Letters to the Editor
larrfirr
Published Letters: 257 Editor's Choice: 33
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Fine with me
[Read the article: Do we teach children to fear men?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't like prejudice as much as anybody, especially if it directed against me, but anything that will keep children I don't know from bothering me is ok in my book.
I don't mean to sound sexist, but on the average women are fascinated by babies and little children and would be more likely to help them if lost, most men, like myself, consider strange children a bother.
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Resentment
[Read the article: Toronto Film Festival]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I missed the only screening of Jacques Rivette's "The Duchess of Langeais," which I sorely wanted to see"
Now isn't this the true reason this article is written in such a negative tone? Zacharek had to miss an artsy movie to go to one that was more newsworthy than artistic.
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Special rights
[Read the article: Thompson proposes a new gay marriage amendment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thomespon says that the government should treat everyone the same way, and that "we should not set aside categories to give special set-aside treatments" to specific groups.
So, isn't having marriage only for heterosexuals exactly giving them special rights? So, by some strange reasoning when we give special rights to the majority it is Ok, but extending those rights to everyone makes it unfair.
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Getting your hands dirty
[Read the article: Caught dirty-handed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't see why men need to wash their hands after urinating, unless they make a mess, they only touch their penises (and sometimes don't even need to do that). I'm not knowledgeable on female bathroom habits but it seems much more likely a woman get get urine on her hands while cleaning up. The more sensible thing is to wash before you go, but in our culture we consider the genital area "dirty" while in fact it harbors fewer germs than a computer keyboard or a telephone.
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the wrong criticisms
[Read the article: The Mormons are coming]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are a lot of criticisms of Mormonism that are valid, but the ones that most people cling on to bother me. They say it has "absurd beliefs" and that it believes in things that cannot be verified in the historical record. In fact nearly all religions have absurd beliefs, such as rising from the dead. As for being non verifiable, there is very little of the Jewish and Christian scriptures that can be verified by other historical sources. Some question if Abraham, Moses and Jesus existed at all.
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Hardly
[Read the article: Don't ask, don't tell, Iranian style]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ahmadinejad believes that while homosexual acts may take place, homosexual people don't exist. In this he is really not different from most people in the third world in fact many Americans think the same way. While you can argue that the gay subculture and identity is a phenomenon of our culture, the fact is that many people are attracted to their own sex to form bonds of sex, romance and committed love. If you don't believe this, you consider homosexuality either a playful diversion or a sinful indulgence (both attitudes have always existed in Muslim culture).
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Is that being presidential?
[Read the article: The presidential Hillary Clinton?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So being evasive on difficult questions is being presidential? Does acting like the current president qualify you to be the next president? Will Hillary Clinton now lie to the American people, send thousands to die in an unnecessary war, spy on us beyond the limits of the law and promote the use of torture to look more "presidential"?
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Depressing
[Read the article: Middle age threw me a wicked curve]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This has to be the most depressing thing I've read on Salon. I was ready to to crawl up in a hole somewhere and die, except for that titbit about frequent masturbation being beneficial for men over 50, that cheered me up.
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I'm suprised
[Read the article: Our rosy future, according to Freeman Dyson]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I didn't think I'd like this guy at all, judging from the headline but I think he said just what I've been thinking all along. Instead using the issue of global warming as a means of one group asserting it's "rightousness", we need to decide together how we are going to accomodate ourselves to the new climate. On this and other issues I find Dyson a realist. Things are going to happen that we can't do much about, let's make the best out of what we have.
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On what principals?
[Read the article: John McCain's religious pander]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This country was founded upon the principles of the Enlightenmentwhich was certainly anti-church, if not anti-religion. The founders certainly recognized the value of the moral code found in the Bible, but they certainly did not derive their philosophy of goverment it. Incidently, those moral values are much the same as you'd find in the Koran.
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What is moral?
[Read the article: Larry Craig and "moral turpitude"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Despite the fact that I would love to see Senator Craig out of the Senate, and a more liberal senator replace him, I have to support what he is doing. In a society where heterosexuals having sex in the back seat of a car, or on an airplane is something that makes us smile, there is a double standard at work here. Second, there is no proof that he was soliciting for public sex. He probably was, yes, but he could just as easily have been trying to pick the guy up to take him somewhere private, which is not illegal. Finally, this is clearly entrapment. The fact is that by doing nothing the officer was entraping him since any normal man would have reacted to Craig's actions, peering through the crack in the door, nudging his foot, waving his hand under the wall.
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Opening a Can of Worms
[Read the article: Stop your sobbing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You know, for liberals, criticising environmentalists is equivalent to conservatives criticising Gen. Petreas. I am sure there will be lots of critical letters to follow, so let me say it is about time this issue got away from guilt and blame and rather got people to talk about how we are going to deal with what is happening and will happen.
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So what now?
[Read the article: Let's abolish the Electoral College]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You make a good point, and if nothing else this needs to be a matter of national discussion. So how do we make that happen?