Letters to the Editor
Taliesan
Published Letters: 942 Editor's Choice: 19
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robotempire
[Read the article: Mike Huckabee, on a wing and a prayer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is moral to give money to charity.
It isn't the law to give money to charity.
It is immoral to lie to someone.
It isn't against the law to lie.
It is moral to treat your elders with respect.
It isn't the law to treat your elders with respect.
It is immoral to cheat on your wife.
It isn't illegal to cheat on your wife.
Morality and law are two very different things, and it shocks me that you seem to be unable to see the difference.
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And this, is what America needs in a president.
[Read the article: Waterboarding is not simulated drowning -- it is drowning]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not some rightwhinge liar who plays tough with other people's lives, not the cowardly and craven Democrats who make the right noises but never follow through, but a guy like Malcolm Wrightson Nance.
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robotempire
[Read the article: Mike Huckabee, on a wing and a prayer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While there is a relationship between morality and law, generally morality is more likely to influence the law then vice versa as morality tends to come first (It is a moral code, and then becomes a legal code if important enough to merit it, not the other way round.)
Legal codes can in fact be immoral, or have you never read any history? Plenty of people are noted in our history books as being heroic, not because they did what was legal, but because in breaking the law they upheld morality.
As an example the Germans who sheltered and helped jews escape the gas chambers in WWII are upheld today as not only being moral, but being heroic because they broke their society's laws.
Morality is a private code held whether the law says something on a matter or not. Examples include the highly moral work of the Salvation Army, Greenpeace, the work of several unions in protecting their workers.
Law on the other hand is enforced not by a private standard but by a societal one. The law does not concern itself with petty matters (Such as lying about not doing your homework, lying about forgetting someone's birthday, being a good sport when your team loses) while morality on the other hand, does.
While lying can be held to be illegal within a context (Such as perjury or false advertising) it is not in and of itself illegal. It is however, immoral unless in a context where the lie would cause harm to others (Thus lying can be moral if you are lying to save a life, but is generally immoral.)
So while you claim that I am the one who doesn't understand, it appears clear to me that you sir are the one who doesn't understand what morality really is.
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Xrandadu Hutman, he's overly risk averse
[Read the article: Our best friends are scarily, heedlessly in debt]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Penny pinchers rarely make all that much money - because they are too busy watching the pennies to keep the pounds from rolling out the door.
They don't change careers because of their high risk aversion, and this leads to them getting paid less then your average non-penny pincher.
Generally that sort of character works extremely hard, but is generally only about as effective as your average employee. This is because while the hard worker is going in and doing stuff, the lazy worker is thinking of ways to make it unneccessary to do it, plus the lower stress levels suffered by the lazy makes them more productive.
This is not to say that debt-magnets and CEO culture clubbers are any better, as they tend to worry about their status more then the fact that they are living beyond their means (And aren't really having much fun anyway) but rather to say that one needs a balance for success.
Splurge occassionally, have the nice supper out, have fun, buy good gifts and if your job sucks look for a new one and quit. Life is too short to spend it not living.
As to LW: Let them live their lives. They will crash and burn, but bankruptcy is not the end, particularly if they are studying. That degree will probably serve them well when the chips are down, and if worst comes to worst, with an initial behind their names they can always emigrate.
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Which would you pick?
[Read the article: Obama goes for the capillaries]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hillary has serious censorship issues.
Obama is a wuss.
Kucinich believes in aliens.
Edwards, once had an expensive haircut.
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johncp, some Hillary negatives.
[Read the article: Obama goes for the capillaries]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]She embraced what amounted to being the exact same crowd that in the 80's proclaimed DnD to lead to satanism (The whole Grand Theft Auto deal) and thus alienated the entire gaming community, most programmers, and anyone with a modicum of common sense (Note: her primary argument was that a game called Grand Theft Auto San Andreas didn't offer parents enough of a warning that the content might just not be suitable for children.)
She voted for Iraq, and recently for a bill that authorised military action against Iran.
She not only voted for Iraq, she was one of the primary voices arguing in favour of Iraq. No amount of giggling is going to change that little fact.
She has also got a bad surname for the presidency (Clinton.) Though Bill was a good president, after Bush Clinton Bush America is starting to look like its fallen prey to ruling families.
She has all of the negatives of being a highly partisan vote (Only the leftwing will vote for her) without actually having the benefit of being partisan enough to push leftwing ideals (She is in essence a compromise candidate.)
And all of this before you get into why the rightwing dislikes her.