Letters to the Editor
Treeple
Published Letters: 304 Editor's Choice: 16
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It seems like you really want to leave
[Read the article: Help! I'm a prisoner in a big suburban house!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You listed some great reasons why you hate where you live now. Florid suburb-bashing may be a tired cliche in movies, but that doesn't mean there's no parallel in life. It doesn't matter that other people like their yards and space if these things aren't worth it to you. And your gut agrees with your head. Your wife sounds persuadable. I say go. A couple of years ago I moved from a place I loved to a place I hate. Passionately. It's a time-limited move, so I am bearing it (barely), but if it were open-ended, god no. Where we live is important. It matters. I hope it works out.
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Just not that appalled...
[Read the article: Mao to Kissinger: Take our wives. Please!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Of all the things Mao ever said and did, this is like the least of them. Okay, if he ever hugged a puppy, that would be less bad than this. But, I mean, the Cultural Revolution...
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About a McCain-Huckabee ticket...
[Read the article: What the Huck?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm afraid would be unbeatable. Huckabee would pacify all the nutbars who aren't convinced that McCain is conservative enough. (Perhaps because he doesn't actively call for bombing Planned Parenthood?)
Responding to the earlier anonymous, McCain is oldER, but he is not old. White House health care has kept Cheney alive, hasn't it? White House health care is nothing like the health care the rest of us get. I guess I am saying it could basically stop death...which is maybe crazy. But true? McCain won't die in office.
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"if she becomes extremely grave, you insist on knowing, regardless of the circumstances. Make her promise you only that"
[Read the article: A friend is doing chemo. What should I say?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Oh my god, no. I know these are Cary's words, not the LW's, but no, she has no more right to "insist" on knowing about someone else's imminent death as she does about her chemo. (The LW seems like a pretty good friend who wants to handle things delicately, all due credit.)
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I think she'd be able to have her own career
[Read the article: What would Michelle Obama do?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But that she, like anyone, would be crazy not to take the 4/8-year trip through the bizarro world of first lady, traveling anywhere, pursuing pet projects, just because she can.
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What feels unfair may not be unfair
[Read the article: A supersize controversy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There is something about superdelegates not voting with their constituents that seems unfair, no question--but I haven't been convinced yet that there's actually anything wrong with them voting how they wish. NPR aired an interview with a superdelegate who explained why he was sticking with Hillary in the face of enormous pressure from fellow members of the Black Caucus to switch to Obama. For him it came down to an "ethical" choice about staying loyal to "friends." I enjoyed the interview, but I wasn't moved by his argument. When one is in politics, constituents are perhaps more deserving of loyalty. Like I said, voting against them feels unfair. But feelings can get us into all sorts of trouble.
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Doctors : Insurance companies : : Airlines : TSA
[Read the article: Wal-Mart can be good for your health]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am fond of and sympathetic to doctors--they usually get into medicine with the best of intentions, work their asses off, and understandably want to feel valued and earn some money in the end. But the medical insurance system screws them, too. Many medical practices have drastically curtailed the number or kind of insured patients they will accept, not only because of the paperwork, but because 15-minute appointments do not allow ANY doctoring whatsoever! Good for the minority of doctors with the freedom to limit their practice this way and the minority of patients with the right kind of overpriced insurance. Bad for the rest of us.
Retail clinics address two of the major hurts with the current system--cost and waiting time. I would imagine that even for many uninsured poor, the cost of out-of-pocket payment is preferable to the possibly larger cost of spending an entire day in the ER and losing whatever wages might have been made. Not to mention the cost to one's dignity. Want to make someone feel worthless? Make him wait eight hours for a strep test. I would just love the doctors complaining about retail clinics to spend a couple of days and nights in an urban emergency department. What kind of doctoring do they think is happening there?
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Something else
[Read the article: My boyfriend's a secret crackhead!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm intrigued by the idea that your boyfriend has been an occasional user for a long time, someone able to hold down a job and a girlfriend. Until what? What changed? You mention an experience he had with crack that scared him, but I doubt it was the first time something like that happened. I would be interested in knowing more about why your boyfriend is suddenly confessing to everyone (oh my god, work?!)...and more, maybe, about what he hasn't told you yet.
I'm sorry this happened to you, though. You didn't choose this V-day bombshell, but you're choosing what to do with it. Don't forget you can always choose something else.