Letters to the Editor
Malusinka
Published Letters: 350 Editor's Choice: 49
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Men pay more attention to cars than women do
[Read the article: Scientist: Women, stop destroying the planet!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As a general rule. So, a Ferrarri will impress a lot more guys than women.
BTW, Juliebird, if you ever see a Ferrarri driving down the street, you'll notice. They're very different from the average coupe. (Which isn't to say you'll be impressed, but you will notice.) The 100,000$ Daimlers and Mercedes don't stand out. You'd have to care to figure out that is a ton of money on wheels.
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The article said genetics AND environmental factors
[Read the article: Childhood obesity: All daddy's fault?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I vote for environmental factors. If the parents cook high calorie meals and urge kids to finish what's on their plate, the kid if more likely to over-eat. If the house always has a plentiful supply of cookies and candies there are more opportunities to get fat than if an apple is the best thing a kid can find when he's hungry.
Parents who cook and eat high calorie meals and keep the cookie jar full are more likely to be over-weight than parents who keep the cookie jar empty and the fruit bowl full.
Parents who spend their weekends biking, skiing, hiking, swimming are more likely to have kids who get plenty of exercise then parents who spend their weekends watching TV or fixing their car.
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Melthrough
[Read the article: Childhood obesity: All daddy's fault?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I meant the clean plate club as an example of an environmental factor that can influence weight.
A relative by marriage never had enough food in her childhood, during the war. She couldn't *stand* to waste food. Not even stuff long past the use-by date. She'd push it on whoever she could get to eat it. One of her kids became fat. (others reacted in different ways, but have food issues).
The one who has weight problems not only cleans his plate, he cleans his kids' plates. He absorbed the message of never let food go to waste (just straight to the waist) while living a comfortable middle-class American life. And he's passing it on to his kids, although without the urgency that the issue had for his mother.
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London a model of urban planning?
[Read the article: The population neutron bomb]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That's a comment made by someone who has never taken public transportation in London within 3 hours of peak rush hour. Or tried to drive in London. In other words, either someone who lives next to their place of work (and how many of us do that?) or someone who doesn't have a clue.
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Low standards!
[Read the article: Scotland: It's still rape if she's drunk]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm amazed at how low the standards of some of the men who post here. Their desire to defend the right to behave in a really scummy way, and then say, Gosh, I didn't know she was drunk/well under the age of consent.
Let's look at the facts, if you don't know the woman well, you are almost certainly meeting her in a public place, where there are witnesses who can testify as to whether or not she looked too drunk/too young. So, all you have to have is the judgement of an average guy. If you're way too plastered to know what judgement is, not to mention consent, don't have sex (and don't drive).
Trouble comes when guys start thinking, yeah, she looks a little drunk/young but I might get away with it. If he doesn't, guess what? Not many women will have much sympathy for him and the jury might not either.
So, either raise your standards or start thinking realistically about the circumstances in which these situations occur.
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Polls
[Read the article: Clinton rocks the vote in the Granite State]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Polling might be a "science" grounded in statistics, but it can't capture all the ways people's minds work.
I think it's easy to tell pollsters who you support, but on election day, you have to consider seriously, can this candidate win the general election? And that candidate might not be the one who excited you. And this year, it's harder than ever. What would be more of an anathema to the redneck fundies who voted in Bush, an African-American, son of a foreign-born father (and let's not forget that Kenya's in the news for mayhem these days) or a woman who is Mrs. Bill Clinton?
In 1992, the pollsters were getting wildly diverging data from poll to poll. Why? No big events caused the swing. Based on all polls past, it made no sense.
Then someone figured it out. If you asked voters, 'who will you vote for: Bush or Clinton' THEN asked them 'Bush, Clinton or Perot,' they were much more likely to say 'Perot' than if the questions were asked the other way around. Of course, to fix the problem, the pollsters became consistent about question order, but obviously, question order made a psychological difference to plenty of voters.
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New Hampshire is important
[Read the article: McCain: The last man standing in New Hampshire]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Success attracts money. A poor showing sends the money elsewhere. McCain's win prevented his campaign from ending. Given the alternatives, he may well win the nomination. The Huckster's stealing Mitt's thunder with the religious and all the serious republicans are worried that the blues states and the undecided and anyone with an education past kindergarten will gag at the thought of a president who belives myth over science, who has managed to come up with a tax reform that is dramatically worse than the current mess, and has some basic geography lessons to learn before he is ready for Foriegn Policy 101.
Mitt's probably dead. If he'd been a good governor of neighborhing Mass, NH would have voted for him. Or maybe it was his mid-term decision to pander to the right-wing loonies on gay marriage instead of the generally liberal and progressive citizens of Massachusetts.
Without Mitt as a candidate of the sensible, McCain is the only choice.
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Blue New Hampshire
[Read the article: An enthusiasm gap?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I suspect Mitt's problem in NH was not 'running left of Teddy Kennedy' and being a 'questionable convert to pro-gun and pro-life.' I suspect it was proving that his liberal stance was just a ruse to hoodwink Mass voters with a hard tack to the right. New Hampshire firmly believes in personal liberty and does not want the Government in their bedroom. Mitt's stand against gay marriage, which Mass made legal while Mitt was governor (it was a court decision) was a genuflection at the altar of illiberal, intrusive, fundamentalist government and NH gagged.