Letters to the Editor
AllTooHuman
Published Letters: 14
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dogs before men
[Read the article: How can I improve relations between the sexes?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There is a joke that they tell in Turkey, it goes like this: In America, the priorities are....
1) Children
2) Women
3) Pets
4) Men
I have gone out with two 40-something liberal white women who have, to my face, assured me that the above is NOT a joke, that their pets are more important than men will ever be in their lives. What is astounding is that these women see nothing perverse in their bias So it is naive for Cory to dismiss the writer's concerns about the bile floating in the current cultural context.
Paglia said that homsexuality was a "reasonable adaptation" to the post-feminist chaos in gender relations. Anyone who dissmisses the anti-male bias out there is either blind or self-serving. Take your pick.
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no comfort without power
[Read the article: I'm so vegan it hurts]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This vegan wonderfully illustrates the visceral fear and hatred that liberals have toward power. It is a fear that keeps many in our time from growing up. For to fully be an adult requires a much more sophisticated relationship with and understanding of power than, "Ooo! Power bad!!!" As if somehow there could be life without power.
Cary's response is beautiful. There is so much wisdom to be gained in rising above mere ideological consistency.
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co-opting minority status
[Read the article: I'm so vegan it hurts]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I read an article years ago in Salon by a woman who had been a vegetarian in college. Her explanation went something like this: "it was the easiest way for a middle-class white liberal to co-opt a sense of minority status without all the messiness of homosexuality."
She nailed it!
I went on a hike with a vegetarian friend awhile back who went on for 45 minutes about the nuances of his latest diet. I wanted to scream "It's just what you eat!... Get over it!", but he is not in town that much so I let it slide. This was no anomaly, guys! I know other veggies, and the consistency with which they launch off on boring descriptions of their special puritanical diets, it is a great testament to their profound narcissism.
Meat eaters have some intuitive understanding of the profoundly narcissistic nature of vegetarians' need for "Specialness", and that is a source of much of the friction here. Ignore it at your own risk.
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Re: Jeeze
[Read the article: I'm so vegan it hurts]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yeah!... It's those goddamned short people!... They're the problem! :-)
Seriously though, Militant Vegan reminded me of what a friend said to me in college: "It's more important to watch who you eat with, rather than what you eat."
That's it!
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It's a parent...
[Read the article: "Religious belief itself is an adaptation"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yo, "a parent" check out this baby...
http://www.2ndlaw.com/evolution.html
I think the bumpersticker went: RELIGION IS WHAT KEEPS THE POOR FROM MURDERING THE RICH.
And do not think that's all bad! The empirical religions (thanks, Ken!) arose when they did for a reason: religion was the glue that made nation-states possible. Atheists like myself are amiss to look at all those killed in the name of religion and conclude that "Religion bad!" Without religion we would have been left with tribalism and a much much higher rate of murder in the name of lineage.
Jared Diamond noted that historically, the function of religion is two part:
a) To justify the actions of the state
b) To urge the cannon fodder forward
The rest of religion is just warm and fuzzy platitudes. Again, that itself does not make religion all bad. Religion played a very functional role in history. Now it is time to move on.
And do not get me started on the very slim evidence for a historical Christ, OK?
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Egotism
[Read the article: Going beyond God]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Karen Armstrong has the simplistic naive view of ego that is common to religionists and new agers: "Ego bad!" In the real and pragmatic world, ego is invaluable. Those without an ego do not bother to get out of bed to take a shit. Why would they??? They just sit there, egoless, in their own shit.
Be glad that you have an ego.
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Securing Resources
[Read the article: Feminism vs. femininity]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Boob jobs are about power. Women want power just like all the other hairless chimpanzees. That's the main thing that feminism, with its terminal sense of victimhood, never could grasp. And it is that very cluelessness that has rendered feminism irrelevant.
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Power and Control
[Read the article: Porn in theory, porn in practice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cary is trying too hard here.
The people who oppose porn---both religious fundamentalists and liberal feminists---are the people who want men to remain under the control of their wives/girlfriends. The more a man can satisfy his own sexual urges, the less dependent he is on his wife, and the less power she has over him. Before the internet, my father used to say to me, euphemistically, "Don't piss off the cook!" That's the concept, and it is all about power and the control of male sexuality.
Women don't want their boyfriends to be attracted to other women because that---sole access to sexual gratification---is where their power and security lies. It is that simple. There is no need for Cary's ornate intellectual gymnastics.
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Quack Quack Quack
[Read the article: Scum-sucking epicure]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]God, how desperate is Salon getting for articles? Does dietary narcissism constitute "journalism" these days?
http://www.quackwatch.org/search/webglimpse.cgi?ID=1&query=Spirulina
Oi!
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Quackin'
[Read the article: Scum-sucking epicure]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Algae products contain no nutrients that are not readily available from food or ordinary dietary supplements that cost much less. "
According to the author, it (pond scum) rings in at $56 per pound Thaddeus. Tell us about your own emotional need to find such a magic elixir, then you might have something worth reading.
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Not Black & White
[Read the article: Rachel Carson's birthday bashing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Comparing Carson to Hitler is not productive. DDT was being overused by USA agriculture, which was endangering birds. BUT... We now know that applying DDT inside homes in Africa would do much to limit the human devastation of malaria and would have negligible affect on wildlife. DDT has never been shown to adversely affect humans.
Human progress is problematic, it always has been. Always. It seems now that we over-reacted in totally banning DDT. Oops! Just because we're all clueless dolts who stumble our way through history is no need to call Ms. Carson "Hitler".