Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 144 Editor's Choice: 2
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Carey doesn't go far enough
[Read the article: How can I convince my girlfriend that this is as good as it gets?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I see that the two red stars were assigned by an anonymous editor (who may be Cary Tennis) to letters agreeing with his advice. So let me change tack and state that not only is Cary's advice absolutely wonderful, but it would be even more wonderful if he advised the letter writer to wait for more than a trial period of six months.
Let's dwell momentarily on the choice of six months. A fellow of the National Academy of Sciences once said that life is too chaotic to predict beyond six months. Is this what Carey has in mind? You have a long shot probability less than the likelihood that the moon will crash into the earth tomorrow, and you know that the furthest out you can reasonably plan is six months, so you plan to wait for the long shot to come through for six months.
This rationale is so sensible it undermines the premise of Carey's advice, which doesn't go far enough. Cary should have advised the letter writer to base his entire life on this failed relationship, and wait for an eternity. Maybe the letter writer will draft the 21-st century Inferno.
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Good point sea-assassin or whatever your name is
[Read the article: How can I convince my girlfriend that this is as good as it gets?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The replacement human might never arrive. Good point. Well done. Excellent. Astute. Right on. LW should still split, or else base his life on this relationship. He's young enough to endure decades of pain and pain. If he starts pitying himself now, it's more of an enduring accomplishment than if he were to start in his 90s. And that's granting that giving up late is better than never.
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Reiser served his purpose
[Read the article: My interview with murderer Hans Reiser]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]By looking even worse than the drearily negative, fatuously self-righteous blowhard Elliott.
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Helms versus Gantt in 1990
[Read the article: Let us now praise Jesse Helms]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I was on a consulting gig in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1990, I had a chance to witness the home-spun racism of Jesse Helms on a hotel TV. I found myself so disgusted with the Helms negative campaign commercials against Harvey Gantt, and so shocked by their overt racism that I contributed to Gantt's campaign. "Harvey Gantt: extremely liberal with the facts." "Harvey Gantt, extreme liberal values. Jesse Helms, North Carolina Values." Coming from New York, I could scarcely comprehend how being a liberal was intrinsically bad.
It was some years before I learned of the analysis of common morality of Bernard Gert, according to which equally informed impartial rational persons can disagree over moral questions. Any halfway sophisticated worldview has to account for moral and political disagreements among equally informed, impartial rational persons. Assigning differences of opinion among such persons to intelligence one way or the other is a gross error--persons who believe that moral and political questions have unitary, absolute answers tend to favor governments that limit freedom and democracy. From this remove, partisan judgments of condemnation for being liberal or conservative seem even more dangerous and more of a threat to liberty and democracy than they did in 1990.
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Respect for the dead
[Read the article: Let us now praise Jesse Helms]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Let us pretend he wasn't a vicious homophobic racist and offer to Helms the respect in death he was never owed in life. So many of us will need to die before we earn the respect of the living.
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Good for Edwards
[Read the article: Edwards admits to affair]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The United States is well on its way to becoming a third world country, where not having an affair is a sign of weakness. Edwards' timing was a little off, but it will not hurt him in the long run.
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Rebecca Traister was right all along
[Read the article: What to make of the Edwards fiasco?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Edwards is an orc.
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Big Pharma has a pill for Canada's nationalized health care
[Read the article: I'm so angry, it's time to change]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"P.S. to dpc61820: anyone who voices the "I'm moving to Canada, man!" meme without a twinge of embarrassment is just a shithead. Too bad Big Pharma doesn't have a pill for that."
You are sadly mistaken: Big Pharma does have a pill for anyone wanting to move to Canada, which has nationalized health care. Unfortunately, the prescription for this pill is to either be a major stockholder in or work in the executive suite of the big pharmaceutical companies, so that you will be compensated well enough to afford your own health care. The big pharmaceutical companies are model monopolistic abusers of the patent system.
And what a silly use of the word meme.
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Revisiting anger over Bush
[Read the article: I'm so angry, it's time to change]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When Bush vetoed funding for stem cell research, I vowed never to vote for a Republican again. All I have to do to revisit my anger over Bush II is to recall the following.
1. Consider that many advances in plastic surgery have occurred during wartime.
2. Consider that President Bush vetoed federal funding of stem cell research.
3. Stem cell research could conceivably help soldiers who were injured during the war. Burns are not uncommon, for example. Stem cells to grow new skin and bone could revolutionize the treatment of war
casualties. The surgeon's credo is Life, Limb, Looks, in that order of priority. Perhaps it is not unreasonable that stem cell research could
lead to techniques for regrowing limbs--a miracle.
4. An avenue for improving techniques in reconstructive surgery during the Iraq war has been cruelly blocked, during conditions under which the field of reconstructive surgery has ordinarily advanced.
By blocking federal funding of stem cell research, the Bush administration signaled its contempt for the people it places in harms way. Hateful monsters.
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The real question:
[Read the article: Why isn't Obama crushing McCain?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why isn't Salon crushing McCain?
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Maureen Dowd
[Read the article: Happy days are here again!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Is far more accomplished as a writer than Joan Walsh.
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Another enabler:
[Read the article: Putin's war enablers: Bush and Cheney]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nancy "off the table Pelosi. The Bush administration has ratcheted up the probability of terminal nuclear war by antagonizing the Russians with the missile defense system in Poland and with their shenanigans in Georgia, to the tune of $1,000,000,000 in arms. I wouldn't put WW III past Bush. It impeachment is off the table, then WW III is on the table.
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Condoleeza Rice is a former provost
[Read the article: Rice: Military power is "not the way to deal in the 21st century"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's good news that the United States sent Condoleeza Rice to Georgia: it means that the U.S. isn't serious. Rice was a former provost. At worst she could inflict academic sanctions on Russia, or possibly threaten to withhold Putin's transcript.
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The issues
[Read the article: Father of Bristol Palin's child to attend GOP convention]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Please focus on the issues, not personalities.
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This election is about issues, not personalities
[Read the article: Obama's perfect pitch on Palin]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Please focus on the issues, assuming you know what these are, not on personalities.
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This election is about issues, not personalities
[Read the article: Father of Bristol Palin's child to attend GOP convention]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Please focus on the issues, if you know what these are, not on personalities.