How on Earth are stories on space travel boring?

Re Space exploration isnt interesting anymore (Letters, July 9):

I couldnt disagree more with Robert Schilling regarding the newsworthiness of SpaceXs day-to-day successes and failures. As humans, I believe, we have an innate compulsion to explore and expand our areas of habitation, and space is still the ultimate frontier.

As a child I was enthralled with the TV broadcasts of the early successes of NASAs Mercury program, followed by Gemini and, of course, the very successful Apollo program with repeated landings of men on the moon and their safe return to Earth.

Unfortunately, the country lost interest in space exploration, and for the next few decades those of us with our hearts set on true space exploration and settlement had to be satisfied with Skylab, the Space Shuttle and merely poking around in the backwater of near Earth orbit.

The recent movie The Martian should help to spark the interest and passion of the generations younger than I in true space exploration, while Elon Musk has revitalized our efforts in actual human space exploration.

I, for one, will never tire of reading articles about what this true modern-day visionary is doing, on every front that interests him. Please continue with the interesting articles about SpaceX as well as Musks other endeavors.

Dale Mooney, Torrance

Study undercounted violence by Islamists

Re Is Trump ignoring U.S. hate groups? (July 9):

The article by Deepa Bharath suggested that the real threat to people in the U.S. is from white supremacist violence, rather than from Islamist groups.

It cites an Anti-Defamation League study that, for some unspecified reason, focuses on the years 2006-2015, to make its point that only 13 percent of the 295 extremist-related deaths in that time period involved domestic Islamic extremism. This artificial time period leaves out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six and injured 1,042, and the 2001 World Trade Center attack, which killed almost 3,000 and injured over 6,000 both attacks by Islamic jihadists.

Then there was the attack by an Egyptian terrorist at LAX which killed two and injured four in 2002, plus the Beltway sniper jihadist attacks that same year which killed 17 and injured 10.

Its not clear if the study included the San Bernardino jihadist attack in December 2015, which killed 16 and injured 24. Then there was the June 2016 Islamist killing of 49 plus 53 injured at the Pulse nightclub in Florida.

Looking at a longer time span, Islamist-related killings dwarf those by white supremacists or environmentalists or anti-abortionists or other left-wing and right-wing groups, which, of course, is not the message that the article seeks to convey.

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Carl Pearlston, Torrance

If only president were ignoring hate groups

Re Is Trump ignoring U.S. hate groups? (July 9):

Often I run across a newspaper headline that causes me to go Well, duh! These headlines can appear in any paper: The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times or the Daily Breeze.

A couple of my favorites are Cancer often causes death and Statistics show teen pregnancies drop off after age 25. Sometimes I think this must have been a tired copy editor getting in a joke: Chick accuses colleagues of using sexist language.

A headline on the front page of the July 9 Daily Breeze will be an ironic favorite of mine for the Well, duh prize: Is Trump ignoring U.S. hate groups? Trump has not ignored U.S. hate groups: he has encouraged them.

An easy argument could be built to show that his election was in large part possible because he ridiculed and demeaned the handicapped, African-Americans, Mexicans, women well, a big list.

He was endorsed by the KKK. He has a white supremacist as a top advisor. His big political start was claiming former President Barack Obama was born in Africa, a reminder to everyone that Obama was black. He encouraged his supporters to violence both before the election and now as president.

Is Trump ignoring U.S. hate groups? Not at all: He is encouraging them, and encouraging them to violence.

Dee Masters, Torrance

Read more:

Elon Musk's space vision can inspire new generations: Letters - The Daily Breeze