Letters to the Editor
factician
Published Letters: 36 Editor's Choice: 14
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Legalize it.
[Read the article: New debates about the oldest profession]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've never used the services of a prostitute. I've never cheated on my wife.
Prostitution should be legalized. Making it illegal increases the likelihood of the women practicing it being victimized. It makes it harder for them to have proper health care. It makes it harder for them to be safe. It makes it harder for them to not be involved with organized crime. It makes it harder for them to report crimes against them (including rape).
Let's see prostitution go corporate. McSex. Give them health plans and retirement plans. Give them stock options. And give them the access to folks who will help them move into other professions if they so choose.
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I think my problem with this...
[Read the article: I don't believe in atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... is that Hedges is lumping atheists and making generalizations about them in the same way people lump Christians together. But one makes (a small amount of sense), the other doesn't.
Christians, all believe (to one extent or another) that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
Buddhists all believe (to one extent or another) that they'll get another shot at life, based on how well they did this time around.
Thor worshipers believe in Ragnarok.
Zeus worshipers believe lightning comes from the hand of Zeus.
Atheists all believe... well, they all don't believe that stuff that Christians and Buddhists believe. In fact, they tend to think that if you can't prove it, it's probably nonsense.
Lumping atheists is rather like lumping people together by hobby, and claiming all the people who don't collect stamps belong together in one group. That is to say it's balderdash to lump them together.
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I doubt this would be much different
[Read the article: FDA disregarded results on food from cloned animals]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What if we asked a focus group the question "Would you like the beef that you eat to be raised in a feedlot, and then butchered at a young age without ever having seen a pasture?"
I think a lot of people would say that's no good.
Just because people have a visceral "ick" reaction to where their food is coming from, doesn't mean that it's relevant. It just means that most people are divorced enough from food production that they simply haven't the foggiest what they're eating, or how it's produced.
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One other point...
[Read the article: FDA disregarded results on food from cloned animals]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cloning is crazy expensive at this point, so you would mostly clone an animal to raise it for breeding stock, not directly for meat itself. So imagine you clone a cow. If it ends up being butchered (it wouldn't, it's too valuable as breeding stock, but we're imagining here) it would be labeled as a clone. Would you also label the offspring as clones, even though they were made "naturally" (by copulation, that is)? What about the grandkids? Great-grandkids? When does the label of clone come off?
What about grapes? Do we label them cloned, because they're all descended from a single plant?
What about bananas? Potatoes?
And how do you enforce it? How do you tell the difference between clones and twins? Do we sue farmers who failed to label their cloned cows, when really they just had twin cows?
But wait, focus groups were grossed out by clones, so we need to label them...
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Wow.
[Read the article: Is Briana Waters a terrorist?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]She could spend as much as two decades behind bars for allegedly holding a walkie-talkie.
You really want to say that? That devlaues everything else the author wrote about this case. She's not going to spend two decades behind bars for holding a walkie-talkie. She's going to spend two decades behind bars for being found guilty of helping burn down a lab.
Do bank robbers get sentenced to prison "just for driving a car"? No. They go to jail for driving the getaway car used to flee the scene of the crime.
Don't be disingenuous. If there are real concerns about her guilt, those clearly should be raised. But to make it seem like the crime itself is unimportant... That makes it seem like you're not credible.
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Why should he leave?
[Read the article: I let a homeless man move in with me and now I can't get rid of him]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He's getting free rent, responsibility-free. Why would he agree to go?
It's time to stop having conversations with him, and start setting ultimatums. Give him a deadline, and then throw him out. Change the locks while he's out (really, that costs very little) and don't let him back in.
I had a room-mate once who stopped paying the rent. My wife and I put up with it for about 2 months, and then we threw her out. Best thing we ever did (we went out for dinner to celebrate).
You'll be relieved. Do it today.
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Dobbs is a nativist hatemonger
[Read the article: In defense of Lou Dobbs]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am an immigrant, with an American wife and an American son. I work hard and pay my taxes. My scientific research accomplishments are owned by an American university and will benefit Americans when they are incorporated into next-generation vaccines. Yet Lou Dobbs continues to assert that people like me shouldn't be here. He is a hatemonger, and continues to spout vile, nasty lies, documented by the good folks at Southern Poverty Law Center (www.splcenter.org).
Lou Dobbs should be allowed to speak. He should be allowed to write. But it should be from an obscure corner of the internet (blogger, perhaps?), or in a small racist newsletter mailed out to survivalist militias. He shouldn't be speaking from the pulpit of CNN.