Letters to the Editor
MarieA
Published Letters: 213 Editor's Choice: 17
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Elegant answer, but incomplete
[Read the article: I still have a job, but I've completely stopped working!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cary has done a very literary job of summing up the frustrations of the workaday world.
But is this the whole story?
It depends on what you want. There are no doubt people who know that you've done little or no work. They have had to cover up or compensate or maybe just know and don't say anything. Believe me, they're talking about you.
You are a burden on those people and don't have their respect. Maybe that doesn't bother you, which is fine.
You say you have friends there, which makes it hard to leave. Maybe you do. But you may well have work-friends, friends who fade away when you no longer have the job in common. If the latter, then you'll make new work-friends if you change jobs.
The bigger issue is that you say you have trouble focusing, can't make yourself do work you hate. Could be that's just normal ennui, 'cause you're in the wrong job. Maybe something is really a bit wrong with you.
Wouldn't hurt to explore that a bit further. If it's a biological problem, medication may work wonders for you. If it's biological, it's probably affecting other aspects of your life outside of work.
If you're the kind of person who feels driven to "make a difference" or if you're someone who really feels that it's important to be fulfilled at your work, continuing this way is going to suck the soul right out of you.
If the friends matter to you more than whether you do the work or not, if you're someone who only works for the dough and in 40 years you're not going to care that you were just a lazy ol' cog in the machine, keep doing what you're doing and just tell Cary, it's cool--never mind.
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Bravo!
[Read the article: Porn in theory, porn in practice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Mr. Tennis has stated his case brilliantly. This is the finest advice he's given in some time.
My only caveat: No need to disclaim "crazy" and "nonsensical." Own your opinion! It's a fine one.
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This is the most reasoned opinion piece I've read
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Let's take the power away from blowhards by ignoring them. Sports teams shouldn't let any trash talk (and that's what I think Imus was intending, no matter how stupid he was to do it) get to them. If you listen closely to the comment, Imus was riffing off what one of his idiotic lackeys said.
Laughter takes the power away. The Ku Klux Klan is dangerous and evil, but they are especially ridiculous and laughing at them defeats their cultural power.
As a side note, it's interesting that everyone in the media has focused on the "nappy headed ho" part of his comments, but not what I think is the even more offensive "jigaboo" reference. Wonder why that is? Is is that people have a knee jerk response and stop listening?
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A nitpicking but important point
[Read the article: First Amendment martyr?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Mr. Wolf was in jail, not in prison. Jail, while unpleasant, is a different experience from prison. Jails are locally operated, prisons are state or federally operated. Jails hold people pending trial, pending incarceration in prisons, people serving sentences of (generally) one year or less, as well as the rare person in Mr. Wolf's situation.
While prison is not necessarily exactly as depicted in the TV show Oz, the percentage of hardened criminals is much higher there and gangs are more apparent.
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I Stand Corrected
[Read the article: First Amendment martyr?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Please disregard my bone-headed earlier letter regarding prison v jail (don't disregard that the terms jail and prison are often used interchangeably, however).
I had not done my homework carefully enough and find that Mr. Wolf did serve his time in a federal correctional facility.
I deeply regret the error.
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I hope this kind of nonsense prompts a course correction
[Read the article: The right's explicit and candid rejection of "the rule of law"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Frankly, I'm very glad that this piece was printed in the WSJ. I know many conservatives who are uneasy with the notion of a king-like executive, but have either relied on things changing with the next election or simply wring their hands, worrying that maybe they're seeing a slippery slope that isn't really there.
Well, brothers and sisters, we are sliding down that slope and are near bottom. This kind of explicit statement denying the rule of law (which is a cornerstone of conservative philosophy) is just what the doctor ordered to get true conservatives in gear to rein in the recklessness of the almighty executive.
If Americans of all political persuasions don't band together to pull us back to the Constitutional balance of powers, we're going to see nothing but trouble ahead, regardless of who is president.
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Oh Puh-leeze!
[Read the article: Make room for Daddy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Excuse me, but your bias is showing. If you think the Democratic candidates are filled to the brim with nuance and truth-seeking, you apparently live in a different dimension from me. These are politicians we're talking about!
The Democratic candidates danced just as fast as the Republicans. Yes, the Republicans want to present a father figure and the Democrats want to be Mommy Dearest. Obama is a very charismatic candidate, but right now he's more like a blank page that we can put our own impressions onto. Hillary's record is dismally similar to the average Republican in every way.
I'm no fan of either of the Dems or Reps, but you could at least give a little nod to substance. Ron Paul made some good points about America's place in the world and ended strong with a promise to not abuse habeas corpus -- something I've heard no other candidate, Dem or Rep, do. And Paul has the record to back it up. Where have Hillary and Obama been in relation to Gitmo, rendition, domestic surveillance? They appear to have been sitting on their thumbs.
You like to rant about this ridiculous and awful war, but you failed to mention that Ron Paul voted against it and is alone among the Republican candidates in calling for us to extricate ourselves from it ASAP.
You could also have mentioned the sad spectacle of several candidates raising their hands to profess that they didn't believe in evolution.