Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 28 Editor's Choice: 4
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Why only two options?
[Read the article: Pregnant and poor in Mississippi]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've just read through all these letters, and once again, I don't understand why everyone assumes the choice is between aborting a fetus with arms, legs and a heartbeat and raising an unwanted child without adequate resources.
A mother who wants the best for her child and cannot raise the child, for any reason, should give the child up for adoption. It is no longer true that minority babies don't get adopted; plenty of couples would love to adopt a healthy baby of any race. Catholic Charities chapters everywhere will support an expectant mother throughout her pregnancy, whether she chooses to keep her child or relinquish him.
I don't want to live in a society that enforces laws against abortion, but I don't want to live in a society that doesn't understand that abortion after 12 weeks is homicide. Justifiable homicide, perhaps, but homicide.
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I agree...
[Read the article: Goodbye, Harry Potter]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...with Aygee. Spoiler tags or not, why couldn't this have waited until Sunday?
So you broke the embargo, Ms. Miller, and you're a very fast reader. Good for you.
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On legalizing athletes' steroid use...
[Read the article: When Barry passes Hank]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... shouldn't we let the murdered wife and son of Chris Benoit have the last words?
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Quality of the music isn't the point
[Read the article: Joseph LeDoux's heavy mental]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Everybody ought to be able to make music just for the pleasure of it, without worrying about whether it meets some arbitrary standard of professionalism. Making music in groups is an instant bond, which is one of the reasons we sing in church. We need more non-recorded music in our daily lives, and I'll applaud anything that furthers that goal.
Fascinating article. I've been feeling sour about Salon lately, but this piece was great. Thanks.
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States aren't passing usury laws because the federal government overrides them
[Read the article: Usury: Back and better than ever]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Federal preemption, in the form of the National Banking Act, has rendered state usury laws meaningless, where they're still on the books.
Any payday lender that is affiliated with a federally-chartered bank can claim exemption from state usury and other consumer protection laws under the National Bank Act. The Supreme Court has affirmed and reaffirmed this sweeping federal preemption, most recently in Watters v. Wachovia.
Protecting financial institutions' ability to charge their consumers is a bipartisan effort on the part of Congress. States have very little to say about it any more.
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Don't dismiss the underlying concern here
[Read the article: My girlfriend's daughter is dressing like a stripper for Halloween!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cary, you're always the one looking for the subtext, and you missed it here. The letter writer's concern is valid: his girlfriend's daughter is packing the equivalent of a loaded .45 and has no idea how to handle it.
Letter Writer, rent the movie "Smooth Talk," and suggest that your girlfriend and her daughter watch it together. It's based on the Joyce Carol Oates story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," and it's about a teenaged girl who, intoxicated with her own sexual power, gets in way over her head.
The movie ends more happily than the story does -- but either way, it's a conversation every parent needs to have with every teenage girl: you're more powerful than you know, but that power comes with a lot of risk. It's fine to pretend and experiment, but it's more important to be safe.
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I have a feeling I'm in the minority, but...
[Read the article: Salon and Current TV]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No. Please, no. I don't want to watch videos in my news articles. I want to read. Didn't Salon use to be a literary magazine? Why are you moving toward becoming more like YouTube?
This is not what I want from Salon. I don't care what print journalists look like, and most print journalists go into that medium for a reason. Being able to write well doesn't mean that you can speak well, and the subject matter should always be more important than the writer in any case. I detest this apparent desire to make journalists celebrities, even in the virtual world.
How-to illustrations are fine, but I don't care what Stephanie Zacharek or Andrew O'Hehir or Rebecca Traister or even you look like, Joan. In fact, in an odd way, knowing what you look and sound like subtracts from your authority in my mind. I just want to read what you write.
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ditto to everyone...
[Read the article: Of working women, handbags and cosmetics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...criticizing the vlogs. They add nothing. They're slow and they're narcissistic. I don't care what you look like, I'm not interested in what your voices sound like, I come here to read what you write.
I can't imagine that it doesn't take at least three times as long to tape one of those vlogs than it would to just type out whatever you want to say.
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the vlog format
[Read the article: Why is this man crying?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The footage of GHWB crying is powerful. Your video introduction, Joan, inserted yourself into the story unnecessarily and would have been better as a print introduction.
Torture is the story. Your own interest in the waterboarding question is not the story.
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When the Internet is a boon
[Read the article: Is there a doctor in the mouse?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was just diagnosed with a degenerative, untreatable eye disease. The diagnosis has taken some time, and further tests are necessary for a reliable prognosis.
The ophthalmologist who gave me the diagnosis said, "I gather you've done some research online," and I said that I had. He gave a visible sigh of relief, since Emedicine.com and Blindness.org had relieved him of the burden of having to explain the diagnosis -- and had given me some time to get used to the idea.
We were both grateful that I'd done the online research ahead of time.
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listen to the music...
[Read the article: Hot off "The Wire"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The song playing as McNulty drove "Donald" down to Richmond was the Pogues' "Turkish Song of the Damned."