Letters to the Editor
crunchette
Published Letters: 38 Editor's Choice: 4
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Reminds of stories my parents told me about the War years
[Read the article: Turn down that thermostat, permanently]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]World War 2, that is. Lots of rationing, lots of sacrifice, but life went on - people just adapted (after the even leaner years of the Great Depression). Granted, things were a whole lot easier in the United States than in Europe (the whole lack of being a war zone helped) and the population was a lot smaller. Does that mean we'll be OK? Not necessarily, but there are a lot of things we can learn from our parents (or grandparents) about how to make do in lean times. On the other hand, they had the benefit of a great president who was able to mobilize the entire nation. Maybe Clinton or McCain or Obama (alphabetical order, not preference or bias here) will have the stones to step up as opposed to fiddling while Rome burns.
That's it. I'm starting a Victory Garden this spring.
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@mattwa33186
[Read the article: "Iron Man"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" is about veterans of an unpopular war? Ummm...no. It is a dystopian science fiction story about a man who attempts to save humanity from destruction by travelling through time. He gets turned into the eponymous Iron Man, is rejected by society and then wreaks vengance, ironically becoming the destruction he was trying to prevent. Geezer Butler (bassist and songwriter) has stated that it was inspired by "a lot of things in the news about pollution and nuclear war."
War Pigs, on the other hand, is very definitely an anti-war song - but again, not about veterans of an unpopular war.
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Umm...math is hard?
[Read the article: No victory: Yahoo feels the heat after Microsoft walks away]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]$23.02 is about 20% lower than Friday's closing price, not 5%.
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Correction...
[Read the article: Kobe Bryant: That guy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hey, King, I think you need to correct something:
The Spurs have Tim Duncan, who can be that guy but only occasionally decides to do so. Their weapon is that they can stop that guy. Or control him. Usually. They certainly couldn't in Game 1 Wednesday.
It could be they have the excuse that their aging legs betrayed them two days after ending a grueling seven-game win over Utah. But if that's the case they're in trouble because they're not getting any younger and this series is on an every-other-day schedule all the way.
Shouldn't that read 'grueling seven-game win over New Orleans'?
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Wha?
[Read the article: Vatican to women: No stinkin' girls allowed!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You can be immediately excommunicated for the "laying (of) violent hands on the Pope" but not immediately excommunicated for the laying of lustful and abusive hands on congregants? Seems as if the Pope as a grown adult can handle himself fairly well (even if he is in his 80s) since he has the Swiss Guard around him at all times. However, the church doesn't protect the most vulnerable of its flock.
Yet another reason that the Catholic church seems to be completely out of step with the times.
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Work Less, Live More
[Read the article: What should we do with our $3 million?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Buy and read this book before doing anything: Work Less, Live More by Bob Clyatt. Very good conservative investing advice plus some good chapters on what do to with yourself. That amount gives you a great base to have a number of options for how you live, but you must plan, plan, plan.
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Internal fallacy...
[Read the article: Amanda Peet gets her shot on ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"...the FDA did recommend the removal of thimerosal from childhood vaccines, and by January 2003 the removal was complete (according to the CDC, all lots of childhood vaccines containing thimerosal expired by January 2003), although it is still found is some flu vaccines and some multi-dose vaccine vials exported outside the United States."
- http://www.theness.com/articles.asp?id=74
Claiming that thimerosal (ethylmercury) in vaccines is a reason not to vaccinate children (for other than flu) is a fallacy - at least in the US. It is no longer present in childhood vaccines - therefore it cannot be the cause for autism for children born after January 2003 (ignoring other larger arguments and simply using the hypothisis that it is the cause of autism in the first place).
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@Mama Blaise
[Read the article: Amanda Peet gets her shot on ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sorry, Mama. I don't trust any 'data' that doesn't cite its sources.
Taking the data that you quote at face value: I'd say that some of the causal effect could be due to the rise of germ theory - e.g. viruses/germs cause disease, not 'bad air' or watermelons or the moon - and the practice of quarantine. With regard to polio deaths, the decline seems to coincide with the invention of the iron lung (1928).
Either way, the number of deaths is irrelevant - what you really should be measuring is the number of cases. If you can keep people from dying from a disease, but their quality of life is severely compromised (e.g. polio victims in iron lungs) is it really that much of an improvement?
I've vaccinated my kids and hope that your kid(s) don't happen to be someone that my kids go to school or play with for their sake.