Letters to the Editor
knappa
Published Letters: 47 Editor's Choice: 6
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prosecution
[Read the article: New debates about the oldest profession]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just wanted to point out that prosecutors don't really have choice as to whom they prosecute. They are expected to bring suits against anyone who they have evidence on. If he wanted to not be a hypocrite, he wouldn't have brought action against in the various call girl cases, sure - but when the police bring him evidence that's a clincher, how exactly is he to respond?
So far, I haven't heard anything like underhanded deals with escort services in regards to prosecution. So, in some way, his professional morality is intact.
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Self-reinforcing
[Read the article: Work sucks? Blame her!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Perhaps it is both women and men's fault. For instance, me and my wife don't have kids yet and are both still in graduate school. A couple of semesters ago she switched schools midsemester and had to take the spring semester off. With her home, I found that I was more punctual about going home in the 5 to 6pm range. Now it's back to 7 to 8pm when I head home. My assumption is that with someone at home around 5pm, whether it's wife, kids or any combination of those, I'd be heading home earlier.
So what's the overall effect? If you are single or married-both-working-no-kids, you end up working longer hours. This can happen even if the entire workforce is separated by gender. Workplaces are competitive and so these longer-working folks put an upward pressure on the time people with kids spend at work. So right now, both me and my wife are making the working day longer for everyone.
It seems like the real solution is for everyone to simply close the office and turn out the lights at 5pm. I only wish I could force myself to do that.
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makes sense
[Read the article: How not to prepare for peak oil]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think this makes perfect sense as the Financial Times is not Russian, Nigerian, Mexican, Saudi, or Venezuelan. Pump their oil dry and sit tightly on the reserves in the North Sea. That way, a decade or three later, you are the only one left with any oil at all. Same for the US and oil in Alaska - sit on it as long as you can. That way, in 50 years, when we are all driving our mad max mobiles, we can be the ones who run the thunderdrome.
Back in the real world, it seems like the only sensible thing for any country to do would be to pour all the available non-renewable resources into the development of renewable ones.
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water
[Read the article: Your very own climate change Victory Garden]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]water is a serious problem for people living in the southwest. On the other hand, you can pick up a Detroit foreclosure property for $900 from Countrywide. ( http://www.countrywide.com/purchase/f_reo.asp ) No problems with water there. Good peat and loam soil in the backyards too.
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i know a lesbian
[Read the article: Can't "lesbians" belong to us all?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One of my professors grew up on Lesbos and when she went off to college ended up rooming with another woman from Lesbos. She said that they got _really_ sick of the obvious joke.
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moving demand in the wrong direction
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton throws economists off the bus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have to say that Obama does not go far enough. It shouldn't be sufficient to simply oppose this stupid tax holiday; he needs to come up with an alternate means of lowering transportation costs. As far as I can tell, the only realistic means of doing this in the short term is mass transit, in particular buses. For those who can use buses the benefit is obvious but for the rest, who cannot use buses for whatever reason, mass transit has the benefit of reducing demand for gasoline - lowering the price.
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wow!
[Read the article: Obama is wrong about the gas tax]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I guess we should support the gas tax holiday on the basis that it would help an infinitesimally small amount! Plus, McCain and Clinton will be able to get this bill to pass because one of them will be President this summer... oh yeah, right, they won't. But Hillary will be able to get the windfall profits tax through... oh yeah, right, she won't. At least this is a good long-term strategy to reduce oil demand... oh yeah, right, it isn't.
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let him
[Read the article: The atheist and the creationist: Can't they just get along?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]People send their children to religious schools for exactly this sort of thing. If they can't get it there, who knows, they might go back to the public schools and try it out there. That's just bad all around.
I'm myself in the (pseudo) evangelical atheist camp but I tell you what: Don't treat people with disgust or contempt - all we have are other people. You won't convince them of anything this way anyway. Being wrong isn't evil, it's just being wrong.
Also, consider this, those kids will be taught by creationism by someone with serious doubts about it. Kids are unknowing about many things but they are very adept at picking up things like this.
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let him
[Read the article: The atheist and the creationist: Can't they just get along?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]People send their children to religious schools for exactly this sort of thing. If they can't get it there, who knows, they might go back to the public schools and try it out there. That's just bad all around.
I'm myself in the (pseudo) evangelical atheist camp but I tell you what: Don't treat people with disgust or contempt - all we have are other people. You won't convince them of anything this way anyway. Being wrong isn't evil, it's just being wrong.
Also, consider this, those kids will be taught by creationism by someone with serious doubts about it. Kids are unknowing about many things but they are very adept at picking up things like this.
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tough
[Read the article: Gender lessons]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's kind of an oddity that one of the complaints is "the nearly impossible demand of women to be both tough and nurturing". The assumption here is that we want the Democratic candidate to be tough. I certainly don't. We've had 7 years of tough and I'm sick of it. I'm looking for things like "reasonable" and "well thought out". Bombing the s**t out of Iran for looking at Israel funny doesn't seem to count in those categories.