The In-Box Is Full

It's time once again to do two things: wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving and share with you some of the responses I've gotten to recent columns.

In A Thirst For E-Mail Etiquette, I said, "with apologies to TiVo and the cotton sweater," email might be the greatest invention of the past 50 years.

MARCIA disagreed: "I vote for Viagra."

In Daylight No Saving Time, I talked about having daylight-saving time in the summer when there's already plenty of daylight:

Jo Ann: "DST has no real effect on anyone except to annoy the hell out of them when it changes back to standard time. And vice versa."

EDWARD: "If God had intended us to work in daylight, He would have made days differently, and who are these impudent legislators to go about rearranging God's time?"

Worrying About Not Worrying was about the President's calmly low pulse rate and how it worries me that he isn't worried enough about things for it to be at least a little higher. Many people responded. In fact, Rush Limbaugh read my column on his show, and said he didn't know what to make of it. Some readers had no problem understanding it:

AARON: "You liberal wackos wonder why no one watches your news anymore."

ROGER: "It is to Bush's credit that he takes his work seriously enough to remain at peak physical condition."

LARRY: "Bush's great health and sharpness has led him to pick a vice president with a bad heart."

EDWARD: "Perhaps GW's good health may actually mean American taxpayers will be paying his pension longer than many other presidents, and I wish there was evidence that he would live usefully during his retirement."

GEORGE: "Your article about Bush's heartbeat assumes that he has a heart."

In Evolution Of A 'Theory', I talked about the "Intelligent Design Theory:"

MIKE: "Evolution completely contradicts the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and cannot be proven, experimented, or repeated."

JOHN: "Thank you for putting into words what so many of us in the scientific field have been feeling for so long. The entire idea behind the "theory" of Intelligent Design is a farce."

KENBET... "Your (column) was wonderful, and so precise ... But I'm afraid all the religious nuts ... will be banging your door down. Thanks for being so brave."

TUX: "Evolution is a religion."

MICHAEL: "I'm a pretty religious person, but I'm also an engineer.
Intelligent design is not science. And evolution is not religion."

CHRIS: "One day you will believe in the Bible."

MARY: "The bigger question is, how could we possibly have allowed one of these people to run this country? How #*&%@ Stupid are Americans?"

BRIAN: "It is up to folks to go to religious service if they want their children to get some creationism in all its myriad of forms. It seems anti-American to teach it in the schools."

In Bad News Is Big News, I talked about TV newscasters seeming to only want to talk about extreme or "bad" news:

AMANDA/TERESA: "This is why we turned off our TV about 4 years ago."

ROSS: "Thanks for the best short article on bad news journalism I have seen for a very long time. I am sure your colleagues won't appreciate it!"

CARL: "Am I the only one sick of the morons on the Weather Channel standing outside in a hurricane telling us that you'd have to be an idiot to be there standing in a hurricane?"

In Bullets And Blankies, I spoke about the movement to allow kids to hunt at a younger and younger age since a growing number of people think having age 12 as a minimum is too old:

EMILY: "As a mother who has always hunted, and now we support my children with hunting, I find your story outrageous ... these parents are spending time with their kids and teaching them along the way. That makes a good parent no matter what the hobby is."

SLIC: "One day, maybe when my children are older all the bad guys and girls will be gone and guns won't be necessary, but until that day comes, you tell me how you will defend your family in your living room if someone breaks into your front door. Think about it and have a good day."

JAMES: "... at the young age some people are suggesting ... no way. And that is the opinion of an outdoorsman/hunter with over 50 years experience."

MARIE: (who had had a gun accident in her family) "Your column today brought tears to my eyes, and my heart aches. ... I only wish more people would read your columns. You have a way of writing which should get some results.... I hope!"

ROBERT: "Fear is a terrible thing, especially coupled with an agenda."

BRIAN: "I hope my two sons can hunt someday, but it's an uphill battle with all the electronic play toys that either their mother brings home, the relatives send us, or the neighbors have."

JOE: "Accidental shooting of kids while hunting is very rare."

DAVID: "If liberals think it's ok for six, seven, and eight-year-olds to be taught about "my two dads" in public school under the guise of diversity, then it should be okay for conservatives to teach six, seven, and eight-year-olds about gun safety and hunting."

THOMAS: "How can you advocate hanging a child's drawings on the fridge right in front of the poor animals that someone else killed for them?"

PAUL: I just read your article and have changed my mind. I was waiting until my boy turned 12 to take him hunting, now I know he is ready now!"

As I noted here recently, I got more emails on my column about the "English only" movement — Must Everyone Speak English? — than on any previous column. However, the next week, when we printed some of your responses to that column in Speak English — Or Else, readers broke that record by sending me more responses about the responses to the original "English only" column:

ROBIN: "I have nothing against immigrants. Only illegal immigrants."

DAPHNE: "I have found that compassion, kindness, and a smile are understood by all humans regardless of culture, native tongue, religion, and color."

REGAN: "If we can't speak to one another, we can hardly be friends now, can we?"

ALAN: "Teaching in English is the fastest way for non- English speaking students to learn English and to therefore have entrée into the working world of the vast majority of Americans."

DC: "I definitely believe people who choose to live in this country should speak English. Think (sic) it is ridiulace (sic) to have schools teach alternative languages."

MARCIA: "I am sick and tired of seeing subtitles everywhere, when I'm in America!!"

LIZ: "Where in the Constitution does it make it mandatory to speak English?"

PAUL: "Give tolerance and understanding a shot. True freedom only comes when the society that surrounds you let you be happy regardless of how you live. I hope to the nation that touts freedom all over the world will understand that one day."

PHILIP: "It's bad enough when they enter illegally, but when they go to the store, they should try to speak the language of the country they are breaking into."

Keep reading and keep writing — Lloyd.