Letters:

Re: "Abatements unfair," letter, Friday:

The development of luxury condos in downtown Philadelphia has caused an influx of those who, in the not-too-distant past, would have chosen the suburbs, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, or somewhere else.

Philadelphia benefits as the only local municipality to charge a transfer tax to the homebuyer. Most other municipalities have a total transfer tax of 1 to 2 percent; Philadelphia's is 4 percent. Richie Sambora's $7.7 million condo in Liberty Place produced $308,000 in transfer taxes for the city. The entire project will generate more than $5 million in transfer taxes. The total transfer taxes of all the luxury condo projects in the city will likely total $100 million.

Tax abatements are one of several reasons for the growth of the city and the strength of our local real estate market in comparison to the country as a whole.

Eliot Feldman

Philadelphia
efeldmanus@yahoo.com

Jay Leno is interviewing President Obama on late-night TV Thursday night and there are two commercial breaks? Just shows how money is so deeply rooted in all of us that the highest position on land does not merit commercial-free time.

Sunita Gupta

Voorhees
sunitavir@comcast.net

In response to Thursday's op-ed column by George Curry ("Candid talk about condoms") and Tony Auth's cartoon that mocked Pope Benedict XVI, I have to say that there seems to be a firestorm every time this pope opens his mouth to express the moral teaching of his faith.

I would like to know what else he is expected to do. He is simply saying that sexually transmitted diseases are spread by promiscuity. Condoms can give a false sense of security, while abstinence is the only 100-percent sure way to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Obviously, sexual behavior by teenagers or by the poorest of the poor in Africa is not something he can control. But as the leader of his faith, the pope is obliged to stand on firm moral ground.

Gloria C. Endres

Philadelphia
sisglo@aol.com

I commend Pope Benedict XVI for his hard stand against artificial contraception, which thwarts the natural generation of life. His position is meant to provide Catholics as well as non-Catholics with a moral compass for authentic freedom.

Pope Paul VI rightly predicted back in 1968 that failure to follow the dictates of natural law regarding contraception would lead to a lowering of moral standards, a rise in infidelity and promiscuity, a lessening of respect for women, and government-enforced limitations on population.

Those who advocate condoms to stem the spread of the deadly virus HIV are thus misguided, as they only aggravate the problem. The only foolproof and morally legitimate solution to AIDS is abstinence and marital fidelity.

Paul Kokoski

Hamilton, Ontario

A March 12 letter, "Against our will," includes a common misunderstanding of President Obama's executive order on stem-cell research.

The order allows only for public funding of research using the 21 cell lines that existed before President Bush stopped all other funding in 2001 (which Bush also allowed), plus the new lines developed since 2001 using private money. In the Obama order, there is no funding for new lines that would require the destruction of currently existing embryos.

Steven J. Barrer, M.D.

Huntingdon Valley
sjbarrer@gmail.com

Does Tom Adkins ("His blarney ranks with the best of them," Friday) really believe that we weren't fed many lines and lies of blarney, hogwash, and worse by the previous presidential administration?

I didn't like the last eight years, but I never stopped hoping that those in power would do the proper thing - be it a conservative, moderate, or liberal move.

I wonder why so many people on the right seem hell-bent on painting a negative spin on everything President Obama does. Do they want the United States to fail?

I think it's refreshing to have an intelligent, articulate man as president, a man who is really trying to use the office to do something positive for the country and not just be self-serving.

Charlene Krantz

Newtown Square