Letters to the Editor
ikuiku
Published Letters: 177 Editor's Choice: 21
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Microsoft isn't in the "computer" business, . . .
[Read the article: Total systemic breakdown, then and now]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]. . . and I said Microsoft is a mature company. Two different things. The computer industry will never "mature" unless we lose the ability to improve processing capabilities. Though it is technologically stagnant right now.
If computer business is a mature business, how do you explain Apple's rising sales? And how many of Microsoft's jobs in the U.S. are H1B visas? And if Microsoft is unable to find talent in the U.S. it is because they are unwilling to pay competitive salaries, so they are importing cheap labor.
-- semionb
Apple's increased sales, but a mere drop in the ocean of PC dominance, don't represent entirely new computer sales. A portion of them is people switching from PC to Mac.
Computers are like refrigerators (though they are useful for a shorter period of time) - you only need so many of them. The market in the developed parts of the world is pretty well saturated.
Relatively few of Microsoft's employees working in the U.S. are on H1B visas because they issue only so many of them. Though it is true they would like to hire more.
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Of course people care.
[Read the article: The Gilded Age, past and present]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The titans of Wall Street have failed us like never before. So why does no one care? By Steve Fraser
But they also know that the people who are in the best position to do something about this, the Republican appointed and controlled government regulatory agencies and the Democratic majority in congress apparently lacking a spine, won't do anything.
It's not 1931 with soup kitchens and 35% unemployment. And even then, there wasn't a revolution (though there was Franklin Roosevelt - don't see too many of his kind on the horizon). It's bad but hardly dire.
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If this charlatan is a fan . . .
[Read the article: You are the river: An interview with Ken Wilber]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]. . . then Wilber can be none too deep or an important thinker. At best, it's a desperate attempt at log-rolling.
Deepak Chopra calls him "one of the most important pioneers in the field of consciousness."
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Study finds racial disparity in death penalty
[Read the article: Racial bias in the death penalty ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Duh.
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Does Madonna still matter?
[Read the article: Does Madonna still matter?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No. She hasn't mattered for probably a decade, and didn't matter all that much to begin with.
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I dated Cindy Sherman ...
[Read the article: I dated Cindy Sherman ...]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And all I got was this documentary. Paul H-O on his film about the iconic photographer and the perils of being an art world sidekick. By Joy Press
Who?
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Repealing the federal gas tax is, as everyone should know, nothing but a cheap election year stunt.
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton throws economists off the bus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That Clinton thinks she needs to embrace it just shows how desperate she is. This is especially true when you consider that the largest part of the price of oil and, hence, gasoline, is a $.45/gallon import oil tax.
If it were up to me, we'd have an additional $.50/gallon federal gas and diesel tax going exclusively to alternative energy research and mass transit funding.
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Can Democrats learn to talk about race?
[Read the article: Can Democrats learn to talk about race?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes. But the issue isn't race with Democrats, it's socio-economic class. Republicans (and still far too many Southern Dems) don't need to talk about race because it's pretty much a given that they are mostly racists.
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And that's why it's no surprise that America is as fucked-up as it is these days.
[Read the article: Finale wrap-up: "Survivor: Micronesia"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But the actual answer to the question is, yes, people do watch Survivor. 11.49 million people last night, to be specific.
-- Rowsdower
I think far too many people (probably more than 11.5 million, certainly when you throw in all the other "reality shows" like American Idle, et al) get a bigger jolt from the manufactured drama in silly shit like this than the real crises facing the country. Imagine how things might be different if enough Americans paid as close attention to the shenanigans of the Bush administration over the last seven years as they have to nonsense like Survivor.
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Isn't the real question: . . .
[Read the article: Finding Obama guilty of insufficient devotion to Israel]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]. . . How devoted to America is Israel? As long as Israel is a recipient of American largess to the tune of several billion dollars every year, Americans have no obligations to Israel of any sort, particularly the president.
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On second thought, maybe halting purchases of oil for the SPR could make a real difference.
[Read the article: A Strategic Petroleum Reserve flip-flop]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No.
Americans consume oil at such a rate irrespective of price that nothing short of finding billions and billions of easily recoverable sweet crude (which would actually be a disaster vis-a-vis global warming) and an instant 5% reduction in consumption world wide would lower the price of oil. As neither of these things is likely to happen, I don't believe we will ever again see oil below $100/barrel.