Letters to the Editor
William Timberman
Published Letters: 3298 Editor's Choice: 7
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Maybe we need a new sitcom,
[Read the article: Congressional Republicans suddenly discover the need for oversight]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]kovie. It could be about temptation and redemption and a God who really, really walks among us. We could call it Jacob's Angels, with maybe Brad Pitt as Jacob, and some of those Roller Derby gals as the angels. Oughta go over real big with the AIPAC demographic, doncha think?
Am I a cynic..nah, far from it, but I do really believe that people in general are no more susceptible to consumer advertising than they would be to philosophy, if that were what was available when they turned on the TV. Imagine that, if you will, as an alternate universe.
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God's sense of humor
[Read the article: Congressional Republicans suddenly discover the need for oversight]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It had to be 18 days, right? No 13, or 19, or 5 1/2. And some folks persist in thinking that Dick Cheney has God on his hip.
Fiat voluntas tua, indeed.
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Unto all be peace
[Read the article: Congressional Republicans suddenly discover the need for oversight]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you, clownsense, thank you. You're a touchstone for me, a man of deep feeling, and profound eloquence. You've lifted my spirits, and stiffened my backbone more than once, as I know you have for many others here.
I didn't know my namesake; my family used to think that we weren't so many, but the Internet has proven that we were wrong; it's a marvel to see how widely we've been scattered, but as with many families, except for the geneologist/hobbyists among us, the links have been broken.
Friends in peace have called me though, to offer their sympathies, as you have here. To you, as to all of them, all I can say is that it doesn't matter what the names are, they are all our children, and I, like you, mourn every one. We must stop this war, and we must try as best we can to prevent the many to come. This I pledge to do, just as I pledge never to forget those who, like you, have already been sacrificed to the illusions of those who know no better.
Peace, clownsense -- James, A -- and thank you again. I am in your debt.
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Desert Son's disparagements
[Read the article: Congressional Republicans suddenly discover the need for oversight]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One thing I've noticed about the rule of the Mayberry Machiavellis, as with that of Nixon before them, is how reluctant they are, except among their own, to admit what they're doing, or more properly, how they're doing it. Whether or not we despair over the seeming willingness of the American people to be lied to, even when the truth is so readily available, Karl Rove, et al., act as though the truth is still a danger to them and their plans.
That should be encouraging, I suppose, yet it might also be simply an instinct for deceit on their part. They might very well lie even if there were no chance whatever that having their lies exposed would cost them anything. I must admit that daleyrocks, for example, like Karl Rove himself, seems to delight in his own lies, as though the most gratifying part of it is the pleasure in knowing that, lie or not, the audience will be forced to treat what he says as a plausible argument. It's confirmation, if a a somewhat perverted one, that he still has power over definitions, even if events are not exactly going his way.
I'm sure that someone who's given the psychology of Machiavellism more thought than I have -- Paul R, perhaps -- can explain this phenomenon. For my own part, I can't get past the obvious pathology. Whether it's an arrogant calculation of the gullibility of the body politic, or the compulsion of a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, it's hard to see and hear it day after day without being revolted as well as puzzled by it.
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Mmm...
[Read the article: Congressional Republicans suddenly discover the need for oversight]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]that came out a bit garbled, didn't it? What I meant was that they might very well lie even when telling the truth wouldn't cost them anything.
Never alter a thought halfway through a clause, especially when you're only halfway through your morning coffee. I'm sure they teach that in schools of journalism, but unfortunately, I'm a rank amateur, and have no editor but myself....
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Dark thoughts, ondelette,
[Read the article: Congressional Republicans suddenly discover the need for oversight]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]but entirely plausible, I'm afraid, and entirely consistent with what we already know about them. Ugh is right.
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As ever, Desert Son
[Read the article: Congressional Republicans suddenly discover the need for oversight]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As it is written, so let it be done. Amen.
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On Machiavelli's reputation
[Read the article: Congressional Republicans suddenly discover the need for oversight]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, I'm well aware that Machiavelli's advocacy of what the Buddhists call skillful means was in service of something more noble than simple self-aggrandizement. Which makes the Mayberry defect in our present svengalis even more striking, I suppose.
It did seem to me, even as a kid, that Machiavelli's advice to princes was at least in part a way to tickle their fancy, and thus persuade them to rationalize some of their more egotistical and misanthropic impulses.
The long and the short of it? Would that we had someone as deeply cultured as Signore M. to counsel our present wastrel, instead of that redneck Rasputin, Karl Rove.