Letters to the Editor
mattwa33186
Published Letters: 403 Editor's Choice: 42
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R Anderson
[Read the article: Memorial Day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sorry, Gary, but "we" did not beat Hitler or save the world. At best, the Allies assisted the Soviet Union in its thorough destruction of Nazi Germany, so much so that even Eisenhower admitted as much when he let them take the Reichstagg.
And I say that as the grandson and grandnephew of THREE members of my family who fought in combat during World War II. I do them no dishonor. They all fought bravely and well, and returned home to their families. But they were - and in one case, still are - very humble in the face of what they helped achieve. They were and are not the type to thump their chests and crow about "kicking Hitler/Mussolini/Tojo's ass." Far from it.
And while I agree with Kamiya's overall point, I'm afraid I must disagree with some of his particulars. Everyone who fought in World War II against Fascism was a hero. Any person who volunteered for Vietnam after 1968 was not only an idiot but a moral cretin, and if it were up to me their names would not be on that wall in Washington, D.C. There are moral distinctions to be made, and that is one of them.
The Russians didn't beat the Nazis in Russia - Russia did. What the Russian soldiers and citizens did was amazing and heroic on a scale not seen often before and never since, but it was simply a delaying action to hold the Germans off until Winter could come in and finish them off. Allowing the Russians to take the Reichstagg and making Patton sit on his hands for a month while they made their way to Berlin, were at best kind gestures from decent men who understood how much the Russians had suffered, at worst political ass kissing on a global scale.
Calling men who volunteered for Viet Nam morons and moral cretins places you squarely in the category of complete asshole. Maybe it was naieve of them to trust their government when they were told this was something that needed to be done to protect our way of life, but we are supposed to be able to trust our leaders, and back then many people still thought we could. Blaming those who were lied to for the lie itself is ridiculous.
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The part that always makes me giggle
[Read the article: Inside the Creation Museum]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]is the 6 24 hour days. The rest can be taken as allegory and metaphor. Adam and Eve is single cell reproduction for dummies, etc... But the 24 hour day is just a flat out assumption with nothing at all to support it and no real reason to make it, unless you are an ancient Hebrew with no knowledge that anyplace else exists. I understand that the myth involves an omnipotent God who can do anything at all, but if God was standing on Earth when he created the universe - which they clearly assume that He was - why would Earth then need to be created?
Insisting that a story that is actually a fairly interesting way of explaining some complicated stuff to people who had never seen a telescope or microscope is absolute, word for word fact is just silly.
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My 2 cents
[Read the article: I hate my cat!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First of all, the whole "cats are about real esate, dogs are about hierarchy" thing is bullshit. All animals that live and hunt in groups - dogs, cats, and humans alike - are wired for a hierarchal society to a greater or lesser degree. They'd starve to death if they weren't. The primary job of the top cat is to keep the other cats safe.
Agressiveness in cats is just their way of saying "don't mess with me". Hyperagressiveness shows that they live in almost constant fear. That's the problem with your cat, or more correctly, that's the problem with you. You fed your cat, kept him warm and dry, but you didn't make him feel safe enough to abdicate responsibility for his personal safety to you. Maybe the cat is just nuts and nothing you did would have been enough, but the fact is that your cat feels like he is almost constantly in danger and you are not going to protect him. If he feels like this after 3 years he is never going to be a normal cat for you, or for anybody else. Cats can't be "rescued" like dogs - and dogs will usually regress if put under enough stress anyway. That's why the shelters won't take him.
If you want his behavior to change you need to stop tolerating it, one way or another, because he is never going to fit into your little society in the normal way. You can buy a water pistol and squirt him when he behaves unacceptably, or just give him an old fashioned swat on the ass, or have him put down. The alternative is to live in fear of a house cat the rest of his life. You have to always keep in mind that this is not a person, its a cat, and treating him like a person only confuses him, which increases his fear and his aggression.
He's never going to be the cat you wanted, but you may be able to make things tolerable for everyone involved. But if you ever have a kid, you need to put him down immediately.