Letters to the Editor
Amerigo
Published Letters: 955 Editor's Choice: 60
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@ggodgrass
[Read the article: If the first date isn't great, why go out with him again? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In case you haven't heard, red wine goes really well with steak.
Yes, I know that, but I was responding more to your point about one person drinking the whole bottle. This would put most people to sleep, and if I was on a date in the early stages of a relationship and the other person drank a whole bottle of wine on their own (I don't drink), this would definitely be a warning signal.
If we can get it, we also may put a slab of roasted bone marrow or a hunk of pan-seared foie gras on top of the steak. Does that make us even more degenerate because we are wolfing down saturated fat?
No, I like to make stocks and soups from bones and I am not overweight either. Well, only a few pounds.
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I am the LW
[Read the article: I'm an existential artist. People just don't get me!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That is a good header that should get some attention. However I am not the LW, though in some ways I feel that I might as well be.
For example, I can never understand why if Eric Clapton is God, then why is Benny Goodman not the Supreme Being, since his searing clarinet solos send me into a state of ecstasy that has me lying on the floor and kicking my legs in the air--which is not a good thing to do when you are driving on I-75.
But the rest of the world seems completely and utterly impervious to his claim to divinity.
I suppose the answer is that everyone has something that sends them into a state of ecstasy, but their choices are not the same. It may be a Burger King hamburger, or Survivor, or a Barry Bonds home run, or a Coca Cola. In each case it is probably IS the real thing.
I think what we LWs need to do is to adopt a few regular off-brand humans as friends, and allow them access to our kingdom, permit them to worship us. This stops us from getting big-headed and believing we are special. Maybe we should sometimes wipe their noses or their asses, fix the things they break, make their lives a bit better for them.
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I have a dream
[Read the article: Romney and Huckabee's religious intolerance ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have a dream that one day there will be an American where a politician can be judged by the content of the laws and policies that he or she supports, and not by the color of his religously tinted spectacles.
Can we not make this the new civil rights movement?
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Hypocrisy
[Read the article: Are you there, God? It's me, Rudy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Put simply, it's more instructive to know how often people attend church than what type of church they attend...
The hypocrisy of the American electorate knows no bounds, because anyone with a modicum of intelligence can see that none of the candidates of either party probably believe in God in any sense that would be accepted by church officialdom.
And none of them would pass any theological test set by the Catholic church which, never mind abortion, also forbids its adherents to use contraception and only permits sex within marriage for reproductive purposes--a ban massively ignored by the faithful.
Oh, sure, all of them have been raised in a somewhat Christian ambience and would probably sign on the the Golden Rule, Christmas Carols, Easter Eggs, Thou Shalt Not Kill, Honor Thy Parents, Forgive Us Our Trespasses etc***., but none of them (Huckerby possible exception) give the impression that they could pass Theology or Bible Studies 101 on a multiple choice test or subscribe to a Bible verse like "the love of money is the root of all evil."
What all the candidates do sincerely believe is that America will be a better place when THEY get their hands on the levers of power.
The Roman emperor Augustus came to power as a secular emperor, but Upon his death in 14 AD, Augustus was declared a God by the Senate, an honor yet to be bestowed on any US President, though I cannot see one actually turning it down if offered. Perhaps getting your visage on Mt. Rushmore is the closest thing to Godhood, though a Presidential Library is a kind of temple, when you think about it.
Augustus' famous dying words were "did you like the performance"? And that is what this election campaign is. It has nothing to do with what any of the candidates actually believe, it is all to do with them making statements via the media that are triangulated and calculated to appeal to certain segments of the electorate without alientating other segments, and preferably not contradicting earlier public statements.
It would certainly be interesting to have a series of debates in which the candidates would display their theological ignorance, but how relevant would this be to governing the country?
I would certainly like to know what the candidates thing of the type of escatology portrayed in the Hal Lindsey Left Behind series of books and whether any beliefs of this type they have might influence their conduct of diplomacy in the Middle East, but of course no one is ever going to ask them this crucial question.
I would also like to ask them if they think the stories of Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel are literally true. This would help to give me a handle on the candidates' understanding of science, history, and culture.
To get a feel for their stance on feminist issues, I would ask them whether they agree with the Bible that pain in childbirth is a punishment God has decreed for women because Eve tempted good ole Adam with an apple--or not, as the case may be.
*** One of the above items is not Christian, but I doubt whether the candidates would know.