If Ego,
Then I Go
Very
frustrating to read Anna Husarska's "Diary." Obviously an experienced foreign reporter, Husarska
has chosen to dedicate the first two days of her diary to the technical
frustrations of being an Internet reporter in Bosnia and the impact or
nonimpact of her piece. Such self-absorption seems very selfish when what I
want to hear about is Bosnia and its condition on the eve of the elections. If
Husarska keeps this up, her diary might as well have been written from a
shopping mall in Dayton. Love your mag, but can you do something to restrain
the egomania of your diarists?
--Brian
Ewing
Light in
Bosnia
Slate's
editors must be credited for a journalistic coup. The international community
is whistling in the dark about Bosnia. Anna Husarska's "Diary" counters the hype
and myopic optimism surrounding the elections there. Bravo.
--Ned
Fagan
Mustang
Sally
Edward
Abbey had a proposal that I think would be much more effective than the $1,000
one suggested by Stuart Taylor Jr. in "The Norplant
Option." Abbey suggested we offer every 15-year-old female in the
United States a new Mustang convertible in exchange for sterilization. He did
offer a few stipulations, but the important part was sterilization, not
removable contraceptive devices. Of course, he was after more than a reduction
in welfare costs. While I agree postponing childbearing is a laudable goal, we
have larger problems to solve regarding children having children.
--Shelley
Stallings
Publish
or Perish
Perhaps
because I work in the newspaper industry, where we publish daily regardless, I
find your seemingly frequent vacations troubling. But, OK, magazines are
different. I had been prepared all along to pony up the $19.95 or whatever it
is to subscribe to Slate when you begin charging. But now I'm worried, because
I don't know what I'll be getting for my $19.95.
--Jane
Hadley
The
Origin of Specious
John Horgan's review of
Richard Dawkins' Climbing Mount Impossible ("The Mystery of
Life") is interesting. However, he makes some specious claims. He argues,
"After decades of searching, scientists have found no conclusive evidence that
life exists elsewhere in the universe." But scientists wouldn't be able to find
such evidence in the nearby star systems that we have searched thus far; and
the tools we use for detection have limited capabilities.
Horgan
also writes, "In spite of the immensely powerful tools of modern biotechnology,
scientists still cannot make matter animate in the laboratory." Surely few
biotechnologists are so arrogant as to claim life-creating power. Besides, a
decade or two of laboratory research falls somewhat short of the millions of
years natural processes need.
--Chris
Irving
Living
Single
Bravo,
Wendy Wasserstein ("Party of One"), for telling it like it is! Why haven't political
pundits picked up on the fact that singles are discriminated against by both
parties? Republicans have long denigrated alternative lifestyles. Now
politicians talk about singleness as if it is an alternative lifestyle.
--Mary
Ann Costello
