Letters to the Editor
had_enough
Published Letters: 814 Editor's Choice: 48
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How could it be otherwise?
[Read the article: Iraq: Why the media failed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Excellent article, Gary.
However, the media that helped to propel Nixon from power was an anomaly. MSM has always been on the side of power. I read this article, and all I could think was "change the year to 1918, and you'd hardly miss a beat."
Had MSM early in this century been doing its job..ie telling the truth to the people, and to power, WWI would have ended long before it did. Instead, media simply lied, and lied, and lied some more, to protect those in power, and the interests of media owners. British media owners were especially egregious in this regard, but US media owners weren't far behind.
In other words..it has been ever thus. Politicians have understood for a very long time that media must be tamed before crony politics can be practiced properly.
I am thankful for the web, and for publications like The New Yorker and Harper's, and others, for staying committed to the job of journalism: telling the truth, supporting that truth with concrete sources, without fear or favor. Without this slender thread of public truth, we would truly be in Orwell's dystopia.. we are all protected from that by a thin line of ink and paper, digits and downlinks, and I am grateful.
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of course the objective data is false...hence, O'Reilly
[Read the article: Memo to Bill O'Reilly: More immigrants equals less crime]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you've followed Bill O'Reilly's career at all, it's patently obvious that he is in the business of reinforcing the beliefs--true or false, doesn't matter--of his target demographic. He claims to speak for the unwashed blue-collar american. The working-class. And as part of that schtick, he reinforces the beliefs of these Wallace and Reagan democrats, regardless of whether those beliefs are fantasy, or not.
Bill is a cheerleader for the beliefs of a certain kind of american, and if those beliefs are a complete load of bullshit, Bill could not care less. His job, his success, and his money all depend on him reinforcing the beliefs of his target demo. Period.
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another truth no-one wants to think about..
[Read the article: Memo to Bill O'Reilly: More immigrants equals less crime]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The long crisis of the 21st Century has only just begun as the era of cheap energy draws to a close and we should develop strategies for reducing population gradually and humanely. Restricting immigration is one of the most effective methods of accomplishing this.
-- futhark
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Futhark is right. The resource pie has gotten bigger in the last 30 years in North America, a lot bigger, but at the expense of pillaging the rest of the world, putting ourselves in seemingly permanent hock to the Chinese, and making ourselves dangerously dependent on imported energy from parts of the world that could go up in flames at any time.
And even at that, the number of people wanting a piece of the pie has far surpassed the rate of growth of the pie.
You keep that up too long, people start to fight over the pie. Pretty simple math.
If we were smart, as a nation, we'd cut off ALL immigration, of any kind, for a year. Then we'd do like Australia and New Zealand do: you get to come to the United states only if you have an advanced degree, and/or a LOT of money.
'Course, there are quite a few native-born Americans I wouldn't mind putting on some rapidly melting ice floe in the arctic, but, most unfortunately, that's not allowed.
Still, in all seriousness, Futhark is right. If we don't get serious about limiting our population, we're gonna be very, VERY sorry..especially in places like Southern California.
But, then, right-wingers in our great country couldn't care less about SoCal. They'd just as soon see it go up in flames. Interesting problem, isn't it? I'd suggest that's one reason among many that nothing has been done about illegal immigration: the areas affected most are predominently blue, so the GOP couldn't care less about it. And, of course, their pals in business love the way immigrants drive down wages.
I know! When we start putting people on rapidly-melting ice-floes, let's start with anyone in the GOP! An excellent start!
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yup, we sure showed the Taliban...
[Read the article: In other words]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...and now the Taliban bids fair to take over the country again at some point..or keep it in a state of permanent civil war, all because we didn't do the job there the way it should have been done at the start.
Jesus H. Christ. Our Prez is an unmedicated, ADD'd, coke-head, frat-boy who is just about incapable of making himself understood, and, from all the evidence, has a completely tin-ear in most public situations. I keep telling myself he's talking to his Base. And I know he is. I know that. But what does it say about his Base if this is how he talks to it?
George Sr.'s and Bab's eldest son will go down in history as a frank catastrophe for the country, and the world. I wonder if he has any idea at all that this will be his legacy. Probably not. Gah. The next two years cannot go by fast enough..unless of course, by some trifecta of evil, Rudy Giuliani is elected Prez. Then we can all kiss our asses goodby.