Comedy

Responses to "Nothing sacred for comedians," @issue, April 22

Reese has sense of absurd

Columnist Charley Reese may or may not have a sense of humor, but he sure does have a sense of the absurd. Reese makes the oppressively smug Bill Maher and his attacks on visiting Pope Benedict an example of comedians who go where angels should fear to tread.

I agree with Reese that mocking people's faith is in bad taste, although there are certain religious leaders whose words and deeds cry out for ridicule. Yet I have to question his assertion that comedians have the ability to cause their audiences to lose their faith in the existence of God. I always heard it was wild women and liquor that led men astray. Who knew it was just lousy stand-up!

Most people are no more likely to lose their faith in a comedy club than lose their sense of humor in church.

HOWARD HURSEY

Loganville

Religion shouldn't get a free pass

Charley Reese surely must jest. Religious leaders should be immune to criticism because it might cause the faithful to lose faith? Religions should get a free pass because they have a "serious impact on human beings"? That's a compelling reason they should not be exempt from critique, humorous or otherwise. Nonetheless, despite recent growth in atheist books, the most callous critics of religion have been persons of other religions.

Reese quotes Ayn Rand that teaching people to laugh at everything can wreck a society. But his analogy fails, for it assumes that even comedians laugh at everything. Bill Maher, Reese's example, clearly believes in excellence, intelligence, reason and subjecting all ideas to brutal critique. It'd be a better world if religions advocated those things as strongly as Maher.

JOHN CARVER

Atlanta

He's on thin ice, psychologically

The easy answer to Charley Reese's semi-coherent column about Bill Maher and other comics he dislikes is, "Don't watch." But Reese's problems go beyond one-liners. Anyone who thinks a joke about the pope "opens up the abyss of nothingness" or "causes a person to question everything he or she ever learned about the world" is standing on very thin psychological ice. Reese wants to outlaw painful criticism of "great people ... good leaders ... the religious people." Thing is, there are already plenty of countries like that around. I'm sure one of them would welcome him.

DAVID RANEY

Norcross

Attitude's insulting, if you're religious

So, if I understand Charley Reese, comedians should never joke about religious figures, lest it cause a religious person to think too much. If I were religious, I'd find that attitude deeply insulting.

STEVEN DOYLE

Atlanta

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Gas prices

Congress could vote by e-mail

Barack Obama stated this week in Indiana that he was flying back to D.C. to cast a vote for pay equality. That got me to thinking —- why not allow members of Congress to cast their votes electronically via secure e-mail or even by phone with voice identification? With 535 congressional members who are constantly out of town, the fuel savings would be substantial. The increased human efficiency would be substantial. Isn't this the kind of change that makes bipartisan sense?

RICK KATZ

Cherrylog

'Greed ... is good' is oil company mantra

Rising gas prices are hurting the middle class. Gordon Gecko said it best in the movie "Wall Street" when he told his friends, "Greed ... is good." This is the mantra that oil futures traders and the oil companies live by. The middle class is the backbone of this country, and its back is being broken by astronomical energy costs and fuel prices. I hope the incoming administration makes lowering fuel prices a priority so Americans can keep more of their money. The Bush administration has done nothing but encourage price-gouging and spending too much of our tax dollars on Bush's personal war in Iraq.

WILLIAM McKEE JR.

Flowery Branch

Stop Saturday mail

We should discontinue delivering U.S. mail on Saturday. How many hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of gallons [of gas] would this save in one year? Look at the wear and tear on vehicles and labor cost. A large percentage of people are not home on Saturday anyway. I have never talked to anyone who disagreed.

BILL KELLEY

Loganville

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A potentially deadly mistake with EMS

I applaud your editorial on the Fulton County EMS decision ("Fulton EMS vote is a deadly mistake," @issue, April 21). This decision represents a potentially deadly mistake for many Atlantans, and more public attention and pressure need to be brought to bear on the politicians with whom we entrust our safety.

TIMOTHY MAY

Atlanta

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Whoever can stop the war wins this vote

On our oldest grandson's 21st birthday, I quite by accident came across a tiny school shirt he might have worn in kindergarten. It brought tears to my eyes as I realized that those precious years have slipped through my fingers like water, holy water.

Still, I am fortunate that he is still in my life, while thousands of other grandmothers have forever lost their loved young people to that stupid, evil war in Iraq. Other people may be more concerned about the economy, oil prices, health care or whatever, but for me, the priority election-year issue is Iraq. The candidate most likely to stop sending our kids over there is the one who will get my vote.

MARGARET CURTIS

Atlanta