Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 78 Editor's Choice: 28
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Sigh. I guess I have to say it again.
[Read the article: An Olympic disgrace]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]janken0524 said:
… That has to be the most disgraceful thing I have ever heard of. I am sure their views on human life can not be much different [a]…. You might say it is only a cat or only a dog, but they are a part of many families. [b] [c] … Just the cruel way in which they are slaughtered is way worse than we do our cattle for consumption. [d]
I added the letter organization above. [a] First sentence you wrote is flat-out racist. When I see racism I need to call it out. You go from their attitude towards food to extrapolating and insinuating a lower level of morality than you have. [b] Note that cats are generally not eaten in China so the author has stated a falsehood or mistake. [c] Dogs may be part of someone's families or not. Dogs that are eaten are not part of someone's family and not your family. [d] Dogs used for food are not skinned alive. How do you think a chef would do that to a big Collier? What would be the point? And how is the small-scale butchering of a dog worse than the industrial butchering of cattle? I do not remember reading the author say that the dog at the restaurant was skinned alive anyway…if he said it was, he would be telling another falsehood.
Vickie Soles wrote:
If you knew him [Mr. Kerasote ]… you could not possibly make such unkind, unknowing, judgmental comments… . … No, his story is not "fake." He has travelled the entire world extensively and is the epitome of the word honesty. ... "hey thank you for enlightening us" pat on the back for bringing this TRUE story to our attention?
The author has written comments that were not very well informed. He began the article with an inflammatory anecdote which, with just cursory observation from people who live in China (myself included), rings false. From his experience, the author has extrapolated that Chinese people regularly eat dog (few do, and those that do eat dog only eat it once-in-a-while...usually in the Winter time). One would believe that Chinese people eat stray animals and pets (uh…NO) From reading this article, several readers think Chinese will skin-alive dogs…pet dogs at that. And the reader gets the impression that Chinese people don't have compassion for animals (they love pets and have pets like Americans do). He says dog can be found in restaurants all over the country (not true…and did he go all over the country?) He criticizes how they are butchered without gas or other more expensive means available in the West. He makes a values judgment that because cats and dogs were bred to be friends (they weren't) of humans, killing them is worse than killing cows and pigs (which are sometimes pets in some parts of the world).
Notice in my reply to janken0524 I said the author stated falsehoods. I did not say the author was lying. The story may not be fake, but the authors observations about what he saw were glaringly wrong. There was little "enlightening" about this piece and a lot which can leed people to wrong conclusions.
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about China
[Read the article: Stop your motor running]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think it was reported by Andrew Leonard here that China has mandated back in 1995 a higher average MPG standard than the US will have in 2018. So on the one hand, the Chinese do have a far far better per capita control on energy consumption than in the US. On a per captia basis - even if you compare upper-class Chinese to Americans - there just is not comparison.
Furthermore, the dense nature of most Chinese cities, the complete lack of free parking, and the relatively limited amount of space dedicated to roads further makes China more "energy conserving" than the US. I live in Suzhou, which (I heard) has the most per-capita car ownership in China. Which is a shame and annoying. Especially because all these people with cars only need to drive, on average, less than 5 miles to get to work. They also usually drop off wife / husband on the way. When I lived in Silicon Valley, I drove usually 40 miles to work by myself...and my wife drove another 30 miles to work.
Another point, as the majority of China's growth capital comes from exports, and those exports go to the Western world, I think its fair to say that a large amount of energy consumption in China is really being consumed by the West.
The big problem with China today is not cars or oil usage. US focus on the oil China purchases is just a red herring...its an issue used to place blame on the Chinese while ignoring the real problems (same BTW, as the currency valuation issue). The problem with China's energy usage is that they are burning coal in the North of China...and their coal-fired generation plants have no environmental controls. Many of the plants are illigal and extremely in-efficient. As China has become more wealthy, and as they produce more products, they consume more energy. That means more coal. These heavilly polluted cities in China you hear about...they are polluted because of coal generators...not because of cars.
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Xrandadu Hutman rocks
[Read the article: "You Don't Mess With the Zohan"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Seriously...that was a good movie review from Xrandadu. You showed me things in the movie Munich which makes me appreciate it more and understand that there were complexities which I missed. I will have to see it again.