Letters to the Editor
Amerigo
Published Letters: 955 Editor's Choice: 60
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More fool us..
[Read the article: Campaigning while female]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In his poem The Lady's Dressing Room well-known eighteenth century misanthropist Jonathan Swift wrote:
Disgusted Strephon stole away
Repeating in his amorous Fits,
Oh! Celia, Celia, Celia shits!
We are all fools if we forget that all of these godlike creatures running for the White House are just human beings like us.
Media images are carefully crafted to exclude the quotidian, so we never hear that Mrs. Clinton had to cancel her engagement because she had a menstrual period or hot flash, that she is or is not taking hormone replacement therapy, that Obama smokes cigarettes (should be a cinch in North Carolina),
that Huckerbee was suffering from diarrhea brought on by the Iowan diet (the nonverbal kind, that is), or that Guiliani's prostrate surgery has left him impotent and therefore lusting for power of other kinds, or that Edwards was suffering from flatulence on the campaign trail, or that Romney has a hairy ass.
The media just does not do that kind of stuff, but of course it is all still there in we voter's private thoughts. (Some of the above examples are invented for illustrative purposes.)
But WTF does it have to do with the office they are running for? Surely we are grown up enough to vote for them according to how their presence in the White House will affect government, and what kind of leader of the Free World they might make.
Why do we have to put up with journalists relentlessly trivializing politics?
Maybe at the next debate we can ask them if they fold or scrunch their toilet paper. It could give a clue to how they would handle Iran. Or maybe not.
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West Wingers
[Read the article: Campaigning while female]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The faces we see are smooth, airbrushed, airtight, and quite thoroughly lifeless. It's frightening. It's wrong. And although it's more often true (and more harshly enforced) for women, men are not immune.
Oh come on man (or ma'am), surely you have to admit that Brad Pitt and Anglelina Jolie would make a great-looking President and First Lady. And they could learn that politics stuff on the job, couldn't they?
Gordon Brown would never make it to the top job here, because whoever heard of a one-eyed President?
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Why I hate Christmas..
[Read the article: I'll be alone for Christmas -- merrily!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]O.K. I don't really hate it, but it is just that the memory of those Christmases with the whole family at home and my Dad lording it over the unwrapping of the gifts, and the excess food, the drink, the smell of turkey, the huge lunch, the unbearable TV shows, the crying younger sisters, the toys that are already broken by lunchtime, the long distance phone calls that make me feel nauseous every time I hear the X word.
I would rather spend Christmas in prison, and in fact I have spent Christmas in a top security prison, though not in the capacity of an inmate.
I have often been working at Christmas, which is great. You get extra money and you have people feeling sorry for you and praising you for your dedication.
But funnily enough, though I am quite pagan these days, I enjoy the religious aspect of Christmas, the singing of carols, the thought that the sun is now on his way back from vacation in the southern hemisphere and that now the days will get a little longer every week.
Even Richard Dawkins, that modern-day Scrooge, enjoys a good carol sing, according to the BBC Web site today, as long as they are not fundamentalist carols. I don't know how he feels about:
Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child
but I guess he sucks it up and sings along with the program.
I love the way the balls on the Christmas trees symbolize fertility in the middle of winter, even though the trees where I live really do have real golden and yellow balls at Christmas. We call them oranges and grapefruit down here.
Christmas is like hitting rock bottom. You can only go up from there.
LW, if you want to spend Christmas drinking champagne with the cats and watching TV, then you do just that.
Personally I will be pouring concrete on a new walkway, and then I will bake a meatloaf, play some online poker, and listen to some Maria Callas, but that is how we creative types are. Can't take the day off, just because it is Christmas.
Life is too short.
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Yes, of course...
[Read the article: Harry Reid's pro-life stance vs. Ron Paul's ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... you can be prochoice, but vote for a candidate who is not.
I am such a voter.
I don't find the idea of using abortion as birth control very attractive at all, though I have no objection to the morning after pill and for early abortions for women who have been raped.
I would prefer there to be a lot less abortion and a lot more sex education, free contraception, and adoption.
But when it comes down to it, if a woman is determined to end a pregnancy, I would prefer her to be able to have a safe, legal abortion than to have to resort to "backstreet" abortionists and illegal abortions without medical follow up.
However I appreciate that others may in good conscience have points of view different from my own, and would not make myself into a single issue voter over the issue.
When it comes to the Presidency, we are talking about the leader of the Free World, and we have to look at his or her stance on all the issues. A candidate might be personally opposed to choice, but not activist in promoting any change to the current law.