Letters to the Editor
jebldmm
Published Letters: 933 Editor's Choice: 164
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Actually, capitalism rocks
[Read the article: Chicago preschool economics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I know it sounds callous, but I think it's terrific that these people are making capitalistic arguments for helping disadvantaged children. These arguments will help sell the kinds of programs that need to be sold. We need to make economic arguments much more prominent in liberal philosophy. For example, saving endangered plant species habitat is not very popular with the right. But if you can argue that plants have been a valuable source of pharmaceuticals for curing diseases, and that some of those species may provide extremely profitable life-saving drugs, then you may actually convince conservatives that there is something worth saving in the forests and pastures that are being destroyed. I don't really care what the argument is - I just want them saved, and I want as much help as possible doing it. Saying "But they should be saved because it's the right thing to do" simply doesn't cut water with a lot of people.
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It sounds interesting to me
[Read the article: The battle for California, as seen by bike. Part 2]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Reading your report sure as heck is the closest I'm ever going to get to a 480-mile bike ride. I'm also interested in hearing how you're training for it. Who knows, it might inspire someone else to get off their duffs and ride a bike. Probably not me, though. Not for a week straight, anyway. Good Luck.
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I love channel 9.
[Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Being familiar with the terms being defined in the article, it is always a hoot to listen to the banter going on between the ground crew, ATC, and flight crew. On a trip last winter from Montreal to Sacramento, our third hop was from Denver to Sac. Listening to the first officer (or maybe it was the captain) tell the lead-hand on the de-icing crew that he couldn't taxi along the line because the snow had obscured it, was perversely comforting. On channel 9 you can hear things that are 95% mundane, but that 5% that is interesting, along with a knowledge of the lingo, makes flying a little more interesting, and therefore a little more bearable.
ejb
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How does this help Gonzales?
[Read the article: Doolittle: DOJ is using me to take heat off Gonzales]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The only thing this revelation did is highlight the reality that Doolittle has been corrupt for years, yet has not seriously been investigated by the justice department until now. The only reason he is being investigated is that Congress is shining a spotlight on this administration's corruption. I don't see how this will help Gonzales.
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Partisan media
[Read the article: Will the Wall Street Journal become another Fox News?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Right now, the media in the U.S. are pretty much divided into "conservative" and "centrist", but there is no real "liberal" media source. Therefore, most of the stories that come out are slanted to the right, since there is a strong conservative counterbalance to centrist stories but no such counterbalance for the left.
This is not the way it is in the rest of the world. The Guardian is left wing. The London Times is right wing. Everybody knows which way their news is going to be slanted, and nobody pretends that anybody is unbiased. I suspect that we're going to have to go that way if we want to avoid having a "right wing only" media system. Reporters are going to have to take sides, or rather admit that they are taking sides. The only alternative seems to be that liberals have no representation at all.
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I'm really not understanding this
[Read the article: More drunken pirates, fewer teachers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why should anybody care if somebody posts a photo saying "Drunken Pirate" under it. It's not illegal to get drunk ... heck, we don't even know if she was drunk, she may have just been making a joke. If this were an obscene photo, I would understand questioning her judgement. If it were a photo of an illegal act, then it might indicate she lacked the character to teach. But it's a harmless photo of a woman in a silly hat holding a drink cup. Only the caption is "offensive", and it's so mild that I'm astonished anybody is critical of it. Have we become so puritanical as a nation that people think it's okay to criticize others for legal, innocuous, non-offensive activities?
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They do have some respect for the law
[Read the article: Neocons' rejection of the rule of law extends to the personal level]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Apparently, Bushco is supporting a law that would make it illegal for "suspected terrorists" to buy guns. Suddenly, right wingers are regaining their respect for constituttional protections.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,270142,00.html
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Using this logic, we should bring polio back
[Read the article: Parents speak to the upside of Down syndrome]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Think of the effect all of those polio vaccinations had on the people who had the disease before a vaccine was available. Didn't providing the vaccination reduce the number of cases, and probably reduce the amount of energy put into treating the disabling results of polio?
Seriously, mumanity has been working very hard to improve the quality of life of all human beings for many years. I understand that people whose lives are effected Down's syndrom might want the best care for those afflicted by it, but that isn't a good reason to encourage Down's babies. Genetic diversity is good, but how far are we willing to go with this? Dwarfism is, as far as I know, not a disability that takes away the ability to lead a full life. I don't want to live in a society where everybody is beautiful and tall and thin and intelligent and fits some arbitrary standard of "perfection". At the same time, I have no problem with curing/preventing diseases or reducing the rate of life-threatening genetic abnormalities.
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Colbert can take it
[Read the article: Fondling Stephen Colbert]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He dishes it out enough. I was laughing so hard I cried. Seeing her so effectively taking control of the interview was a delight. I'm used to Colbert putting other people on the spot, and it was fun to see him put on the spot. If it had really been humiliating, I wouldn't have liked it. I don't even like his interviews when he pushes too hard. But I just found this very funny, and I believe he will get a lot of mileage out of it.