May 14, 2008

Letters

Oil company profits

Dear Editor: Rather than list all of the many misrepresentations and omissions in the column Sunday by David W. Kreutzer of the right-wing Heritage Foundation ["Don't fall for windfall profits tax"], I will limit myself to three.

1) Kreutzer said that one factor in the record profits is "The price of petroleum is at record ... levels." That has no connection with the oil industry's profits: the basis of profit is the markup between the price the industry pays for petroleum and the price it charges for refined products, and that markup need not rise when the price of crude oil rises.

2) Profits, by definition, are income minus allowable expenses. Legitimate investment in exploration and development is an allowable expense. Thus a windfall profits tax has absolutely no effect of "discouraging" investment in exploration and development because by definition it only affects what is left after such investments. If anything, it has the effect of encouraging such investments because the more that is invested the less that is subject to taxation.

3) The unnamed, unattributed, nebulous "study" of the pharmaceuticals industry may or may not have anything to do with a windfall profits tax. Citing it with no concrete information is scare-mongering.

Crude oil prices have been rising because demand has been rising more rapidly than supply, and much of the demand is relatively inelastic: when prices rise, buyers can't switch readily to alternatives. Given that it is also more expensive to develop new oil sources, oil companies rationally must allow prices to rise to generate more revenue for exploration and development. But as noted previously, that has no necessary connection with their profits.

L. Peter Deutsch,

Menlo Park



Women's health

Dear Editor: It's a fact that women today have more responsibility and stress than at any time in history. Women are more likely today to be head of a household, hold down busy jobs and maybe care for aging parents at the same time. Not so coincidentally, we also are catching up to men in our risk for major diseases, including heart disease and cancer.

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors declared the week of May 11-17 Women's Health Week.

I urge San Mateo County women to make these healthy lifestyle changes:

_ Engage in physical activity most days of the week

_ Eat a nutritious diet

_ Visit a health care provider for regular check-ups and preventive screenings

_ Avoid risky behaviors such as smoking and not wearing a seat belt

[http://www.4woman.gov/whw/events/login.cfm.]

Sharon Erickson,

commissioner,

Commission on the Status of Women in San Mateo County



Myanmar crisis

Dear Editor: We ask and they refuse. We ask again and they refuse again. Here is an idea. Let's take all that food they claim can feed 90,000 people and have the Navy deliver it to a port that will accept it like San Francisco or New York. I am sure we can find 90,000 people here who are in need of food and supplies.

Gary Ahern,

Woodside



Catholic politicians

Dear Editor: Letter writer Ross Foti opposes politicians who are Catholic but who do not advocate making abortions illegal ["The culture of death," Sunday]. I personally do not know of anyone who likes the idea of abortion. However, I know a lot of people who feel that what a woman does with her own body is a matter for that woman, and that woman alone, to decide.

Who is to say that the Roman Catholic position on abortion is correct? After all, over the centuries the church has committed heinous crimes against its members and others, burning Friar Giordano Bruno at the stake in 1600 because he taught that the earth revolved around the sun, burning alleged heretics and nonbelievers during the Spanish Inquisition, and allowing priests to abuse young boys in their care, to say nothing about the way it discriminates against women and withholds family planning information from them, increasing their burden with unwanted children.

However, in defense of the church, at least the pope is on record for opposing the mass murder conducted by George Bush's agents (the U.S. military) in Iraq. I feel certain that Mr. Foti supports the pope in opposing the killing of adult human beings.

Richard Sutherland,

Los Altos



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Dear Editor: After reading Ross Foti's diatribe regarding abortion, I'd like to suggest that the good Mr. Foti practice the sin of self-righteousness in the privacy of his own church.

Scott Simmons,

Portola Valley