Letters to the Editor
Allie_
Published Letters: 1252 Editor's Choice: 109
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problem is what now?
[Read the article: No visible panty lines]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Brightstar says:
Men have to limit and control themselves around good looking but nearly naked women.
Uh huh. And the problem is what now? That you don't like having to control yourself?
Do you think that rather than having to control yourself, you should be allowed to control others?
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yesterday's law
[Read the article: Pit bulls are innocent]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yesterday, in Memphis, a law was passed regarding vicious dogs.
As is usual in Memphis, the law is about 20% what everyone wants, 50% lipflap, and the remaining 30% pure-d idiocy.
For owners who abuse their pets, a summons to City Court and a $50 fine was standard practice under the city's previous law. But now, those owners could be sent to Judge Larry Potter's Environmental Court in General Sessions, where the penalties could be stiffer.
Owners could be restricted from owning animals, have to undergo behavior health evaluations or enroll in special programs to deter cruelty.
Failing to abide by the court's ruling could result in large fines and jail time.
In another change, owners involved in court actions will have to post a $2,000 bond to Animal Services while it holds their pet.
The ordinance also widens the definition of a dangerous animal. In addition to attacks on humans, the law adds that a dog off its property can be declared dangerous if it severely attacks another animal. And for the first time, animals deemed dangerous must be spayed or neutered.
The new law also bans cats defecating in other people's yards, which I guess means it's no longer legal to own an outdoor cat, since cats shit where they want to. Okay, fine, I don't think cats belong outdoor in the city, but I'm pretty sure the majority of people in Memphis weren't clamoring for a law about it.
This law was inspired by the case I wrote about earlier, a man who had his arm ripped off at a bus stop by a pit bull. The pit bull was a guard dog chained outside a car dealership. It slipped the chain after hours. The man who owned the car dealership was hit with a $50 fine, the maximum possible under the law at that time. Many people thought that was insufficient, since he had intentionally bought and trained a vicious dog which was supposed to attack humans. The dog was put to sleep.
Let's go over that again:
1) Man A buys a guard dog, guaranteed vicious, and trains it to attack a man armored in carpet remnants. (There was an article on this dog trainer, who is still operating.) Keeps dog chained in a parking lot, without shelter. Not a very good chain - dog escapes. His fate? $50 fine and some bad newspaper publicity.
2) Man B waits at bus stop. Has arm ripped off. Life saved by two passing strangers with a crowbar. His fate? A lot of medical bills, life without an arm. In TN, the man with the dog isn't liable, since it's legal to own a guard dog and there had been no previous instances of the dog escaping the property, so he can't be considered negligent.
3) The pit bull - bred to be vicious, trained to attack humans by savage mistreatment, chained in a yard - his fate? Death.
Sound fair?
I have my doubts that this new law will improve matters, but at least it gives the law teeth, even if they're poodle teeth and not pit bull teeth.
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poor old WTC
[Read the article: Where there's smoke]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It was ugly, wasn't it? I read somewhere (before 9/11) that the architect was afraid of heights, so he made all the windows look narrow so he wouldn't feel worried about falling out of them. I don't know if that's true or not, but on the night of 9/11, trying to fall asleep in the eerie silence (my home lies along the approach path for the national Fed ex headquarters) I sat up suddenly and burst into tears, overwhelmed with sadness for the architect who put so much of himself into that building. People jumping to their doom didn't make me cry, but the loss of an ugly building did. People - people die all the time. People are guaranteed to die. Dreams aren't supposed to die. A man's lifework, that isn't supposed to die.
(And before you write me off as heartless, I realized a bit later that many, many dreams died along with the people there who hadn't yet finished whatever life work they had in mind. It just took the fall of the building to make it real for me.)
Mister Keillor, honey, please keep writing whatever you want to write. You deserve to play with your grandchildren but even more you deserve to keep your dignity intact. I hope it's never tested, but I like to think you're just a little heroic, just around the edges.
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does not follow
[Read the article: No visible panty lines]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think it's just fine to go up to women wearing Juicy sweatpatns and ask them how Juicy their ass is. I also like to ask Skinny Bitches how they became such a bitch. I get very ugly looks from that, but I figure anything you PLANT ON YOUR ASS AS A BILLBOARD is fair game for me to mention.
If you don't want me to mention it or are offended if I look at it in a public area, don't stick it on your ass, or put some clothes over it.
Why do feminists insist we regulate and criminalize even how we use our eyeballs?
These examples have nothing to do with your eyeballs. It's your MOUTH that's the issue.