Letters to the Editor
cooner
Published Letters: 20 Editor's Choice: 9
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Free market
[Read the article: Why the iPhone matters]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hey, here's a great thought for those of you who don't want to buy an iPhone because it's too expensive, or because it doesn't have real buttons, or because you want third-party software, or because it doesn't brew coffee, or whatever:
Don't buy one. It wasn't built for you. And that will leave more for anyone else who does want one.
The iPod dominates the portable music player market, but there are still plenty of other players to choose from. Cel phones make up an even bigger market; even if the iPhone is a runaway success, it's unlikely to come anywhere near monopolizing the marketplace. But in the meantime, a few of its best features will be copied to other cel phones, there will be better competiton between manufacturers, and you'll get your pick of the cel phone that best fits your needs.
The iPhone looks awesome to me, and on some level I'd want one; but I also know well enough that it doesn't fit what I use a phone for and wouldn't be worth the price. I don't feel compelled to announce to the world that I'm not buying one, tho.
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iWork =/= Office
[Read the article: AppleWorks is dead. Long live AppleWorks?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I agree that I don't think iWork (or AppleWorks) is a direct competitor to Microsoft Office. The price alone sets them apart ($79 vs. up to $300 or more, pirated copies notwithstanding.) Also, Office has a lot of packed-in advanced features and bloat that a lot of people don't want or need to deal with. I use InDesign when I'm putting together a layout project; I use iWork to type up a quick letter or edit my very simple financial spreadsheet. Office would just be too much to handle those simple tasks.
Also, I honestly shudder to think the world is really moving away from desktop applications. Web and network apps have their place, sure, but even in the best conditions web access can be slow or interrupted at times, making simple work on a document difficult. Also, I don't want all my personal documents sitting on someone else's server outside of my control, no matter how secure it is. And finally, there are a lot of times I throw my work onto my laptop and go somewhere specifically without wireless access, just so I can get away from all the distractions of being constantly connected to the rest of the world. Nope, I'll stick with slim little desktop apps like iWork, thanks. :)
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Trickle Down, Down, Down
[Read the article: The latest data on income inequality]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To me, this growing inequality smacks of 25+ years of the "trickle down" economics mantra.
I understand the theory; you want to encourage people with resources to invest in projects that will create jobs and boost the economy, and not hamper or punish them with crushing taxes. But like many right-wing ideas with a nugget of truth behind them, this gets over-extended and held aloft as some magical axiom that solves every problem and must not be questioned.
In the real world, basic human nature does not allow for such unbridled magnanimity; corporations are still headed by people, and people tend to me more interested in hoarding and collecting and amassing wealth rather than spending it or giving it away. Even as they invest they will be looking at ways to increase their bottom line, be it by cutting wages and benefits or laying off employees or exporting jobs overseas. There needs to be some safeguards against this to maintain a democracy; otherwise the eventual result of "free market" will inevitably be a feudal oligarchy of some kind, with a handful of people holding all the power and resources.
My father, a staunch conservative, has a favorite saying: "I've never been hired by a poor man." I often would like to retort: "I've never been laid off by a poor man, either."
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Equality .... for some of us
[Read the article: Huckabee triumphant]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"And government ought to undergird a family, not undermine a basic family's (sic) rights to raise their own kids," Huckabee said. "[...] we should honor the words of our forefathers who said all of us are created equal. And that means that every single person has intrinsic worth and value."
So nice to hear Huckabee will now be supporting gay rights -- not only backing anti-discrimination laws, since we ALL have intrinsic worth and value worth protecting, but also pushing for marriage equality so that ALL families have the same rights and benefits to raise their kids.
Right? Right? Oh, wait. No.
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"Independent Joe"
[Read the article: Remember the Lieberman "hack attack"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You mean the guy who edged out Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary and then got crushed (40%) in the general election?
As I understand it, mostly because the Republican party was running an unelectable candidate, so most of the Republicans in the state voted for Independent Joe, a Republican's best Democrat.
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Political consequences
[Read the article: Will gay marriage doom the Democrats?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for taking a stand, Joan. Civil unions are better than nothing but they'll never give the full fairness and dignity of marriage.
And let's not forget, in 2006 the New Jersey Supreme Court handed down a same-sex marriage decision (unfortunately watered down to civil unions) which everyone lamented was going to doom the Democrats in the mid-term elections, yet Democrats did pretty well that year. Maybe there will be some backlash this time, but I think over the past few years, as more moderate, rational Americans have been introduced to more same-sex families and friends, and seen that Massachusetts has not yet fallen into the ocean, more of them are realizing that same-sex marriage is not a threat to the country, and are seeing the right-wing bluster over the issue for exactly what it is.