Show Me the Data

Your article on stadium and convention center lies (City Lights: “Stadium, Convention Center Lies You Will Hear") is no better than the propaganda we hear from the white-elephant convention-center advocates and billionaires. I'd like to see facts and data that show that the San Diego Chargers cost the City money, and that we are losing money having a convention center in San Diego.

My belief is that, overall, the city of San Diego receives millions of dollars each year in tax revenue from both enterprises. These tax dollars help pay for the City’s infrastructure and critical services that, I agree, need to be improved.

I’m not even saying I'm in favor of a new stadium and convention center expansion, but I'd like somebody who is against them to show me the data that says the return on investment is not there.

• Karl Schu
• Clairemont

Regular Folks

Re: News Ticker: “U-T Takeover Bid Confirmed”

Geez, another right-wing Republican running the Ugly-Times. What a surprise.

If this is the same Malin Burnham who screwed San Diego in the Padres 1993 fire sale, then San Diegans probably should get ready to get screwed again. It’s pretty clear for whom Mr. Burnham looks out, and it ain’t us regular folks.

• Name Withheld
• via email

Juice It Up

Re: News Ticker: “Pops Shops Pop Up in 2014”

What’s up with herb in San Diego, really? This article is dry, if you will. Juice it up with facts, ok?

Please get in your car and drive over to five or ten of these shops with your iPhone handy, Bro. I will take you, if you wish. It’s called reporting. I know you can do it.

• Dale Rostamo
• sandiegoherb.com

A Prefix Meaning Ancient

I don't know why I bother to read Barbarella’s narcissistic crap, but she’s got me puzzled here.

In the third column of her “Gluten-Free in Texas” article (Diary of a Diva, September 25) she is talking about going to some restaurant in Texas, and she’s babbling about her “vegatarian” [sic] — which is spelled wrong, by the way — “pescatarian, vegan, and Paleo friends.” I can figure out what a vegetarian is, even though she misspells it. Pescatarian is a fish-eater. A vegan is an idiot vegetarian who doesn’t eat milk, cheese, or any animal products. But what is Paleo?

I looked it up in the dictionary, and it’s “a prefix meaning ancient; from the Greek.” But there’s nothing in there about someone’s dietary preferences. What is she talking about?

I don’t know why I read her anyway, since she gets on my nerves. She just sounds so prissy and narcisstic all the time. Thank God she’s not in my family — I couldn’t stand her!

• Name Withheld
• via voicemail

Chaplinesque

So, I see in the Reader’s movie section: JIMI: All is by My Side — “Andre Benjamin (aka Outkast’s Andre 3000) stars as Jimi Hendrix, a man who sang and played guitar in the ’60s.”

That’s like saying Charlie Chaplin was a man who made comedies during the silent movie era. The writer must be a tennis player for that kind of back hand.

• Name Withheld
• via email

Try Reading Your Own Stuff

My wife just brought home the Reader for September 25, and I’m wondering if you’re trying to get rid of your readership over the age of the 30? You have this grey paper, and little teeny-tiny print. It’s really hard to read.

Maybe you shouldn’t call it the Reader anymore. Maybe you should call it the Hard to Read.

That’s all I called for. I’m not that much older than I was a month ago, but I think you’re trying to get rid of your older readers. Try reading your own stuff one of these days. It’s not easy.

• Name Withheld
• via voicemail

Ticking Time Bomb

Re: “The Thought of Marrying a Jew Gave Me the Creeps."

Fascinating, topical article! Is society really headed toward one color? Doesn’t seem likely.

It is a good time to be a Jewish person. No persecution. Regardless, mixing races is tough on the kids. It’s bad enough you can’t tell who you’re dealing with.

MLK, Jr. said judge a person by his character, not his color. Well, if you treat others the way they treated you first, what does that say about your character?

Act like a mature, responsible adult, if only for the Great Spirit in the sky. Act like a ticking time bomb to anybody who doesn’t roll out the red carpet, and maybe that’ll work, too.

• Name Withheld
• East El Cajon

Wannabe Onion Columnist

In regards to your article about internet memes and their connection to the capture of David Angelo Drake, the man accused in the North Park attacks — SD on the QT: “Neighborhood (Meme) Watch."

I’d like to know who this “police internet detective” is, and if he has any ties to SDPD. I want him fired as much as I want the staff writer of this article to never be published again.

To publish these images with puns, and pathetic insight into them is disgusting. I’m going to wager that “police internet detective Craig Webb” doesn’t work for the police, and he’s not a reputable source on inside information. In fact, I’m pretty sure this is a horrible satire written by a wannabe Onion columnist.

Way to go, Walter Mencken, you’re not only not funny, but you have less tact than the memes themselves. Recant your insensitivity to the victims of these crimes.

If you continue to publish Walter Mencken’s articles, I suggest you put a disclaimer on them. You paid him to create unimpressive internet memes and write a stupid article, while some of his fellow San Diegans are still recovering from their wounds. He’s a troll. Shame on you.

• Jessica Nuttall
• North Park

Too Much Visual Space

I’m writing in to voice my strong disgust at the article, “Neighborhood (Meme) Watch” (SD on the QT).

I’m glad to see coverage of this event impacting our neighborhoods, and lord knows I love a good meme, but this is completely inappropriate. I could see mentioning the meme in context of a larger story, but to give so much visual space to the memes is an incredibly misguided choice.

I personally know one of the victims. She’s seen this, and it made her extremely upset to see what she went through trivialized. You have no control over what people do online, but you did have control over publishing this.

• Name Withheld
• Golden Hill

Spreading the Word

Re: SD on the QT: “Neighborhood (Meme) Watch."

You idiotic, irresponsible, insensitive pricks. Are you seriously embarrassing yourselves by showing this shit? I really didn’t ever give a fuck about your pansy publication but now [I’m] not only not supporting you, [I’m] also spreading the word of your worthlessness.

• Sarah
• North Park

Creepy and Coercive

Leave it to misogynists to find humor in women getting raped. I’m referring to “Neighborhood (Meme) Watch” written by Walter Mencken (SD on the QT).

The memes are offensive and demonstrate how our culture supports rape and violence against women. In the article, Mencken quotes Craig Webb, a police internet investigator. Webb states the quotes on the memes are sexually aggressive and eludes to them as being creepy and coercive. Webb goes on to say, “I’m not talking about the crazed, cheerful enthusiasm of Lil’ Jon’s ‘Bend Ova Make Your Knees Touch Your Elbows.’”

Hey, guys, sexual aggression equates violence and there is nothing cheerfully enthusiastic about it. Rape and sexual assault aren’t simply creepy and cohesive, they are deplorable crimes that should not be tolerated under any circumstances by any society. Additionally, the fact that the Reader printed the memes is irresponsible, and encourages those who consider violence against women a jocose and frivolous matter.

• Ellen Medina
• La Mesa

Petition Shenanigans

Photo by Neal Obermeyer

There is a cartoon by Neil Obermeyer in the September 18 issue. I would like to protest this cartoon.

I’m a petition signature gatherer and I would like to say that the press has grossly misrepresented petitioners all over the City of San Diego. Many petitioners are honest, hardworking people who did their very best to present this controversial issue in the most honest way possible.

We knew we were being videotaped and followed by union people. So, many of us were extremely careful to make sure that we represented this petition to the public as accurately, and fairly, and honestly as possible.

Why doesn’t the Reader publish a cartoon about the shenanigans of the blockers who came out and harassed people and screamed at people for signing the petition? And what about their petition to take the signatures off the original petition? Somebody should be questioned about their tactics, the fights in front of the grocery stores, and the commotion they caused. They screamed at elderly senior citizens who were trying to sign this petition because [the senior citizens] believed that they had a right to vote.

• Vivian Marlene Dunbar
• San Ysidro

A Neighbor, Not a Neighborhood

As of late, every week that I open the Reader to Neighborhood News, I see TJ included at least once, sometimes more, as being part of San Diego. I’m not sure which almanac you guys are using, but last I checked they are part of Mexico.

Mexico is our neighbor south of the border, not one of our neighborhoods.

There are still people that think Puerto Rico is our 51st state. Do you think it’s right to add to the easily confused by including Tijuana as part of San Diego?

Don’t we have enough relevant news happening on this side of the border to fill your pages?

• Christina
• East Village

Fetuses as Superpersons

In your gotcha piece on Planned Parenthood (SD on the QT: “Planned Parenthood Protests Possible Prosecution of Marriage-Marring Marine for Multiple Murders”), you say, “If the fetus were a person, it would be entitled to full protection under the law.” You assume that would outlaw abortion. Would it?

What does the full protection of the law entitle a person to?

Does the law ever award one person the right to the nonconsenting use of another person’s internal organs? Does the law ever give one person a right remotely resembling the right to forcibly occupy another person’s body for nine months?

Does the law ever give one person the right to the nonconsenting use of another’s bodily substances? There’s no direct transfer of blood in pregnancy, but other bodily substances are transferred. For instance, the fetus uses almost twice as much calcium as a woman can assimilate from food and supplements. The rest is leached from her bones and teeth, with increased risk of osteoporosis with every pregnancy.

Does the law ever give one person the right to disable another to the extent he cannot work? Nausea and vomiting affect half of all pregnant women during the first three months. In ten percent it lasts 20 weeks or longer. In some it persists the entire term. Morning sickness may cost months of work and income.

If a woman makes her living in physical work —anything from construction work or house painting to work as a professional dancer or athlete — she may lose work and income for the better part of a year.

A musician, artist or surgeon may be unable to work because of numbness in the hands, caused by the increased pressure on the spine. Even a job requiring hours of standing, like waiting tables, nursing, or teaching may be impossible to continue because of varicose veins, back injuries common to pregnancy, or dizziness caused by blood pooling in the abdomen. Memory loss during pregnancy is real and can affect the ability of any woman, not just a mathematician or an engineer, to do her job.

In no civilized country does the law ever impose physical pain and trauma compared to that of childbirth upon one person for the benefit of another. One-third of childbirths today are Caesareans — major abdominal surgery. Vaginal birth is commonly more traumatic still. The contractions of childbirth have a force up to 80 pounds per square inch — a force which can, and usually does, tear flesh, unless a prior incision is performed. Most women count childbirth as the most painful experience of their lives.

The only way that declaring the fetus a person would result in outlawing abortion (making pregnancy and childbirth compulsory) would be for the court to declare fetuses to be “super-persons” with rights far beyond the rights that one person now has over another, or for the court to declare women lesser-persons with lesser rights than others to freedom and sovereignty.

• Name Withheld
• Poway

Perfectly Good Solutions

I started learning to solve sudoku puzzles about two months ago, beginning with the sudokus in one of your issues. My friends asked, “Did you do one?”

I said, “I did three.”

“Easy, medium, hard or evil?”

“Just the medium one.”

“But you said you did three.”

“Well, I got three different, valid solutions to the one puzzle.”

“Naw! Impossible. There’s only one solution to any puzzle.”

Everyone continued to tell me the same thing. So, here I submit what I hope is proof. I show the original Reader puzzle and my three equally valid solutions. The numbers supplied in the puzzle are written large, and the numbers I wrote in are written small.

If I’m right, your contest staff have no doubt been disqualifying a lot of perfectly good solutions because they didn’t jibe with the one solution that the staff thought was the only valid one.

I will wait to read responses in your Letters section from number wizards telling me where I went wrong, and how I am an idiot.

• Deecee
• Pacific Beach