Letters to the Editor
Buckethead Wendy
Published Letters: 43 Editor's Choice: 14
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Flippity flop
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Maybe if I'd been a fan for 30 years I'd lament the sorry state of the sport or something, but from where I stand it just looks like another part of the general strategy of the game. The fact that fouls figure so heavily in to the game is one of the reasons I recently started caring about basketball, and the big reason I don't think it's fair to compare it to soccer or hockey.
Players go in knowing there are going to be bad calls, and there are enough whistles per game that it tends to work itself out. The referees aren't stupid, either - they're looking at really specific body position and movement to determine where the foul was. Most players don't even try - they know they're not very good at it and they'll get a no-call or an offensive foul. If you're one of the few that can pull it off, have at it. It's a handful of points per game, so I can't really get that worked up about it.
Yes, it's annoying to see Manu Ginobli going "Waangh! I go boom!" every other possession. But he happens to be really aware of his body position (and his defender's) so I guess I see it as part of the skill set. I'm not saying I don't want to smack him, but I also want to smack Kobe Bryant every time he makes an impossible clutch shot. This guy can shoot, this other guy can rebound, this guy here is good at getting calls. Teamwork!
There are rules for flagrant fouls and Ts for when they start acting like 5-year olds and/or an unruly mob. Other than that, let them play.
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Good idea, wrong reasons.
[Read the article: Ultrasound controversy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I worked at an abortion clinic, we performed an ultrasound on every patient. It's the only way to confirm gestational age, which is important for determining which procedure to use. (It's very rare that a woman knows exactly what day she conceived; many patients were off by several weeks.) Not to mention, a doctor is going to need to know exactly what he/she is removing from any given uterus before he/she can remove it safely, so screening for twins, ectopic pregnancies, fibroids, etc. is important. As far as I know, anyway. I guess I didn't realize this wasn't standard procedure across the board.
Having said all that though, this is another one of those things, like waiting periods and mandatory counseling, where the subtext is essentially that women can't possibly make educated decisions about our wombs (or our futures, or our children) without someone holding our hands. "Oh, women are so flighty and oblivious! If only they knew that the embryo was baby-shaped they'd think about this first!"
Most women chose not to look at the screen, but some did. And yeah, until you get to about 8-9 weeks, all you can see is a blob of a pregnancy sac and, if you get a good angle, a tinier blob inside it. I don't know how persuasive that would be either way.
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It's just a sad story.
[Read the article: Goodbye, Vickie Lynn]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you heard this story about a total stranger, you would think, wow, what a tragedy. Because we all know who she is, I guess we feel like we can decide whether or not it's sad.
This woman never really had a chance, but she found one for herself anyway. She was a lost soul, and a train wreck. Know who else was a train wreck lost soul addict? Elvis, and Marylin, and Kurt Cobain, and any number of other sacred cow dead celebrities. They get a pass cause they were more talented, I guess? Sure, she was ditzy, and strange, and overbearing. Like all of Hollywood. Her life was sad, but it could easily have been much sadder. She got herself out of that trailer park and right in to a nasty, unforgiving spotlight.
So we can't even eulogize her without mentioning how trashy she is? Or her weight, or her boobs? She started with nothing and made her money through the sexuality she was born with. How is that possibly trashier than Paris Hilton, who used the money she was born with to cultivate her own sexuality, then make more money off of it by screwing skeevy guys on camera? At least Anna Nicole didn't try to convince anybody she was anything other than lucky and pretty.
The media reaction to the death of her son sickened me at the time, and the coverage of her death is equally nauseating. Maybe she was a lost cause from the get-go, but maybe if the vultures had let her grieve in peace she wouldn't have needed to medicate herself to death.