Letters to the Editor
BettyBoop
Published Letters: 96 Editor's Choice: 9
-
In answer to the Canadian who fell jogging
[Read the article: "Sicko"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have never had that exact injury, but if the same thing happened to me, I think my care would be pretty comparable, give or take waiting time. My out of pocket would be $20 for my co-pay. However, I have a really fine insurance package through my husband's employer, the University of California (which compensates, I guess, by underpaying him as a computer network administrator).
We have crossed our fingers through long stretches of being uninsured. Of course we are fairly young and healthy, but if a catastrophic accident had happened I guess I would have put the cost of coverage on my credit cards and filed bankruptcy after all was said and done. How else can you do it when you can't get work that provides insurance?
Our kids have always had insurance. For a period when both my husband and I were under-employed, we had our kids covered through Healthy Families, which is a really great "group" coverage/cafeteria plan style administered through the state of California for children whose families don't qualify for MediCal. Healthy Families, for a nominal fee based on our income, provided Health Net HMO, Delta Dental and Vision Service Plan for our kids. What I wonder is why states can't provide this for adults and, frankly, anyone who needs it. You pay premiums based on your income. Isn't that a win-win?
I think it's high time that employers started banding against insurance companies. Employers have much to gain by supporting a socialized medical model. They simply can't compete against companies in other countries that aren't hampered by insurance costs for their employees.
I lived in Japan for four years. There I was enrolled in the national insurance plan. My premiums were based on my last year's income.
In China, where my husband's family lives, his family has excellent health care, btw.
-
A member of the press saying she lowered her voice in 2001
[Read the article: Keith Olbermann tells Bush and Cheney: "Resign."]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Now that's scary. And please, I never, ever got behind this president. Don't count me into this clump of fear-mongering authoritarians and the people who obey them (et tu, Salon?). I thought, and still think, that if this guy hadn't been prez, we never would have had a 9/11.
-
Cary, get some therapy and work on your mom issues
[Read the article: My new roommate arrived ... with mom attached!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Jesus man, what a misogynistic piece of crappy advice. Are you actually saying that every mom out there is capable of being a con-artist simply by virtue of her mom-hood? What is it? Hormones that makes us so? Post-partum depression? Having a guy like Cary for a kid? What? Anyone?
-
Or, is it possible Cary is being sarcastic?
[Read the article: My new roommate arrived ... with mom attached!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Perhaps he feels hostile toward the letter-writer?
-
Amity, I agree 100 percent
[Read the article: Katie Roiphe's morning after]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I kept thinking "who wrote this, it's great"? It's Rebecca's best.
-
American carriers are the worst offenders
[Read the article: Flying the child-unfriendly skies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Can flight attendants be fired? I'm thinking it's all based on seniority, so they can get away with being nasty and it doesn't affect their jobs. If you ever go to a socialist country where people are employed by the state, you'll find the same sort of attitude. They don't give a shit about anything. They are miserable and resentful.
I've been treated so horribly by so many airline employees, it's just shocking. They'll say any old nasty thing they can. They roll their eyes, they snarl, and yes, they hate children. The most reasonable requests are met with seething hostility. Are they all emotional teenagers?
My guess is that they have way too much power and very little brain wattage. I think their jobs are boring as hell and yet they can't quit because what else would they do? Wait tables?
-
Freudian Slip? Fodder for Conspiracy Theorists
[Read the article: Bush's worst day ever?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The same people who were responsible for 9/11 are now dropping bombs on Iraq, says Bush? Wouldn't that be his administration?
-
Grammar Police
[Read the article: I hate buzzwords! It's not "carbon," it's "carbon dioxide"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]O! Joyful opportunity!
Please don't say "jive" when you mean "jibe." Please don't place commas and periods outside of quotation marks. Please don't say "Jane and I's dog," or "it belongs to Jane and I."
-
Biting is normal
[Read the article: Somebody keeps biting my 2-year-old]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But . . . not a dozen times. My son went to a groovy, progressive co-op in the Bay Area. We had twice-a-month guest lecturers. I asked one, an esteemed expert in child behavior, how we parents should handle the toddler aggression. He smiled, and said, "yeah, toddlers are great aren't they? They bite, hit, scratch, pull hair." He said all of that behavior was normal toddler behavior, but that it shouldn't be allowed to happen. The only thing to do is to be down on the floor with them; watch them like a hawk, and learn to prevent aggressive behavior before it happens. If your day care center isn't doing this, fire them. Your baby isn't being protected.
-
No. His mom knew him. Maybe she was just like him.
[Read the article: I can't get home to see my mom before she dies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]LW is the scion of a highly dysfunctional family, if you read between the lines. Mom might have loved him. But not enough. Not enough to part with the dough. This is a disgusting story. It makes me hate Americans.
-
Of course you didn't say anything!
[Read the article: A man farted in my face on the plane and I said nothing!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Are you kidding me? Look, smelling the farts of other people is really cringe-inducing, but there is an unwritten societal rule (one among many that civilized people on crowded planes must abide by)that says you grin and bear it. You don't say something to the person. Maybe you get up and move away until the fart dissipates. Maybe you flash a glare at the man. But sometimes people fart involuntarily. I used to when I was pregnant. It was awful, and I know some people trapped in elevators with me suffered. But no one ever said anything to me about it. (Luckily I was never within nose-shot of Cary.)