Letters to the Editor
ananda
Published Letters: 34 Editor's Choice: 2
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Mikes Pace
[Read the article: I have guilty knowledge about my girlfriend]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ben Dover offers great advice...if you're 30+ and interested in dating women in the same age group.
Since you're interested in dating college girls, learn to put up with facebook. They all have one.
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Meh
[Read the article: India to swear in first female prez]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's good to see women in positions of authority, but it's a little naive to assume they're going to focus that power on women's rights. Benazir Bhutto didn't do much of anything to aid women. Margaret Thatcher focused on very different issues. It's more about the leader's agenda than her gender...
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Where was the school?
[Read the article: Boys just being ... sex offenders?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sex offender registries are a bad idea in many cases anyway. If the crimes involved are so serious and the chances of reoffending so high that everyone living nearby is in danger, we shouldn't let the person out of jail in the first place. People who commit more minor crimes and aren't predicted to reoffend should be allowed to move on with their lives.
There's certainly no reason these boys should have to face that sort of punishment, and I find it curious that this was handled through the criminal justice system at all. When I was that age (which was not THAT long ago...), incidents like that were taken care of by the school. Children who repeatedly harassed or fought with their classmates were suspended, and after several suspensions they were expelled. It seemed to work well enough.
And no, we shouldn't be encouraging girls to kick their classmates in sensitive areas. That's wrong too, and kids have enough to worry about at school without having sparring matches in the hallways.
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Why are we focusing only on the childless?
[Read the article: Too young to tie your tubes?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My impression is that the majority of people seeking sterilization at a young age already have at least one child.
It's not just a women's issue either. An high school acquaintence of mine wanted a vasectomy in his mid-twenties, and had a very difficult time finding a doctor willing to perform one. Why did he want to be sterilized? He had already managed to father four children with three different women. Is anyone better off if he has to be fertile for several more years?
I imagine that there is a minority of people who eventually regret being sterilized, but we all make decisions that are hard to reverse and are expected to deal with the consequences. I doubt there's going to be a huge rash of career-minded young women lined up to get their tubes tied in any case. Even people who are 100% sure they don't want (more) children hesitate to have elective surgery.
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To the anonymous poster
[Read the article: Too young to tie your tubes?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't see many people calling for government regulation forbidding doctors from making these decisions. People are simply stating that they disagree with the views of the doctors involved. Perhaps if these issues receive more attention, some physicians will change their opinions and be more open to sterilizing younger patients. Just because you have an M.D. after your name doesn't mean you're infallible, or that you're incapable of changing your mind.
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Sounds like the "New Vics" are "these three girls the columnist knows"
[Read the article: The kids are alright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For me the giveaway was how "many" of these New Vics cheer when watching the African Queen. Give me a break. How many women under 30 have even seen that movie, let alone cheered at one of its lines?
Lifestyle columnists have a nasty habit about noticing something that a handful of their friends are doing and portraying it as a nationwide phenomenon. Looks like this is what happened here.
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Wouldn't this happen naturally anyway?
[Read the article: The rise of the "vegansexual"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Being vegan takes a ton of effort, as far as I can tell from my carnivorous perspective, and usually the people willing to go to the trouble have very strong feelings about animal rights, health or the environment. Makes sense that they would have trouble developing a relationship with people who don't share their values.
Plus, sharing food is a big part of the bonding process. That's one of the reasons cultures have food taboos - it separates you from neighboring groups who don't share those taboos. Even without a silly label like "vegansexual", I'd expect like to gravitate towards like.
The stuff about people whose bodies are made up up animal protein is a little silly, though, especially since I'm guessing most vegans consumed animal products in childhood and are the children of non-vegans.
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Nick44
[Read the article: The rise of the "vegansexual"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sorry, didn't mean to imply that there was some hostility among vegans and vegetarians and meat-eaters, or that people couldn't form friendships and romantic relationships. It just didn't seem that surprising that people would end up dating those who share their lifestyle and values.
I read an article awhile back on people who refused to date people who voted for Bush. Are Bushophobesexuals the next big thing?
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Gack
[Read the article: Airbrushing the baby]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is NOT good retouching. The goal is to make people look like themselves but prettier...not to make them look like they're made of plastic.
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The pageant question
[Read the article: Airbrushing the baby]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anyone care to weigh on the healthy side or at least not un-healthy side of baby and kid pageants?
One of my good high school friends did a lot of the smaller, local pageants in her teens. She had a talent - dancing - that didn't translate well into any of the activities available at our high school, and managed to get earn about a year's worth of college tuition by coming in third or winning the talent competition. Very level-headed girl, studious, not the traditional bombshell type at all.
One of my younger cousins also did a few kiddie pageants when she was 6 or 7. It sounded silly but innocuous to me at the time, and I think my cousin enjoyed the dress-up aspects of it. Her mother ended up taking her out of it because it started getting too expensive and time-consuming, and because there was some pressure to compete in out of town pageants which would require her daughter to miss school.
I don't know what I think about pageants in general. Maybe it's one of those things where very serious, intense involvement is a concern, but casual participation is relatively harmless?