Letters to the Editor
mte
Published Letters: 63 Editor's Choice: 5
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CIA's fleet
[Read the article: Uproar over secret prisons]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While Dean Cully correctly notes that tail number N313P is currently assigned to a kit-built RV-7A, keen observers will note that this assignment dates to July 20, 2005. The Guardian article alleges that in September 2003, a Boeing 757 bearing this number flew between Afghanistan. Poland, Romania, and Guantanamo, more than a year before this certificate was issued.
Previous news reports of N313P's activities, such as Newsweeks "Aboard Air CIA" (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6999272/site/newsweek/) have reported that it was a Boeing 737, not a 757 as the Guardian alleges. This discrepancy, though minor, does the cause of human rights no favors. Perhaps Salon's aviation columnist, Patrick Smith, could briefly touch upon tail numbers, "Air CIA", and, of course, the difference between a 737 and a 757.
Jeremy Erwin
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Narrow Target Audience
[Read the article: The Lysistratas of stubble]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The ad targets men who (1) do not shave (2) are (or expect to be) involved with women who find men who shave more attractive and (3) find women who shave more attractive.
I'm not convinced that most men find shaved legs more attractive than hairier legs. I suspect that men who fret over others' leg hair are already more likely to shave their chin (and possibly leg) hair, and that men who don't shave their chin hair are still less likely to worry about others' leg hair.
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Citation please?
[Read the article: Correction]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You write "An "affirmative defense" may exist that would protect such work under certain circumstances, and the opinion asserted by Nathan that her work, and the work of other journalists, would constitute a violation of the law was inaccurate."
So, let's have some legal cites here. Show us the statute, or controlling precedent that would support this defense.
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Compliance Prevention
[Read the article: Shocking incident]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you read police training manuals, they don't limit semi-lethal weapons to situations where the officers are in danger. If the officers are in danger, they are to use firearms; if the officers are merely being disobeyed or disrespected, they are to use 'pain compliance.'
If using tasers or pepper spray, pain compliance begins with sudden, incapacitating pain, and escalates until the victim complies, or the charge runs out (with tasers), or the cannister runs out (with pepper spray).
I was once pepper sprayed (without warning). This induces blindness and seizures, so that if the cops had issued any orders, I would not have been able to comply. They unloaded at least two cannisters into my eyes and mouth, and given the photos of the incident, kept beating me with large clubs at the same time. I have often seen other people pepper sprayed, and they usually fall, writhing, to the ground, where the police continue gassing them. I have never seen anyone who was still able to comply with police orders, whether or not the police issued any orders.
I have not seen or suffered taser-pain-compliance, so I cannot say whether it causes similar effects.
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I used to respect police
[Read the article: My sister has become a monster cop!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... but the last several times I've run into police, they've threatened me, hit me, and once sprayed pepper spray down my throat and into my eyes while beating me with clubs and stepping on my glasses.
As long as their professional culture encourages them to beat civilians (who did nothing) and protect officers (who did that), people should worry.
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Hey, Anonymous
[Read the article: College girls gone wild (and proud of it)]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We all live different lives. Not all of us fall in love in college. Some of us fall in love with women who want to wait. Some of us fall in love with women who are involved with someone else. Some of us form very close friendships with nice women whom we don't find attractive and who don't find us attractive, while everyone else tries to get us in each others' beds.
I know my sexual desires. I know my social desires too. I have not had the chance to satisfy my sexual desires without screwing up my social desires; each time I have had the choice, I have chosen my social desires first. (I would rather have both). I can't choose to be lucky, and have both, but I can choose the possibility of years of one kind of joy over the certainty of one night of another kind.
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P.S.
[Read the article: College girls gone wild (and proud of it)]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not that there's anything wrong with other choices. I simply think that the knee-jerk condemnation of not getting laid right away, labelling people 'eunichs,' etc. has got to go.
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Keys and Ammo
[Read the article: How is an AK-47 like a QWERTY keyboard?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've tried typing with Qwerty keyboards and tried switching to Dvorak keyboards. I wasn't very good with the Qwerty (one-handed, hunt-and-peck), but was even worse on the Dvorak. On the Qwerty, I could remember where to look for the most important keys. On the Dvorak, I couldn't. I stuck with the Qwerty. I'm now better on a Qwerty with the letters rubbed off than on a Dvorak.
Easy access to one solution (Qwerty, Standard Gauge, 7.62mm AK-47 ammo) and transition costs to any alternatives limit adoption of an otherwise superior solution (Dvorak, Broad Gauge, 5.45mm AK-74 ammo).
I'd add that whatever the relative merits of the AK-47 and M-16, wouldn't the AK-47 and AK-74 share most of the same advantages except for ammo availability?
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Falling in the trap is fun.
[Read the article: Exporting fatness]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So, let me get Anonymous's argument straight.
1. It's possible to eat a healthy diet without paying attention to the culinary arts.
2. Paying attention to what one eats is a trap foisted upon us by evil cooks who want us to develop cooking skills.
3. Seeing the truth in points 1 and 2 will lead to obesity.
4. Which leads to a contradiction.
5. To resolve this contradiction, the government must step in and do something.
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I'm snobby about cheese
[Read the article: Snobbery rules]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]tomreedtoon alleges that I'm rich and disconnected from the rest of the world because I occasionally like semi-expensive cheese.
But I like eating cheese for its own sake, and not just because a recipe calls for it. If the cheese is not incorporated into a dish, the complexities (or lack of same) are readily apparent. Generic "parmesan style" cheese just doesn't have the complex nutty aromas or textures that I'm looking for when I savor cheese on its own.
Jeremy Erwin
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Biking 1.3 miles shouldn't be any harder than driving 1.3 miles...
[Read the article: Should Bush open up the oil spigot?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And it should take no more than 8 minutes, depending on the terrain, your health, and, of course, the traffic lights.