Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________MAIL ROOM DISPATCH ...

There's nothing like a David Horowitz column to spark the ire of Salon's readers. OK, maybe a Camille Paglia column. But Horowitz's "Clinton's amen chorus" received the lion's share of mail this week, mostly negative responses to his take on why African-Americans overwhelmingly support Clinton.
"Unzipped" fans suffering from withdrawal e-mailed many urgent requests to bring back Courtney Weaver's discontinued column. We only hope the long-anticipated return of Anne Lamott will elicit as many grateful responses from her fans.
An Oct. 9 letter to the editor by Terry Scarlata in response to our story about sex scandals in Malaysia touched a nerve with many readers, who found that Scarlata's frustration with the American media echoed their own feelings.
Finally, the torrent of hate mail we got after we ran our Henry Hyde exposé has subsided to a trickle. Most of you who write to us these days praise our coverage of Whitewater and the Clinton sex scandal.

_______________ARE THE CLINTONS SECRET SWINGERS? BY CAMILLE PAGLIA(10/13/98)

Dear Madame Camille,
You are the soul of wit. Brevity, step back. I have never read, seen or heard such inspired social musings. If you have an ideology, please name it, that I might proudly identify with it. I hope that in the future, we can disagree on something, for if we met for a chat, it would be a dull conversation.
-- Lamar Johnson
Portland, Ore.
Camille Paglia evidently lacks one of Hillary's enduring virtues -- good manners! Her hoary inference of a Vincent Foster infidelity is disgusting. I would be proud to have Hillary as a daughter and/or daughter-in-law.
-- Steven S. Marcotte

_______________FIGHTING THE WRONG WAR BY ERIK MARCUS (10/14/98)

It's about time someone pointed out the obvious regarding the "war on cancer." We are not winning the war because we are fighting on the wrong battlefield, as pointed out in "Fighting the Wrong War" by Erik Marcus. If there were a drug developed that cured one-third of the cancer cases with no side effects, it would be lauded far and wide. We have that drug now; it is called prevention.
What we are doing wrong now is consuming the typical American meat-based, toxic diet rather than the fresh vegetable, fruit and grain diet that is appropriate for optimum health. This is like putting diesel fuel in a car that requires gasoline. The engine is not going to run very well for very long. Preventive nutrition cures cancer, is less expensive, does not involve cruel experiments on animals and is within our control.
-- Sandra Boss
Encinitas, Calif.
Marcus is right. A better diet would help prevent cancer, and educating people to that fact would be, one would think, beneficial. On the other hand, nearly 50 years of trying to educate the public about the dangers of smoking hasn't really done much good, has it?
-- Stephen Connor

_______________"DON'T TAMPER WITH THIS JURY, MR. PRESIDENT" BY MURRAY WAAS (10/13/98)

Oh for Christ's sake! How many times is President Clinton going to shoot himself in the foot? What good does it do for anybody to be on his side if he keeps screwing himself like this? Why can't he quit being an operator and just let the process take its course. And by the way, urgent note to Senior White House Official: Don't reach out to Byrd and show him that you are "taking no steps to go forward" with the proposal lobby the Senate! Just shut up about it!
-- Jim Crutchfield
Norfolk, Va.
Is Salon trying to prove to Tom DeLay that it really is an equal opportunity basher. Maybe he'll call off the FBI if you're nice to him. I love the reference to "sources." What sources -- is Salon on speaking terms with the OIC these days?
The accusations of "jury-tampering" are just silly and inane. There is no impropriety in the president reaching out to supporters to stop this insane abuse of serious constitutional processes. Please, don't you join in the Republican bilge that this is some sort of "sacred" process. It's a witch hunt that has only gotten this far because we have the extreme right wing in control of the Republican party and a complicitous media.
-- Steven M. Avella
Milwaukee, Wisc.

_______________TYPING FOR NONCONFORMISTS BY ALEX MARSHALL (10/12/98)

I'm a writer and trashed my hands and wrists a couple of years ago doing a book. I switched to Dvorak (it took me several weeks, whew!) and it helped a lot, and I got a Kinesis keyboard and that helped a lot.
Now, two years later, my hands hurt a little bit after six hours of continuous, without-a-break typing, but not if I take short breaks Kinesis sells a footpedal, and you can put the command and shift key on the floor. That saves a tremendous amount of stretching, command this and command that. You might check it out. I have nothing to do with them, but my hands were so totally sore I had to do a lot of checking, and the Kinesis board is by far the best thing I have found. It's superb, a really great feel and takes only a couple of hours to really adapt to.
-- Lorin Roche, Ph.D.
I've been typing in Qwetry for over 35 years, and I don't have any pressing need to change. However, I think that one has to consider typing itself as antiquated, and if one really wishes to get a headstart, one would learn how to dictate to the computer. Typing for speed will be a useless skill in five to ten years.
-- Doug Taylor
Tuscaloosa, Alaska
I would be more inclined to believe the hype for the Dvorak keyboard if everyone singing its praises wasn't trying to sell me one. If I recall, one of the oft cited tests by the Navy on how efficient the Dvorak was was conducted by Dvorak himself. I'm sure that many of the people who use it are very happy with it, but I'd like to see proper tests, not anecdotes. I was hoping such links would be included in the article. Next time the Dvorak Keyboard & Software Manufacturers Association wants an ad, make them pay for it.
-- Bill Clark
SALON | Oct. 16, 1998

R E C E N T L Y+| LETTER FROM FAYETTEVILLE BY REBECCA BRYANT

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_______________MAIL ROOM DISPATCH ...
	There's nothing like a David Horowitz column to spark the ire of Salon's readers. OK, maybe a Camille Paglia column. But Horowitz's "Clinton's amen chorus" received the lion's share of mail this week, mostly negative responses to his take on why African-Americans overwhelmingly support Clinton. "Unzipped" fans suffering from withdrawal e-mailed many urgent requests to bring back Courtney Weaver's discontinued column. We only hope the long-anticipated return of Anne Lamott will elicit as many grateful responses from her fans. An Oct. 9 letter to the editor by Terry Scarlata in response to our story about sex scandals in Malaysia touched a nerve with many readers, who found that Scarlata's frustration with the American media echoed their own feelings. Finally, the torrent of hate mail we got after we ran our Henry Hyde exposé has subsided to a trickle. Most of you who write to us these days praise our coverage of Whitewater and the Clinton sex scandal.
_______________ARE THE CLINTONS SECRET SWINGERS? BY CAMILLE PAGLIA(10/13/98)
	Dear Madame Camille, You are the soul of wit. Brevity, step back. I have never read, seen or heard such inspired social musings. If you have an ideology, please name it, that I might proudly identify with it. I hope that in the future, we can disagree on something, for if we met for a chat, it would be a dull conversation. -- Lamar Johnson Portland, Ore. Camille Paglia evidently lacks one of Hillary's enduring virtues -- good manners! Her hoary inference of a Vincent Foster infidelity is disgusting. I would be proud to have Hillary as a daughter and/or daughter-in-law. -- Steven S. Marcotte
_______________FIGHTING THE WRONG WAR BY ERIK MARCUS (10/14/98)
	It's about time someone pointed out the obvious regarding the "war on cancer." We are not winning the war because we are fighting on the wrong battlefield, as pointed out in "Fighting the Wrong War" by Erik Marcus. If there were a drug developed that cured one-third of the cancer cases with no side effects, it would be lauded far and wide. We have that drug now; it is called prevention. What we are doing wrong now is consuming the typical American meat-based, toxic diet rather than the fresh vegetable, fruit and grain diet that is appropriate for optimum health. This is like putting diesel fuel in a car that requires gasoline. The engine is not going to run very well for very long. Preventive nutrition cures cancer, is less expensive, does not involve cruel experiments on animals and is within our control. -- Sandra Boss Encinitas, Calif. Marcus is right. A better diet would help prevent cancer, and educating people to that fact would be, one would think, beneficial. On the other hand, nearly 50 years of trying to educate the public about the dangers of smoking hasn't really done much good, has it? -- Stephen Connor
_______________"DON'T TAMPER WITH THIS JURY, MR. PRESIDENT" BY MURRAY WAAS (10/13/98)
	Oh for Christ's sake! How many times is President Clinton going to shoot himself in the foot? What good does it do for anybody to be on his side if he keeps screwing himself like this? Why can't he quit being an operator and just let the process take its course. And by the way, urgent note to Senior White House Official: Don't reach out to Byrd and show him that you are "taking no steps to go forward" with the proposal lobby the Senate! Just shut up about it! -- Jim Crutchfield Norfolk, Va. Is Salon trying to prove to Tom DeLay that it really is an equal opportunity basher. Maybe he'll call off the FBI if you're nice to him. I love the reference to "sources." What sources -- is Salon on speaking terms with the OIC these days? The accusations of "jury-tampering" are just silly and inane. There is no impropriety in the president reaching out to supporters to stop this insane abuse of serious constitutional processes. Please, don't you join in the Republican bilge that this is some sort of "sacred" process. It's a witch hunt that has only gotten this far because we have the extreme right wing in control of the Republican party and a complicitous media. -- Steven M. Avella Milwaukee, Wisc.
_______________TYPING FOR NONCONFORMISTS BY ALEX MARSHALL (10/12/98)
	I'm a writer and trashed my hands and wrists a couple of years ago doing a book. I switched to Dvorak (it took me several weeks, whew!) and it helped a lot, and I got a Kinesis keyboard and that helped a lot. Now, two years later, my hands hurt a little bit after six hours of continuous, without-a-break typing, but not if I take short breaks Kinesis sells a footpedal, and you can put the command and shift key on the floor. That saves a tremendous amount of stretching, command this and command that. You might check it out. I have nothing to do with them, but my hands were so totally sore I had to do a lot of checking, and the Kinesis board is by far the best thing I have found. It's superb, a really great feel and takes only a couple of hours to really adapt to. -- Lorin Roche, Ph.D. I've been typing in Qwetry for over 35 years, and I don't have any pressing need to change. However, I think that one has to consider typing itself as antiquated, and if one really wishes to get a headstart, one would learn how to dictate to the computer. Typing for speed will be a useless skill in five to ten years. -- Doug Taylor Tuscaloosa, Alaska I would be more inclined to believe the hype for the Dvorak keyboard if everyone singing its praises wasn't trying to sell me one. If I recall, one of the oft cited tests by the Navy on how efficient the Dvorak was was conducted by Dvorak himself. I'm sure that many of the people who use it are very happy with it, but I'd like to see proper tests, not anecdotes. I was hoping such links would be included in the article. Next time the Dvorak Keyboard & Software Manufacturers Association wants an ad, make them pay for it. -- Bill Clark SALON \| Oct. 16, 1998