|
Ilya Shlyakhter (notestaff) - letters to editors
[Recent Entries][Archive][Friends][User Info]
Below are the 9 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Ilya Shlyakhter (notestaff) - letters to editors" journal:
|
11:56 am
[Link] |
local decisions about abortion
Who Should Decide About Abortion?
Re: Anti-Roe and Pro-Rudy" (op-ed, Sept 14)
If to “decide, state by state, about abortion” is better than to decide as a country, isn’t deciding individual by individual better still?
Tags: nytimes, politics, religion, replies
|
|
01:05 pm
[Link] |
keeping bombs off planes
Keeping planes safe
Some simple steps for preventing terrorism on planes: Ban all drinks. Have the flight attendants serve enough drinks for free or for a nominal fee. Ban all MP3 players. Let people upload their music to an airline's Web site, and listen to it on airline-issued headphones during the flight.
And so on.
Most of the "essentials" that people now bring on the planes can be easily replaced with safe, airline-issued ones for the duration of the flight.
Tags: chicago_tribune, policy_ideas, replies, war_on_terror, wsj
|
|
12:05 pm
[Link] |
israel and lebanon
Supporting Israel
Re "Anti-U.S. Feeling Leaves Arab Reformers Isolated" (article, August 9), describing the problems that the U.S. faces today for supporting Israel:
The problem is not that we support Israel today when it is in the right, but that we supported it in the past when it was in the wrong.
We were wrong to support Israel’s building of illegal settlements. That has created the impression that we’ll stand by Israel no matter what it does. Now that Israel really needs and deserves our support, our ability to give that support is compromised.
Tags: israel, nytimes, replies
|
|
11:17 am
[Link] |
flag-burning amendment
Real patriotism
Re: "GOP's burning flag issue may pass," June 25:
I'm glad the flag-desecration amendment failed. It would wrongly equate patriotism with symbolic gestures like respecting the flag, rather than with more meaningful acts like conserving energy or exposing government misdeeds.
Patriotism, "love of country," refers to acts that help the country; the more helpful and the more difficult the act, the more patriotic. Worshiping the flag is neither very helpful nor particularly hard. Burning the flag is much less unpatriotic than, for example, crafting unwise policy. If senators who got us into Iraq want to ban unpatriotic acts, I suggest that they start with their own lawmaking.
Tags: chicago_tribune, flag_burning, hypocrisy, philadelphia_inquirer, replies
|
|
09:32 am
[Link] |
zarqawi's death does not justify iraq war
Don't celebrate yet
I'm glad we finally killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but before we celebrate, let's remember that we ourselves created this monster. Who had heard of Zarqawi before we invaded Iraq? Would his international terror network exist today had we not invaded?
Zarqawi's terror network is just one of many unintended consequences of our invasion. As we celebrate our success at cleaning this one up, let's not forget how many other consequences we still have left to deal with.
Tags: iraq, replies, usa_today, war_on_terror
|
|
04:07 am
[Link] |
israel's barrier
The Two Sides Of Israel's Barrier
The Israeli wall is like stitches on a wound -- a painful, foreign and disfiguring presence that is nevertheless necessary to make the wound heal.
When the wound has healed -- when the region achieves lasting peace -- the temporary measure can be removed.
Those who fight the wall today are like a patient who tears out his stitches before it's time.
Tags: israel, nytimes, replies
|
|
09:01 am
[Link] |
danish cartoons
Free Speech, at a Price
Regarding Danish editor Flemming Rose's Feb. 19 Outlook piece, "Why I Published Those Cartoons":
The Muhammad cartoons were a bad choice for making a point about freedom of speech. They said nothing new, exposed no unknown bad actors, suggested no constructive solutions. In short, they had none of the qualities of speech worth defending.
Freedom of speech comes at a price; along with truly valuable speech we're forced to permit speech most of us would rather forbid. The only way to justify the price is by pointing to valuable ideas we would have lost if not for freedom of speech. What valuable ideas that were not already out there did the cartoons convey?
The cartoons have set back freedom of speech in the Muslim world by giving this Western value a bad name. To many Muslims, "freedom of speech" now represents not the great Western advances but gratuitous insults. The cartoons vividly illustrated the costs of the freedom of speech without illustrating any of its benefits.
The Danish editor's "defense" of freedom of speech was as counterproductive and irresponsible as Muslim rioters' "defense" of their prophet.
Tags: hidden_costs, replies, self-censorship, war_on_terror, washpost
|
|
06:16 am
[Link] |
notions of dignity
What Motivates Suicide Bombers?
There are many ways to achieve dignity. You can invent things and take pride in your inventions. Or you can dominate others by force and feel temporarily superior. Which of these ways is most glorified by our culture?
In the ''Iliad,'' dignity meant getting your fair share of the loot. You would hope we had come a long way since then, but apparently not.
We need to work toward making it self-evident that dignity lies in creating things, not in being king of the hill.
Tags: dignity, israel, nytimes, related_material, replies, war_on_terror
|
|
08:02 am
[Link] |
universal health insurance
Before We Lecture Cuba
Re ''Cuba's Other Face'' (letter, May 23):
The letter writer notes Cuba's low infant mortality and illiteracy rates. I'd like to add that all Cubans get free health care. By contrast, in the United States some 40 million people lack health insurance.
Before lecturing Cubans on how to run their country, shouldn't we close this shameful gap in our own backyard?
Tags: health_policy, hypocrisy, nytimes, poverty, replies
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
to_the_editor's journal