Letters to the Editor
jebldmm
Published Letters: 933 Editor's Choice: 164
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You're quoting Hiatt?
[Read the article: The strong and tough Democrats]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hiatt is... not someone I generally agree with. I fact, when I find myself agreeing with somebody of his caliber, I review my opinion to make sure it's internally consistent with my beliefs.
I don't understand this. All I've seen in the last few days is attack after attack on the Democrats for passing this legislation. From you, I expect a more serious analysis of what this legislation is about. Is it identical to the previous act? If not, what changes are there? What were the motivations of the people who voted for it? I'm not going to buy the "Bush strongarmed" crap without reasoning, if for no other reason than because that seems to be the story the New York Times is putting out, and I don't have any reason to trust them as unbiased sources on anything related to this administration. I need facts, not rants.
Maybe there is a whole backstory on the recent bill somewhere that I missed, but I follow news and political blogs pretty closely and never saw this coming, which makes me really wonder what in hades is going on.
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Thanks for this reasoned analysis
[Read the article: Is the White House lying about spying again?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's what I expect from Salon. Most of the liberal blogosphere is so busy ranting about the Democrat's "capitulation" that there isn't time to figure out exactly what happened. I know that there is a backstory here. I just want to know what it is.
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As a woman who loves math...
[Read the article: Math doesn't suck, it buys you Gucci]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I love this book. I haven't even read it, but I think it's terrific. I don't particularly care how young girls are tempted to learn about math. I have a math minor, and I got very lonely in my math classes. You'd be amazed how few women study math, or even statistics. Math is the foundation of logic, and logic is sorely lacking in today's world.
Marketing is simply the art of finding something that somebody is interested in and using it to draw them into something else. This book does that. I may not like the fact that little girls tend to be into shopping, shoes, and handbags, but it is reality, and I'd rather it not doom them to a life of nothing BUT shopping, shoes, and handbags. A love of math will allow them to move beyond this world, whether they know it or not.
dmm
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Is this marketing, or product presentation?
[Read the article: Everything they touch turns to gold]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]McDonalds has certainly done it's share of marketing, but they have also spent a lot of money studying how to package their products so that they appeal to a wide variety of people. Any chef will tell you that presentation is a big part of food appeal. Why would we expect food in plain wrappers to be as appealing as food in wrappers that were carefully designed to be appealing?
Maybe they controlled for this in the study, but if they did I didn't read about it. It's an important distiction, though. If carrots get more appealing in fancy wrappers, maybe we should be teaching people how to dress up carrots to be more appealing.
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She's right, but she's going to be torn to shreds
[Read the article: The burden of being John Edwards]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The media are falling all over themselves to cover Clinton and Obama. Why? I can almost understand Clinton, because she is married to a former president, but what has Obama done to raise himself above the rest of the pack? Has he sponsored any significant legislation? Has he done anything unusual? Anything? Race and gender are the big issues in this campaign, which is not a bad thing EXCEPT for the fact that we aren't going to be electing a woman or a black person, we're going to be electing a leader.
But you're not allowed to mention race in American politics. I don't know why, but you can't. It's the pink elephant dancing across the floor that nobody sees (I was going to say "500 lb gorilla", then I remembered the great Andy Rooney monkey scandal). So... she's going to be pilloried. I'm not too worried. She is tough, and she can handle it. Heck, it might even get the media to talk about Edwards for a few minutes.
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This doesn't make sense to me
[Read the article: Cuff 'em?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If a woman is being beaten by her spouse, does she really stop and think "Oh, no, he's going to be arrested, I'd better not call the police?" That makes no sense to me. If she were worried about his getting in trouble, she wouldn't call regardless of the existance of mandatory arrest laws. Or do women really call the police just to end the fight? I'm not an expert on domestic abuse, but I'm wondering how many of these calls are made by the victim and how many by outsiders. I can see how a family member or friend of the abuser might be more reluctant to call for help if they know that the abuser will get arrested. Regardless, this is something that should be researched further.
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I like your mother
[Read the article: Lost in space]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sometimes we all need someone to help us find the right direction, even if we don't have temporal spatial deficits. Someone said to me recently: "We all have our own wheelbarrow of shit to push around". You seem to be handling yours pretty well. Good luck.
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Why not do away with taxes entirely?
[Read the article: The Bush-league economy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If lower taxes is always the answer, then the ultimate solution should be to simply end taxation. Period. Not having taxes will stimulate the economy and we will once again become a superpower to be reckoned with. Our military can be supported by bake sales. Our infrastructure can be based on fee-for-service. We can set up tollbooths on every city street, highway, and bridge, and charge people whenever they drive on them. A dime for every city block, a dollar for every highway mile, and ten dollars for bridges. We'll save a fortune by doing away with all regulatory agencies. This will have the added benefit of dramatically increasing sales of respirators and water filters as the air and water become incrasingly polluted. I could go on, but you get the idea. Privatization/no new taxes!!!