About this blog

Greetings! You have arrived at Blog for the new book, Letters to the Editor, that were never published--and some other stuff . It is a compilation of the many letters o the editor that I have written in the past several years. I am continuing to write letters to the editor to various publications, like The New York Times,The record (of Bergen County, NJ) Psychiatric News, Newsweek, etc. They will be posted on this blog for your perusal and, hopefully, comments.

As an introduction to my book," Letters to the Editor that were never published," here is my introduction , synopsis, and index of chapters into which I have organized my letters.



INTRODUCTION


The New York Times is a journal like no other. National and international potentates of all sorts eye its contents warily, ---and hopefully, for educated reports and opinions about their doings.

It is an on-going enclyclopedia encompassing local, national and international events, along with the business world, all the arts, visual and performance: music, theater, dance, and all the rest of interesting show-biz, movies, and TV. Then there’s sports, food, society, many varieties of science, religion, history, military activities, research in many areas, medicine. In other words, endless interesting items and subjects that are changing all the time, as it keeps up with contemporary knowledge and devlopments throughout the world. It is an incredible educational resource encompassing a wide scope of human achievement, knowledge and interest. It is a convenient resource for one to acquire for themselves an impressive post-graduate education.

Perhaps the most interesting is the editorial section, with its in-house editorials, usually about something special going on at the time. The whole Op-Ed page is dedicated to major articles by outstanding authorities, important contributors in their field. The “Letters to the Editor” section is set aside for interested readers to contribute expressions of opinion about some article in a recent issue. Unfortunatley the chances of beiing published is quite slim--like one in a thousand--because that’s the number of letters the letter editor receives each day!

I have been addicted to writing letters for possible appearance on that page, and fortunately, and happily, over the years I have seen a handful of my letters in print. But I have written well over a hundred in the last decade. I decided to get them into print one way or an other. Amazon.com has a new program in which they will publish an author gratis to appear in their e-book program--which is more than a golden opportunity --to which I expect to be admitted .

The prevalence of new and interesting publishers referred to as ”on-order publishers” makes it much easier to get a book published nowadays. I have fortunately selected Trafford Publishing to do mine.

So, along with “Letters to the Editor of The New York Times’, and other publications, like The Record ( BergenCounty, N.J.), Newsweek, Business Week, the New York Post and Psychiatric News, a scientific publication aimed at psychiatrists, I have included a bunch of essays on topics of interest to me--as well as dissertations on a number of topics of broad interest, which, hopefully, will be of interest to my readers

Inasmuch as many of these letters have reference to the same or similar subjects, there is some repetition from one article to another, which I have tried to minimize without losing the gist.


PREFACE

Organizing my collection of some 150 or so of such letters and brief essays, this book is a compilation of my offerings in the subjects of most interest to myself and of most general interest, representing major issues of the day that are controversial and looking for solutions.

The letters to the editor, letters to prominent influential people, my own essays on a variety of subjects, and some other odd notes here and there are organized in chapters for continuity.

Each chapter is opened with a general description of the subject, its history, a general description of its scope, developments, and characteristics. There follows individal letters expressing my own opinion about specific Times articles on various aspects of the subject involved.

The chapter of Essays includes more lengthy dissertations on subjects of interest in our culture about which I have especially strong feelings, either for or against.

Again, I want to mention that there is some repetition from one item to another, inasmch as they are on similar topics and to eliminate all repetitious sentences would interfere with the flow of the particular content of the letter.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Chapter 1 Psychiatry

Chapter 2 Psychoanalysis

Chapter 3 Depression

Chapter 4 Religion

Chapter 5 Bishops and Priests

Chapter 6 Homosexuality

Chapter 7 Violence

Chapter 8 Miscellaneous

Chapter 9 Essays

Saturday, August 15, 2009


Roe vs Wade Has Saved Over a Half Million Lives!

In the article, "Palin Disclosures Spotlight McCain's Screening Process", ( The Times, September 2, Page 1.) it is reported that McCain would have preferred to select either Senator Joseph Lieberman or Governor Tom Ridge as his running mate.  However, since both these men are pro-choice, he felt that  they would be unacceptable to the evangelical contingent of the republican party. Prior to Roe vs Wade, ( enacted in 1973) it was estimated that approximately 15,000 women died from illegal or self-induced "coat-hanger" abortions every year.  Therefore in the 35 years since Roe vs Wade, over a half million women's lives  have been saved. 


: Sarah Palin and God

Governor Sarah Palin has stated that the war in Iraq is " God's Plan" and that God is also interested in the Alaskan pipeline. Since  the Governor seems to have access to inside information from God,  she should let us know of other of his plans---such as, "When and where  will the next war break out" and "When and where will the next terrorist attack occur in the United States?" As you recall, Pat Robertson said that  God let 9/11 happen. They both seem to have received some special communications  from the Almighty. This is something really unique that  the Governor could bring to Washington if elected.

Pat Robertson in Lipstick

We all heard the question recently from  Governor Sarah Kalin "" What's the difference between a hockey-mom and a pit-bull?" ---answer ---"lipstick". Well, my question is " What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Pat Robertson?"---answer---"lipstick."  Pat Robertson told us that God allowed  9/11 to happen, and Sarah Palin tells us that the Iraq war is God's plan. The  distinguished theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr once commented that  there is no more dangerous person than one who claims to know what God is thinking.

Miscarriages--God's Abortions
In the New York Times, Saturday, May 9th, on Page A17 there is an article entitled, "Roman Catholic War on Abortion".in which the subject of abortion is presented as the reason many Catholic clergy oppose the invitation to President Obama  to speak at Notre Dame University. According to Roman Catholic beliefs, the earliest fetus represents a human life, and is to be treated as such. Therefore to perform an abortion is equivalent to murder. It is estimated that between 15 and 20% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage, i.e spontaneous abortion.  The Bible says, " are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?-- yet not one of them shall  fall to the ground without your Father". We must therefore assume that God is aware of the phenomenon of miscarriage and,  by definition, a participant . In addition, if all such fetuses are human beings, should they not be baptized and have a Christian funeral and burial? I recall as a medical student participating in legal medically indicated abortion  that the nurse in the operating room,  inasmuch as the mother was Catholic, baptized the aborted specimen,  Can the Catholic clergy explain this discrepancy in the handling of fetuses if they are , in effect, full fledged  human beings?


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