Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following Salon Premium Member:

dogu44

Published Letters: 157     Editor's Choice: 7

  • the Colson connection.

    [Read the article: Fantasy island]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Great article. I appreciated the perspective on this most interesting aspect of our current leadership and their aborbtion with theirown b.s. In particular I found the connection between Chuck Colson and Mike G. particularly interesting. Another good reason to abolish imprisonment for these kinds of law-breakers. As punishment it makes the self-righteous into martyrs who then go on to capitalize on their crime all the more. Instead, non-threatening white collar corruption criminals like politicians, bankers, "experts"...if they are non-threatening should be shunted off to work crews to clean public toilets...it'd save a lot of money and we could use the money for more public toilets, which our ever-more urbanized habitat needs in greater abundance, as well as public baths that are connected to police stations, like in Japan. If they're gonna learn a lesson while paying their debt to society, may it be one on how to stay clean.

  • They said the same thing about elevator operators.

    [Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Enjoyed the article and no doubt the author/pilot knows what he's talkin' about as far as the current aviation environment is concerned, though if history tells us anything it's that a dinosaur is eventually going to be facing an evolutionary inevitability when the favored strategies change from gigantic economies of scale to small, on demand, technologies for transportation. Imagine the kind of discussion train engineers might have had back at the turn of the previous century. Cities were investing mass cash and their futures on huge ornate train stations intended to secure their role and status in a evermore urbanizing landscape...they were right about the urbanization part, but who could have foreseen the automobile? Well, maybe the same sort of people who imagine small energy efficient air transportation systems that dont need giant hub airports and baggage systems, but instead develope airplane compartments designed so its passengers survive mid-air collision and/or a long drop. If there is one characteristic common to the prognostications of the last century, it is that which underestimates the adaptation and integration of technology into the way we live our lives. I sure hope that it happens in the air transportation industry as soon as possible so we can end the misery and burden air transportation has become.

  • Let's get rid of the gay terminology

    [Read the article: Why bathroom sex is hot]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    So, let's say, Craig's not gay...and let's also say he's not strictly heterosexual either...and so let's say he's in the range of what humans are in their sexuality; a mixed bag of desires that evolve, adapt and change throughout life. In other words, what Craig refuses to regognize is that sexuality is not what he insists it is, just like it's not what almost everyone else insists on its being: the primary distinguishing characteristic of one's identity.

    Which is one more reason why I'm not in favor of gay marriage...or gay anything. I'm only in favor of human individuals having soveriegnty over their lives. When that is violated, whether by unwanted sexual advances or by the government constricting my guaranteed freedoms based on my being a law abinding adult, I would hope that all of society would see that as a breach of everyones freedom and act to expose it and rectify it.

  • Uh...The Lewinsky thing...

    [Read the article: The paranoid withdrawal fantasy]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    The assertion that Clinton's dalliance with Lewinsky tainted his legacy and paralyzed the government, is only half-true in my interpretation of history. Yes, his legacy is tainted, as would nearly every presidency be if examined under the laser guided microscope created by the news media and it's hunger for exploitable details to generate viewers. But no, I don't agree that this incident paralyzed government. I believe his opponents, their vehemence unleashed and in attack mode, attached as much bogus outrage and faux dissappointment at his behaviour, all the while slathering over the pornographic trophies of the Clinton enemies expedition to skewer and incapacitate their opponents even at the expense of incapacitating a working government...one that worked too well and one that left them looking like the impractical idealogues they pretend to revile but secretely envy...silly monkeys.

  • A good lesson here...

    [Read the article: The man who sold the war]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    A great lesson about cherry picking and information spinning whether we're talking about state secrets or climate science. This brings to mind the article about Freeman Dyson's heresy regarding global warming and CO2...here too, those with the fully formed plan to save the world are accusing anyone with a variant on their conclusions as being an enemy who must be identified as a heretic....but sometimes the heretics are correct and therein lies the difficulty but approaching our future with a closed mind does little good and risks a great deal.