Letters to the Editor
david sugarman
Published Letters: 2385 Editor's Choice: 3
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thanks, veteran novice, i didn't know that
[Read the article: The Bill Moyers documentary on our failed and barren press]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]i've always hated welch, ever since he poisoned my beloved hudson river, on purpose (in fact he was *promoted* because he was able to con/buy NY state legislators) but i never understood why matthews went from being uncomprehending as to why we ever invaded iraq to being a bush rummy cheney suck up. now i know. i always thought that russert and matthews were *self* serving, now i know, instead, they are *welch* serving. what is worse, a gutter rat or the flea that lives on it?
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AKA Smith, the statistics you mention were horrendous
[Read the article: Churches slam doors on sex offenders]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]how many (male) predators are there? to rape a child seems unimaginable(meaning i really CANNOT understand it - i can understand statutory(consensual) rape and i can even understand hatred so deep as to cause rape (though, like arson or cutting faces or murder it is anger so deep as to be crazy). but the idea of sex with a child is so seemingly inhuman that i'm afraid that anyone who could do that would not stop at murder - and the death penalty for child-rape would seem to me to be the "cause" of a lot more deaths. it's a case where a penalty that satisfying can cause *worse* results. everyone has seen cases on TV that just "get to you". Samantha Runnion was a happy sassy five year old girl from california, sexually assaulted (whatever that means) and killed. ANYTHING would have been better than her death. really, how can such people (avila) exist? i find such people harder to fathom than suicide bombers. if i stretch my mind, i can *conceive* of such hatred, i can't understand alejandro avila. P.S. he got the death penalty. sometime in the next decade or two he'll be killed. the texas law wouldn't have changed that case, perhaps i'm totally wrong. after all, i don't understand such people at all. maybe they *have* to be that way, no matter the penalty. in which case, i can't see any other fit penalty - other than perhaps kill his mother (or his cat, or whatever such a fiend loves) before his eyes. but then, that's why god in his wisdom did not make me ruler of the world. you don't believe in the death penalty. how about solitary confinement. to contemplate his sins in darkness and silence for the rest of his life.
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AKA Smith, who can tell?
[Read the article: Churches slam doors on sex offenders]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]even i can tell if someone is schizophrenic or clinically depressed, but narcissism? sociopathy? from what i understand, narcissism is seeing yourself as the center of the universe, the *usual* viewpoint! even carried to extremes, what is that? celebrity? difficult to diagnose. sociopathy means, to me, "no heart", very bad, even evil, but how can you tell? the con man is *good* at that! even together, sociopathy and narcissism are common, unfortunately so, but true. hell, we've even had *presidents* who were narcissistic and sociopathic! four suggestions. one is to congratulate the victim on staying alive. i want the least harm to the victim to be the top priority. not the most harm to the perpetrator. second is to focus on the real problem. i know a counselor who is supposed to report all cases of suspected abuse. some of these are in cultures where May-December (or even *april* december) "marriages" are common. other than causing the shaking of heads in the dominant culture, these couples don't cause problems. leave them alone. third, since i gather from your posts that incestuous relations not stranger rape is where this is most common (and serves to "teach") i propose a type of "civil committment". a process where a judge orders a miscreant(with family member evidence, but no jury) to a period of therapy at a closed mental facility. the records are sealed but the perpetrator can't leave. after a period of time, he/she is released. no, i haven't worked it out but there must be a way where the family members can get this guy help and themselves protection without condemning "daddy" to jail, social ostracism and career destruction. finally, in the old english words (as in Beowulf), the last line of the lord's prayer, "AC ALYS US OF YFELE" ("ock ahlis oos off erfehleh") - deliver (all) us from evil.
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before you start cheering for nixon
[Read the article: "Worse than Nixon"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]let me remind you that he was elected on a "secret plan to end the war" continued it for 5 more years costing 30,000 more american lives and a million vietnamese. he's got too much blood on his hands to be compared with anybody.
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your average police officer is a not very bright high school bully
[Read the article: My sister has become a monster cop!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]is it any wonder they gravitate to such witticisms as "keep moving; nothing for you to see here". as for "they are needed", yes, just as attack dogs were needed by early man to fend off wolves. there are many unwanted kittens, is "it's a tough job but some has to do it" a reason to make killing them a vocation? this can come close to home. my youngest son is big and can put on a scary face, he wanted to be a bouncer because one of his friends is doing it and it PAYS A LOT OF MONEY. since he's 19, that it might be dangerous holds no water so i said, i don't want you to be overseer for some white plantation owner. didn't work. i said, what if someone insults you (easy to happen if you have "the hair") and you take that to work and hurt someone more than you should, just because you were angry all day. it's bad for your soul. didn't work. so i fell back on my role. I'M YOUR FATHER AND YOU ARE NOT DOING IT. PERIOD. it must have worked, he's not talking about it any more.