In response to The War on Antibiotics by Ben Lilliston, “bystander” quipped on Common Dreams, a great website with a very active commenting community that ran this OtherWords op-ed, “You discount the advantages of this. Next time you are sick, just eat lots of bacon to get back to health. All those antibiotics in the bacon will cure you for sure. Plus it builds strong, hard arteries 12 ways.”
So far 35 people have commented on Karen Dolan’s Unemployed Become a Political Football on the Common Dreams site, including “Aimlow Joe,” who wrote, “As one of the millions of Americans who has now been unemployed for more than a year, (this week marks my one year anniversary) I can report that I have sent over 500 resumes to job postings. I have 2 Masters Degrees and many years of experience. Overqualified? Maybe. Willing to take a lower level position? Yes. I paid into the (unemployment insurance) system and now I am taking it out. I am not content to sit back and do nothing, nor have I turned down any offers. It is an awful job market. Only someone with a job would throw stones. It is amazing that in Nevada, a state with one of the highest unemployment rates, a politician is able to make an issue out denying unemployment benefits. The lunatics have taken over the asylum.”
Jim Gale sent me an email praising William A. Collins’ Bombs Bursting in Air column and suggesting a good topic for Bill to tackle in the future. “One way to generate at least a partial sacrifice on those at home who do not fight in wars is to enact a war tax every time we (the U. S.) declare that we are in a war. In WWII, we had coupons, as I understand it. We had price and wage controls. Everyone knew they were giving up something for the war effort. If there is a war tax, it would encourage those who might be in charge to get the war over quicker so that the war tax could be taken off.”
Meanwhile, readers are still reacting to Donald Kaul’s God’s to Blame Too column. “I want to thank you for publishing Donald Kaul’s insightful columns. The recent one about God was especially brilliant,” Darlene Beckwith said in a letter that ran in the Greenfield, MA Recorder (Circulation: 13,667). “It never ceases to amaze me that more people don’t question how a supposedly all-powerful being can allow so much pain, misery and suffering in the world. I’ve never heard an answer to that dilemma that would appeal to a rational mind. And I stopped engaging in magical thinking a long time ago.”
