Letters to the Editor
Axordil
Published Letters: 200 Editor's Choice: 17
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apples, oranges, and nudity
[Read the article: They called me a child pornographer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Why do you suppose the Abu Ghraib torturers got such good effect out of forcing the prisoners to be photographed in humiliating nude poses? Or that the Nazi death camp guards got such good effect out of stripping prisoners naked for public assemblies? Because they know, as apparently many of us have forgotten, that forced public nudity is a good way to dehumanize people and strip them of their dignity and autonomy."
Absolutely. And if there were forced public nudity involved anywhere in the story, you would be on to something.
But there isn't. There's voluntary private nudity. The kids weren't being forced to march up and down the block naked, they were in the woods, away from others, camping and swimming with parents.
BTW, the assumption that mothers are inherently more modest than dads? Incredibly sexist.
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Bad Parenting
[Read the article: They called me a child pornographer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I know alcohol is legal, but parents drinking or smoking in front of kids is bad parenting."
Then the vast majority of kids throughout history have survived bad parenting. You know, the generations not blessed with knowledge of what truly good parenting is, a knowledge that evidently dates from around 1989 and is endemic solely to the US.
Handy reference chart:
Getting drunk and throwing up in front of kids: bad parenting.
Having a glass of wine with dinner in front of kids: OK parenting.
Teaching your kids to be self-righteous Puritans: REALLY bad parenting.
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Is anyone else...
[Read the article: The magic fingers of George W. Bush]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...REALLY curious about the conversation he had with Laura later that evening? :D
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<bangs head on wall>
[Read the article: They called me a child pornographer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Why should kids have to "survive" bad parenting at all?"
Perhaps because calling the average level of functional parenting over the past ten thousand years "bad" is actually a way of saying "everyone born before me was stupid and evil and didn't really love their kids as much as I do?" The point is that it WASN'T bad parenting then, and it isn't now. If parents love their kids, generally, they provide good parenting, even if they aren't perfect, or rather, don't conform to the current fad definition of perfection.
"And isn't NO alcohol always a better example?"
No, being responsible and honest is always a better example. If you don't drink, though, I don't recommend starting just to show your kids it can be done responsibly. That wouldn't be honest, after all.
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Actually, the Pharisee was the loud and public one...
[Read the article: Not such a grand old party]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...but the rest of the parable still holds.
Christianity was born as a religion of the downtrodden, not the powerful. Thus, whenever it actually acheives power, it gets a tad schizoid.
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Sex education?
[Read the article: Abortion bill puts teens' lives at stake]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Didn't that used to be something they taught in schools before abstinence indoctrination became the norm?
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Don't know what he was thinking, don't have to...
[Read the article: The K Chronicles]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...because you know what? It's not a cartoonist's job to improve my life every time I see their strip. That's a high standard for a NOVEL. For a weekly cartoon it's simply unreasonable.
On the other hand, I would rather see any artist, high or popular (and what IS the difference, anyway) take odd little chances now and again that don't pan out than simply try to keep their audience happy. Out of odd little chances come the moments that make any art actually worthwhile.
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Compare and contrast
[Read the article: The "hiding among civilians" myth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This story with the NYT today: "Christians Fleeing Lebanon Denounce Hezbollah," which paints a different picture. Not a necessarily contradictory picture, but a different one.
I have come to the conclusion that it is, in point of fact, impossible to report objectively about the current conflict, and the best we can hope for is multisourcing.
Now, if you will excuse me, the CS Monitor beckons.
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Time and boundary conditions
[Read the article: The believer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There seems to be a common misconception about the nature of time and the Big Bang. To wit: time is a number line with a zero point, which leads to the question, "what--or who--came before zero?"
However, the evidence seems to point to time being rather more like a globe on a cosmological scale, with the Big Bang being at one "pole". And just as the question, "what--or who--is at 91 degrees north?" has no meaning, there is no "before" and thus no causality to explain. This is the "no-boundary" model of cosmology explained by Hawking in "A Brief History of Time."
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It is better to light a candle that curse the editors...but...
[Read the article: Joe's fall from grace]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I would certainly rather read about the current classical tragedy in CT than attempts at deconstructing the latest fashion fads for pregnant nannies in NYC or the like, which all too often feels like the focus around Salon these days.
But it is a symptom of life on the net that we remember what pisses us off more than what enlightens us.
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Wow..Levine must have hit a nerve
[Read the article: Salon's shameful six]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When they come out of the woodwork like this, it can only mean you're really on to something! Good job!
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There's homework and there's homework...
[Read the article: Building a hate for learning]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"High school taught me that homework and studying were mindless busywork that prevented me from living my life, and I learned this lesson so well that after a perfect 4.0 in high school, I came closer than I would have liked to flunking my first semester of college."
Thank you, sir, for summing up what I ran into as well.
The underlying issue is of course the nature of the production line we call American public education, which (like the Prussian model it copied) was designed to extrude young men capable of either factory work or military service, or preferably both. Substitute "food service" for factory work and include young women if you want to update the paradigm; otherwise nothing has changed in over a century. Anyone who goes on to a college degree out of public school does it in spite of the system, not because of it.
There have been exceptions, now and then, here and there, but the business of American education has been about lowest common denominators for generations. It makes the occasional gem of a teacher who does more for their kids all that more precious (and increasingly rare).
In this light, all "No Child Left Behind" does is toss in a few quality assurance people onto the line, so that high school diploma with your kid's name on it can have an "inspected by #7" tag on it.