Letters to the Editor
tempus
Published Letters: 444 Editor's Choice: 6
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I could not care less
[Read the article: The atheist delusion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What one's beliefs in magical beings is or is not. All I care about is: Do you believe a woman controls, absolutely, her own body and what happens to it and in it? Do men? Are you concerned about what other people are doing in the privacy of their own bedrooms? If you cannot answer the affirmative to the first two questions and answer affirmatively to the third, then you are merely a dictator wannabe, or a dictator supporter. Any high sounding religious mumbo jumbo or philosophy that issues forth after-the-fact is hogwash. Self-justification for attempting to control every aspect of other people's lives.
The answer to those simple questions tells you all you need to know about a person. What their politics are, what their fears and hatreds are. How closely you need to watch them to protect yourself. All attacks on science, reason, pluralism, issue from those who answer those questions improperly: in a manner intended to control the private lives of others.
Beyond that, the philosophical arguments about epistemology, etc, are fun when you are smoking pot at a party (or drinking) but amount to Jack Squat, Esq. otherwise. It holds no bearing on whether you are alive or dying right now, whether you can be happy, feel pleasure, understand the outcome of an experiment, play sports, exercise, eat, etc. It is mental masturbation that amounts to arguing over how many angels can dance on the tip of a ball-point pen. By all means DO IT and have fun but don't make the mistake that it actually matters in the bigger scheme of things. The earth will continue to revolve around the mutual gravitational center of the solar system, the moon will continue to orbit the earth (for billions of years yet, barring a truly astronomical catastrophe), species will die out (including ours) while others evolve into existence until the sun heats up too much as its ready supply of hydrogen craps out and the earth and all on it at that epoch, fade into absolute exitinction. The clock is ticking and things are running quite happily with or without your religious beliefs or arguments with we non-believers. Enjoy the ride you are on because it is the only shot you have at it. And it is a truly awsome and grand ride to oblivion!
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Well...here we go again
[Read the article: Harry Reid's pro-life stance vs. Ron Paul's ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First, I will apologize to you Glenn. I had thought you one of the unapologetic Paulbots that simply ignored the bad things about Paul while only lovingly looking at the good. I myself, and I'm anti-Paul (for President) to the extreme on environmental grounds (no, you may NOT sell my public lands to the highest bidder, may NOT gut the Endangered Species Act in worship of extreme property worship, etc). That out of the way, in a functional country I would agree that Paul can and does serve a useful purpose in the campaign aside from his unsuitability to be President. In a functional country with a functional media, Pauls ideas would be getting much wider coverage, as would the actual ideas and positions of all the other candidates but as you yourself recently wrote about the MSM: they are totally dysfunctional and ONLY focused on horse race bullcrap. Issues, ideas, policy positions, to the media, are irrelevant and beside the point. Thus, in THIS world, Paul's ideas and positions, as deserving of debate as they are (and some even deserve adoption...except for the extreme private property worship crap) do NOT get any debate except in letter/blog areas like this that have no impact on the public at large. Kucinich and Dodd would also be getting real coverage of their positions, policies, and ideas rather than simply and unceremoniously dismissed by our self-appointed masters in the pundit class.
As for Reid he is absolutely unfit and unsuitable for the Democrapic leadership position he holds. Yes, this is true due to his women-are-property-of-the-state position on reproductive choice, true on his war-mongering, true because he is hapless and limp. I cheer him on those rare occasions when he actually does the right thing overall, because tactically the enemy of my enemy is my contingent friend, but otherwise... For similar, partially overlapping, reasons Hillary is unacceptable as President, Obama is on shakey ground, ALL the GOPers are unacceptable - though the jesus fundie Huckabee and, I must say, the fundie Paul are the least loathsome thus far from that wing of the nutsack party. Not sure what order I would put them in as least loathsome but there you have it. Deserved faint praise for the least loathsome of the least acceptable craptastic party in the history of modern America.
Now I will sit back and watch the Paulbots explode all over the thread.