Bias allegations in the Prop. 8 case; the U.N. and Palestinian statehood; L.A. ministers support Dodger owner Frank McCourt

View from the bench

Re “Judge in Prop. 8 case didn’t have to recuse himself, decision says,” June 15

The question of “can a gay judge rule on same-sex marriage” has been regularly presented by the media without the obvious corollary question of whether a “straight judge” can do the same.

The assumption behind Proposition 8 was that allowing gay marriage would damage the institution of marriage. Wouldn’t then a straight, married judge have some investment in the institution of marriage? In fact anyone is likely to have had some personal deliberations about marriage and thus would not be entirely unbiased about the value of the institution.

That the gay-baiting in this case was not more severely challenged in the media suggests that anti-gay bias continues to occur easily and with little question.

Don Barrett

Los Angeles

The U.N. and a Palestinian state

Re “What is the U.N.’s role? A former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. says a vote would only diminish the world body,” Opinion, June 12

John R. Bolton’s recommendation that the world should view the Palestinians’ plan to seek the United Nation’s support for statehood as “entertainment” is deeply cynical.

After watching the Israeli prime minister address Congress to repeated standing ovations, it is clear that the Palestinians will have to seek

recourse through the U.N.

It is troubling to see our own Congress so thoroughly influenced by pro-Israel lobbyists, ignoring the plight of the Palestinians. Their treatment by the Israeli government has been harsh and tragic.

Ultimately, the truth will emerge and the U.S. and Israel will be seen as two countries whose purported ideals of peace and freedom are only slogans.

Joseph Tillotson

Redondo Beach

Bolton feigns concern that the U.N.’s reputation will be sullied by a declaration about Palestinian statehood. I imagine that Bolton would be overjoyed by such a result.

Bolton has done more to sully the U.N.’s reputation than any other American diplomat. When President George W. Bush appointed him U.N. ambassador, it was like appointing an atheist to be ambassador to the Vatican.

Robert Von Bargen

Santa Monica

Re “What is the U.N.’s role? A Hamas official insists that a vote this fall in the General Assembly cannot be stopped,” Opinion, June 12

Mousa Abu Marzook has to get his facts straight. The 1947 U.S. General Assembly Resolution was a recommendation that was accepted by Israel but rejected by the Arabs. Now Marzook wants it to be binding.

Marzook, who represents Hamas, should admit that it is his party that has mismanaged the Gaza Strip economy and has allowed its leadership to divert aid meant for the people. He complains about the Jewish settlements but ignores the fact that Ariel Sharon dismantled all of the Gaza settlements. There aren’t any settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Finally, Marzook represents a terrorist government. Now he is hiding behind the cloak of the U.N.

Rhya Turovsky

La Habra Heights

After reading Marzook’s words, I wonder how much better off the Palestinians and their brethren would have been over these last 63 years if they had put all of their efforts into making a life for themselves, as the Israelis did.

Instead, what they couldn’t win in several wars, the Palestinians now presume to win through “peace” negotiations.

Bob Aronoff

South Pasadena

The Palestinians are barking up the wrong tree. The U.N. can’t give them a state; only the United States can. It won’t and Israel can’t. So my advice to the Palestinians would be to demand citizenship in the nation that engulfs them: Israel. “No annexation without representation” could be their slogan.

This prospect should motivate friends of Israel to push harder for a two-state solution, but it’s too late. It is now, and ever shall be, one state from the river to the sea, inhabited by several tribes.

Stewart Copeland

Los Angeles

War effort

Re “Obama weighs scale of Afghan pullout,” June 13

Here we go again. It was the same in the early 1970s. Hanoi was on the brink of collapse after an intense bombing campaign, and then we pulled back due to the broadcasted unpopular nature of the war, the cost and bickering political parties. All Hanoi had to do was wait it out.

Now, politicians are announcing our flagging will and public opinion, and the enormous cost, of the war in Afghanistan. All the Taliban has to do is bide its time and wait for the inevitable victory.

I lean neither right nor left. I am not for war or for continuing this one. I only care about the brave men and women who have, over the years, given their lives in these kinds of debacles. And for what?

Robert M. Imm

Sunland

Dodger faithful

Re “Ministers back up Dodgers owner,” June 11

Whatever happened to separation of church and sports? It is silly for Frank McCourt to round up these ecclesiastical cheerleaders to promote his empire. As men of the cloth, perhaps their time would be better spent guiding their flocks instead of promoting the ventures of someone who is completely unable to deal with the truth.

Unbridled avarice is what McCourt has always been about. If he has any sense of decency, he would take what he can and leave.

I think I read somewhere in the Bible something like, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Homer Alba

Glendale

Young and idle

Re “An upside-down work world,” Opinion, June 10

If we could avert our eyes from Weinergate for a moment, we might see the real peril facing America. As Ronald Brownstein documents, that peril is the high unemployment rate among our youth, who are having a tough time breaking into the job

market.

The disconnect between young people’s job skills and what employers are looking for cries out for more government-subsidized job training and higher education for unemployed youth. An updated Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps program would also help.

I suggest starting with veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, who are suffering some of the highest rates of unemployment.

Carl Martz

Redlands

Scandalous

Re “Fascination with political sex scandals is unsettling,” Column, June 11

In a direct and penetrating style that is refreshing to see in The Times, Sandy Banks confronts the reader with the realization that we obsess over Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (and a score of others before him) tawdry personal behavior while ignoring the tragic fact that these same buffoons bring us endless wars, tax breaks for the rich and a shocking neglect of healthcare, education, housing and a sustainable environment.

Somebody needs to tell House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to skip the investigation into the New York Democrat’s peccadilloes. Rather, let’s focus on

what she and her ilk aren’t doing.

Kim Carney

South Pasadena

Only human

Re “The geezer card backfires,” Opinion, June 10

Who among men (at least those of the baby boom and earlier generations) cannot share in the “pathos” evoked in Sy Rosen’s sardonic report on the dangers of playing the senior card?

You have to love the final trump card, though. I was about to write in about a very serious issue but became distracted by Rosen’s humor. After all, “I’m only human.”

Jeffrey Eulberg

Reseda