Letters to the Editor
number1laing
Published Letters: 100 Editor's Choice: 9
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these guys are such frauds
[Read the article: Jonah Goldberg's deeply "conflicted" thoughts on war and torture]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You know, if you really are "deeply conflicted" over something, especially something as serious as war and torture, the mature, serious, sensible, adult, and appropriate thing to do is to not do it until you are no longer deeply conflicted. You know, hash all these things out, and proceed if you are totally sure of the correctness of your actions.
But of course, that is now how they operate. They always play the "deeply conflicted" card to pretend like they are serious, mature, and understand that which they are supporting, but they always then say that because they are so conflicted it is only prudent to do exactly what Dick Cheney wants. Funny how it always works out that way.
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Patrick you summed it up
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Look, the fact is, airlines treat us paying customers like garbage. They deceive us, mislead us, scam us whenever they can. We end up stranded at some airport and basically tell us, "tough".
So is it any surprise that people will respond in this manner?
Maybe it's time for the airlines to be a bit more transparent about the way the system works. I know that telling people what causes delays and the like sort of acknowledges that there are lots of delays but it might be necessary. That way people will know what is causing these problems, and all the work that goes into getting a person from point A to point B.
It's like airlines are still trying to sell air travel as a luxurious, glamorous enterprise, but just give anyone to complains about the cognitive dissonance the finger.
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Amazing
[Read the article: Kos vs. Rove: Who won the Newsweek primary?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yea, this is bad.
The guy who calls a major Presidential candidate a bitch, who slimes her and smears her irrationally, is the calm, sensible, serious person.
The guy who calmly explains the failings of the two-term President and rationally explains what a disaster he is is the raving nut, far outside the mainstream, doomed to languish in failure.
This really is how it is in political discourse in America today. It's going to be very hard to overcome.
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E-Readers are cool
[Read the article: Kindle: Amazon's e-book reader is here]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I love the idea of an e-reader, I don't read as much as I would like and the idea of having one of these with lots of books on it is very tempting and awesome.
However, I'll never buy one. Because I would have to buy the books I want to read. See, there's still this thing called the "library" which lets me take out books and read them for free. And while it's not perfect, they don't always have what I want or I have to wait until they do, that doesn't change the fact that they are free.
Maybe if they offered, say, a $10 a month charge with access to all books I might bite (similar to Napster or whatever) but nothing like that is in the cards right?
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@harpazo
[Read the article: Romney and Huckabee's religious intolerance ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"To be sure, the founding fathers were not all Christian, but most did believe in God and founded our government on the principles found in the Bible. To say that "the nation's founders abhorred" faith just isn't true."
You're right, it's not true.
Problem is, that's not what Conason said.
He said it was "restrictive tests of faith" are what the nation's founders abhorred, Considering they outlawed faith tests in the Constitution, using simple, unambiguous, straightforward language, it is reasonable to conclude that, yes, they did abhor religious tests.
Reading is awesome.
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completion time
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think in many lines of work where there is a testing/qualification path they take a close, hard look at the amount of time it takes to go through that, and revising it when necessary to fit their needs. It sounds like becoming a pilot if you are not out of the military is not an attractive proposition. The risk is there, the hard work is there, but the reward is not. This is a structural problem with the pilot line of work and the airlines seem to be getting the message but far too slowly. They need to increase pay or increase incentives (sometimes those industries will lower standards a bit, but I doubt that is an acceptable idea in this one). Significantly, too.
Of course, I don't expect them to, but I am not going to have any sympathy when they start begging the FAA to loosen restrictions (like the way they blame every problem in air travel on the air traffic system).
Great column!
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Passing the buck
[Read the article: Why Wall Street should be more like a cockroach]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I read an Economist article last year which said that these big advanced instruments these guys created, MIGHT have been a good way of spreading risk efficiently. But the reality was, they had no clue. That is what they said on TV and in front of Congress, but the reality was they were so complex and opaque that no one had a clue.
Obviously, this is true. It was just a game of hot potato. Pass the risk on to some other guy and let him do whatever he wants. Do I care what happens after I toss something in the trash? Hell no. What happens happens.
Problem is, now everyone has a lot of that trash.
I really wish Bookstaber's recommendations would be met and the financial industry would reorganize itself. But they won't. There is too much money to be made by simply exploiting one scam, letting it crash, lobby the government to write you a check, and then move on to another. Perhaps the only hope is one of these big companies flames out Arthur Andersen style. But that might not be enough.
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Most Overpaid Jobs
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No surprise Marketwatch.com (from Dow Jones) would call workers overpaid and talk about how evil the unions are (Pummer's just another tool for capital, but there sure are a lot of them out there), but Patrick, that article is from 2003. 2003!
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tell your boss
[Read the article: My office mate lets off noxious farts]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Terrible advice. Bosses are paid to deal with this sort of thing, especially if it is negatively affecting your work. You could seriously screw up your job by putting yourself on the line and telling him.