Letters to the Editor
teho
Published Letters: 48 Editor's Choice: 11
-
CO2 offsets
[Read the article: Why do people buy Priuses?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If hybrid buyers were interested in reducing CO2 emissions at the lowest cost, they would simply be buying carbon credits online.
So clearly there are other forces at work. Signalling to others about environmental responsibility is a reasonable thing to do, and you can hope the social pressure (and manufacturer response to demand) will have some effect.
But for an affordable solution which also sends the right pro-environment message, I'm partial to my TerraPass (www.terrapass.com).
-
it's psychology
[Read the article: The sound of people eating drives me insane]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"this LW can hear himself louder than anyone next to him every time he takes a bite and chews."
Well, actually your brain suppresses its response to your own actions, while being highly sensitive to stimuli coming from others' actions.
And, because it sounds like you never learned: to the rest of us, your sh*t really does stink. Worse than you think it does.
-
credit the koan, please
[Read the article: Hissy fit]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Good article, but the Zen koan idea in the last paragraph was first popularized on screenwriter Josh Friedman's blog, and these examples are certainly nothing new.
http://hucksblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/snakes-on-motherfucking-plane.html
-
Is there hip-hop on Joe Lieberman's iPod?
[Read the article: Why is Bill Clinton in Connecticut?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Who cares.
There was a terrible article a few months back by Jacob Weisberg, editor of Slate, attempting to psychoanalyze Hillary Clinton via her iPod, and coming up with (surprise!) the Washington Insider Consensus: she's a phony. Even though her songs were basically middle-of-the-road rock, exactly what you'd expect a Baby Boomer to be listening to.
These pseudo-analyses are at best stupid fluff, and at worst a vehicle for the injection of media bias, as Salon's own Eric Boehlert confirms: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/the-media-dems-are-phony_b_21591.html
And, for the record, although "Imagine" might be Ned Lamont's best song to sing, he plays blues/stride piano pretty well. That doesn't really fit into Walter Shapiro's narrative of whiteness, which is probably why he didn't mention it.
Video at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1698262
-
The Dalai Lama supports animal research
[Read the article: I'm a Buddhist in Big Pharma -- is that cool?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]At the Society for Neuroscience conference in 2005, His Holiness the Dalai Lama responded to a question very similar to this.
He argued that animal research was permissible so long as it benefits humans and is done compassionately.
There are various accounts on the web:
http://neurodudes.com/2005/11/12/his-holinesss-message-better-living-through-chemicals-or-electrodes/
http://retrospectacle.blogspot.com/2005/11/dalai-lamas-speech-at-sfn-2005.html
-
evangelicals and the Rapture
[Read the article: Come as you are]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I recently met one of these culturally mainstreamed, Gen-Y Christians from the Pacific Northwest on an airplane. I debated theology with him for a couple hours.
Although I don't know about this specific Seattle church, my impression is that it seems to fit into the traditional mold of American evangelical Christianity. Fundamentalist, communal, apolitical. They're mostly interested in minding their own business, and aren't anywhere near the same threat to our country as are the older voters in Bush's Religious Right base.
Except for one thing. My seatmate, like this Ted Dietz, was steeped in the Rapture, in Premillennialist thinking of the "Left Behind" variety. Like Dietz, he was enthusiastically hoping to fulfill prophecy by constructing a new Temple in Jerusalem -- regardless of whether (or because) it would spark a World War in the Middle East (a likely consequence of destroying the Muslim Dome of the Rock).
I'm starting to wonder whether Rapturists will be a greater threat to world peace than Islamic Fundamentalists.
-
Colorado Springs
[Read the article: The president, the preacher and the prostitute]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just read the Harper's article, and while I've never been to Colorado Springs, I hardly think the author merits being called a "snake" for thinking that the Skidmore Owings and Merrill-designed Air Force Academy campus is brutal and a blight on the Rocky Mountain landscape.
That chapel would only look good in Peter Jackson's Mordor.
And that's my purely aesthetic judgment, I'm not even getting into the Academy's coercive religious indoctrination of cadets and widely acknowledged rape problem.
-
Bill Donohue is the issue
[Read the article: Edwards campaign rehires bloggers Marcotte and McEwen]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't really care for Marcotte or McEwen, but the real issue is that Bill Donohue, the Republicans' spokesperson on this controvery, is such a raving bigot that he can't give an interview without some kind of slur.
"his goal is to loot the pockets of the [George] Soros/Hollywood gang"
George Soros is not a major figure in Hollywood, nor does he have a lot to do with major entertainment industry players.
But replace "[George]" with "Jew" and suddenly Donohue becomes comprehensible. Crazy and anti-Semitic, but comprehensible.
Donohue's a freelance bigot without a constituency. (For more evidence of bigotry, see Digby's blog.) I'd like to see Salon run an expose of the "Catholic League" -- who their actual members are, and who provides their funding.
A media which takes Donohue seriously is fundamentally broken.
-
The Washington Times has NO CREDIBILITY
[Read the article: India's "missing girls"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There may be some kind of story in the vicinity, but I don't care. Why? Read what a former insider says about the Washington Times' incoming Editor in Chief's motivations for running this piece:
"In the discussion with colleagues on The Washington Times foreign desk, editor Jones said: "The reason we are running this story is that [editor Fran] Coombs thinks all the aborted girls means that Indian men will be immigrating to the United States to marry our girls." That is an exact quote, what Jones told his colleagues on the foreign desk.
Coombs has told me and others repeatedly that he favors abortion because he sees it as a way to eliminate black and other minority babies."
http://georgearchibald.typepad.com/george_archibald/2007/02/unhinged.html
That's all that really needs to be said. I'll wait for a more credible source to come along, thanks.
-
Way to bias the poll
[Read the article: A rock 'n' roll poll for Passover]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"you better explain yourself if you think Barbra Streisand trumps Bob Dylan" -- WTF? So Bob Dylan is the standard by which rocking is judged?
Where is Blue Öyster Cult? They're from Long Island! They were banned in Germany!
http://www.jewsrock.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=words.view&wordid=2F18560F-3B37-48DC-A1F443E85443500C