Letters to the Editor
Amerigo
Published Letters: 955 Editor's Choice: 60
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If I was a politician,,,
[Read the article: Rudy's bogus healthcare stats]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... which I am not, when it came to healthcare--socialized versus insurance for all versus private medicine, I would first of all have to decide what my greatest priority was.
Would I want my country to have the world's best results in terms of public health indicators, such as life expectancy, infant mortality in the first year of life, control of contagious diseases like TB and HIV?
Or would I want the system that was economically the most efficient in terms of delivering the most care to the most people for the least money.
Or would I want the system that was ideologically the most pure, regardless of outcomes, for example the one with the least government involvement, or the one that gave everyone equal access?
Or would I want the one that was most profitable for the people who funded my election TV commercials?
Or would I want to take all these factors into account and figure out which position would garner me the most votes from the segment of the population that is not totally opposed to voting for me?
You see, this is why I am not a politician. It is too hard.
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No real mystery...
[Read the article: Rudy's bogus healthcare stats]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There is no real mystery about this. Rudy is just throwing out certain titbits that he believes, probably correctly, will make his supporters salivate. He is not really trying to engage in any serious debate on healthcare. He is not suggesting that a Giuliani administration will privatize the Veterans Administration, a huge socialized medical system run by the federal government, so that former military will have a better chance of surviving prostate cancer.
All the presidential candidates do this. None of them engage in any substantive discussion of current issues of interest, because they all know that this thing is primarily a beauty contest and that they can only win by being all things to all people and having a good dentist.
To be fair, you cannot say that Rudy is lying any more than the rest of the pathetic crew. That is not to say that they are not capable of substantive discussion, but unfortunately WE are to blame, because we don't demand more. I know you can say that the mainstream press and TV people play softball, but they can only get away with that because WE don't really care enough to turn off the TV. OK, maybe we do. I don't even have a TV. But when I say WE, I mean us voters en masse.
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Admiration
[Read the article: How Oprah ruined the marathon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I admire anyone who completes a marathon, however slowly. I used to be a fairly good recreational runner. Yes I could scrape under 12 minutes for 2 miles, 20 minutes for 5K and 90 minutes for the half marathon, but I never, ever ran a marathon. Just too much hard work and too much pain for me. At least Oprah got off her fat butt, in spite of her numerous other committments and put in the time, effort, and mileage to get herself in shape to complete a marathon. I do not suffer from Oprahphilia, but give credit where credit is due, and she has inspired many people to achieve beyond what they thought they could go. (My God, what am I saying?)
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Re plagiarism
[Read the article: How Oprah ruined the marathon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Regarding the suggestion of plagiarism in the letter above this one, I have read both articles, and while they are thematically similar, I can't see that one is copied from the other. Inspired by it maybe, but not plagiarized. You might find better examples of plagiarism in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.
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Water torture.
[Read the article: When waterboarding was a crime]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There has never really been any doubt as to whether water boarding is torture.
In any case, the Geneva Convention pretty much lays down an approximation to the Golden Rule. If in doubt treat your prisoners the way you want your own captured soldiers to be treated. Would we want our people to be interrogated on a water board?
It is totally disgraceful that our nation uses torture when we have a President who calls himself a Christian. Why has he not been called to account by our religious leaders?
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Washington Post article
[Read the article: When waterboarding was a crime]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The article IS still up there, linked to on the front page of the Washington Post Web site.
To read it you will need to get a free log-in and provide the WP with a few trivial details such as your e-mail address, SS #, condom size, passport #, names of any relative with criminal records or mideast contact, and your current bank balance, but that is cool.
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Do you have a drinking problem?
[Read the article: Do I have a drinking problem?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It sounds like you do. Women have smaller livers than men and are more prone to both long term liver damage and brain damage. And one bottle of wine per day is way too much for men or women.
In addition to this you have been on antidepressants for years,a and antidepressant can also cause hepatotoxicity and reduce your ability to metabolize alcohol. So if you carry on like this, the consequences could be very grave.
I think it is truly amazing that the LW has succeeded so well academically in spite of a horrific personal history and chronic mental illness, and she should be applauded for that.
Then again, we don't know what the LW is studying, but there have been numerous heavy drinkers who have been outstanding achievers--Ulysses S. Grant, John Daly, Stephen King, Truman Capote, Boris Yeltsin, Joseph Stalin, Cary Tennis, the list is actually endless. Life expectancy with this life style is not always so good, though Winston Churchill and the Queen Mother of England both enjoyed extraordinary longevity as well as the occasional case or two of booze.
The famous repartee:
"You, Mr Churchill, are drunk.”
“And you, Lady Astor, are ugly. But I shall be sober in the morning" has gone down in history as a bon mot.
However, as a general priciple, if you are going to drink a lot, you need to make your mark in life early just for insurance.