Letters to the Editor
firefly82
Published Letters: 288 Editor's Choice: 30
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@ Anonymous 6:37
[Read the article: Childhood obesity: All daddy's fault?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I eagerly await Broadsheets call for Ms. Spears' boyfriend's arrest, seeing as how she's 16 and he's 19..."
Well, that depends on the state in which they did the deed, seeing as how the age of consent is as low as 14 in some states under certain circumstances (in Kansas until recently, the age of consent for marriage was lower than for sex). And a few have "Romeo and Juliet" laws, which mitigate statutory rape laws if the age difference between consenting partners is less than 2-3 years.
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"modern kitchen" sex roles--bah!
[Read the article: The modern kitchen]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm a woman and I live in the apartment I can afford. It has a kitchen, which is in the position where the contractors who did the shabby and probably illegal renovations put it. There's a gas stove and a radio. To be able to afford to eat every day, I have to cook. But it's healthier and less boring to cook your own food anyway.
So what sex roles schematic describes me and my kitchen layout? It's a necessary functional space for feeding myself, so I've tried to make it a comfortable, pleasant one...I think anyone worrying very much about this has seriously lost sight of the realities of working class life in this country.
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@ Anonymous
[Read the article: Childhood obesity: All daddy's fault?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"To convert this fact into a belief that someone MUST or SHOULD become a disabled blob is bizarre in the extreme."
Of course no one is utterly without choice. Of course genes don't preclude anyone from the ability to make the healthiest choices possible. And SHOULD become fat? Nice strawman; I've never heard that suggestion anywhere else in the media or conversation, ever.
But you still miss the straightforward fact that not all fat people are "disabled blob(s)." Not even most. Not by a long shot. They're PEOPLE, who probably eat too much, but who haven't been helped by their own genetic history and America's generally unhealthy mass-produced food culture.
Being fat doesn't mean that they're not making the healthiest choices possible. *Usually* it means they're eating more than they need, but again, that's not something you can assume. Eating too little can actually prevent someone from losing weight.
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Issue not really in my realm of concern
[Read the article: Can a politician cry in public?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't take quite as dim a view of this topic as Linny Uston. It's not that only catastrophes are worth thinking or writing about...but this does rank really, really low on my list of concerns right now.
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And Limbaugh?
[Read the article: Can a politician cry in public?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why do you care what Limbaugh thinks of anyone? Yes, I know it's scary that people actually listen to what he says. But if you're ceding to Limbaugh the ability to make the political rules, or to sway your or anyone else's thought and behavior, out of fear of his crass schoolyard bullying, we've frankly got WAY bigger problems.
Female politicians aren't allowed to behave a certain way because of what Rush might say? If you really believe this, instead of in your and our ability to not let that petty little man make the rules for us, that's what really scares me.
And if Edwards cried, seriously, they'd just get some more mileage out of calling him a f*g.
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Oh yeah...
[Read the article: The modern kitchen]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...and I *can* bake brownies and balance a spreadsheet with equal ability and grace.
What's more, I like both.
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I wonder if neilpaul really believes--
[Read the article: Time off to care for kids? Hope you don't need your pension]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Work is an activity that you do not want to do, but someone else wants you to do it. That is why someone else pays you to do it. The compensation is to induce the worker to do something that they would otherwise choose not to do."
Unless you choose work that you like and believe is truly meaningful. But since the endeavor is an enormous output of time and energy and you believe in its value, you do still ask for compensation.
People do this. It's not impossible or hopelessly idealistic. I've taken huge financial hits for doing it, and kids are a financial long-shot the way things look, but disliking work isn't obligatory.
The British amendment seems like the near-perfect compromise in my book, diminishing financial punishment all around while acknowledging that raising kids is important and shouldn't be punished, whether or not you agree that it's "work." I really wonder if, in the long haul, the British government will find that it pays in other ways for the pension money it thinks it's saving.
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I wonder if neilpaul really believes--
[Read the article: Time off to care for kids? Hope you don't need your pension]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Work is an activity that you do not want to do, but someone else wants you to do it. That is why someone else pays you to do it. The compensation is to induce the worker to do something that they would otherwise choose not to do."
Unless you choose work that you like and believe is truly meaningful. But since the endeavor is an enormous output of time and energy and you believe in its value, you do still ask for compensation.
People do this. It's not impossible or hopelessly idealistic. I've taken huge financial hits for doing it, and kids are a financial long-shot the way things look, but disliking work isn't obligatory.
The British amendment seems like the near-perfect compromise in my book, diminishing financial punishment all around while acknowledging that raising kids is important and shouldn't be punished, whether or not you agree that it's "work." I really wonder if, in the long haul, the British government will find that it pays in other ways for the pension money it thinks it's saving.
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(sigh)
[Read the article: Quote of the day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can't see it as a positive development for the improved perception of the human value of girls to come at the expense of the value of boys.
Get back to me when they figure out how to be thankful for the instrinsic value of *children.*