Letters to the Editor
Valkyrie607
Published Letters: 121 Editor's Choice: 3
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Speaking of Enemies!
[Read the article: Enemies everywhere]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The news from the People's Republic of Vermont...
A town petition making President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney subject to arrest for crimes against the Constitution has triggered a barrage of criticism from people who say residents are "wackjobs" and "nuts."
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The petition — with more than 436 signatures, or at least the 5 percent of voters necessary to be considered — was submitted Thursday and the town Select Board voted 3-2 Friday to put it on the ballot. It goes to a town-wide vote March 4.
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It reads: "Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecute or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?"
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The petition prompted Brent Caflisch to go to his computer in Rosemount, Minn. "Maybe the terrorists will do us all a favor and attack your town next, our country would be much safer with several thousand dead wackjobs in Vermont," he wrote.
It went on to say terrorists could kidnap the three Select Board members who voted in favor, "cut their heads off, video tape it and put it on the internet."
Brattleboro folks say they're feeling rattled--I don't know what for. This guy sounds like Norman Podhoretz. I could take him.
Send Brattleboro some love: http://www.brattleboro.org/
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Misogyny? You betcha!
[Read the article: Can't work for them, can't sue them]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What gets me about the response by "anonymouse" is that there are plenty of interesting legal issues to be explored. But Mr. Mouse jumps right into belittling and mocking the women involved.
"Ooh, that nasty man touched my breast!"
"huffy allegations"
"alleged grownup"
"teary-eyed testimony"
Mr. Mouse says that these women are foolish for expecting not to be harassed and/or assaulted by their co-workers.
It follows, then, from Mr. Mouse's twisted reasoning, that a man signing up for a contract with KBR, going to Iraq, would be completely reasonable in saying to himself, "Great! A war zone! This means I can grope and rape my female co-workers all I want!"
A spade's a spade, and Mr. Mouse is a misogynist.
And please remember, Mr. Mouse: the distaste I feel for your offensive ranting is based completely on your individual statements. I dislike YOU, and YOUR words and opinions, specifically. It has nothing to do with all those other people out there who happen to also possess penises.
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Aw!
[Read the article: The K Chronicles]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My honey is afraid of water too! Perhaps snorkeling is the way to go...
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Shut out, or not
[Read the article: FISA 101]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I wanted to say "thank you" to Congressman Reyes, but there's no email on his website, unless you provide a 16th district of NM address. Oh well. I'll call tomorrow. It's so nice to have someone to say "thank you" to, even if it's a small thing.
His contact info: http://wwwc.house.gov/reyes/contact_information.asp
Call him and say, "hooray!"
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@ bystander
[Read the article: The fun and excitement of civilization wars (fought from afar)]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That Bush blog made me pee my pants, almost...
"If I say Jack Bauer has to take a crap on the bill of rights cuz we need to defend our freedoms from the terrorizers, then that's the way it's gonna be!"
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Precautionary principle, hello?
[Read the article: The cold truth about climate change]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Civilians can understand both meteorology and climate change, if they want to.
Species migrating north. Ice shelf shrinking. Ocean levels rising. Poles warming faster than the equator. 100-year droughts are now 10-year droughts. Tundra melting. CO2 content 30% above what it's been for the past 100,000 years.
Any of you ever hear of the precautionary principle?
Suppose all these data points mean nothing and the climate is just humming along nicely. Should we then ignore the overfished oceans, the depletion of soils, the air pollution, the degradation of ecosystems worldwide?
What on earth is the advantage to ignoring these alarms? Oh, right, it's more comfortable that way. Less work, less thinking--very appealing for those who claim that it's all just SOOO complicated, so how could we possibly make up our minds about anything? (Stop whining and read, is my answer.)
Climate change is just a symptom of the problem--the problem being that we're trying to run a linear process (market capitalism) in a finite system (the earth). Some other poster was blathering about earth not being a closed system--maybe I misread him/her, but anyway, that's nonsense. Yes, we get regular inputs of energy from the sun, and lose some to space, but apart from that, what we have is what we must work with. Whether it's climate change, overfishing, air pollution, drought, topsoil depletion, deforestation, desertification, or whatever, there are limits to growth. We're running up against them right now, only we don't see it because we're busy externalizing the costs of business as usual and exporting to the third world the pollution and environmental degradation required by an economy based on consumerism. See www.thestoryofstuff.com for a thorough but quick run-down of the problems we're facing.
Humans invented these systems that are on the verge of crashing our ecosystems. Market capitalism is not the pinnacle of human achievement. We can come up with even MORE efficient ways of distributing wealth. We're GOING to invent something else. Something possibly better (hope springs eternal), but definitely different. My question is, will we wait until necessity forces the invention, or will we use our big brains and get ahead of the game?
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Summing the deniers' argument up:
[Read the article: The cold truth about climate change]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Experts don't agree, but don't worry. Everything is fine.
Click on my signature for a great video about stuff.