald prints another “it’s not global warming, it’s a liberal plot” letter the same day it is reported that the glaciers in Glacier National Park are melting for the first time in 7,000 years (“Supporter and critic discuss columnist’s work,” April 8).

When the glaciers are all gone, I guess they’ll blame that on the liberals, too.

Additional Photos

This 2009 Geological Service photo shows the remnants of the Jackson Glacier at Glacier National Park in Montana. "When the glaciers are all gone, I guess they'll blame that on the liberals, too," a reader writes. The Associated Press

Also of note in the same letter: “The models (the seriously flawed IPCC models) also assume that as the atmosphere gets hotter, heat losses to space, which is very cold, don’t increase via radiation.” (Actually, space has no temperature, but let’s not quibble.)

Well, I guess the models don’t assume that. The problem is the greenhouse effect, and radiation does not fly off into space — the greenhouse effect holds it in as things get hotter.

And then the permafrost melts and releases even more carbon dioxide, and the greenhouse effect gets worse, and temperatures get still hotter.

This is called the “runaway greenhouse effect,” and I hope these people are here to see it. I guess they’ll blame it on liberals.

Tim Copeland

Biddeford

I find it extremely interesting that now that gas prices are going up and the barrel price of oil has reached an all-time high, there is no outcry from the news media that something must be done. It is reported that gas may reach $4 per gallon.

Remember when George W. Bush was president and any increase in oil and gas prices was the result of his and Vice President Dick Cheney’s policies and their being in the pocket of Big Oil?

Where is the outcry now? Could it be that the price spike is OK now, because the “savior” Barack Obama is in charge and he, of course, can’t be to blame?

Of course there is no media bias leaning to the left.

Bob Stinson

Portland

Principals group finally gets it on gender, athletics

This letter is in response to comments made by Dick Durost of the Maine Principals’ Association in the March 26 paper (“Transgender policies aim for fairness on fields”).

It is amazing that the MPA is suddenly interested in “fairness on the playing field” in high school sports.

For three years, golfing students, some high school coaches, athletic directors and principals and I (father of a female golfer) have been trying to explain fairness to the MPA.

There is no fairness in the MPA’s rule that female golfers must play against the males from the men’s tees. We were told by the MPA that fairness and physical differences did not matter.

Golf courses are designed with fairness in mind, but that did not matter. Golf in high school is a “boys’ sport.” Live with the discrimination and unfairness.

Now that the transgender issue is coming into play, the MPA changes its tune.

Now Mr. Durost says,”their junior and senior year, the biological male is typically stronger and faster than the biological female.” Yes, the MPA might be getting it!

What has changed for the MPA? Fear of the Maine Human Rights Commission? Fear of the American Civil Liberties Union? It should not take the fear of possible legal action to get the MPA to wake up and get out of the dark ages, but it has.

The MPA has been discriminating against female high school golfers for years. Changing its stance for a new situation won’t undo that.

Now will the MPA get it right for everyone involved?

Peter Ripley

East Boothbay

Massive income disparity could undermine our future

The Associated Press story in the April 8 paper, “Half of us don’t pay federal taxes,” is an illustration of the present inequality in family incomes, with a great number of families barely scraping by at the bottom while the incomes of the elites have skyrocketed.

Our income distribution profile increasingly resembles that of a Third World country. A national income profile like that is dangerous to our country’s future.

Third World countries are and remain Third World countries partly because they do not redistribute the unequal family incomes by taxing the elites to pay for investments in the productivity of their people, transportation and communication infrastructure, education and health.

It doesn’t matter how rich a country is in natural resources, its true and lasting wealth is, and always has been, the productivity of its people.

Elizabeth H. Muench

Brunswick

Memories of record store bring back the good times

Seeing the article about Record Store Day April 11 (“Honk if you love record stores”) brought back so many memories of growing up in Arlington, Mass., and going to Farrington’s Record Store.

We used to be able to play 45s before we bought them, and listen to good old record albums. No tapes or CDs or iPod downloads back in those days. Kids today have no idea of the fun times we had in record stores.

It is sad to think that they are gone now. Going back in time can be fun, with its memories of friends, good times and Farrington’s Record Store.

Nancy M. Bower

Parsonsfield

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