I've been inside many battery-cage hen houses. They are terrible places. The very young hens are jumping all over each other in the cages. Even worse is seeing the birds who have been caged for months. It's like they've given up. They don't even respond to stimuli.

Their combs are doughy and white and hang over their faces. Dust, dander and debris float visibly in the air, and droppings encrust and drip through the bars. The houses are so full of excretory ammonia fumes you can't stand the burning sensation in your eyes, throat and chest. To suggest that these houses are hygienic is absurd.

Fortunately, there's a ton of science showing that chickens are miserable in cages. If anyone doubts this, come see our former battery-caged hens in our yard. In less than a month, you'd never know they were the same birds! Even their doughy white combs become vibrant again. Pretty soon they're scratching away in the dirt, chomping on greens, sunning themselves and running around the way nature intended " it's all right there in their genes.

Thank you for the great article.

Karen Davis
president of United Poultry Concerns

Too many lawyers?
Thank you for Ian Maitland's exposure of the hypocrisy in our Law school's stated position on the Solomon Amendment in his Dec. 6 guest column, "Freedom and the Soloman Amendment."

His article caused me to recall why so many of our fellow citizens believe we have too many lawyers and are especially suspicious of those teaching law in American universities. The goal of these experts seems to be the clever manipulation of statutory principles to benefit one group over another despite evidence that the purpose of the law in the first place was to eliminate such favoritism. While such manipulation is understandable as a selfish personal goal, it seems totally destructive when conducted by those who are training future officers of the court.

The profession is indeed deserving of our continued scorn and ridicule as long as this continues.

James F. Van Houten
president of Minnesota Association of Scholars

Life or gas
Gas prices are rising, oil reserves are depleting and we still just sit on the obvious solution. Though we will never be able to effectively reduce the overall cost of crude oil per barrel, we can easily reduce our dependence on and consumption of oil.

The National Academy of Sciences says that currently available technology can make the average car today get 40 miles per gallon, nearly doubling our current average of 20.8 miles per gallon. This easy step will save consumers $80 billion at the pump. Currently, due to the poor gas mileage the average American is constantly being forced to sacrifice many necessities just to keep their cars running. It's not unusual to see commuters spend as much as $50 two or three times a week to fill up.

We don't have to choose between gas and life. The Toyota Prius, estimated at 60 mpg for city driving, shows that a smarter engine and a more efficient transmission, as well as other design improvements, can make big gains in gas mileage. This is what we have available now, imagine the possibilities if stricter corporate average fuel economy standards are set and we are allowed to explore all the potential alternatives to crude oil and the destruction of natural treasures at high costs.

Jesse Vanderwerf
assistant director of U.S. Public Research Interest Group

Is torture acceptable?
This is in response to the Dec. 2 guest column by Lin Wang, "Falun Dafa and ignorance."

I find the most telling statement in his column to be this: "They (people in the U.S.) think this is just another example of Chinese government torturing peaceful, religious people. It is such a shame."

The implication being that it is acceptable to torture those who are not "peaceful," or in another word, "acceptable." Of course, who decides who is acceptable in communist China?

Another statement I would like to comment on is this: "While on many issues I do agree that China, as a developing country, can improve ... "

This rhetoric has been passed around for too long. China (or I should say, the Chinese Communist Party) does not have the intention to improve, nor, apparently, the ability to improve. Yes, China has opened up economically, but there has been no improvement in any other area. There is no freedom of speech or belief in China, nor any movement toward democracy.

Falun Dafa is good, and I offer this as proof: If you take a long look at all of the people and all of the groups persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party in its 56-year rule by terror, one thing seems clear; if the Chinese Communist Party persecutes you, you must be good.

James Battaglini
Wayzata