Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 288 Editor's Choice: 20
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Where the Hell Is Obama?
[Read the article: The company we keep]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I want to get behind Barack Obama, but garbage like this continually gives me pause. In my mind, the relentless effort of government officials on both sides of the aisle to compromise our Constitutional rights is the most important issue in this election year. Yet Obama continues to say nothing.
His silence suggests that he may take advantage of warrantless eavesdropping if elected. Perhaps I have him wrong, and he is soft-pedaling the issue so as not to offend Republicans who might cross over. But this is a stupid reason not to make this a major issue. We hear about Republican crossovers every election cycle, and they never arrive. Every election Democrats compromise on what should be a core issue, civil rights, in the vain hope of seeing a handful of Republicans vote against their party. Instead what we really get is a rush of Democrats to the GOP side who switch because at least the conservatives have a backbone.
Doesn't anyone remember that Kerry went down because he was successfully branded a flip-flopper? Obama may lose if he does not show backbone on this issue.
I consider myself a liberal, but honestly, if Obama can't come out against warrantless surveillance, I feel I might as well vote for McCain, if for no other reason than to try to teach the Democrats a lesson. Get a spine, goddamnit!
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He Said She Said
[Read the article: Tin-eared at MSNBC]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The New Yorker article was about how opinion has infected cable news, and how it is endangering network news and even print news in general. It makes many valid points. Olbermann, as well as many other cable personalities, are seriously blurring the meaning of news reporting.
This essay is more of the same. Joan Walsh overlooks 90% of the article's content and focuses on a squabble between Olbermann and a small group of feminists. This is he-said-she-said journalism, no longer talking about facts and truly newsworthy events but instead looking at insults hurled back and forth among elites. Who cares what Griffin thinks? Darfur goes on, gas prices rise, the deficit deepens, schools crumble, and we talk about mudfights among "intellectuals."
It is things like this that convince me that Democrats are not mature enough to run the country.
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Actually, It's Ru-di
[Read the article: Ru-dy! Ru-dy! Ru-dy!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Rudi" is the sappiest sports movie ever made. Total schlock, and I can't get enough of it. One of my best concealed guilty pleasures, and you had to bring it up.
As for Rudy, who cares? Mr. Nobody ought to try walking on at Notre Dame. Maybe if he's lucky Coach will put him in during garbage time the last game of the season, so Rudy can miss a tackle and give up a touchdown against Army, thus allowing ND to close out a 1-9-1 season.
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Love/Hate Relationships
[Read the article: Pipe down, Cindy McCain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What troubles me the most about the Michelle Obama debate is the way Republicans tend to look at her "proud" remarks. Many conservative loudmouths (I saw another one tonight on MSNBC) have literally said that Ms. Obama's remarks imply that she "hates" America.
What is missing from this debate is the incredibly obvious: It is possible to love and hate something at the same time. I grew up, and have lived almost all of my life, in the South. I could write a book about love/hate relationships with my native culture. I love many aspects of the South, and never want to live anywhere else, but I am under no illusion about slavery, civil rights, lynching, and all the other things that go along with Southern heritage.
I love my land, and would die for it if necessary, but I would only die with a clear-eyed knowledge of its shortcomings. Only a fool would believe that America has never done anything wrong, and has never merited sharp disapproval.
Obviously Michelle Obama is trying to express this love/hate feeling all honest Americans feel sometimes. It is simplistic to say that she hates America. Like many African-Americans who know their history, she does not look upon America as blameless in all things, and especially not in its racial history. Who can blame her for that?
And how stupid is it to think it is impossible to love a country with all your heart, and still have misgivings about it.
If Michelle Obama ever declared that America is wonderful and completely without fault, I would think her either a liar or completely crazy. As someone who has carried the Southern heritage with me all my life, I feel justified in saying that unless we acknowledge that it is possible to be completely patriotic and intensely critical of our own country at the same time, there is no chance that we will ever leave the corpse of racism behind us.
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Point Made . . . .
[Read the article: Apple's iTunes sells 5 billion songs, but you don't own them]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But you're implying that no one will ever figure out a way to hack this problem. Of course they will, and as soon as Microsoft powers down its servers, the hunt will be on.
I lost my entire CD collection to Hurricane Katrina. Initially, I thought everything was OK, because I left New Orleans with my iPod, which had everything on it. Then I discovered that iTunes would not let me upload songs from an iPod. Only downloads.
Undaunted, I searched the internet and found a program that pulls music files off the iPod. I got my music library back.
I am sure there is a similar way to get around Fairplay.
The question I have is, why doesn't Microsoft simply release a solution? They have the release codes. They could come up with a program that will unlock the songs and turn it loose on the internet. Or, if that would incur the wrath of the music industry, the music studios themselves could set up a server that keeps the old songs alive. It would be in the studios' interest -- better to offer a solution yourself than to leave the door open for hackers to blow up the whole gig.