Letters to the Editor
Just Jake
Published Letters: 61 Editor's Choice: 8
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Body integrity is body integrity
[Read the article: The great circumcision debate, continued]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I wish that the people who so vocally fought/fight for female genital integrity could fight for genital integrity for all children. Why is it okay for parents to surgically alter boys' sex organs but not girls'? Neither should be okay.
One of the dirty little secrets of circumcision is that whatever the effects on a younger man, with age is when loss of sensitivity becomes noticable to some cut men who can and will admit it. I'm far away from retirement, and yet years ago had noticed a gradual decline in sensation. Eventually I did research and discovered foreskin restoration. While it can't recover all that was lost, it is possible to regrow enough tissue to again cover the glans. Over time it does make a difference, and just having enough skin to glide up and down the shaft when erect offers pleasurable sensations entirely different from anything I'd ever felt. That is why it was once sold as a curative for masturbation, after all. Unfortunately it takes a long time to coax skin to grow, and I cuss my parents every day for taking away a healthy piece of the body that I was born with.
We all ought to have control of our own bodies, and it ought to be illegal for an adult to surgically alter an infant or child in the absence of a medical need. Whether one believes in evolutionary and/or divine development of the human body, it amazes me that so many people believe every male body was created with a flaw that justifies 'corrective' surgery that removes skin, nerves, and tissue that on an adult man is about the size of a 3x5 inch index card.
If the partial HIV protection now being marketed as a benefit holds any truth, I don't argue with an adult's right to choose elective cosmetic surgery. There have been reports of women who ask to have healthy breast tissue removed to avoid the possibility of breast cancer, and if a doctor will perform the surgery that's their choice. However, you don't see parents in vast numbers having a daughter's breast tissue removed to ward off a possibility of a cancer once they are grown. Neither should infant boys be altered in hopes of providing some protection against an STD that is much more effectively blocked by wearing a condom.
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The same technical reasons most people aren't great on cell phones
[Read the article: My wife is terrible on the cellphone!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are actual technical reasons for having problems with cellphones, particularly the digital variety that are now the norm.
The first is the lack of "sidetone", a playback of your own voice to you as you speak. It not only confirms the phone is working, but helps you get the volume of your voice right. Landlines have had this since before most of us were born, and analog cell phones generally had it. The lack of it often causes people to think you can't hear them. The results are pauses, repeating, shouting, asking if you can hear them, etc.
The second is that at least with digital cell phones and providers I've used, if both parties speak at once you'll either hear the other person or they will hear you, but usually not both. So someone doesn't hear what the other said, or even know they had been talking. The technical term for this is "half duplex." Such a conversation is like using walkie-talkies, only the pressing of the 'talk' button has been automated.
I'm being half serious, but this might actually help: Use etiquette established many decades ago for two-way radio. Say "over" when you have finished speaking for the moment, so the other knows they can talk. Use words that can be more clearly recognized on an unreliable link, affirmative/negative instead of yeah/no, say again instead of huh, etc.
Perhaps a more practical solution is that some of the good bluetooth headsets have extra electronics to try to overcome cell phone shortcomings, and I've found using one a significant improvement whether sitting in a quiet room or in a car with plenty of background noise. It may also help that the speaker is actually slightly in the ear and unlike holding a small phone certain people won't have the subconscious need to move the phone between their ear and mouth.
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What is that in the picture
[Read the article: The 18 best Jewish ballplayers of all time]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Okay, there are five full pages of comments already, and yet I'm gonna be the first to say: "So, is that the head of the guy's penis [in that photo] stealing center stage, or what?" Since the story title is about Jews surely a question about a dickhead in a photo of same is relevant, right?