Letters to the Editor
DurianJoe
Published Letters: 1197 Editor's Choice: 66
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Forget the kiddies!
[Read the article: Sex, drugs and cable TV]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Never mind the little kiddies -- they don't pay the cable bill! I'd like the option to choose only those channels I want, meaning no Disney, Family junk, etc.
A la carte pricing would work for everyone, both family friendly, and family loathing.
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Instant karma's gonna getcha
[Read the article: Be very afraid]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The pending avian flu disaster will not come out of the blue. In a world where extreme poverty is tolerated if not ignored, and extreme cruelty to animals in the form of factory farming is considered "efficient" and thus desirable, we're all but begging for this major slapdown called the avian flu.
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Let your dog live, "Dogged by Problems."
[Read the article: My husband's dog is incontinent and I can't stand it]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This dog is a loving member of your family who happens to have a medical problem. I agree with Cary, the incontinence could very well be brought on by the stress of your new child. This is a time to show even more kindness to your elderly dog, not to shun her and take her life.
I have a cat who occasionally pees around the house. He is young and will be with us for a long time. He is also loving and a member of our family, and he depends on us for his well-being. So what do we do? We deal with it. We clean his pee and spray it with a solution that destroys the odor (you think dog pee is bad? It's nothing compared to cat pee). And you know what? It's not such a big deal. We love our cat more than we dislike the occasional mess he makes.
As you know, your dog is elderly. Make her final years happy and deal with the minor problem of a mess you can clean up. She does not deserve to die simply because you are bothered by a smell.
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DurianJoe
[Read the article: My husband's dog is incontinent and I can't stand it]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To Felicity and Camel and other people who rant about how dogs are just animals, not people (who presumably are either vegetables or minerals): it's attitudes like yours that permit animals to be tortured and abused by the billions; after all, they're only a step above inanimate objects, so why not beat and burn and cut them up?
Yeah, animals are nothing like people, who rape and torture and murder each other daily and poison the planet and...but hey, what do I know -- I'm the kind of guy who thinks pet dogs have feelings and can think and are indeed members of your family and thus worthy of love and protection for their entire lives. What a fool I must be!
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Response to Felicity
[Read the article: My husband's dog is incontinent and I can't stand it]
[Read more letters about this article: Here] -
To our zoophobic friend
[Read the article: My husband's dog is incontinent and I can't stand it]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, having a young dog who can run around and play is a joy, but that dog will also one day grow old and perhaps incontinent, and then what? Kill him and get another young puppy, as if dogs are mere commodities?
Also, keeping a dog in a dog house is cruel. Dogs are social animals,and housing them alone in the backyard is tantamount to solitary confinement. Besides, why then have a dog? Is it to have a toy? If so, don't get a dog, because they are thinking, feeling creatures, not toys.
Domestic dogs have evolved (indeed, been designed through selective breeding) to relate to humans as fellow pack animals. That is why they will defend their human family members, even to the death. Dogs are loyal that way -- it's a shame that their loyalty is not always reciprocated.
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Baby, what a problem!
[Read the article: My husband's dog is incontinent and I can't stand it]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Look, if you have a pet and decide to have a baby, you better be willing to properly look after your pet and your baby, otherwise you're not fit to have either one.
Frankly, that woman is more thoughtless than she thinks she is. She took a dog who was used to having freedom to roam the whole house alongside her master and confined her to a few rooms. That's cruel. It's pretty obvious that the dog was acting out by peeing, because it started when the baby was born. You have to take care with your pets when a baby is introduced into the house, because they become jealous, just like an older child would.
That dog deserves her old life back, and if it requires medicine, doggie diapers, or just having some cleaning supplies on hand, then that's what must be done. It's called responsibility.
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Hate is seductive
[Read the article: The real war on Christmas]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Media blowhards like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, the loathsome Michael Savage, et al, appeal to peoples' basest instincts. They use hate and fear to manipulate their listeners' emotions. It is the lowest form of communication. It is also extremely effective: witness Mr. Wheaton's educated, professional parents' transformation from rational beings into hatemongers.
Regarding Nazi Germany, one of the big questions was how a country so steeped in education and the arts, so utterly civilized, could descend into such madness. The answer is the power of hate, and the willingness of powerful people to wield it as a weapon and tool. It happened there, and have no doubt, it can happen here, too.