The Middle East problem
For over six thousand years, the Middle East has been torn apart by half-brothers. Six thousand years of warring religions all begat by one man’s (Abraham) ego demanding he leave a son behind to bring glory to his name. When his wife (Sarah) seemed barren, he took a mistress (Hagar) and fathered sons on both. He abandoned one, recognized the other and founded the Arab nation through his mistress and the Jewish nation through his wife and the whole Patriarchal/Judaic/Christian/Islamic mess we are all in today.
It was the beginning of the eye-for-an-eye fratricide which is as Christian in America as it is Islamic in Arabia and Jewish in Israel.
It was the end of planet worship and the advent of man-as-God worship that shifted the focus of reverence from the Earth that nourishes us to the men that walk it.
Abraham founded the laws that made one son legitimate and one son outcast. He founded the laws that reduced women to chattel and their children to less than that, and as long as we believe men have the right to send our children into war for men’s ego and gain, this self destructive spiral shall continue. It goes deeper than who is in the White House, it goes right to the heart of who is in the kitchens of the world teaching the next generation to be cannon fodder.
— Sky Crane, Carmel Valley
America isn’t racist
Is President Biden a racist? That is a good question. Near the end of Derek Chauvin’s trial Biden implied that America was guilty of “systemic racism.” That suggests that most Americans are racists.
But, wait a moment. Most Americans support the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Who tried to stop it? It was a slew of Democratic Party Senators. They engaged in the longest coordinated filibuster on record to prevent racial equality. One of the most outspoken filibustering senators was Sen. Robert Byrd, a past organizer for the KKK. And guess who called Byrd his mentor? Joe Biden.
Well, that did not help Biden’s racial record. He may feel that most Americans are racists, but such outrageous accusations are unfounded. Americans have shown overwhelming support for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s colorblind axiom that people should “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Biden may well be a racist, but most Americans are not. He should speak for himself, and not for the American public. If Biden wants to practice systemic racism, that is his business; but otherwise he should keep his crazy racial theories to himself.
— Lawrence Samuels, Carmel
Going to dentist
Most people dread going to the dentist; at least I do. Your health and well being are tied to good teeth. As the farmers say in the Midwest, you can judge a horse by counting the horse’s teeth.
One visit to the dentist is locked in my mind and that was 80 yeas ago when I was preteen. In those days the dental drill was turned by an electric motor which drove a series of pulleys. The series of pulleys had flexible “elbows” which were a marvel of mechanical engineering. Somewhere in the intervening years, dental drills turned by air turbines were introduced. Air turbines offer greater torque, speed, and flexibility.
Lasers have found many niches in modern medical science but not in dentistry. Why? Dentistry requires removal of parts of tooth enamel. To use a laser in dentistry, the photons would need to be converted to heat. Excessive temperature is obviously not allowed. If the enamel had a resonant infrared or visible frequency that broke chemical bonds, the laser might become a ubiquitous dental tool.
Hopefully my dislike for dentistry is not interpreted by my dentists as lack of respect. Once the novocain has worn off, I can look forward for some time before the next visit.
— Allen Fuhs, Carmel
News we don’t need
I was simultaneously amused and disgusted by the Herald story last week about the man who filed a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer of the candle “Smells Like My Vagina” because it exploded in his bedroom, prompting two observations. First, since joining this class action would reveal your identity as someone who actually bought this “product?” I’m guessing that embarrassment will keep the size of the class down, and we all know that size matters. Secondly, I doubt very much that much of anything is going on in that bedroom. Just think, without this journalistic revelation, those thoughts never would have entered my head.
— Glenn Nolte, Carmel Valley
