The Weekend Mailbag

We didn’t have a weekend mailbag last week for several reasons – the first of which is that I was at the Heinlein Centennial and returned home utterly beat. But the real reason was that during that week before, I put nothing controversial up on the site, so my emails, either in favor of my posts or against them, were few and far bewteen.

So with no further ado, I bring you this week’s weekend mailbag.

Pete in a Suit

Thora Bora writes:

You have a chubby face, but otherwise you’re cute. Your about page says you’re married, so let me know if that changes. I’ve always wanted to date a writer.

*speechless*

Gialta writes:

You said what your shirt and tie were, but you missed the suit, shoes, belt, and cologne.

Uh, the suit is off the rack from a store called Dillard’s (not sure how universal they are outside of the South). All they did was tailor they pants. I was wearing Johnston and Murphy (deerskin) wingtips, a Perry Ellis belt, and no cologne. I HATE cologne, and think that men who need a fragrance to feel confident about themselves need to shower more often. Remember, guys, the difference between “baste” and “bathe” is only one letter.

Space Advocacy

Trey writes:

Don’t get me wrong, Pete. I like science fiction, but I think our tax dollars should be used to fix what’s wrong here on Earth before we spread the same problems outward. A space program just isn’t practical when you have people who can’t get affordable health care.

I could give you the Republican answer (not one that is entirely palatable to me) and say that there are always going to be poor people no matter what you do.  But I think the real meat of the issue is that both big business and our government need to make investments in our future…even if they can only do a little bit at a time. A space program is exactly that–a long term investment that won’t show a return for perhaps decades. Making short-term decisions over and over again places the entire future in jeopardy. Choosing to not fund programs which are investment opportunities ensure that the United States will become a scientific and industrial backwater in the latter half of the twenty-first century, which in turn reduces the tax base, which in turn makes it even more difficult to fund programs that could be used for domestic improvement.

I’m not trying to blow you off, Trey, but this is really how I see it. I’d invite you to comment here or continue a discussion in email.

Trey’s email is pretty typical of the dissenting opinions I received. Many of you are concerned that domestic programs wouldn’t receive enough attention if we poured the amount of money into NASA that we did in the 1960′s. Hopefully I managed to summarize a logical position; if not, feel free to continue the discussion in the comments thread or via email.

Cow Worshippers Unite!

Nina writes:

While I applaud your sentiments, you mock other religions by the title of your entry and calling Muslims “Jihadists.” You can’t resist your little digs on people, can you?

I wasn’t aware that there was mockery in my post!?! Thanks for pointing that out.

Seeing Yellow

SgtWebb writes:

HP will give you step by step instructions on how to disable the yellow dots printed on the paper but you have to ask for a senior level tech support person. I was warned that performing this action would also void my warranty on the printer if my printer was still under the warranty. The instructions are easy to follow. Pete feel free to share my email address with anyone who wants to do this without contacting the HP support line.

Thanks, Sergeant. If anyone wishes to take him up on his offer, please let me know.

That’s all for this week, boys and girls. I had quite a few emails regarding my opinion of the Harry Potter movie, but most of them were one or two lines, and many of them called into questions everything from my sanity to my manhood. I can only assume by this that most of the people in the Harry Potter fan community thoroughly enjoyed the movie and felt that my review was a little harsh. Oh, well.