Letters to the Editor
ELYDOG
Published Letters: 712 Editor's Choice: 52
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Party Off
[Read the article: The presidential primary scam]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As some have already pointed out, the ruling Parties can organize their primaries as undemocratically as they want. If the primaries are undemocratic, it only shows that the Parties we have running this country are undemocratic. Quel surprise?
The link is that these primaries are supposedly connected to the electoral system, which we have all learned first-hand is absolutely undemocratic. The electoral college has to be done away with. Then 'democracy' might get a boost, and the parties may have to reflect it. The electoral college gives strength to small states at the expensive of populous states. It is part of 'state's rights' which usually, and I stress 'usually,' are anti-democratic on a national basis, and are used to entrench conservatism and reationary policies.
Of course, the electoral college will never be voted out by the small states. Catch 22. So our system is fundamentally undemocratic, and built that way. And it will need a more serious overhall than a simple vote in Congress. Democratic revolution anyone?
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Feel Good
[Read the article: Stop your sobbing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What an empty load of posh.
Besides generalizing every environmentalist as the same, this article says the key is to 'feel good.' Change comes from 'feeling good.' Positive feelings attract more than negative ones. They psychoanalze the debate.
Actually, most people support environmentalism, in spite of the 'negativity,' because they are not as stupid as these authors think. It is powerful economic forces - corporate America, including the media and the government, that are the biggest opponents to environmentalism. Who do these two work for?
I guess we can't oppose the Iraq war because it won't make people feel good to know we 'lost.' Again, the majority of the population is against the war, and wants withdrawal. I guess humans are more grown up than these two think.
I think Nordhaus and Shellenberger (who?) are really celebrating General Motors and the Republican Party, and every anti-environmental business out there. Remember, don't blame anyone. No one is responsible. Like Bush says, let's go to the mall!
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Get a Divorce
[Read the article: I'm cheating on my husband and loving it. Is that a problem?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you want to 'cheat', get a divorce. If you want to cheat on a boyfriend, don't get a boyfriend, just sleep with people.
But don't make a commitment to someone, then bail behind their backs. That is not a moral issue, or even a 'health issue' (though it could be one) but a 'do unto others issue' i.e. do not dispense pain unnecessarily.
I personally hope he finds out and gives her a little dose of reality.
I've found the most 'painless' form of relationships (if there is such a thing) is serial monogomy. Works the best. Open marriages are bogus, as are marriages that never end. In fact people keep bad marriages going too long. Bail!
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True
[Read the article: Shrinking the wage gap]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've seen this as true in my own company. We had a lesbian General Counsel who coaxed the company into having 'partner' health care, which actually extended to heterosexuals.
So not only did all heteros gain from lesbians, but hetero and lesbian working class women gained too.
Viva la semi-difference!
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You are where you've ... lived
[Read the article: We're sick of Southern California! Should we move to the Midwest? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Even if you move, California will still go with you, and you can return - maybe. Southern California, in a desert at the mercy of global warming and water shortages, is going to be in crisis, and not that far from now.
As to the Midwest, the list by one fellow - Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Lawrence (plains state...) is good. Houses are cheaper, though wages are lower... Chicago's people are more outgoing, but the city is a rough place to live unless you have money.
However, let me warn you, Midwesterners are family-oriented, and not necessarily to your family. And suburbs are suburbs anywhere. And there is no such thing as cold weather, only crappy winter clothes! And if you don't like the woods of northern Minnesota or Wisconsin, or the Great Lakes, you will be at a loss for natural beauty. After all, it's an 800 mile drive to the Black Hills.
And, for various reasons, Americans move and move and move... I don't really think there is a 'perfect' place. I've never found it.
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Winter is going, going, ...
[Read the article: We're sick of Southern California! Should we move to the Midwest? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ramus,
Winters in Wisconsin, or Minnesota, or Michigan are not 20 below zero for days. Global warming has given us winters from about 300 miles south of where we live. I.E. in Minneapolis, we are having winters from southern Iowa. In Northern Minnesota, they have winters from southern Minnesota.
It is rare that the weather stays very cold for a long time. Children are astounded to see heavy snows. Last year you could hardly cross country ski. The snow machines are working overtime on the slopes. There are thaws and freezes and thaws. You barely need to plug your car in, although it is a kind thing to do. Even the ice fishing has deteriorated, as has the snowmobile driving up north.
Nothing like the 60s, when we had 'real' winter, for days.
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They don't actually like democracy...
[Read the article: Let's abolish the Electoral College]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For the right, democracy leads to 'socialism', as one of the quotes illustrated. The people that run this country don't actually like 'democracy', which is why even center and right Democrats have bought into the electoral 'college' too, even after the Gore travesty.
The problem with getting rid of the electoral college is that to amend the constitution requires the vote of 3/4s of the states... We saw how the "ERA", a simple affirmation of the equality of women, was killed by conservative-controlled states. I am afraid that the un-populous states consitute more than 1/4 of the states, and they would have to suddenly become somewhat 'high' minded to vote for abolition.
Unless there is a wave of populist activism - a new Party perhaps - in these unpopulous states that overwhelms the conservative elements in the Democratic and Republican parties, I don't see this happening within the present 'legal' framework.
Of course, 'legal' frameworks are not the only way to change a beast.