Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following Salon Premium Member:

mcytron

Published Letters: 60     Editor's Choice: 16

  • men's rights--head 'em up and move 'em out--rawhide

    [Read the article: A man's right to choose, take three]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Men who want to have a say in whether or not a woman has their baby need to a.) keep their sperm in their own reproductive organs or b.) take charge of the birth control to make it extremely unlikely that a pregnancy will take place. I'm shocked that any thinking and allegedly pro-choice person would assert otherwise.

  • bye, bye miss american pie...

    [Read the article: Hell frozen over]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Watching this from my home halfway around the world, I just can't imagine ever again living in a place that can produce this sort of nonsensical schmaltz (no offense to chicken fat intended). Man, when an empire goes down the tubes, it sure isn't pretty.

  • another spartan...

    [Read the article: Does a 6-year-old need 25 birthday presents?]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Let all of the kids give presents. After the party is over, let your son pick the five or six that he thinks he will most enjoy and then give the rest to a charity that collects toys for needy kids. Singling out some kids to give presents and not others will just cause an unpleasant social stratification.

    Twenty five new toys is a surefire route to misery for virtually any child. After Christmas/Chanukka/Three Kings, we get rid of all of the toys that we know aren't going to work out and put away about half until later in the year. And we declare a moratorium on all buying of books and toys for several months. It gives people such joy to give a gift to a child, that I don't ever tell the person who gave the toy that it didn't work out.

  • It's all about the kids

    [Read the article: The Fix]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    I love that this puritanical witch hunt is coming from journalists--is there any profession with more of a tradition of hard core alcoholism and working while loaded?

    America: when will the imperfect reality of human life finally trump our superficial puritanical desire to keep up appearances?

  • poster-woman

    [Read the article: Need stem cells? Just menstruate!]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    > she would never have imagined the possibility

    > that she would be become the poster-woman for

    > menstruating stem-cell donors

    I don't get this... why should a woman feel bad about being associated with menstruation? I'd rather be a poster-woman for periods than a sell-out for Verizon, Chef Boy-ar-dee or any other hokey consumer product.

  • get a student visa

    [Read the article: For some reason I feel I must move to France]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    About five years ago, I felt the same pull to live in Spain. I had lived here before and had visited many times after that. I've been living in Madrid for over two years and I don't think I'll ever go back. Yes, it is hard and requires a lot of thought and planning, but it isn't impossible. I know dozens of happy expats, many who have lived here for over a decade. It helps to have a special talent (music, literature, etc.). The best way to get your foot in the door legally is to find a year-long language course (I'd go for a cheap one at a public school) and enter with a student visa. Give yourself a year to try it out. You can then either extend your studies or try to get a work visa. It will be much easier to do the latter after you are fluent in the language and have had time to make contacts. It's nearly impossible to do from the US, unless you have connections.

    Good luck!

  • colbert--

    [Read the article: Colbert's smart bomb]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    My god, this is the most measured and brave act of comedy that I have ever seen. The press looked ashamed. I myself felt ashamed. How many of us could pull that off? This monologue will someday have more cultural weight than anything Bush has ever uttered.

  • my kids are wrecks

    [Read the article: My kids are wrecks]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    I smoked pot when I was 13 and it certainly wasn't the fault of my parents. The first time I had the opportunity I tried it. I wanted very desperately to be bad, just to see what it felt like. It felt good. When a kid is like this, there really nothing that the parent can do. We each have our own personalities and trajectories and set of circumstances.

    As the letter writer said, her son is lucky to be alive. It's certainly not too late to turn things around. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that her daughter wasn't an alcoholic until her last year in college. Many (most?) kids dabble in alcoholism from age 16. She'll get her act together. Perhaps the pressures related to entering the "real world" became too much for her. Being perfect must be a terrible burden.

    When you are a parent, you get a lot of advice from other parents. The gist of this advice: do everything exactly the way I did it. The letter writer sounds so downtrodden. I feel for her/him. I think he/she has to give up on the notion of a perfect outcome and learn to live and love the imperfect reality. Your kids aren't wrecks, they are just imperfect human beings like the rest of us. And when someone gives them a dig about their allegedly flawed parenting, tell them to mind their own fucking business. Seriously.

  • "You are comparing your child to mine, unfavorably, and that hurts me".

    [Read the article: My kids are wrecks]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Deeone--

    "You are comparing your child to mine, unfavorably, and that hurts me".

    That is a beautiful way of putting it--much better than my first instinct. Every time that I discuss my son with another parent in the future, I'm going to filter it through that idea first.

  • hands across the rio grande

    [Read the article: An indictment watch, but what about Cheney?]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Unrelated, but can someone please find out how much of the border 6000 troops will cover. I mean if we line them up Hands-Across-America style how far will they go? A couple of miles? Someone has to quantify what a supremely moronic stunt this is.

  • all hail the milky one

    [Read the article: Tears in Nevaeh]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Natas. It means creamy goodness in Spanish and eternal damnation in backwards.

  • down with chick lit

    [Read the article: Where the chick lit is political]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Please don't use the term chick lit. It is anti-literary, anti-feminist, anti-humanist.... Good literature shouldn't be ghettoized--it is universal and timeless. Bad literature should be forgotten.

  • help.

    [Read the article: Our charming tabloid stars]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    I feel emotionally and intellectually befouled after watching those clips.

    Please, Salon, save us from ourselves and don't post this kind of garbage.

    We need more talking cats--I fear that they are trying to tell us that we are morons, but still I find it comforting.