Letters to the Editor
bloomsbury
Published Letters: 407 Editor's Choice: 5
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John Huston's movie
[Read the article: Getting blown up, again and again]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I saw a movie made by John Huston that showed WWII soldiers with PTSD being treated with hypnosis. Some of these soldiers had fougt on Iwo Jima and were so shocked by the experience that they lost the power of speech or their sight as a response. Huston's movie showed the soldiers being hypnotized and taken back to the scene of their trauma under hypnosis. The idea was to tell their subconscious that they were now out of danger and had survived the battle. The results were amazing. Soldiers spoke again and regained their sight and many recovered completely. For some strange reason the military banned Huston's movie and it was never released to the public. Perhaps they didn't want people to see what war really is and what it does to human beings. It was a powerful movie and should have been released so that all the myths of the glory of war could be exposed for what they really are. The other reason they probably canned it is that the genereal public are still very uninformed about hypnosis and don't see it as a a medical treatment. The 'virtual' battlefield approximates to the mental battlefield re-created by hypnosis but I doubt it would be as effective because it might not reach the subconscious in the way hypnosis does.
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Ho ho ho
[Read the article: Don Imus is vulgar. So what?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You just don't get it do you? Why bother dividing these two men into different categories? They are the same animal. Imus dehumanizes black female athletes and Bush dehumanizes anyone who isn't rich, Christian and ultra right -unless they're friends of his daddy and live in Saudi Arabia. It runs in the family,who can ever forget his mother's comments on the huddled masses in the superdome after Katrina?What's wrong is the dehumanization. Imus deserved everything he got and Bush will be judged by history as the worst President America's ever had. Bush is coming to Australia soon, unfortunately, and they're already passing a law in the NSW parliament that allows 'random body searches' whatever the hell they are so Bush can be 'protected'. The question is who can protect us from him? Men like these are a disease and the disease is contagious. Look how easily Tony Blair caught it, in spite of his holier than thou attitude to politics. The cure is to stop making excuses for appalling attitudes and to stop living in denial and pretending Imus is not as bad as Bush. Or that Bush's badness is a mitigating factor for Imus. They both need to have consequences for their unacceptable behaviour.
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Oprah's rise
[Read the article: Is Oprah the new Imus?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]GO OPRAH! It's a miracle that someone who was sexually molested for much of her childhood and impregnated by a relative has survived let alone reached the heights she has and if she has some white people working for her so what? To compare this comment with Imus' is ridiculous. If she had said she had a few white ho's working for her then there might be cause for complaint. I'm certain her statement wasn't meant to denigrate anybody. It was probably said to inspire other African Americans to aspire to make it to the top. I simply can't understand why people seem to want to 'even the score'. Why not just accept that what Imus said was appalling and racist and leave it at that. I find it hard to see how what Oprah said was racist because it was simply a statement of fact. What Imus said was definitely not.
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At last a human being!
[Read the article: What will be done about James Comey's revelations?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]James Comey is still human, so he stands out like a beacon of light on a very dark night in the Bush administration. He was close to tears when he described the skullduggery of Gonzales and Card. More power to him. All it takes is for one decent human being to stand up and the whole rotten house of 'cards'comes down.
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Michael the Great
[Read the article: "Sicko"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]At the moment Michael Moore appears to be the only honest man in America. That being the case he would of course be an obvious target for the pathological liars who always seem to wind up occupying the White House (or should that be the Grey House, not quite clean these days). My fear is that the Gang of Shits who control America for their profit and amusement will find a way to (a) destroy his reputation or (b) kill him -the way they killed all the others who dared to hold them accountable for their crimes against humanity.
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gossip, gossip, gossip
[Read the article: Beyond the Multiplex]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Can someone get past the makeup and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's relationship and focus? A good man in the prime of life was beheaded because he got too close to finding out just how close the CIA and the Pakistani secret service are to the people they call terrorists. My underststanding is that one of the men arrested and charged with Daniel Pearl's kidnapping and murder has been described as a 'CIA asset'. I'm shocked at the superficial reaction to a movie about two tragedies: the horrible death of Daniel Pearl and the perversion of democracy at the hands of the very people who are supposed to be protecting it.Obviously it's true that people get the government they deserve. I always find it interesting that when famous people like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie try to do good they're mocked and villified by elements of the media and the public and when other celebrities do bad things they're also mocked and villified. A psychologist probably has an explanation for this.