Letters to the Editor
ELYDOG
Published Letters: 712 Editor's Choice: 52
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Don't leave car
[Read the article: Who's to blame for James Kim's death?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Let me tell you a story. We had an exercise at work where we were stranded in the desert and had several things to help us survive. Myself, and another "leader" of the group decided to hike out of the desert. I am naturally 'pro-active' and have a hard time sitting and doing "nothing." Wrong idea. We all "died' in the exercise. Only a few people in our group of 15 challenged, late of course, the idea of walking out. It was really an exercise in the failure of "group-think." Mr. Kim also decided to walk out, with almost nothing. Bad idea. He would have survived.
ElyDog
Minnesota
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Bush Target is McCain
[Read the article: The fighting side of McCain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Somewhat unintentionally, the biggest target that Bush will probably hit with his escalation of the war, besides more civilians in Iraq, a few more terrorists, and more U.S. solidiers, is John McCain. Putting McCain's war mongering into practice is the best way to expose McCain for what he is. Unintentional, but deadly to McCain's future. And for those centrist Democrats who were flirting with a McCain in 2004, like Mr. Kerry, they should be happy there was no formal "bedding."
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Can Clinton Run again?
[Read the article: DLC to Ford: Don't drop dead]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I love these letters!!! Mr. Kilgore fools no one. I think running Bill again is the only hope the DLC has. Unfortunately for them, it won't happen. What they refuse to acknowlege is that if you look carefully at Clinton's terms, you can see him as the "Democratic" mirror image of Reagan - on welfare reform, NAFTA, deregulation of almost everything, including media; CAFE / environmental standards, pro-corporate and anti-labor orientation regarding the law, lax party funding rules, the war in Yugoslavia etc. He could sell the whole thing because the economy was roaring along for the corporations and upper middle classes, and the labor movement was in the tanks.
If it surprises you that I've included Yugoslovia here, it shouldn't. There is some eerie similarity with Iraq. The rationale for tha interventions and bombings of that war by the U.S.(and our continuing military bases in the central European area to this day) was "humanitarian" - getting rid of a dictator. The U.S. used the same rationale in Iraq after the "WMD" defense tanked. And the goal, I think, is the same - dismemberment of the target country, and the insertion of our own influence, especially as regarding oil, instead. Of course, Bill was smarter than Bush II, in that he followed the Germans and other Europeans into that area, instead of blundering in himself.
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Vegetarianism
[Read the article: Herbivore vs. carnivore]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This book was also reviewed in another left publication, I think the Nation, which gave it a similar negative evaluation. But it does bring up the topic! Ms. Miller's review still relegates vegetarianism to some oddball backwater, but in the U.S. (like in India) it is becoming more and more mainstream. Many young progressive women take up vegetarianism in high school or even junior high. Both my daughters did. We made meals for them, with meat on the side for us. However, in my "old" age, I've decided eating meat doesn't make sense now, for three reasons.
1.) Human's are animals, but we are able to choose what we do far more than most animals. And given the state of food availability now, we can choose not to eat meat. Animals have intelligence, feel pain and have emotions. Eating them is like eating your pet or a baby, it seems to me.
2.) Meat is less healthy, especially red meat. I am trying to drop cholesterol, as my male parent and male grandparent both died in their 50s of heart attacks. I do not plan to check out so early. This is not to mention the hormones and contamination in much factory meat.
3.) Meat production is not environmentally sound and is somewhat unsustainable. To feed the whole world acres of meat almost requires factory production of meat, and acres of land.
This is the short form. I think eventually vegetarianism will grow more and more popular. You can see it in the ridiculous defensiveness of some meat eaters, like some of the posts here.
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Women's low libido
[Read the article: Sex, or chocolate?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I won't speculate about women before menopause, but it is a fact that after menopause, women do not want sex as much. No one wants to talk about it, but it's there, or actually 'not there.'
Hormones take a nose dive, women start to feel more negative about their looks, maybe the men aren't young enough, or they are sick of men, or the women are depressed, and of course, there are no babies to be had. Whatever it is, these all combine to create a 'scissors'.
Men's libido tapers off much more slowly. Result? Either men put up with it, or men stray or leave for younger women, or the woman is smart enough to know that a man can't do everything himself. But do you/we need sex constantly? No. That is not the real issue.
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Numbers
[Read the article: The Pentagon plan for Iraq: Down to 5,000 U.S. troops in 2006]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think we have to add some or all of the private contractors in Iraq as part of the 'soldiers." They are doing jobs the soldiers would have done in the past, both military and support. There are 100,000 in Iraq.
Some might be doing construction, or purely 'civilian' activities, but a good number of these would be 'army' in the old, pre privatized army. We - the US population - really have 250,000 soldiers in Iraq. Let the Republicans with their shell games make the argument for who isn't doing a former soldier's job.
Of course, this also raises the death and injuries figures, doesn't it?