Letters to the Editor

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lexsali

Published Letters: 73     Editor's Choice: 9

  • Google is a blessing

    [Read the article: Is there a doctor in the mouse?]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    If you do the same using Google, the first site you'll see is Autism.org. If you click the link, you'll be taken to a page sponsored by groups preaching that vaccines are unsafe and favoring "alternative" treatments that are untested and potentially dangerous.

    Other good sites are linked to academic centers like the renowned Mayo Clinic, private groups like Kaiser Permanente (full disclosure: I'm a Kaiser doctor), and the government's Healthfinder. These sites feature accurate, up-to-date information that is regularly reviewed and updated.

    By whom? Every group has their own agenda. You can't say autism.org has inaccurate, biased information, then say that groups like Kaiser Permanente don't have any incentive to promote one view over another.

    But I completely agree with the article itself. Everyone knows there are bad doctors out there as well as good ones, just like any other profession, and the internet has become an essential tool in finding out not just health information, but information on your doctor as well. You can find information on your doctor you could never find before, and why not? They handle your most sensitive information, and literally have your life in their hands. You have a right to know about them as well.

  • This may be the best response I've ever read...

    [Read the article: I'm a suburban husband in my 40s and I think I'm getting depressed]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    You're absolutely right. This man should use this awakening as an opportunity to change his life now. He's still alive; it's never too late to change.

    I'm only in my 20s, out of college and working in the corporate world for a year now, and I'm started to feel the beginnings of a sort of panic, that I'm going to live my life in a cublicle, my family will become strangers to me, I won't have a life, any friends, any fun.

    And the recognition of all this, is the beginning of some real planning for me. I'm going to be an entrepeneur, so that at the end of my life, even if I've worked my butt off for my whole life, at least I have something to show for it. I'm going to travel the world, screw the standard two-week vacations you're frowned upon if you actually take. I'm going to make a difference, maybe start a school in a 3rd world country, maybe help poor kids live better lives.

    I'm not lazy. I just don't want to die in a cublicle. That's not what life is supposed to be about .

  • Were we watching the same debate?

    [Read the article: The knives come out in South Carolina]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Edwards only won by default? Geez, you people are as bad as the rest.

    I've been an Obama supporter from the start, but I see something very wrong happening here.

    Edwards has kept himself out of the mud-slinging going on between Obama and Clinton. True, he's taken shots at both when he could, but for the most part, he's talked about his ideas, and his agenda. Why, even the most casual observer of the debates will now be able to tell you that Edwards stands for eliminating poverty.

    What will the casual observer tell you about Obama and Clinton? That they hate each other's guts, that they both have some sort of "celebrity" fascination about them, and that they both are most likely to win. None of which will be substantial when it comes to "getting kids healthcare, sending kids to college", as Edwards has pointed out.

    Give a candidate credit when credit is due. Otherwise, you're just as bad as the rest of the so-called "pundits" and "analysts" who can't find anything better to talk about than Edwards' haircut.

  • I don't know...

    [Read the article: Remembering Heath Ledger]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    All I can say about this is, it's becoming way too easy for people these days to kill themselves "accidentally". What do you think he's doing right now, slapping himself upside the head? Calling himself an idiot for mixing pills and alcohol?

    I don't mean to be disrespectful to the dead, but it seems to me that these days, with all the pills you can take, the alcohol, the drugs, wide-spread depression disorders, it's all you can do to NOT kill yourself.

  • @ Tina

    [Read the article: Honor killings and Islam]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    And most Muslims don't believe rape can be proven unless the girl has been beaten almost to death. Everything else is consensual in their minds.

    Excuse me?! Do you know how many Muslims there are in this world, Tina? Even by the most conservative numbers, there are at least 1.3 billion Muslims in existence today. How many Muslims have you spoken to? 10? 20? 50? 1,000? Is that "most" to you? Yes, I suppose it is to you.

    Excellent example of the ignorant superiority of supposed "experts" on Islam.

    I am a Muslim woman. And a feminist. Ask my parents, my husband, my sisters, my friends. And I violently disagree with this practice of turning the victim into the criminal. But need I remind you what sort of injustices have taken place in the name of Christianity and in the West under everyone's noses? I hope not.

    I am a good Muslim woman, and a feminist. And if you ignorantly try to argue: Well, that's a contradiction according to the general definition of Islam, and the definition of a feminist, and how Islam itself defines itself, I'll ask you: Who are you to tell me that's a contradiction? Who are you to decide what the contradiction is? How are you defining 'Muslim'? How are you defining 'feminism'? And who are you to define it in the first place for other people?

    I don't have to explain myself to you. I don't have to tell you what my beliefs are, how I am able to be a 'good Muslim woman' and still be a feminist, because the two are IN FACT (we're not talking about your warped perception) NOT contradictory.

    But I, as well as the all the Muslim women I know (which is a bit more than you), are all feminists. You would do well to keep that in mind before you use the phrase "most Muslims" again and embarrass yourself in public.