Letters to the Editor
jebldmm
Published Letters: 933 Editor's Choice: 164
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The media know they can get away with attacking Dems
[Read the article: Journalistic balance vs. truth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Because liberals/progressives will happily buy the argument every time. Everybody in the media world knows that any time they defend Democrats they will get complaining letters from the right wing and just as many from left wingers who blame the Democrats for everything wrong in our nation. I've been reading your column for a while, and I think it's rather ironic that you are attacking media people for blaming Democrats instead of Republicans. You do it to.
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Mythbusters got it right
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Within the limits of their standards, at least. In order to prove a myth "busted", they have to prove that it is completely implausible. It is true that people can sometimes land airplanes with no training. I wouldn't want to be on the plane, given that 1) the conditions have to be perfect and 2) they are still likely to screw up and kill everybody on board, but ... it is possible, therefore within the Mythbuster's universe the myth is true.
You'd like the show. They did a great episode on what would happen if someone fired a gun in a plane (it wouldn't decompress, in spite of rumors to the contrary). This is another exercise I wouldn't want to see tried in real life.
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Did you just notice this?
[Read the article: Shaming Jamie Lynn Spears]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's illegal in most states to have sex with 16 year old women (or men, actually). The man who got her pregnant is subject to prosecution, should somebody decide to do it. We have very strange ideas about sexuality in our world. You can actually be imprisoned for even having pictures of a 16 year old girl having sex (although it's okay to have 13 year old girls model in sexy photos for fashing magazines - go figure). We actually believe that no human being is sexual until puberty, and even then they are expected to remain chaste at least until they are in their late teens. It is not surprising that people are in an uproar about a 16 year old girl becomeing pregnant. She is supposed to be pure, innocent, and a virgin. Even liberals believe this. We express regret that she had sex and wish that she had used birth control, as if there is something evil about something that has been happening since human beings were apes (16 year old's getting pregnant). We really need to re-evaluate our entire views about sex. Sex is not bad. Child molestation is bad, not because it is sexual but because it is rape. 16 year old kids will have sex. 16 year old girls will become pregnant, because their bodies are designed for making babies and all of the equipment is fully functional. Birth control will reduce the frequency, but will not prevent this. It's not "good" or "bad", it just "is", and we really need to recognize it.
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Peak gold is nonsense
[Read the article: Peak gold and the gold standard]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I live in a city adjacent to the most productive gold mine in California history. It was closed after WWII, not because it ran out of gold, but because it became too expensive to mine the gold. Most gold is mined through an intensive extraction process, and the cost of getting an ounce of gold out of a ton or ore has been more than the value of the gold. However, as gold increases in value and technology improves, companies are looking again at some of the old mines, as well as finding new ones. The Empire Mine has been turned into a state park, but another outfit is interested in mining in the area and is working with the city to get approval. There is a lot of gold on the earth, it's just a matter of taking it. The same thing will happen with gold that is happening with oil. As we run out of our easy to get supply, the price will go up and we will reduce consumption and new supplies will be found that would have been uneconomical at the old prices. Basic economics.
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This article is stretching
[Read the article: Who would Antonin Scalia torture?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The point is that lethal injection is not INTENDED to be torture. We should work to ensure that there is 1) no possibility that an innocent person is subjected to it 2) ensure that only the most egregious crimes can be punished this way and 3) do everything in our power to make sure that the criminal does not suffer. They may be monsters - we aren't. Overall, though, I believe that society benefits from having the death penalty, if it can stop some criminals from taking the extra step that they know will earn it for them.
Waterboarding IS intended to be torture. It's victims have been convicted of no wrong. It's premise, that useful information can be gained by torturing a presumably guilty person, is inherently flawed.
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The road not travelled
[Read the article: The baby I turned away]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It haunts all of us. Personally, I respect your choice. Being willing to care for a special needs child is admirable, but it can be a challenge ever for the child's biological parents, and it is not something to be taken on lightly. The baby in India should not have ever been presented to you as an option, given that she was outside of all of the parameters you had defined in your adoption goals. The real tragedy is that they waited so long to find her a home - if she had been placed sooner she might have had a better life. That, however, is not your fault or your problem.