Letters to the Editor
tortoise
Published Letters: 42 Editor's Choice: 4
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Me Too
[Read the article: Undecided '08: Should I vote for Clinton or Obama?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't care about race or gender, and I'm stuck, too.
The Right hates Clinton, of course, and so do the Villagers. And the Villagers love McCain. But it's the Democrat's race to lose in November regardless of which gets the nomination. My pro/con list:
Domestic Policy? Clinton
Foreign Policy (Non-Iraq)? unknown
Foreign Policy (Iraq)? Obama
Debates? Clinton (Barack has been a disappointment here)
Speechy Charisma Stuff? Obama (duh)
Competence? Clinton
Ability to Get Legislation Passed? unknown
Quality of Campaign So Far? Obama
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Simple Test
[Read the article: Paul Krugman criticizes Obama supporters]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Search Google for "Obama movement" (in quotes) and do the same for "Clinton movement". Compare the number of results from the two searches.
Some of us, when we hear a political campaign called a "movement" and see people supporting that campaign repeating the word "unity" too much, we just get a nasty feeling in our gut. It's all got an undertone of fascism to it.
That might be part of what's bothering Krugman.
I am an Obama supporter but I will gladly vote for Hillary if she gets the nomination. I wish they could both win.
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Give Me a Series!
[Read the article: The cure for lame TV]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was just a kid but I remember most of these shows. I rarely missed it. It was so cool and grown-up!
There are lots of good things to say about the show (it handles aging better than anything), but what I like best seeing it now are the bit players and their shameless showboating.
Full 1st season on hulu.com, on the level. The 14th episode is a favorite.
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"Touching"?
[Read the article: The truth about "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He painfully spells out his response to the mother of his children so that she can interpret it to his girlfriend. Bauby's touching reply is that each day he waits for her. At that point, his wounded former partner slams the phone down, and the audience withers with the pain of her rejection.
This scene was extraordinary; for a physically helpless man to have so much power. But I did not find his response "touching". It was a hateful and cruel act toward Céline: Each day I wait for you.
Ech, what a dick, I thought, and checked out emotionally after that scene.
The author's take on it, the choice of that word "touching", nicely reveals her bias toward the "girlfriend" side of the story.
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Government != Commerce
[Read the article: Brand-aid]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's time to kill this beast, this idea that our National Government should somehow mimic a successful mega-corporation. The world of commerce bristles, and rightly so, when government meddles too much in its affairs. However, in the last two decades the shallow and foolish notion that government should pretend to be a corporation has flourished.
Government operates with different objectives and therefore works under different ethics than the world of commerce. There is no reason to pretend one is superior to the other, or that those successful in managing one are automatically suited to the other.
More than a "necessary evil", government is a fundamental element of our civilization, and playing like the Oval Office is a CEO's suite is guaranteed to lead its occupant astray.
I wish these retired executives would just give it a rest. Our government does not need rebranding or any other marketing nonsense. This is lunacy. We just need a leader who knows what s/he's doing and has a non-deranged perspective on the world.
FD: I support Obama.
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"After all, he asks so little of us..."
[Read the article: Seduced by the Dalai Lama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For Western audiences, at least, the message boils down to the equivalent of a Benetton ad: Be nice, live happy.
I find a serious code of ethics in his message. Maybe he does asks a lot of us: to find these things on our own rather than take them from a creed.
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A. M. Cox
[Read the article: Book news and media campaign coverage]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cox's take on the NYT decision to not have representatives attend some prominent social events was revealing. She dismissively laughs when Glenn says yes, that the Times' decision does make him trust the New York Times more.
This socializing between reporters and the people they cover is an enormous problem. Reporters like Cox trivialize the degree of this socializing and insist that it does not affect their coverage. I guess that's because the alternative is to reject this environment, and I get the impression that the preservation of this environment is critical to their social status.
In the last two weeks McCain has demonstrated that he knows less than nothing about the relationships among different groups jockeying for control and/or doing violence in Iraq.
Are those reporters on the McCain bus, the consummate professionals Cox defends, writing about it?
If not, why? Shouldn't they be?
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The "Giant Factory" Solution
[Read the article: Ask Pablo]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Other commenters have written similar things: building grand installations for energy collection is not the way we're going to go. That's a solution born of thinking straight out of the Industrial Revolution, which is what got us into this mess.
As for quantity, we could easily get the energy we need. The first step however is to free ourselves of the outrageous contortions we've gone through to make fossil fuels cheap.
Future civilizations will wonder, why did they go to all that trouble to get oil?
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Abrams
[Read the article: Dick Cheney was never a "grown-up"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Defending Elliott Abrams should not be my job. This is the second time a Salon column has labeled him a convicted felon.
Wikipedia says he made a deal and pled guilty to two misdemeanors, and was never indicted on any felony counts.
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It's Probably An Affair
[Read the article: My husband of 12 years suddenly says he never loved me]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]LW, your husband is reading from the same script everybody uses when they have an affair.
Google "I love you but I'm not in love with you."