Letters to the Editor
sunspot
Published Letters: 349 Editor's Choice: 43
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Why even bother to "steal" technology?
[Read the article: America's dirty rotten scoundrel enemies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Our idiot corporations will gleefully give it away for free. I remember back in the '90s when Dell started shifting all of its production to China. They thought this was real clever, since the Chinese work for practically nothing and there aren't any of the pesky environmental or labor laws to deal with, like we have here at home.
Apparently the morons running Dell didn't think that Chinese workers would take note of Dell's manufacturing techniques, copy them, and implement them at Chinese-owned companies.
Whoops.
Now the biggest threat to domestic computer manufacturers are companies based in China, who learned how to make computers from the likes of Dell. China didn't "steal" anything - empty greedheads happily gave away their competitive advantage. It's like Aesop's fable of the dog and the bone.
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Huh?
[Read the article: Hitachi hatches a humongous hard drive]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1TB drives can already be had for around $300. I wouldn't be surprised to see 4TB drives selling for under $100 by 2011. That's hardly out of most folks' budgets.
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Republicans are headed for the hills
[Read the article: The swing-state subprime blues]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And away from Capitol Hill. Just look at all of the Republican congresscreeps who have announced their retirements over the past few months. It's clear they know they can't get reelected, and the longer they stick around the more likely they are to end up indicted - or worse. Time to re-enter the "private sector", where they can call in all the favors they've done for well-connected corporate cronies at places like Halliburton.
I don't think there's any amount of gay marriage, Iranian terrist' fearmongering that'll get them back into control of Congress in 2008. Not so long as nutcase Republican closetcases like Larry Craig continue to make headlines. And they're poisoning the future of their party in the process, since most Americans under the age of 30 find the Republicans' obsessive homophobia repulsive. They're going to pay at the ballot box for this stupidity for decades.
Couldn't happen to a weirder bunch of freaks.
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Peggy's Porking Out
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Peggy's sudden and considerable weight gain on "Mad Men" is a serious breach in a show that is otherwise meticulous with the details.
It's hardly sudden. They showed her hitting the pastry cart pretty heavy several weeks ago - per the program's timeline, sometime late spring or early summer. Her roommate accused her of essentially cleaning out the fridge a couple of episodes back, and she was munching on more pastry at her desk while Joan was listening in to her phone conversation with her mother.
Now it's early November on the show and she's a bit heavy - she looks like she's gained maybe 20 pounds. Hardly surprising, given that she's on the pill and the way she's been eating. This has all been carefully setup by the writers. I've gained a similar amount of weight over six months' time, so it's not unrealistic by any stretch. She's under a lot of stress, and she's coping with it by eating. Millions of Americans do the same.
Getting chubby may ultimately do her some favors at the office, since she'll be seen as less of a "sex object" by her male peers. We already got a hint of that a couple of episodes back, when one of the most sexist boys congratulated her for her work on the electronic "exercise" machine. He gave her a chummy, "Good job, Pegs." compliment at the end of the meeting. I think he's starting to see her as a junior coworker, not just as a doormat. She's not "one of the boys" yet - more like a kid sister - but it's a start.
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Folks' Old Home
[Read the article: Housing starts: How low can they go?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Where did they live before, and what happens to their previous residences?
Their previous residences are largely occupied by illegal aliens and H1B Visa recipients.
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Crime
[Read the article: Countrywide's Angelo Mozilo: Busted?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's not criminal to unload $130 million in stock in the same year your company announces plans to lay off 12,000 workers.
But it ought to be . . .
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Huh?
[Read the article: Ellen, the dog bullies and me]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ellen admitted on her program that she screwed up. How is that asking for "special treatment"? All she asked was that the Dog Nazis not steal Iggy away from a happy, healthy home and two little girls who loved him as much as he loved them.
Beyond that, Ellen worked her ass off for over a decade to EARN her celebrity. She's free to use that celebrity however she sees fit. I'm glad to see her using it in an attempt to help others instead of simply to enrich herself. If she wanted to "abuse" her celebrity (whatever that means), she could have found far more lucrative outlets.
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Oh, and thank you Ellen!
[Read the article: Ellen, the dog bullies and me]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For alerting all of us to what a bunch of nuts run most of these no-kill animal shelters. My uncle used to breed and show dogs and I thought that crowd was crazy, but they're amateurs at crazy compared to the shelter freaks. Wasting Animal Control's time and taxpayer dollars to steal a happy dog away from two screaming little girls? Totally insane.
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Misusing Celebrity?
[Read the article: Ellen, the dog bullies and me]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm confused by the allegations that Ellen is somehow "misusing" her celebrity. Ellen worked hard for a couple of decades to EARN that celebrity, and it's hers to use as she sees fit. If she really wanted to "abuse" celebrity, she could use it the way Tammy Faye Bakker or Oral Roberts abused theirs, and engage in tearstained begathons for cash.
Asking someone to please return a small dog to a home where he was loved by two little girls is not in any way, shape or form an "abuse" of celebrity. Trying to cast it as such is an abuse of common sense, though.
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USENET
[Read the article: Ellen, the dog bullies and me]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Salon Letters is apparently dressing up as USENET circa 1996 for Halloween
How deliciously ironic, coming from "Anonymous".
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Of course
[Read the article: Ellen, the dog bullies and me]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm sure everybody reads the fine print in every contract they sign . . .
And I'm sure everybody expects the fine print to contain something as nutty as what was in the contract Ellen's partner signed (get your facts straight).
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Not "an announcement"
[Read the article: Dumbledore? Gay. J.K. Rowling? Chatty.]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There's a reason that Rowling made this announcement.
Except she didn't announce anything. Someone in the crowd asked her about Dumbledore's lovelife, and she answered the question.