Letters to the Editor
Carlos
Published Letters: 6
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Still crazy after all these years
[Read the article: "Murder in Amsterdam"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've always thought it telling that no non-Muslims can enter Mecca, but Jerusalem and Rome are open to whomever. I think that religious thought in general is a bit silly, but Islam has become crazier at its fringe, and that fringe has a bit too much leverage, as compared even to the Pat Robertsons of the world. Islam was not a religion of the outlands and forced underground for hundreds of years as with the Christians: it was theocratic and IMPERIALISTIC (not a word most leftists would use for anyone but brutal white males) in nature almost from the get-go, with the Arabian peninsula being conquered in TEN years from the date of the hajira. Within a century the caliphate abutted the French riviera and the Indus river. I think that this history is what resonates with those on the fringe of Islam, and why they are so willing to resort to violence to return them to the glory of the seventh century and all the b.s. that people believed back then.
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Not too strong a case
[Read the article: Partitioning Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"But aside from the selfish interests of all the political actors inside and outside Iraq, as a practical policy, partitioning Iraq is too risky. It would probably not reduce ethnic infighting. It might produce more."
Probably not? Might produce more? Where is your evidence? i'm not saying I don't agree, but I'm not trying to publish articles on salon.com. Incredibly weak words to argue his point in the last third of the article. Comparing a sub 25-million population region like Iraq to the 1 billion plus of the subcontinent is also pretty disengenuous.
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No easy COMPARISONS
[Read the article: Space balls]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The humans are NOT supposed to be the Middle East, because it is the CYLONS who are both the fanatical fundamentalists AND the hegemons. The humans are nominally panthestic but for the most part secular (with the exception of the Gemenon faction and Roslins spurts of mysticism) and relatively moderate AND the insurgents, HOWEVER ONLY IN SEASON THREE WHEN THEY'RE ON NEW CAPRICA. Then they revert back to being in space and dogfighting again. Contrast this to the first two seasons it was the CYLONS who were the analogues for terrorism, because they LOOKED and ACTED like everyone else until it was TOO LATE, but at the SAME TIME launched a series of FRONTAL ASSAULTS on the fleet as well whenever it was TACTICALLY EXPEDIENT. I hate to CAPITALIZE ABRITRARY WORDS but maybe you should watch the first TWO seasons again, HYPATIA, to get all of your ANALOGIES straight, because this show is not written by Noam "IM NOT DEAD" Chomsky or his acolytes. Its nuanced and uses current events as a flavoring rather than as a straight up framework.
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Come on
[Read the article: The sexiest man living!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This reinforces my occasional impression of this website as a bit fey, pompous, and self-congratulatory. I would hope to see a list ranking (read: objectifying?) hot yet intelligent women in the near future, or this opinion will certainly not be changed anytime in the near future.
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Not convinced
[Read the article: The sexiest man living!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't think the article is all that offensive or objectifying, but just because this article is more insightfully quirky and cleverly written than a Maxim article doesn't change the fact that there is a gigantic double standard when it comes to what men and women lust after in public. Can I lust after insecure nineteen year olds with small waists and fake breasts? Sure. Can I get together with other men on a message board for self-styled sophisticates and not feel just a tad of cognitive dissonance, not to mention outright HYPOCRISY, for combing through women's rumps, busts, and legs, ranking them like livestock? No. I DO engage in those activities but I have never insisted that my gender is the only one that can do those things without being considered a sexist.
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Why so little on Catherine?
[Read the article: What was so great about Catherine?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is tempting frame this in the "nobody likes a strong woman" milieu, which is a valid one, no doubt. However, I think the fact that Russia was the most backwards of the great dynastic empires of Europe coupled with the fact it's also the most dissimilar in terms of culture and geography would probably be a better reason why its greatest queen got the snub.