Letters to the Editor
ELYDOG
Published Letters: 483 Editor's Choice: 43
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Polygamy? Genital Mutilation? Bride Burning?
[Read the article: Does freedom to veil hurt women?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is not altogether unknown that women particpate in their own oppression, just as the rest of us do in some fashion.
The ostensibe freedom to wear whatever you want is balanced by the rationale of the headscarf, chador, burka, etc., which is to cover 'alluring' women up from the male gaze. The headscarf is nothing but the peasant scarf and the nun's habit, in urban areas.
We ban polygamy, genital mutilation and bride burning, not because we cannot find women who justify these practices on some basis, but that they are harmful to women, no matter what some women think. Admittedly, headscarfs are not physically damaging (except perhaps in reducing Vitamin D from the sun) but they symbolize, I think, male control of women. Sort of like a 'star of david' for women.
Does that justify allowing this 'symbol' of male oppression? Hard question. The dynamics of this in Turkey is that the fundamentalist Grey Wolves and ultra-right are going to use this as a wedge issue to push their whole fundamentalist agenda. Sharia law is dwelling in the background, of course, along with assassination and attacks on women who don't wear the headscarf. It can now be used to control the women who DON"T wear the scarf, publically identifying them to right wing gangs.
So for that reason, I lean against legality.
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The U.S. destroyed Iraq...
[Read the article: McCain apes Bush on Iraq, as Dems stand passively by]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... and now we are supposed to save it? Fichte, give the world a break.
No electricity, little health care, unsanitary water, less oil, ethnic cleansing, millions displaced, a breakdown in trade, money going to U.S. companies, not Iraqi companies; $8 billion in disappearing aid, disappearing guns, huge U.S. budget deficits, extra legal paramilitaries like Blackwater, the withdrawal of nearly every country in our 'coalition' of the gullible except some tiny eastern European states; incredible infant death, cancers from depleted uranium, neighborhoods and cities ethnically cleansed, infrastructure destroyed and still not 'rebuilt', a government based on ethnicity and Shiite fundamentalism, the destruction of archeological sites, the killing of women for not wearing headscarves, injuries galore for our soliders and their civilians. Torture by all sides. War crimes. And death, death, death.
Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein could only wish to have created such havoc.
And you expect the same people who created this situation to 'save' it? How many patients does a doctor kill before you realize it's not just a mistake?
Your blindness is astounding.
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Manjoo - riding same hobby horse
[Read the article: Your presidential candidate: Hot or not?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As Michael Moore wryly noted, if Monica Moorhead of the Worker's World Party had not run in Florida in 2000, her several thousands of votes would mostly have gone to Gore, and Gore would have won.
Manjoo should be blaming Monica Moorhead and those damn commies! Not our fucked up voting and party system. Although maybe it is dawning on him with this article...
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Minnesota Women
[Read the article: Sex after 50? Mais oui!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've found older Minnesota women to be kind of cold. But then the climate is cold, the culture is cold and, well, you get the idea.
Menopause affects women in a far more immediate and sharp way than the so-called 'male' menopause. Female menopause generally sinks sexual desire into the basement. Of course then there are the anti-depressants women take. And their 'body image' issues. Etc. Does menopause work in France the same way? Doesn't sound like it. Or are women not afraid of being 'women' anymore there? Or are they lying?
I think culture and menopause together create a very prudish situation. I'm 55 and it seems pretty obvious with the women around me.
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Tiny Steps
[Read the article: Yo mama is so green ...]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The key thing of course is a national crash emergency plan on the environment. And that all relates to politics.
But I'm not waiting. If people start changing their little habits, it can have a ripple effect. Nearly every week I discover something that can be improved environmentally.
Right now I'm going to compost my dog's sh*t in a hole in the ground. I just bought organic cotton sheets and a wind up flashlight. Finally got rid of paper and plastic bags in my house. Wax bags for lunch sandwiches. Real knives and forks and napkins for eating at work, no 'picnic' ware. First time for any of this, and I'm a so-called 'environmentalist.' And there is plenty more after this. My heat is set at 63 degrees when I'm there, 52 when I'm not, in Minnesota. I'm now thinking of turning part of my yard into a food garden...
Pretending environmentalism is a petit-bourgeois concern is the refuge of fools. Eventually what these women are doing will spread and filter to other's in their class. Given the SUV and the bottled water, it just looks like they are still not thinking deeply enough about it all.
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Dead were Jazzers
[Read the article: Rock vs. jazz]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are many elements of jazz in the 'jam' band format. Who can forget Wynton Marsalis playing with the Grateful Dead and saying in suprise, "You guys are jazz players!" or something to that effect? Jam bands dominate some festivals like Bonnaroo, and attract hundreds of thousands of youth.
As I get older, I listen to more straight live jazz, as it can sustain interest over the predictability of most rock. Young people, however, don't listen to straight jazz for the most part, perhaps because it is too cerebral. If you want to dance, jazz is not the place for you.