Letters to the Editor
bidalah
Published Letters: 17 Editor's Choice: 1
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Blatant politics
[Read the article: Alberto Gonzales' Net-porn advice: Be graphic]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Mr. Gonzales request to "be graphic" in describing crimes against children would indeed be justified if it was necessary to increase public awareness or opposition to these heinous crimes. Is it? Are there any non-pedophiles out there who support crimes against children? Is there ANYONE, ANYWHERE that doesn't see these crimes as among the most serious and fully support making child exploitation a priority for law enforcement?
I don't doubt Mr. Gonzales passion for prosecuting these crimes or protecting children. But the reason he wants to "go graphic" has nothing to do with either. I believe that by shouting "pedophiles!" he hopes to accomplish what his boss does from shouting "terrorism!" That's a kind of child exploitation too, isn't it?
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Where are the real IT firms?
[Read the article: Voting systems in California fail hack test]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How many people use Diebold or Sequoia software on their computers? Are these even IT companies? I never heard of any of them until they started making crappy voting software. Where is IBM, EDS, or Cisco? Are there no real IT companies, fluent in network security, that are interested in this market?
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Bad Parent, no pot for you!
[Read the article: Sex, drugs and my 15-year-old]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is the kind of parenting that gets Republicans elected!
Were you high when you wrote this? Seeing it in print, do ya see anything you might do differently??
The driving while impaired problem is obvious as many have pointed out. What about the parenting while impaired? So you think marajuana should be legal. Fine. So you've got no problem with your 15 year old son doing pot, despite all the medical research on the harm it can do to developing bodies and minds. Your child, your call I guess. Just have the bail money ready for him.
But did it ever occur to you to wonder how your son might have felt receiving "the talk" from his baked dad? You state that your son just kind of grunted at every thing you had to say. Most likely he was discounting it as the doped-up ravings that they were! Assuming you were coherent, how serious was he supposed to take you Cheech?
You sent a clear message to him that either he is too unimportant, or you're too much of a COWARD to hold a sober discussion with him. My advice: sober up, straighten up, then march right over to his mom, and tell her to give it a shot. You're screwed.
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Not surprising
[Read the article: Hey, skinny bitch!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As a long time vegan, this book doesn't surprise me. Becoming a vegan is hard. There is a good minority of us who, having accomplished it, feel is necessary to tout their moral and ethical superiority over the rest of barbaric humanity. You normally have to go to certain churches to find an equal level of unbridled sanctimony.
Like most good causes, the best vegans (aka, the majority of us) don't make headlines. We try to encourage our beliefs by example and when in doubt, err on the side of respect. Bottom line, most vegans are not going to go around calling strangers names, that would be moderated out of this blog if I tried to write them.
But on the other hand I can't help thinking that anyone willing to buy a book that calls people "skinny bi***es", and then promises to make you one, is quite literally asking to be abused in one way or another. Ultimately one's self-respect cannot be taken. It has to be given away.
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Absolutely not!
[Read the article: Should Florida and Michigan vote again? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Florida and Michigan richly deserve disqualification. Both states tried to unilaterally set their own party rules to increase their own influence at the expense of everyone else. Quite simply it was an attempted coup, and every Democrat not from Florida or Michigan should resent it. It is wonderfully ironic that if they had simply played by the rules set out by the DNC, their primaries would have been among the most influential in the nation.
Last I heard, the Florida state Democrats were adamant that there would be no rerun of their 'official' primary. Suits me fine! The only way I would ever support new primaries in these state is if these state organizations themselves were going to pay for it. The idea that the National Democratic Party (of which the other 48 state party organizations are still a part) should pony up precious campaign resources to rescue Michigan and Florida from their own hubris is funny and sad.
There is another consideration here too. It has become obvious this season that Democratic Party primary rules are a mess. Overly complicated, overly generous to primary losers, they seem more designed to satisfy party interests groups than to pick a winner. To fix this mess we need more national party control over primary rules not less. To give in to these two states will set exactly the wrong precedent at exactly the wrong time.
As a Clinton supporter I sympathise with her, but she is out of line here. I have no doubt she would agree with everything I have stated above if those pretend-delegates had been awarded to Obama.
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Slow week Leonard?
[Read the article: So long, John -- gas is $4 a gallon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So the incumbants always lose when gas prices go up. Except for when they don't...which according to your article has happened twice--once in 1996 ("The exception that proves the rule?") and again in 2004 ("The only significant exception to this pattern...") .
It was very prudent of you to wrap up the article listing other factors that may have influenced the elections too. Like the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, or Perot's candidacy in '92...those factors which everyone else has long since concluded were the DECIDING factors. All in all what you given us here is 3 paragraphs proposing an interesting new perspective, and two final paragraphs tearing that perspective apart.
Take some time off Andrew. Enjoy some of that Berkeley, California weather. Try again next week.