Letters to the Editor
ELYDOG
Published Letters: 498 Editor's Choice: 43
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Democrats embrace Ethanol, Coal
[Read the article: Celebrate clean coal, come on!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Both Democratic Party candidates support, along with John McCain, ethanol and coal.
One more reason to see the 'leadership' of our country has no idea how deep the problems go.
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Proletarianization
[Read the article: Have we fallen behind our parents?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The word for what is happening to the true 'middle class' in the U.S. (a term that hides more than it reveals, as the previous writer points out) is 'proletarianization.'
Your education in eastern or central Europe should help you understand that word.
If a PHD candidate cannot get tenure, for instance, and works for $40,000 a year, and floats from school to school - there you go... They might hate to believe that they are drawing closer to the steelworker or the Wal Mart employee, but they are. Education or not. They, of course, have a chance of getting tenure, which is something those don't have. Or using their education to switch gears into another field.
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True Middle Class
[Read the article: Have we fallen behind our parents?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think the true middle class is those who live off others labor, or their own investments, to a certain extent. Or have a job that entails very large renumeration, and which, of course, allows them to pack it away.
I consider most doctors, lawyers, professors, managers, engineers, executives to be middle class, along with small and medium businessmen and most farmers. These people generally have pretty comfortable secure lives. They have higher educations, have more money from their family, and play leading roles in the community in various ways. Of course, people from the middle class can fall ... or rise, and there are gradations even within the middle class. Farmers are the obvious example of a gradation, and even within farmers there are 'small, medium and large.' Some, of course, are multi-millionaires.
"Middle" is a term that just means between rich and poor. It is actually deceptive, as it then lumps millionaire attorneys with retail clerks. Most white collar workers and blue collar workers are not middle class. It is funny that the press description of the 'hero' of the 'white' working class should be a millionaire upscale lawyer named Hillary Clinton. But the fact that the press is talking about the 'working class' instead of chattering on about the 'middle class' for years, is indicative of a change in the wind.
Are not millionaires then the 'rich'? Yes, they start blending in with them, but the true rich are now billionaires!
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Taibbi is Hilarious
[Read the article: In the land of believers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I read Rolling Stone and Matt's stories are just what the doctor ordered. Most writers and most people don't have a freakin' spine and Taibbi does. He is Hunter S Thompson Junior, but in a new period. Gonzo lives.
I've had to face off with the 9/11 "Truthers". Most people on the 'left' don't actually believe them, but a few do. And it was like being grilled by the political police. But you just give as much as they dish out. I believe the police agencies killed both Kennedys and King and participated in the murder of Malcolm X - I think it's fairly obvious.
The massive scale alone of a so-called conspiracy like 9/11 is a prima facie argument against it. The only question I still have is, "Why did it take so long for those jets to scramble?" The answer, I think, is the air force is incompentent. This 'consipriacy' also lets you believe that fundamentalist Muslims with guns wouldn't hurt you a bit! Dream on. They'd hang every atheist and agnostic from a pole, and then start on the rest of the 'disbelievers.' (If you don't believe me, see what they did after they took over Afghanistan.)
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Traveling will be again for the well off ...
[Read the article: How I misspent my European vacation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The travel door is closing, folks. High jet fuel, low dollar. The days of American's traipsing all over are going.
And Italy is the joke American tourist place. Every single person wants to go to Italy first. What gives? Especially when they seem to know so little ABOUT Italy.
And the other thread here - carefree, money hungry singles jaunting around the world, while other people raise their children. Too true. Hard to mix. Usually have to wait until the kids are out of the house and college. Or be upper middle class.
Travel is going to become, again, a more class-based thing.
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Flying to Asia
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In spite of Patrick Smith's cheery analysis of the price of jet fuel, I don't think 'prices' are going to follow such a small, linear path. $23 more cross country? $138 overseas?
I flew to Hanoi, Vietnam in 2005 for $800 RT. I just booked a flight to Phnom Penh Cambodia for $2,000.00. Now, PP is a more obscure destination than Hanoi, and also a bit farther, but not $1,200 farther.
Same thing with domestic flights. About 10 years ago I flew to Las Vegas for $100 RT. Last week I came back from there, it was $250.00. I'd say these are not incremental increases.
And on rail, rail corridors for light rail and heavy rail will start getting the traffic as trucking dies. And trucking is dying right now. Rail is the best way to move goods in the peak oil period. For truckohaulics and carohaulics this is hard to face, but rail is the 'future.' Those cheery rail right of ways that were turned into walking and bicycle paths are going to be returned to rail.
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McCain Blinked
[Read the article: McCain's amazing Iraq somersault]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Maybe the Republican losses in rural areas of Mississippi and Louisian within two weeks might have something to do with it.
Invading Iran doesn't look so appetizing anymore. Unless he can predict victory in 5 years!