Letters to the Editor
Silenced
Published Letters: 1358 Editor's Choice: 75
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It pops up in several places
[Read the article: Gaming makes women smarter?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One, they keep crying out for "Helen and all her possessions."
Two, we find out later her possessions include skilled weavers and spinners.
Three, in the Odyssey we see references to all the fine textiles produced by Helen after she is returned by force to Greece.
Four, in the ancient world, certain types of fine textiles were regarded as signifiers of royal power.
Five, in the ancient world there was a thriving trade in textiles, so textile production was an important means of creating financial wealth from natural resources.
Six, Athena was the goddess who governed weavers. Athena's symbols are found stamped on ancient loom weights from that time. And Athena plays an important role in the Trojan War.
I'm not saying that the ONLY reason for the Trojan War was Helen's textile productive capacity. Obviously in those tribal times, bride-napping was an offense that could trigger a war.
But according to Homer, the Greeks make it more than clear that they will not be satisfied if the Trojans return Helen alone by herself.
Helen must be returned along with her possessions, and her possessions, according to Homer, include the skilled slaves necessary to manufacture royal textiles.
There's a wonderful book on ancient textiles and women. "Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times."
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Huckabee is interesting
[Read the article: What happened to Fighting Rudy?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He's concerned about overincarceration. Giuliani's concern seems to be that we're not incarcerated enough.
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David Brooks is a disappointment
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's sad to see a man with such obvious intelligence and concern for the world whore himself out for the President on television.
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Not sure about the Bionic Woman
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So far, she works for people who torture, and torture ends up saving the day. I felt politically violated by the last episode, not sure I'm going to watch again.
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I like to watch
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Naked Archaeologist with Simcha Jacobovici. It's the smartest, coolest show I've ever seen about Bibical archaeology.
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Oops
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Biblical archaeology.
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She left out soy, flax and lavender
[Read the article: Life will kill you]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So, the sum total of natural and synthetic estrogen in your lifetime affects your risk of breast cancer.
She conveniently leaves out soy, flax and lavender when she lists natural sources of estrogen.
But we're being deluged right now with all three. Commercial bakeries now add soy flour and/or flax seed to their breads and pastries, and prepared frozen dinners are all pumped up with soy protein. Every other bath product contains lavender these days.
People say, oh that's the good estrogen, but I'm not convinced. Those substances all work just like phthalates on me.
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What a long bunch of gibberish
[Read the article: How did the T get in LGBT?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You're selling them out, bottom line. Just admit it already and work from there. All this long-winded rationallization is just making you look even more weasely.
So take your half loaf, and don't forget your change.
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And about women getting the vote
[Read the article: How did the T get in LGBT?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There was a crucial point in the women's suffrage movement where a deal was offered by white southern women to support suffrage if black women were left out. But the women's suffrage leaders insisted on having the whole loaf, or no loaf at all.
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If only he'd said this
[Read the article: Quote of the day: Take that, Jodie Foster, Nicole Kidman!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"We are no longer doing movies that lack a single shred of original thought, and we no longer expect the audience to buy our garbage just because we cast an important, well-respected actress in the lead."
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The Brave One was based on a completely outdated premise
[Read the article: Quote of the day: Take that, Jodie Foster, Nicole Kidman!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]These revenge flicks take advantage of the tunnel-blindess and anger control issues that afflict some people who have been seriously traumatized.
Back in the Charles Bronson age, people didn't understand PTSD that well. It had just been discovered in Vietnam veterans but that knowledge hadn't yet deepened into any base of therapeutic treatments yet or any social awareness that crime victims could suffer from the same kind of injury.
You could imagine a crime victim back then going off the rails with PTSD and turning vigilante. But today that's not really a socially supportable notion because almost everyone nowadays has heard of PTSD and knows that it can be treated through means that are more peaceful and socially constructive than a visit to the local gun dealer.
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Maybe we could write a better movie right here
[Read the article: Quote of the day: Take that, Jodie Foster, Nicole Kidman!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Broadsheet screenwriting workshop, how about it?
Consider Nicole Kidman as a cokehead indie art magazine publisher who denies a promised raise to Jodie Foster, her underpaid single mom employee, who can't afford a post-partum tummy tuck and winds up being chased all over Los Angeles by a pack of scalpel-wielding Visigoths.
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You can also credit the growing police state mentality of the last 37 years
[Read the article: Life shouldn't have to take Visa]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cash is looked upon with suspicion now partly thanks to the War on Drugs. This is another one of the small hidden costs we pay to maintain our warlike approach to the public health problem of addiction.
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Recommendation for the authors
[Read the article: Stop your sobbing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You took too much "science studies" in college and not nearly enough science.
But that's the problem with Gen X in America -- a whole generation that took "science studies" instead of science.
This is why we have to import our scientists from foreign countries.
This is why we are doomed.
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I think we really are doomed
[Read the article: Stop your sobbing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]All the challenges we're facing now and the left is anti-science and the generation that's the right age to take charge and lead us out of this mess has no science education to speak of.
All they learned to do in college is criticize science.
They don't understand science, but they understand how to criticize it.
We are so doomed.
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I know a secret from the War on Cancer
[Read the article: Life will kill you]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nixon wanted the War on Drugs and the War on Cancer to march in step, so he ordered research that he thought would prove that marijuana caused cancer.
Ooops the experiment proved the opposite -- THC killed breast and lung cancer cells instead of making them grow.
The government quickly ended the research and forced the publication to be retracted.
HOWEVER -- when something is true, you can't hide it forever.
http://www.kubby.com/Guzman-Cancer-nrc1188.pdf
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Do you want acid rain or global warming?
[Read the article: American Electric Power faces the acid rain music]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The same emissions that cause acid rain also work against global warming by blocking sunlight.