Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 413 Editor's Choice: 9
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geez
[Read the article: Barack Obama delivers make-or-break speech on race]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]if i had to apologize for every time a rabbi said something i disagreed with regarding israel and the palestinians and i just sat there and didn't jump and argue, i'd never get elected president.
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my acceptance speech
[Read the article: Say it ain't so, David Paterson]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]ladies and gentlemen, thank you for putting this trust in me.
with that in mind, i would like to now apologize for any extramarital affairs i may or may not have had, which i do or do not now remember, whether heterosexual or homosexual in nature, including any temporary bouts with pedophilia. similarly, if i ever patronized a prositute, whether knowingly or unknowingly, i now apologize. also, although i do not recall murdering anyone, if i did, i not only do not deny it, but heartily regret it. and if i ever accidentally started a war in a foreign country and got us entangled, i apologize.
thank you for your understanding.
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How much do we really want to know about the sex lives of our political leaders?
[Read the article: Another day, another sex scandal]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Duh, everything. That was Clinton's big sin; wouldn't share the details.
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well it depends
[Read the article: I'm (not) in love with a stripper]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]if he just got a black eye, then obviously he should just grin and bear it.
but if he had to get medical treatment, then all of a sudden it's nontrivial. actually, i'm surprised it's not his insurer trying to sue the club.
and the real idiots here are the strip club; when any kind of business has somebody injured on the premises, for any reason, no matter how trivial, you fall over yourself bending backwards (how's that for a metaphor?) to pay for it and make them happy, if you intend to remain insured in the future.
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hmmm
[Read the article: Charlie Rose suffers black eye in saving MacBook Air]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]how much do we know about who was that guy who sued the stripper because she kicked him in the eye?
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you kidding me?
[Read the article: The crash in Republican economics ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]after the tax cuts got a 180 degree makeover from the cure for an overheated economy to the cure for a recession, you're asking if the trickledown freemarket smallgovernment notaxes faithful might rethink things? yeah, "next time, we need MORE tax cuts and LESS regulation!"
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crazy uncles
[Read the article: The difference between Jeremiah Wright and radical, white evangelical ministers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]black folks have to let them become ministers, since they can't elect them to congress or the senate like white folks do.
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part of interview which was censored
[Read the article: "You don't care what the American people think?"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]RADDATZ: Two-thirds of Americans say the US sucks now.
CHENEY: So.
RADDATZ: So? You don't care what the American people think?
CHENEY: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls. There has in fact been fundamental change and transformation and degradation for the worse. That's a huge accomplishment.
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ahh yes
[Read the article: Quote of the day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]and these are the people obama is going to reach across the aisle to and heal the divisions.
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who indeed
[Read the article: Five years of Iraq lies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I thought Pres. Bush's speech was his best yet. I, along with millions and millions of other americans stand by him for yes, the ideaology. Not the oil, not the oil money but the notion that if it is not america that spreads freedom, then who?"
well we're spreading death. does that count?
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church vs religion
[Read the article: Thinking weaselish thoughts at Eastertide]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Well, at least in "heartland America" going to church has nothing to do with belief. Not belief in God anyway; maybe belief in the American secular religion of fitting in and so on. In those nooks and crannies where you're a questionable character if you don't go to church every Sunday, they don't give a damn (ha) if you believe in God and never sin, or if you lie and cheat and swear and drink and whore around and make a living by robbing widows and orphans, as long as you show up in church on Sundays, you're reliably part of the community. If you doubt it, look at how many of the various robber barons of contemporary America were devout churchgoers, as is always expressed at their trials for defrauding millions of pensioners of their life savings.
Of course, to get the crowds in, the churches have had to dumb down their message into a fairy tale so people don't have to take it seriously. It's a revelation (ha again) to read the writings of the great religious figures of the past, from St. Augustine to Rashi, and see how far beyond the current status of religious thought in America they were, and realize how shunned they would be for voiding attitudes like "religious belief must not conflict with either common sense or the discoveries of science".
Basically, the religion we give our kids serves to inoculate them, the way a mild case of pox will make you immune from a serious case of it later in life. We lump Jesus in with Santa and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny and kids feel dumb if they're caught later on in life believeing in any of them. (Jewish kids don't get Jesus, of course, they just get a more diffuse Biblical narrative). We tell the kids that God will answer their prayers; then when it doesn't happen the kid has to figure out who's at fault; him, or God. If the kid's too young to have a grown up understanding of why people pray, at least don't fib to him.
Maybe it's all for the best. Not everybody seems equipped to try and wrestle with the vast theological questions, and certainly the last thing we need is more adults who take the fairy tale version of religions seriously, for any religion.
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you can't tell a rightwinger anything
[Read the article: Scooter Libby disbarred]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Bill Clinton was not disbarred; his Arkansas license was suspended for 5 years. And he was not convicted of perjury; he was fined for civil contempt."
a decade later, and they still cling to falsehoods about documented historical events. coming soon "and the clinton administration trashed the white house when they left, really, no fib"
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as chris rock says
[Read the article: Would Americans elect a woman president?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]but after 8 years of bush, 99% would not again vote for a white man.