Letters to the Editor
Ranson
Published Letters: 6 Editor's Choice: 2
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Looks like I can cancel my subscription to the NY Daily News now
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Opus! Great! Nothing like "political" cartoons that veer into lame one-liner jokes in the last panel so you can tape them to your cubicle wall without offending the boss. What's next on this lineup of hard-hitters, Marmaduke?
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The top stone in a pyramid?
[Read the article: The atheist delusion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's like the top stone of a pyramid that conditions everything else in the pyramid. In our own lives, we all have something like a top stone. If it were suddenly removed, it would cause our lives to fall apart.
In addition to misunderstanding atheism and being hypocritical about his supposed belief in god, Mr. Haught also doesn't understand architecture. If you remove the top stone in a pyramid, nothing happens at all. He's thinking of the keystone in an arch.
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Religion? Or the philosophies embodied within?
[Read the article: Are you going to hell?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Every time I read an article like this one, I feel that people are muddling philosophy with faith. Marks states that many non-believers go to church "Because...they believe in the social stances, they believe in the political values." I hear people argue time and again that the reason religion is valuable is because it gives people a moral code along which they can live their lives.
But what I have never been able to understand is why such a code always comes packaged with a mandate that one believe in a supernatural deity. In other words, why must we necessarily invoke a god before agreeing that it's wrong to murder or steal or cheat on your wife? Can't these things be wrong just for the simple reason that they cause pain to other people? Can't an overall moral code be formed along the same lines?
I feel that until the very reasonable need for humans to figure out a moral code to guide their lives can be disentangled from the idea that everyone has to believe in the resurrection of Jesus (or whatever religion X, Y or Z would ask us to believe), we're not going to get out from under this strange struggle. I don't doubt that many people get a great deal of guidance - for better or worse - from the myriad religious teachings this world has produced. But as we get inspiration from great literature without confusing it with the literal truth (and without hating those who interpret it differently than we do), can we not do the same with religion?
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Is he joking?
[Read the article: Java panic: Starbucks closing all stores Tuesday evening]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"...one of the results has been stores that no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store."
Obviously, that's because Starbucks IS a chain of stores which has caused any number of neighborhood coffee shops to go under when the Wal-Mart of coffee moved in across the street...and down the block...and down the block in the other direction. He's gotta puzzle this out?
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@FM
[Read the article: Java panic: Starbucks closing all stores Tuesday evening]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That was an interesting Slate article about Starbucks effectively creating coffee districts, to the benefit of chain and independent cafe alike. But as that article also touches on briefly, when SB gets in touch with those independents' landlords, things don't always end so well. Here in NY, there's an article in the paper every week about yet another been-there-forever deli, pub, cafe or whatever (CBGB being only the most famous recent example)which suddenly finds its rent hiked to the stratosphere so that the landlord can get rid of them and rent to a bank branch or a Rite Aid instead. That Irish pub or independent coffee house is never going to make a rent of $40,000 a month; Starbucks, Walgreens and CitiBank, however, have no problem with it. This may be a strictly local phenomenon, but it's still an unpleasant lesson in the power of wealthy retail chains to blandify neighborhoods and kill competition at their whim, and why I don't use Starbucks or other chains when I have another choice.
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DB Cooper
[Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]@FRakaFDR -
After releasing the passengers and accepting the ransom money, "D.B." Cooper ordered the crew to take off again but NOT to pressurize the airplane, and to remain at or below 10,000 feet. When he decided to jump, therefore, he was able to open the rear stairs in-flight without any problem.