Letters to the Editor
John of Ventura
Published Letters: 13
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Huh??
[Read the article: "Their 40s just seemed to sneak up on them"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What an odd set of replies to this article.
I never had kids and it's probably too late now. I'm a man and I feel regrets. Most women do to.
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@-- Tyler_Mason
[Read the article: The fate of the Earth, the Bush years]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was referring to the Iranians being barely able to contain Saddam's army. The US Military can defeat any army in the world on a conventional basis. That was the whole point of my post.
I'm Anon 7:09
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What if Glenn is mistaken?
[Read the article: Harry Reid's FISA games]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glenn writes:
...Harry Reid is apparently bringing the bill to the floor (a) in precisely the way designed to help the administration's goal of ensuring there is telecom amnesty and fewer surveillance oversight protections and (b) contrary to the way his office has been assuring everyone concerned that it would be done.
How does he know this? The response from Reid's staffers mentioned in the comments here seem to suggest Reid is not doing this. Any possibility Glenn is mistaken?
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Hobbits maybe
[Read the article: Harry Reid's FISA games]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...but not particularly nice or gentle if Reid is any example,
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@MacK
[Read the article: Anatomy and significance of Monday's FISA victory]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for your analysis of the role of discovery in overseeing domestic surveillance. I was aware of discovery but never picked up on it's strategic role here.
Clear and concise. Thanks.
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Skepticism vs Atheism
[Read the article: The atheist delusion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It seems to me there has been some confusion in this discussion between skepticism and atheism. While atheists are often skeptics not all of them are. Some skeptics are atheist some aren't.
As Michael Shermer once said "no one was ever executed or imprisoned for not being skeptical enough."
I'm pretty sure Lenin and Stalin were atheists but their regimes were unquestionably based on dogmatic assertions and the suppression of skepticism toward those assertions.
Dogmatism, coercion and fanaticism are the enemy not belief. Believers who don't fit that description are not my concern.
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Religious wars
[Read the article: The atheist delusion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Thirty Years War was an explicitly religious war and it was very bad but you have to distinguish between wars in which both sides believe "God is on Our side" and wars fought for explictly religious reasons and those pale in numbers compared to wars fought for territorial gain etc.
I prefer to be opposed to fanaticsm, coercion and dogmatism than religion per se and I don't think the religious have a monopoly on those characteristics. Especially if you distinguish between true-believers and those who pay lip service for other reasons.
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@lostinthestars
[Read the article: The atheist delusion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]An important implication of atheism is that ethics is nothing more than words games, and that life has no meaning or purpose.
It's a possible implication that life has no inherent meaning or purpose. Not that many atheists in fact accept that view although Nietszche does. He proposes creating a meaning. And he is explicitly opposed to nihilism which he views as a product of a previously held belief in something which has now been exploded. Like Christianity.
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Outrageously Underpaid
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am shocked that airline pilots make so little money. everybody in information technology with any experience is making 60-80K$ and noone's life is on the line.
It scares me...really.
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@William Timberman
[Read the article: Reid and company target the true enemy: "Dodd and his allies"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If so, I'll bet he's smiling -- ruefully, but not without hope that harmony will eventually be restored.
Regretfully, I'm betting harmony won't be restored. Unlike most posters here, who are mostly Democrats and a few Republicans, I believe what we are seeing is an inevitable development of the modern state. The implosion of the USSR was just a speeded up version in a more extreme modern state of what will happen with the US and the EU. Once the modern state reaches a certain critical mass of complexity and centralisation of power it will become more authoritarian and lawless.
This process can be slowed down and I'm all in favour of Senators like Dodd attempting to do so and I support grassroots efforts but it will prove increasingly difficult to find electable presidents who do not harbour Caesaresque ambitions. Once in office they will be compelled by the internal logic of the state to behave in much the same way as Bush; some a little better but some will be even worse now that the precedents have been set.
I really hope I'm wrong - but I doubt it. We're in Roman territory now.
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What does it say...
[Read the article: Maybe Romney had a dream]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...about someone if he makes a verifiably false statement in public and under scrutiny?
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RMP - Bravo!
[Read the article: The bipartisan consensus on U.S. military spending]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anyone who respects the military knows that they should be deployed only in just causes that are absolutely unavoidable by any other means. Iraq was unquestionably not such a cause.
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Some of these letters make me...melancholy
[Read the article: Getting it on for science]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've always had great sexual relationships with the women I was with. Whenever these types of articles are published by Salon a lot of bitter letters show up.
AbbyBWood: I talk a blue streak and I have lot's to say, too.
A lot of people seemed unfulfilled to me...