Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the editor:

I don’t understand why even antiabortionists like op-ed article writers Day and Camosy say they “believe” that abortion is killing. This is not a matter of opinion, but a matter of fact.

That life begins at conception is as much established fact as that the Earth is spherical. If there were doubt, scientific research would be ongoing into the issue. But there is none. There is no second opinion in science as to when human life begins.

Every accredited textbook on biology or physiology that has a chapter on human reproduction reads the same. When the sperm fertilizes the egg, two new sets of 23 chromosomes join together, forming a new, unique sequence of DNA. Then a new human life is in existence and the cells commence to divide and multiply, without ceasing, until death.

Abortion causes the death of a human. Support abortion if you must, but conscientious intellects reconcile their opinions to the facts.

Kevin Davis, Beverly Hills

Note from KBJ: The English language has the words "humanize" and "dehumanize" for a reason. Democrats humanize the likes of Hillary Clinton (by their own admission) and dehumanize fetuses (the latter quite literally). The end justifies the means.

I love the part where Kelly Kapoor (played by Mindy Kaling) dances.

If you like cycling, you'll enjoy this video of today's Clasica San Sebastian in Spain.

While researching George Armstrong Custer this evening, I came across an interesting paragraph about the 1876 presidential election:

The Republicans and the Democrats—or we should rather say the Republican and the Democratic newspapers—are now engaged in the pleasing and morally elevating business of blackening the reputations and disparaging the ability of each other's candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. It is a lovely and an edifying sight to see journalists heaping scorn and contempt, even if nothing worse, upon certain men, when we are positively sure that if the tables were turned, and the Republican were Democrat and the Democrat Republican, the same journalists would laud the very same men to the skies. If this process has any very serious effect upon the balloting in November, it speaks very ill for the common sense and the right feeling of the American people. But we venture meekly to suggest that a political canvass might be conducted, and with spirit, with this element of personality entirely left out of it. Until we are compelled to do so, we shall refuse to believe that the representatives of either of the great political parties which divide the country have selected a dishonorable man or a political charlatan as its candidate for the Presidency, or that either party would quietly submit, when its opponent was elected and occupying the Presidential chair, to have him denounced by a foreigner as its own journals are denouncing him now. Perhaps our brethren of the daily press may dimly perceive the conclusion which in a nebulous manner looms before them.

The passage appears in the September 1876 issue of The Galaxy magazine (volume 22). Much of the paragraph could have been written today, about the 2016 presidential election.

Here.

Here.

Hot Space (1982). No mere mortal has a voice like Freddie Mercury. Draw your own conclusion.

To the editor:

Appearance matters. When there is significant disparity in dress between males and females, it sends strong signals about their roles on camera: Men are “all business” and women are “eye candy.” (“Fox News may have just opened itself up to more lawsuits with Roger Ailes’ resignation,” July 26)

One reason I do not watch Fox News is because it is apparent to me that women are not respected. When journalist Megyn Kelly finally got an interview with Republican nominee Donald Trump, she was not attired in a outfit that projected a professionalism on par with Trump. She reverted to dressing in a way that made her “eye candy.” The soft content of her interview confirmed this impression.

So, it is no surprise that women at Fox News may have endured decades of sexual harassment; why would women be treated with more respect off camera than on camera?

When women wear clothes that are feminine but comparable to their male counterparts, they will project an image of competent, serious career women.

Catherine C. Cate, Irvine

I just did my last ride of the month, so let me take stock. I rode 659 miles in July, which is an average of 21.2 miles per day. I rode a total of 17 times in 31 days, which makes the average ride 38.7 miles. My mileage total for the year (through seven months) is 3,602.4. I've been sick with a sinus and bronchial infection for 11 days (almost since returning from Iowa), but it didn't stop me from riding. It may sound bizarre, but as long as I'm riding, everything else is fine. (Riding is the foundation of the house that is my life.) By the way, the heat index was 98º when I departed and 102º when I returned. We have about two more months of brutal heat (August and September) before the wonderful days of autumn arrive. Texas summers are the price we pay for Texas falls, winters, and springs, which are delightful. I wouldn't live anywhere else.

My own caption: “Once you go half black, you can’t go back.”