Letters to the Editor
Courtney K
Published Letters: 9
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Facts, that's all
[Read the article: Are men spoiled rotten?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I know two men who decided rather late in life that they wanted children. There was no nefarious, selfish plot involved- they simply changed, as human beings are wont to do. They transformed from people not wanting children to people wanting children. Who is anyone to tell them they have no right to pursue one of the most fulfilling experiences a person can have?
Men have the luxury of being able to produce healthy children for longer than women. It's not their "fault", it's biology. If women could easily produce healthy children into their 50s, you bet they would. Women just have to decide earlier, and that's all there is to it.
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Saving paper???
[Read the article: Amazon's Kindle won't spark your e-book fire]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So the paper savings supposedly constitute some sort of environmental benefit? How about the fact that you're using COAL to read a book? That's where electricity comes from, for the vast majority of Americans. What folly...
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Not the same as coal from WV- huh?
[Read the article: How to solve America's water problems]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I know this is a minor point but I have to take exception. So taking water from the Great Lakes is not the same as taking coal from WV and oil from AK because...the Great lakes are an ecosystem? As opposed West Virginia and Alaska? That's ridiculous. If you knew a thing about mountaintop removal coal mining, you'd know damn well it obliterates a marvelous ecosystem, like, permanently. West Virginia is not just about hillbillies and coal...It's about biodiversity of salamanders, birds, plants, etc., and is home to a magnitude more species than the waters of the Great Lakes. (Which, by the way, I am very fond of as a current Minnesota resident.) Destructive fossil fuel extraction should not be more accepted just because it has been occurring longer.
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that familiar feeling
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Though not a huge NFL fan, I watched this game in hopes of recapturing the wonderful feeling I felt watching my Mountaineers beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. You know, the feeling derived from watching a team the press has uniformly fawned over get beaten by a team that the press has uniformly and illogically written off (with a modicum of advance sympathy for their upcoming, unavoidable defeat). Eli and the Giants' D delivered- and it was Soooo-WEET!
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OMG!! "Logical and nearly unescapable option?"
[Read the article: I'm a nude dancer trying to finish my Ph.D.]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I guess I should thank my lucky stars I somehow made it through grad school on $11,000 a year without rubbing my tits on the shirts of frat boys and married men. It seemed so....logical at the time! But thank God- I ate beans and rice instead. Oh, and lots of spaghetti.
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Right on, Cary
[Read the article: Help! I'm a prisoner in a big suburban house!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]LW, your instincts are self-preserving. Here's a good book to check out for inspiration: Little House on a Small Planet, by Shay Solomon. You sound like you probably wouldn't want to replicate what these people are doing, but it shows one what is possible and articulates exactly what is wrong with big houses- psychologically, environmentally, etc. It has inspired me think about how to shrink my and my husband's 1,600 square foot house down to about 1,000. Another good resource, with more high-end examples, is the Not-so Big House series by Susan Susanka: www.notsobighouse.com. Good luck!
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Use them where they'll be on at least a few minutes
[Read the article: Ask Pablo]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I always thought that the warm-up period of fluorescents made them bad choices where they'll be on less than a few minutes. Isn't it true that they have a brief warm-up period when they use a lot of energy, then once "lit" they use much less? Therefore, I only have CFs where they're usually used for more than five minutes, and incandescents where we only flip the lights on for a minute or two and back off again- laundry room, garage, etc. Doesn't it actually waste energy (and from what other readers are saying, wear them out faster) to flip them on and off a lot? I have a hard time actually tracking that info down. Everyone is so ready to push them, it seems, that they may be ignoring the fact that they are not always the best choice.
Does anyone know for sure if they are inefficient in a brief- use-only situation?
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Bring it on!!!
[Read the article: Our "black Monday" for oil]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"What, then, will be the lasting consequences of higher energy costs? For the ordinary American consumer the answer is simple, if grim: A diminished quality of life..."
"Consumer" being the key word here, folks- our source of identity, the essence of what it is to be American! We consume. Chomp chomp.
Anyway, cheap and abundant fossil fuels have brought America such lovely things as: infinite replicates of treeless, soulless, cookie-cutter suburbs; massive amounts of cheap, shoddy crap from China; unprecedented obesity from highly processed foods and utter lack of exercise; smog over Yellowstone in winter; chemo-intensive farming that has created a humongous dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico- and we could go on and on (especially with regard to climate change). Yet we are to believe higher petroleum costs will DIMINISH our quality of life? Come on...
If we can't survive peak oil, we don't deserve to.
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bag on head = scary
[Read the article: Four clueless actors, a dream and a paper bag]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was like four years old when the Unknown Comic was popular, and found him very unsettling. I was just so creeped out by this guy talking and acting crazy with a bag on his head... I would probably enjoy this movie for that alone. Were the filmmakers also born circa 1975??