Letters to the Editor
Lynx
Published Letters: 1595 Editor's Choice: 126
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Modern medicine is humorless
[Read the article: Blood and bile and phlegm, oh my!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Except for the germ theory and some classes of pharmaceuticals (AIDS drugs), "modern" medicine has not provided that much added value in its two centuries of existence
Anesthesia, sulfa/penecilin/antibiotics, nutrition theory, X-Rays/MRI/CAT Scans, disinfectants, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, physical therapy, etc...
Some physicians will even admit the truth: medicine - even surgery - is primarily about alleviating symptoms and holding the body together until it can heal itself.
I don't think I want to go to those physicians. Yes, the body can assist in healing itself, but medicine and surgery are definately needed. Injuries that would have requred a belt of whisky and an amputation in 1807 (if you didn't just wait and die) would now be anesthesia, surgery and recovery with a good shot at full use of the injured limb. You can call that "holding the body together until it heals itself" if you want, but they've gotten much, MUCH better at making sure it has the chance.
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Too Complex
[Read the article: The Bush-league economy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is possible the writers and handlers thought these issues were too complex for Bush to discuss without mangling them to the point where he'd have to get defensive. Bush doesn't do well with ideas that take more than a sentence or two to convey, he has a tendency to drift. Before you know it he'd be talking about how he "supports houses 'cause people need to live places" and the like.
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Sloppy writing
[Read the article: Fatal enhancement]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But what about for the 80 percent of women with perfectly healthy bodies who subject themselves to the unnecessary medical risks of breast implants.
I do not believe this is what you meant to say. You've said that 80% of women with perfectly healthy bodies get breast implants.
What you meant to say was that 80% of women who get breast implants start with perfectly healthy bodies. In other words, only 20% of women who get breast implants do so because of medical reasons.
Try changing it to "80 percent of women who get breast implants do so despite starting with perfectly healthy bodies, what about them?"
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@mrkcohen
[Read the article: This Modern World]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Spoken like a good Republican. You must think these last 8 years were great!
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Zapp
[Read the article: WayLay]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As a "Science-junkie" you should pay better attention to details. The people being shot didn't get guns.
This isn't really about "Scientists bad!" this is more about how people don't question authority. There was an experiment years ago where people were told to shock a person in another room by pressing a button. The other person wasn't really being shocked, but the shocker didn't know this and most simply went along, increasing the shock whenever they were told. The same can be seen in the torturing our country has been doing. The people that performed it were "just doing their jobs" despite not having any leanings in sadism beforehand.
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Home depot
[Read the article: The great chain of Home Depot unbeing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To those complaining about Home Depot
I don't know where you're shopping, but in several states at quite a few Home Depots the only problems I've encountered are the crowds. I'm always able to find help, the prices aren't bad and I can get a hammer and a box of nails just fine without seeing anything "Disney" branded or "gold-plated". The help might not always be the highest quality, but it is usually sufficient for me to find what I need.
Moira kelly seems to be complaining they aren't high end enough while tomreedtoon is complaining they're too fancy. You can't satisfy everyone.
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BBC
[Read the article: No August vacation for the stock market]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was listening to the BBC on the way in and heard more realistic assesments there than you ever hear in American reporting. When she was asked when the confidence would come back to the markets the editor of Money Week (I think it was) said "What makes you think it'll ever come back?"
I appreciated her questioning this kind of assumption. They were discussing the practice of bundling mortgages as selling them on the market. She compared it to making sausages, you can bury a few bad bits in the product and hope it doesn't make anyone sick, but as soon as one makes someone sick, no-one wants any of them any more.
She stated that this is what's happened to the mortgage market and that until the banks come clean about what is in each of their "sausages" credit and the economy won't recover.
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Ironic Troll: Anonymous 12:47
[Read the article: Padilla: Guilty until proved guilty]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Snarkilly pretending that saying Padilla got railroaded is the same as saying everyone's innocent. Yet he posts as Anonymous. Look who's got something to hide. Maybe you should be sent down to Gitmo yourself, lets see what you confess to after that treatment. My guess, you'll confess to being one of the My Little Ponies and to having tea with Rainbow Bright. Also that you supplied the Rosenbergs with nuclear secrets.
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timbuktom
[Read the article: No August vacation for the stock market]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anonymous is a desperate Right Wing troll pretending that everything is fine in the economic world and markets will solve everything. If something goes wrong and people point it out, he says things like Any person who imagines that they are inherently bad is a 19th Century Marxist long since 'discredited'.
In other words, he's saying that if you think things aren't going well, you're a commie. Better dead than red and all that bumper-sticker nonsense.
Amusingly, he put "discredited" in quotes. When you put a word in quotes and you're not actually quoting something (or putting words in someone's mouth as I do in a moment, you're saying that you're using the word to mean something other than its literal meaning. He likely means "vilified by the right wing no-nothings."