Given the despair I felt at reading the recent letters to the editor from Michael W. Kohlman ("If Drs. Ben Carson and Andy Harris oppose Obamacare, how great can it be?and Benedict Frederick Jr. ("Obamacare-slavery comparison isn't so ridiculous," Oct. 18) defending Dr. Ben Carson's astoundingly inappropriate comparison of the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) to slavery, I feel a need to respond.
In an attempt to bolster contrived and ridiculous rationales for attacking the Affordable Care Act, the writers take cover not only behind Dr. Carson's shamefully self-serving statement, but also Webster's dictionary and other unnamed definitions of slavery. I offer a valuable word for these frighteningly careless rhetorical times: specious, which Webster defines as: "1) superficially plausible but actually wrong; and 2) misleadingly attractive in appearance."
Jane Harrison