The old men and the C-cups
BY ERIN J. AUBRY
(04/30/99)
Erin Aubry is right on the money about male boomers panting after
younger women as a way to deny their own aging. As an 18-year-old girl, I
find something very unsettling about geriatric guys' taste for teenage
flesh.
Although it's only natural to be attracted to youth, the middle-aged and
old men who pursue only young women are youth vampires. I loved Gloria
Swanson's vampiric character in "Sunset Boulevard," but I've yet to see a
man similarly portrayed -- probably because all the directors are 65-year-old
men who are fucking 18-year-old starlets.
-- Lillie Wade
Let's face it, men age better most of the time. I'm in my early
30s and for me Sean Connery has always had gray hair. I find him
sexy and debonair and wish it was me having an affair with him.
If they've got what it takes, let them have it.
-- Ann Lyons
Chalk up one more article about women as victims. If women want movies
about robust older women, why don't women producers produce more movies
about robust older women? And why don't women pass over movies about virile
older men in favor of movies about robust older women?
You can't buy equity by continually
bashing men. Put your efforts and
money where your mouth is, and lay off the male-bashing!
-- Keith Weber
I was with Aubry all the way, until this line popped out:
"As those of us in the real world know, age does not necessarily confer
wisdom, especially when men are concerned."
She deliberately tells us that she tries not to be ageist, but is just
as deliberately sexist in nearly the same breath. Tacking on
that final clause takes a big chunk of her credibility away.
-- Jason Packer
Milwaukee
Aubry missed the point of the Warren Beatty-Halle Berry
relationship in "Bulworth." While that romance was also May-December, it
was skewed for a reason. Berry represented both the change in social mores
since the '60s and a chance for regeneration. She had to be that young;
a woman of Beatty's generation would not have been steeped in hip-hop culture.
-- Kiersten Conner
Coming out shooting
BY JAKE TAPPER
(05/03/99)
I found Jake Tapper's article regarding the NRA meeting and accompanying
anti-NRA rally in Denver over the weekend to be unbalanced. Tapper made
every effort to give the gun-control side the opportunity to respond to
every argument made by NRA advocates, while not offering the same chance
to those from the NRA. Tapper even descended to the use of personal
attacks on NRA president Charlton Heston, leaving me to wonder whether
Tapper is actually a "news correspondent," as his byline indicates, when
his own slant on the subject is so much in evidence.
This lack of balance troubles me not because I am an NRA supporter, but
precisely because I am an NRA opponent. My wife and several friends of
mine marched in the anti-NRA protest yesterday, and if not for other
commitments I would have joined them. Articles like Tapper's, in my view,
do a disservice to the cause of gun control because they make it appear we
cannot win the Second Amendment argument fairly, but only by stacking the
deck, silencing or ridiculing those whom we oppose. Whether
Tapper's intent was to write a balanced piece about the events in Denver,
or whether his intent was, as I believe, to advocate on behalf of gun
control, in my view he failed on both counts.
-- Robert Anderson
Denver
Aren't you morally and legally required to mention that Tapper is an official at Handgun Control Inc.? "Coming out shooting" is a beautiful example of journalistic integrity ... NOT.
-- Ken Yee
Editor's note: Jake Tapper worked for Handgun Control Inc. for six months in 1997.
Honda's electric car putt-putts its last
BY JANELLE BROWN
(04/30/99)
Electric cars are niche vehicles and not a broad
solution to vehicle pollution or transportation needs. The
article indicated the short-range capability of electric
vehicles. That limited range makes them most useful
for short urban trips.
Imagine, if you will, a large increase in the number of
these electric vehicles on the road. Sure would be quiet;
but the surge in electrical power generating needed to
recharge their batteries could be substantial. And we all
know the inefficiency (max 70 percent) of our electrical generating
power plants. So the reduced pollution at the electric
vehicle "tailpipe" is somewhat countered by the increased
emissions at the power plant "smokestack."
Diesel-electric hybrids, on the other hand,
do create emission pollutants, but much less than with current
engine technology. Diesel-electrics are currently moving
closer to introduction through a concerted research and
development effort by the federal government and the auto
industry, and they are likely to be more attractive to consumers than electric
vehicles (in functionality and price).
The electric vehicle is not a "silver bullet"
vehicle. A range of engine and transportation solutions are
the best bet to help clear the dirty air we all breathe.
-- George D. Chapman
Burger Barn blues
BY DARYL LINDSEY
(04/30/99)
Across the street lives a welfare recipient who earns more money on
welfare and food stamps than my partner, who has worked the same
warehouse job for 10 years, getting 25-cents an hour raises annually. It
is demoralizing to work hard for less than an unemployable stay-at-home.
-- T. Barlow
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