animals and antioxidants

Yes, pomegranate juice is healthful and tastes great ("Pomegranate Childhood," Jan. 17). But if you're going to drink it, please avoid the POM Wonderful brand. POM pays for cruel experiments on animals in an attempt to prove that pomegranate-flavored juice is good for us. The Food and Drug Administration has told us these tests aren't required by any law. They aren't even applicable to people. In one study, experimenters lowered the brain oxygen levels in newborn mice to cause them brain injuries—even though human and rodent brains differ significantly in structure and function. In another experiment, erectile dysfunction was supposedly studied in rabbits. But as these animals, unlike human males, don't experience erectile problems, experimenters artificially created symptoms with sudden and painful balloon injuries of the rabbits' arteries. If you buy POM, you're helping to support these atrocities. Try Naked Juice and Frutzzo brands instead. These companies provide delicious pomegranate juice without harming any animals. See www.POMHorrible.com for more.

Melissa Karpel, Studio CIty

Write to the troops!

We are writing from Mr. Turton's third-grade class at Trinity Christian School in Sacramento. We are writing to ask for your help. We have been studying letter-writing, and we sent letters to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. We hoped to send encouragement to them. We felt bad, though, that we could only send 15 letters (that's how many of us there are). We want to do more!

We have set a goal of collecting 2,500 letters to send to our troops overseas. We are asking that you print our letter and ask your readers to write a letter to a service member and send it to use to forward to serviceman or -woman. So far, we have had our letters published in more than 20 newspapers in 12 states and have already received more than 300 letters in response! We are asking that those who write a letter include an extra stamp and envelope to cover postage. The troops love to hear about sports teams, school, family and anything else that would remind them of home. Please help us communicate that we are thinking of them often.

Thank you in advance,
Mr. Turton's 3rd Grade Class
5225 Hillsdale Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95842

As easy as impeachment

I went to a forum on impeachment last week and learned what impeachment is. Mentioned in several places in the Constitution, impeachment is a methodical legal process that can be accomplished in just six months. The House Judiciary Committee draws up "Articles of Impeachment" for the whole House to debate and vote on each article. If a majority is for conviction, the House is done. The Senate then holds a trial for which it is the judge and jury. A two-thirds majority votes for conviction can result in removal from office. It's not a rash or radical process, nor is it a criminal trial. It is about abuse of office. State legislatures can bypass the House and also introduce impeachment. Local city resolutions can push this along. Already a hundred cities have petitioned the House to begin impeachment of the president and vice-president. The list of abuses and offenses (criminal and otherwise) of Bush and Cheney are too long to list here.

T. S. Siegel, Santa Rosa

Dept. of Corrections

While we're certain it will come as a heartbreaking surprise to those who pay huge private premiums for their services, Kaiser Permanente is in fact a not-for-profit institution; it just feels for-profit, as we erroneously reported in these pages last week ("Briefs," Jan. 17).

Talking about health-insurance premiums naturally makes one long for a martini (and a lovely ciggie), but we're shaken to admit a terribly bitter part to our recent hard-hitting martini reportage. The extra dry Bridgette Selvig of Sonoma writes with chilly zest to restir the proper homage to the winner of last year's People's Choice winner in the '06 Martini Madness Contest ("Drinking with Olives," Morsels, Jan. 10). In a twist, it was the Carneros Bistro with their Effen Good Black Cherry Martini that went straight up with the people, not Murphy's Irish Pub. (Pssst: recipe sadly not included, Bridgette!) Murphy's scored the Judge's Award, a sober honor indeed. We apologize for muddling it up.

The ed.
High on the fumes

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