Letters to the Editor
ELYDOG
Published Letters: 487 Editor's Choice: 43
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Mormons and Evangelicals together
[Read the article: "A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is funny when our own Shiites and Sunnis fight among themselves. Bird of a feather - hate each other?
Both the Mormons and the Evangelicals stopped the ERA from being passed by legislatures where they were strong, in the South and in Utah. Utah put the nail in the coffin of the ERA when the Mormon Chruch went against it.
Male chauvinist religions. Look out either way.
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Mormons Bring Christianity to the U.S.
[Read the article: "A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Reading about the Mormon faith convinced me that these people wanted to re-enact Christian Bible stories on the American continent.
We have Golden tablets, persecution, prophets and true believers, personal revelations, a desert, an ersatz Bible addition written like a copy of Old Testament, polygamy like the Kings of old, and Old Testament violence.
Those Mormons, they've got it all over those old-fashioned, non-American Christians.
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Another reason to be careful about eating meat
[Read the article: Is the way we raise our food giving us MRSA?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Excellent article. Makes scientific sense.
Besides periodic e-coli poisoning, this hints that factory farmed pigs are going to lower your resistance to infection too, or infect you. Time to eat more meat! Than I can have a colon cleanse right afterwards... and I'll clean the counter with anti-biotic cleansers, and take penicillin for a snack.
Over-using antibiotics has been done for years, on all factory farmed animals, not just pigs. Not a secret. Especially when the food and living arrangements make the animals sick in the first place, as one researcher pointed out here.
Yum.
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Polarization is good
[Read the article: The Internet is making us stupid]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This article is written as if objective events have no role in 'polarization.' War, economic disasters and inequalities, the environment, health care, etc. are all objective things that have nothing to do with the media.
Now people are anlayzing the objective situation without the filter of the MS Media. What this guy is bemoaning is the collapse of the 'center' which has controlled the MS media for years. Well, the MS media has gone to the right. And the internet has appeared. So if you are on the 'left' based on objective events, what are you supposed to do? Start watching the middle of the road media again and believing it (which by the way has a political position too...)? Vote for Mr. Nice Guy?
Polarization is good, as it clarifies politics. There has been a class 'war' going on for many years now. Centrist lawyers like Sunstein don't want real democracy, which involves polarization. They represent a middle-class sector that is neither 'rich' nor poor or working class. So of course they equate democracy with being middle of the road, against the 'polarizing' effects of these two opposed class groups.
The Democratic party, for instance, while dominated now by corporate neo-liberals, lost it's southern Dixiecrat wing, which has made ideology more important in the party. The Republicans picked up the DixieRep wing now, which does the same for them. So the main parties, through objective processes, have become more ideological. It's history, not the breakdown of 'democracy.'
Democracy is being destroyed because neither party really represents the majority of the people anymore. The internet is actually promoting democracy by giving those on the outs some kind of organizing power and a voice. Get used to the rabble...
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Blue Collar?
[Read the article: Where have all the line technicians gone?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Schools do not train people to be highly-skilled blue-collar workers, or even semi-skilled. They just talk about "college." Math and science are taught as if they have no relevancy to real life. The society doesn't respect blue collar workers - they are mostly a dumb 'joke' on TV. Blue collar workers get laid off, probably more than white collar workers. Unions have been beated into the dust. The government under Nixon decided that we did not need a 'manufacturing economy.'
Need I say more? I don't think it is because kids are lazy, that is just 'same old, same old."
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Democrats are doing what they always do
[Read the article: What happened to the Senate's "60-vote requirement"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This legislative show was for the 'voting cattle' - that's us. The actual behaviour is for the system / Republicans. That's 'them'. And for 4 candidates to ignore the vote? That is for 'them' too.
I'll bet Hillary was one. She is a Republican in Democrat's clothing and hasn't changed one iota since her husband left office. Vote Republican-lite. This lame idea that the only thing you can hope for is 'not a formal Republican' will get you 'Democrat' adminstrations for the next 100 years... And your kids will be telling thier kids this same 'wisdom' and on and on.
While the world burns.
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Why does this make sense?
[Read the article: Has Al Gore's fat lady finally sung?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've had a nagging feeling that Al Gore thinks technology will solve global warming and peak oil, in spite of denials to the contrary. And that just the right inventions will make everything better, and at the same time, put money into the hands of a revitalized U.S. capital sector, kind of the 'next big thing' after the internet boom.
Joining a venture capitalist firm to exploit 'green' energy fits perfectly.
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Advisors
[Read the article: Obama goes for the capillaries]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If Obama is getting advice from the lawyer and professor who wrote in last week's Salon on the need to 'avoid polarization' in the U.S., it is no wonder that Obama's 'nice guy' act is the only thing he can deliver.
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Makin' Money
[Read the article: Has Al Gore's fat lady finally sung?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Makin' money works to get capitalist firms to invest in new 'green' technologies (and some that are just covers for the old technologies like ethanol), but 'making' money is not going to limit consumption, or reduce growth.
In fact, the 'reducing consumption' side of the 'global warming' debate actually hinders 'making money.' They are not compatible as motivations.
Eventually, reducing our carbon footprint will mean less production, not more, less buying, not more, less obsolescence, not more, less packaging, not more, etc. and more recycling, not more new buying.
Today's "Smart Car" article points this out, as people might buy this as a 'third car'. Just making a new car engenders new plastic/steel/rubber and metals uses, and might be less environmentally friendly than wearing your beater out.