Letters to the Editor
Irving 143
Published Letters: 95 Editor's Choice: 7
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Ashes, Ashes...
[Read the article: No sympathy for the devil]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My late father was recently dumped into the Missouri River.
Yeah, it was his ashes, showered from a small plane, as per his very instructions. You can do that with ashes, in our culture, but you definitely cannot do that with an unincinerated corpse. There are truly distinct differences between the two forms of remains, in how we regard them, handle them, and dispose of them.
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Time and Time again...
[Read the article: No more whining excuses]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm sorry, but this entire blowup over Don Imus and his mouth is pathetic. The guy's been around for decades playing the dyspeptic curmudgeon, and I've never had any use for him. If he went away forever it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference to me.
But I've seen this kind of outrage erupt, time and time again, over remarks made by public figures that are deemed offensive, and what does it result in? Nothing worthwhile whatsoever. These kinds of idiocies keep being committed because the kind of idiocy that gives rise to them is thoroughly impervious to the transient effects of social outrage. And I'm hardly the only one who knows this, and is getting royally sick of the whole cynical farce so aptly labeled the Apology Circuit.
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Shifting LIne
[Read the article: An international affair]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It can be difficult to know where the line is drawn between fidelity and adultery. While definitive adultery is one spouse having sex with someone other than his or her spouse, there is a growing gray area as to just what constitutes "having sex". Bill Clinton quite famously gave us his public view of what he believed was "having sex", though there are quite a lot of folks who clearly do not agree with where he chose to draw the line. But that's just one example of where views vary on this.
It's said that sex happens largely in the brain, and yet adultery seems to require an unequivocal physical contact component. This creates a contradiction that, in our brave new world, only gets more problematic. Husbands keeping a hidden stash of Playboys is one thing, but is someone committing adultery when they conduct sex play solely by e-mail, IM, or an online game? And where does the looming prospect of virtual reality sex come in, outside of an intriguing new area for divorce lawyers to explore/exploit?
Jesus said that to lust after a woman in one's heart is to effectively have committed adultery with her, as far as God's view of the matter is concerned. That seems clear, but the difficulty is that it isn't just about adultery but the Christian view of the inherent sinfulness of our fundamental human nature. Some have even taken this so far as to say that it is a sin for a husband to lust after his own wife, that sexual attraction of any kind is adultery, that anything short of a completely chaste existence is crossing that line, because to give in to anything human is to cheat on God.
That last bit may seen ridiculous, but such views exist and have played their part in the history of both defining and persecuting moral behavior.
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That Veto
[Read the article: Senate sets Iraq timetable]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Did Bush, Cheney and Rove figure that, faced with a Presidential veto of this bill if it set a date for the beginning of troop withdrawals, Congress would blink, and spare them from having to deal with what might well become this Administration's worst crisis? That veto, in spite of having been declared a certainty, is also clearly not going to sit well with the majority of the American people when it happens. With the Republicans' little red wagon is still hitched to this Administration's past and present actions, such a situation will dash all of Rove's lingering hopes of (re)establishing a permanent GOP majority in Congress.
Guess they can take comfort in having set up a neocon Supreme Court.
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General Aviation Is Not Snowboarding
[Read the article: Would-be pilots grounded by wives!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]General aviation has suffered particularly from two things - mounting cost, and the fact that it actually requires serious study to meet the requirements to acquire a private pilot's license. And while a private pilot's license is essentially issued for life, the pilot must periodically recertify - yep, more serious study - to be allowed to continue flying.
This "hobby", in short, isn't for those put off by academic effort, or for showoffs. You take it very seriously or you find something else to occupy your shrinking leisure hours.
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Better Get It Done, George
[Read the article: What, me hurry?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm reminded of the generals of World War I - both sides - who threw battalion after battalion into the grinder, believing that "the next offensive" (read "surge") would decide the war. Fact is, the utter exhaustion of that generation's supply of able young men is what decided it. Today's generals are nothing like the butchers of 1914, let me be very clear about that, and I can't imagine that a single one of them truly believes that military success is possible in Iraq at this point. But they are stuck being directed by a Commander in Chief who does not seem to understand what a grinder Iraq has become in its own right, and that the only result of continuing the military "adventure" will be to exhaust, if not the supply of young men per se, then certainly the patience and spirit of the nation that can't see any real gain for the losses.
Let Bush veto this bill. Let him now take this action that will forever define his presidency. No pocket veto, no signing statement, no whining about "troop support" will enable him and his associates to dodge the consequences of that willful folly.
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Nice Close
[Read the article: Finale wrap-up: "30 Rock"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I enjoyed the heart-monitor-as-lie-detector bit, and considering how so many shows of recent vintage leave their plotlines in shambles at the close of a season it was downright refreshing to watch one make a passable attempt at tidying up before going on vacation. And it's always a gas to see Elaine Stritch, whatever the context.