Letters to the Editor
Canuckistan Bob
Published Letters: 658 Editor's Choice: 66
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It's not a cult, people
[Read the article: Tough titties]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The thing I like about feminism is that it isn't a cult with a creed or a club with a secret handshake. You actually don't have to agree with everyone, or indeed anyone, who calls themself a feminist, in order to call yourself a feminist.
Feminism includes idiots, maniacs, and mentally ill people; it also includes bright, passionate, and very insightful people (who can also be wrong from time to time too). I really don't quite understand why it provokes people so much; the letters here are troubling but nothing compared to some of the trollishness and visciousness Broadsheet gets on a fairly regular basis. There are other movements and ways of thinking that include inflamatory and deeply wrong people; the Republican Party for example. But they don't get the same kind of broad-brush hateful blow-back.
I don't always agree with Valenti (nor Broadsheet for that matter), but I am secure in the knowledge that actually don't have to to appreciate a lot of what is said. But I certainly am damn glad she's out there wearing asbestos underwear and swinging away, and I hope she keeps it up, potty mouth and all.
Bob
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In Some Cases, It Can Be a Gift
[Read the article: Modern-day wet nursing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can't speak from personal experience, being burdened with a Y chromosome, but about 14 years ago, when my wife delivered our twins, the almost unheard of these days tragedy happened and a mother died in childbirth. The nurses asked, and several of the women on the maternity ward volunteered, and took turns feeding the baby, at first in the hospital, and then for some months afterwards, in shifts. (My wife had to do it personally, in the hospital and then driving across town every other day, the whole expressing/pump thing never worked for her although she was able to breast feed all of our kids for nearly a year each.)
My wife said it felt very very weird, nursing a strange baby, and she never got used to it, but she was glad to do it in the circumstances. We often wonder what has become of that kid. I certainly didn't have any issues with it.
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Troll Food
[Read the article: Attack of the female millionaires]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I didn't comment on Salon for years and years, I generally don't like to after the usenet flamewars taught me a lesson, but I have decided to start primarily because ga ga etc. and the rest of the militant screechy whiney coven of feminist haters need to be spoken up against.
Damn straight this was troll-food, and you can bet the rest of the trollish crowd will show up soon, anything about women and money seems to drive them nuts. When after all it is ultimately a very silly and irrelevant study, a bunch of rich people stay rich, whatever their gender and marital status, geeze, quelle surprise. But it has got women and money in it, I almost suspect Carol put it up to get the Trolls' engines revving.
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Reminds my of Mother & Father in Law
[Read the article: How to become the perfect, "surrendered" wife]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]They had a great marriage, pretty close to 50 years until death did indeed part them. Very 50s style traditional marriage.
My father in law explained that the deal was that he made all the important decisions, while she handled all the day to day stuff. He was a little mystified at how nothing important had come up in 40 years, but if it ever did, he would be ready.
I think the thing to remember in marriages like in politics, appearances and realities can be very deceptive. Technically I'm subject to Her Majesty, for example.
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Double Double
[Read the article: Northern exposure]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Given my moniker, I do suppose I have to post on this one.
Full disclosure: I am a dual citizen. Accident of birth. But ultimately, I do indeed have a dual loyalty, and our common Canadian anti-murkinism disgusts me, although I fully share in my fellow American's disgust with and shame about our current Administration.
But the biggest bit of full disclosure is that my profession here in Canada is refugee matters.
And frankly, US Army refugee claimants are a pretty small part of the whole bag of potatoes. I've got Israeli's sick of killing arabs, arabs sick of killing jews and each other, Zimbabweans, Burmese, Chechnyans sick of being killed and Russians sick of being oppressed minorities all over the former USSR, to say nothing of Colombians, Venezuelans, and truly staggering numbers of Chinese fleeing forced abortions. And I didn't even mention Africa, the source of the majority of my clients.
And oh yeah, a tragic number of Iraqis, who will be making their pleas for sanctuary to exactly the same people and system that the US Army fugitives will, on a pretty equal, and, I think, likely futile basis.
Americans may think that the world revolves around us, but the actual modern Canadian reality is that we actually have far bigger immigration realities to deal with than a couple of hundred US military fugitives.
Well, to be Canadian and smug for a moment, at least we don't put them in jail for a few years (including children) while we think about it.
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Over 20 years ago
[Read the article: Back to the future]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]William Gibson fired off the shot that signaled the beginning of the cyberpunk challenge when he published "The Gernsback Continuum" which pretty much said the same thing as this article, except much more entertainingly. Yeah, over 20 years ago. Great insight there, Mr. Reynolds, glad to see you're catching up.
(the full text of the story is available on-line at AmericanHeritage.com)
Writing about science fiction always seems to involve swinging at straw men, both pro and con. "No flying atomic cars, Tom Swift was a fraud!" "See, satellites, Arthur C. Clark was a genius!" What other genre allows lazy writers looking for a quick and easy put-down to conflate Disney with Disch?
Ah well, this essay has been being written for over 40 years, I can remember snarky put-downs of Verne in magazines in the 60s.