Letters to the Editor
number1laing
Published Letters: 100 Editor's Choice: 9
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Yea
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I recently took a flight, from BFL -> SFO -> EWR. My SFO->EWR flight was cancelled in the morning and I had to take another one. I had to step out of one terminal and into another one at SFO, and a "SSSS" stamp on my ticket and putting me through the secondary line, where the regular line looked at me like a criminal, and I had to step in a silly box designed to check for chemicals, and then have my bag searched, also for chemicals.
I went online and found a primary reason for getting the SSSS stamp is a last minute flight change plan. But, my flight was cancelled. Were it not cancelled I would've stayed in the same terminal and never gotten checked again. Doesn't this seem like a stupid waste of time? Couldn't their expensive algorithms figure this out?
That said, the airlines knew how shitty the private companies were for years and did nothing. So if the TSA is more competent and professional I'd rather have them than yet more shitty private companies. But the TSA is also a government agency, in the same department built after 9/11 with that awful Orwellian name. Maybe things will improve with a new administration.
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Rockies
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I kept hearing the Rockies would cool off between the NLDS and the NLCS, too. That was a shorter streak, but still. Like King says, who knows? Their pitching is great, their pitching has been great all year, good pitching can propel a team to a championship easily. Look at the 2005 White Sox.
Of course, their hitting is great, too, and in some cases, like game 3, their pitching was getting great hitting.
I think the Indians could use a long rest like that a lot more than the Rockies, Carmona and Sabathia looked tired out there in games 1 and 2.
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Its weird
[Read the article: Quick, somebody bomb Iran!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I realize the right wing is drooling at the prospect of another terrorist attack in the USA, but I am puzzled asto why. If al-Qaeda did start these fires (or do any other attack here), it proves a lot of things. For one thing, no longer can right wingers say that there has been no terrorist attack in the USA since 9/11. Since they can't say that, they can no longer say Bush's glorious leadership and strong policies have "kept us safe". They can then no longer use the bog standard "it's keeping us safe from terrorists" argument whenever anyone challenges warrantless wiretapping, torture, etc.
I realize they'll try it anyway. But it wouldn't work. The only way they would benefit would be that round 2 for fascist powergrabbing can begin. I guess that's what they really care about.
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Laffer curve?
[Read the article: Why Democrats are afraid to raise taxes on the rich]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It sure sounds good, raise taxes on the filthy rich. Guess what? It doesn't work. The higher the tax rate, the more people have an incentive to avoid taxes.
At what percentage do people have that incentive? You say $100,000, I say $1. People will always try to avoid taxes. The problem is, as you point out, the tax code is such a mess it gives them plenty of reasons to do so. That of course has to be cleaned up.
Secondly, raising taxes on the filthy rich DOES work. You point out the Laffer curve. Problem is, that curve is always drawn without numbers. You know why? Because nobody knows any numbers. All available evidence, however, points to the fact that taxes could be raised quite a bit before people lose an incentive to work. Somewhere around 70%.
Even if the Laffer curve is accurate between 100% and 0%, it doesn't mean a whole lot in this current discussion, because we're nowhere near the local maxima. Clinton's tax increase certainly proved that, and the lost revenue of the past six years proves that as well (less taxes = less money, we're still in the first half of the curve).
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It would be historic
[Read the article: Note to Perino: Buy dictionary, history book]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It would be the first time Congress realized Bush is not the Emperor.
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I don't know if I agree
[Read the article: We are the Thought Police]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The outrage that spawns when any bad news about soldiers is played on the news comes from the 28% dead-enders, not from the average citizenry. The 28% has been enormously successful is essentially shutting down the debate and also placing a brick wall around our soldiers and turning them into Angels With Guns (While in a typical rage about Al Gore's Nobel Prize, he said he wouldn't accept the award if offered to him and would instead give it to the US Military. War is Peace indeed).
But is this what Americans want to know? I doubt it. Eric Boehlert on Media Matters wrote an article a month or two ago saying that Americans were BEGGING, BEGGING, for more war coverage. But the media wasn't giving it to us, instead choosing to focus on the kabuki show that was the Petraeus testimony (remember, polls showed Americans didn't trust Petraeus at that time).
And even if we did know what was really going on, what can we do about it? We have a President who refuses to leave and an opposition party that ignores its mandate and not only does not pressure to leave but actively writes the checks to stay there indefinitely. All major Presidential candidates want an active presence in Iraq forever.
I think that's the point, really. Americans want to know the truth. But the people in power refuse to give it to us. Not just the government, but the media too.