Letters to the Editor
mintosh
Published Letters: 70 Editor's Choice: 8
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Its and It's
[Read the article: My day at the Porn Palace]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am an English Professor - and I certaily know the difference between these two words (if it's can even be called a word). But for some reason, when I am typing away at an idea - mistakes such as this propogate through my work. Moreover, when editing, I simply don't see them in my own work - but I do when editing other people's (caught that one - the apostrophe-s) work. It has something to do with fixating on the content, not the details.
Why share something so personal (and shameful, for an English PhD)? Because I am curious how many other share this bizarre proclivity. I think it has something to do with learning to spell phonetically. All homonyms trouble me this way - because I don't here the difference in my head as I write. Circle the word for me, and I immediately know the mistake. It's (caught that one too, but only at the editing stage - and I am hyper-aware right now) not lack of knowing - but something else.
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Here and Hear
[Read the article: My day at the Porn Palace]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Oops. I did it again.
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Thanks "No Name Given"
[Read the article: My day at the Porn Palace]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Except that I read a tremendous volume of material - and from a very young age. But that said, I think I am much more an auditory person than a visual person. So even while I saw all the words on the page, they were quickly trasncribed into auditory sensory elements - while the visusal somehow escaped me. I wonder if I qualify for disability.
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It's the population, stupid. . .
[Read the article: I clean green but the dishes don't gleam!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There is very little that has much of a chance at saving the world save getting our ever-expanding population under control. No -- not even eating vegan. In fact, the very technological advance which eventually allowed for so many people to eat strictly vegan (and vegetarian) diets (agriculture) - is what lead to the population explosion in the first place.
Eating vegan (and vegetarian) shouldn't even be called so much as a bandaid on environmental problems (animal rights concerns are a substantially different issue). Yes, eating vegetarian is more efficient - and you can feed more people with less product if that product isn't cycled through animal products on the way to your plate. But how about we simply focus on creating a world with fewer people? (no -- I am not advocating mass extermination -- I'm not quite sure what I am advocating, except that we focus on the real issue, not self-satisfying diversions such as eating Vegan and using Green Dishwashing detergent).
Fewer people might eventually even mean eating what you want (Hunter gatherer societies hardly had much negative impact on the environment. As I said above, its the rise of agriculture which ruined everything). But as things stand, even if everyone in the world were to become vegan or vegetarian, an ever expanding population eventually reduces the environmental benefits of such a change to -- yes -- you guessed -- NIL.
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Live Simply
[Read the article: I clean green but the dishes don't gleam!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As I said before - with the exception that now I am borrowing your terminology -- the best diet for a small planet is reducing the population. All the rest is simply self-satisfying diversions from this much more formidable problem. So sing yourself to sleep with your silly little mantras about simplifying your diet if this makes you feel better, but when you want to get serious -- address over-populatio
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Sorry Buddy. . .
[Read the article: Dating a married woman? Not me! I held off on principle -- and lost her]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]. . . but you have been used. My bet, this woman needs to feel needed. She finds you just comfortable enough to leave her husband (who perhaps no longer needs her in the right way). . . and keeps you around just long enough to find someone she likes better. And when she mentioned the marriage. . . that was just a convenient excuse not to take things further with you. You've been her roundabout. Live. Learn. Move on.
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The One Thing That Worries Me. . .
[Read the article: Rove, proven liar]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]. . . is that this takes the spotlight off of the more egregious scandal of this administration - that they took us into war under false pretetenses. Is Rove, perhaps, smiling somewhere -- at his ability to divert attention from this much bigger crime?
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BusterB
[Read the article: The real Fox News Democrats]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Do you really not understand that rhetoric is forum specific? Camille Paglia attacks democrats in a democratic forum - and (from my perspective) reminds its readers of her leftist credentials so they don't just spew ad hominem bile as feedback in the letters page. This is something VERY different than going on fox as a democrat and attacking democrats. I would be very much surpised to find Paglia serving FOx's agenda in this way - but why don't you cruise around Youtube for awhile and find some real support for your claim.
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Yes.
[Read the article: My girlfriend's stepfather is a real a-hole ... and a dying man]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Exactly right Cary.
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My Iraq Platform
[Read the article: Hillary's hard-won experience]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Were I to run for president (not that anyone asked).
1.) We (read Bush and his cronies) really screwed up bad by going into Iraq. I mean BAD. Terrible. (Comic salesmen in Simpson's Voice)"Worst decision ever."
2.) Admit that Iraq is broken - badly. And that like it or not - it is our collective fault. Already at war with itself - and likely to get much, much worse when we withdrawl.
3.) Pursue every avenue available to have Bush and company tried for war crimes and for crimes against humanity.
4.) Open our borders to any Iraqi who would be willing to come - subject to reasonable background checks. Provide them with 10,000.00 U.S. each at the door, to get them started in their new lives.
5.) Redeploy 500,000.00 additional troops to oversee this process. Instate the military draft to raise these numbers, biased against those demographics who underserve in the current military. Give the process 5 more years - and as much as 50 trillion dollars.
6.) Force our troops to err on the side of respecting the humanity of every Iraqi - even if it means we lose more troops in the process (like I said, we broke it - we fix it - no matter the cost). Only in this way can we hope to regain a modicum of respect both in Iraq and internationally.
7.) Prepare ourselves emotionally to live much more impoverished lives for the forseeable future as we pay for this mistake out of our collective pockets.