Letters to the Editor
Jeffrey P. Harrison
Published Letters: 354 Editor's Choice: 39
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Hah!
[Read the article: Want a mani-pedi with your minivan?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You highlight what I view as a failure of modern parenting. Your job as a parent is to teach your kids what they need to know to function in life. Kids will pick up a lot of stuff by osmosis but there are 3 things that they won't pick up watching you or their friends: how to cook, how to work on cars, and how to budget their money and control their spending. I taught all 4 of my daughters (yes, I committed heinous crimes in a previous life) how to do all three of those things (my ex-wife was not what you'd call the epitome of motherhood).
WRT cars, I made them get underneath and swap out tie-rod ends, and replace fuel pumps, rebuild carburetors, maintain and adjust distributors, etc etc. Most of this was done on their cars which provided an added incentive since (a) I would only provide cash for parts and (b) until their car was fixed, they had no wheels.
And, yeah, they can all cook and none of them has gone broke.
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There is a third possibility...
[Read the article: A bizarre, unsolicited e-mail from Gen. Petraeus' spokesman ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And one that doesn't involve Arlo being arrested. Col Boylan could have left his machine up and unlocked and someone else could have sat down and sent the e-mail
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The Rox in 7, huh?
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Neyh na neyh na neyh na
Cardinals fan (28 years in STL)
Red Sox fan (childhood in New England)
2004 was a bitch.
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Vietnam part 27
[Read the article: Follow-up on the Col. Steven Boylan e-mail exchange]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is all so frickin' familiar. As a Vietnam era AF vet, I know what the populace thought of the military. And how you tended to get treated in uniform when you weren't near a base. I don't want to see that happen again. It is true that the Kosites need to learn to separate their distaste for the war from their feelings about service personnel. When you're in the military, your role is to follow orders. Presidents start wars, Generals fight wars, and Privates die in wars.
Beyond that Mr. Bainbridge is full of shit. The real problem isn't the Kosites, it's the Shrubbites. They are recreating the fractures that the Vietnam war created by virtue of forcing a war on a democracy that doesn't want it. That was the substantive domestic problem of Vietnam and it's being recreated again by the so-called leadership of this country.
I could rant on for a while but it would only be an expansion and elaboration of the two paragraphs above.
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I have issues with your description of Conservatism
[Read the article: Is a new conservatism possible?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I won't dispute your description of the Republican party but I wouldn't call it a conservative party, I'd call it a fascistic party. But I can't agree that conservatism is self contradictory. The tension between personal freedom and the common good or between two different people's personal freedom exists if you're liberal or what I will call a real conservative.
While I am not disputing your description of the Republican party, I would dispute your description of conservatism. For example, you talk of small government (certainly not the hallmark of Republican administrations for the last 40 years in my experience). Certainly that's part of it but the real point isn't the size of the government, it's limiting the power of the government - especially the federal government.
Nor do I agree that once you enter the real world that the principles of conservatism (which I freely admit I have not defined but I only get 1000 words, not a whole column) become useless. They are perfectly good guide posts to help you determine how you should do something or, more importantly, if you should do something. My example for this is toilet seats. It is stunning to me that this burning question (or, at least, burning to a number of women I know) hasn't been addressed by the federal government. If the democrats address the issue, they will turn it over to one of their damn regulatory agencies (which will put it permanently outside of the control of the people) who will mandate that all commodes be manufactured with seats that cannot be raised. If the republicans address the issue, they'll simply make it illegal to leave toilet seats up and punish transgressions with 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. Neither one of them will conceive that the federal government doesn't have the power to make this part of your private life public.
I could go on like this but let me just say that I agree with Mr. Kamiya that the republicans need an extreme makeover if they wish to wear the mantle of conservatism. Merely being able to ask the question: But will they be able to change [their] reactionary ways, tells you that they are a load of liberals. Liberals on the fascistic end of the continuum as opposed to the socialistic end of the continuum but liberals nonetheless because they believe that big government should guide and control the people as opposed to the people guiding and controlling the government. This by the way is one of the consequences of the federal government's intrusion into so many aspects of our lives. "The people" have no control over the federal government. There is no mechanism for "the people" to add or remove federal laws or regulations directly. They can only do this through their representatives and, as the people in the west should know (by virtue of their numerous initiatives), representatives frequently don't do what "the people" want.
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Minor details
[Read the article: Hitlers, Hitlers and more Hitlers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Like the fact that Iran hasn't attacked another country in centuries and that the IAEA has stated that they have no evidence that the Iranians are attempting enrichment to the extent required to make a bomb. But, of course, the UN couldn't find evidence that the Iraqi's had bombs either but that hasn't deterred these people from confusing faith with reality.