Letters to the Editor
jebldmm
Published Letters: 933 Editor's Choice: 164
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@Pyrian
[Read the article: Plan B, RU-486 -- same difference, right?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You're sort of right. Both birth control pills and Plan B are believed to act primarily by preventing fertilization (in the case of the birth control pills, they even prvent full formation of the egg). But... you knew there was a "but", didn't you... it is believed (suspected? hypothesized?) that in some cases both the pill and the morning after pill have the "last resort" effect of preventing implantation of a fertilized egg. It isn't known for sure whether this happens, but the Catholic church doesn't worry about details like that.
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My husband told me he'd heard the fires were started by Mexicans
[Read the article: A job well done by Tom Tancredo]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm not kidding. He's not a racist.. he's an intelligent person who simply believed a rumor. Apparently, some people are suggesting that illegals set fire to Southern California. It's getting scary. Californian's always had a kind of truce with Mexican people. They're an important part of our history and our present. These idiots who are fanning flames of bigotry in order to make political gains have a lot to answer for. Blacks, homosexuals, women, Hispanics... who's next?
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Men, women, conservatives, liberals
[Read the article: Feminists want "vagina" all to themselves?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We keep worrying about what "they" call something, then we try to come up with a new name. I remember an essay from college. A linguist claimed that the more negatively we felt about soemthing, the more names we came up with for it. Think of the numbers names for restrooms, fecal material, and even servants, if you want to see how this works. Anything related to sex falls into this category. Sexual organs, sexual processes, and sexual preferences. I was told that I wasn't allowed to use the word "homosexual" because conservatives use that word. Newspapers won't even publish references to some sexual activites. But I'm tired of the game. I'm tired of letting people define what words I can and can't use based on my political leanings. I will use the proper terms for things. A vagina is a part of a woman's body, not a social meme. A homosexual is a person who is attracted to a member of the same sex, and there is no shame or pride in that, any more than there is shame or pride in being "heterosexual". There is no such thing as "vayayjay", no matter what this idiot says, and I won't have a perfectly normal part of my body labelled as such, any more than I'll have my arm redefined as "amp" or some such nonsense.
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That is the stupidest logic I've ever heard
[Read the article: Quote of the day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What she is saying is that we shouldn't allow women into powerful positions because by doing so we are allowing others to suggest that women are no longer victims of discrimination. Good grief - by that logic, we shouldn't have female senators, or CEO's, or governors. We should all just stay home and be repressed.
There is no trap here. Thinking people will be able to figure out that some women achieving positions of power does not mean that all women are treated fairly by society.
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What broadsheet should have objecte to...
[Read the article: Save the forests! Stuff chopsticks in your bra]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...is the first line of this post. Wonton display? Shameful. ;-)
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I come to a different conclusion
[Read the article: Karl Rove is ... right?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That the left wing is letting the right define the moment yet again. I didn't expect much after the 2006 election. Democrats had a minority control of the Senate and a slim majority in the house. Some expected the Democrats to fix everything immediately, in spite of our lack of real power. The right wing has shown a talent for finding our weaknesses and using them against us. In this case, the weakness is that many liberals lack the will to do the slow, difficult work it will take to win back control of the nation. Liberals want it all, and they want it now. This has resulted in attacks on Democrats from the left rivaling anything from the right, and given the right-wing a wedge to use to take away our ability to gain more power by defining Democrats (using our own words) as weak, ineffective cowards.
There was no magical "moment" after the 2006 election in which Democrats could have changed everything. Rove is just spinning again, and you are pre-conditioned to accept his judgement because there are a lot of liberals (aided by a few right-wing trolls) saying the same thing. It's a self-defeating attitude based on unrealistic expectations. We can reject Rove's assessemnt, or we can accept it and let him spin it into a campaign slogan that will limit our gains in the next election.
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I wonder how many newspapers will print the picture
[Read the article: The cost of war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's a bit graphic for kids, isn't it? That's what they'll say. Those few that do print it will get a lot of letters from right-wingnuts claiming that they are trying to instill bias against the war by printing photographs of wounded soldiers. Meanwhile, Bush has his compassionate photo-op and get's his trip to raise funds for the party funded. It's getting harder and harder to not be cynical.
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I wipe my hands on my pants
[Read the article: Public bathroom dilemma: Paper or air?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Then let them air dry the rest of the way. The small amount of water on my hands dries quite quickly. I've never understood why we have such an obesession with "instant" everything.