Letters to the Editor
Daniel Dvorkin
Published Letters: 219 Editor's Choice: 33
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Speaking as a former EMT ...
[Read the article: Corpses in couture gowns]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... I'm offended too, but maybe for slightly different reasons than most posters. What offends me is not so much the sexualization of violence (though that's pretty high on the creep factor too) but the simple idea that death looks good.
It doesn't. Modeling is about looking good; death is about the ugliest thing there is.
People whose experience of death's appearance comes from seeing bodies in funeral parlors after the morticians have worked on them simply have no idea what a newly-minted corpse looks like. None of these models look remotely like a murder victim. People who have just been stabbed or shot or strangled:
- Don't strike elegant poses. The body twitches and rolls a lot during (and sometimes just after) violent death. Victims invariably look awkward, no matter how graceful they may have been in life.
- Don't have carefully draped clothing with just a couple of strategically placed holes or tears.
- Are grotesquely discolored; very soon after death, shades of purple and green and blue that just aren't seen on living flesh appear all over the lower parts of the body.
- Almost always are covered in their own bodily waste. That's the way it is, folks: you die, the sphincters let go. I don't see any yellow and brown puddles surrounding these models.
Most likely, if this photo shoot had involved making the models look like real murder victims, everyone involved (models, photographers, and show producers alike) would have bowed out as soon as they realized what was involved. As it is, they're in the same category as the armchair warriors who cheer the TV footage of the war in Iraq -- they love the missiles firing, the planes zooming off carrier decks, the tanks rumbling through the desert, but if they ever saw what goes on at the sharp end, they'd scream and cry and piss their pants.
I would challenge any one of the people involved in "America's Next Top Model" to spend a day volunteering in a trauma center ER to get a better understanding of what the hell they're playing with. But there wouldn't be much point; like the 101st Fighting Keyboarders, they're much happier in fantasy land.
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If Bush ever got face-to-face with a wolf like that ...
[Read the article: Inside the secretive plan to gut the Endangered Species Act]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... he'd scream and cry and poop his pants, not stare it down.
Other than the picture, though, good article.
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The usual dodge
[Read the article: Gospel according to Judas]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Well, Dawkins loves to play village atheist. He's such a rationalist that the God that he's debunking is not one that most of the people I study would recognize. I mean, is there some great big person up there who made the universe out of dirt? Probably not.
Like many theologians, Pagels lacks the courage to admit that a great many believers -- perhaps most of them -- do believe in a "big person up there who made the universe out of dirt." Atheists and agnostics don't generally have any problem with thoughtful philosophers like her. We have big problems with literalists who make specific, testable claims about the actions of God in the material world, and whose claims can be shown to be false, but who keep shoving their anti-science into education and politics. It's all very nice to say, "The God I believe in isn't the God the crazies believe in," but when it comes to making things happen in the name of God, the crazies have the theologians beat by a mile.
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Why Coulter matters
[Read the article: Coulter: "Who's running this holocaust in Darfur, FEMA?"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]She and other repulsive loudmouths are the true face of the Republican party. If you want to know what the right-wing politicians are thinking, look to the right-wing pundits; they share exactly the same thought processes, but the commentators don't feel the need to muzzle themselves. It's a preview of what we'll be hearing from the next administration, if Diebold delivers in 2008 and the Taliban -- oh, sorry, I meant to type "Republicans," of course -- take back Congress and keep the White House. At that point the gloves will come off.
Right now, of course, those thought processes seem to be headed back to where right-wingers always end up: anti-Semitism. What a shock.
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heart attacks in women
[Read the article: Strong, silent, sick?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]nameuser writes:
And let's not forget the hooplah on broadsheet a couple months ago - that MDs are unable to accurately diagnose heart attack symptoms in women (that was on broadsheet, right?). what good does it do us to even go to the doctor?
It is true that some heart attack symptoms in women are often different from those in men, and that many doctors are not properly trained to recognize the former. But the idea that it does no good for a woman having a heart attack to receive medical attention is absurd. As a former EMT who cared for many heart attack victims of both sexes, I can attest to the fact that anyone's chances of surviving a heart attack are better the faster they (a) get an ambulance, and (b) arrive at the hospital.
One particular problem in the standard of care does not invalidate the value of medical care for half the human race. An awul lot of people, of both sexes, seem eager to seize on well-publicized failures of medicine to conclude that medicine itself is a failure. This isn't a macho (or macha, as the case may be) atttitude to take; it's just suicidally stupid.
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Beat the living shit out of him
[Read the article: A cheating bully is ruining our racquetball games]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Seriously. That's the only language bullies understand.
He may be tougher than any of you, but he's not tougher than all of you. Get together, crowd him onto the court, post a lookout, and do what you have to do. You can hit things other than little rubber balls with those racquets. Painful, but not enough to cause serious debilitating injury; perfect for avoiding those pesky lawsuits and assault-and-battery charges.
Yeah, it's sad when a bunch of adults have to resort to junior-high behavior, but it's pretty clear that eighth grade is where this guy's mental development stopped. Talk to him on his level, and he'll get the message.