Letters to the Editor
The Professor
Published Letters: 421 Editor's Choice: 26
-
Disrespecting the powerful vs. disrespecting the powerless
[Read the article: Selective defenders of free expression]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I haven't seen anyone make this distinction, so I'll try. I have a personal "I wish they hadn't said that" reaction when someone says something that demeans/disrespects a group that is powerless/marginalized within a given society. That is the problem I had with the Mohammed cartoons: the intent of them was to mock/disrespect a marginal, powerless group (within Europe). Such speech obviously shouldn't be illegal or censored, but I hold it against someone when they do it. Ditto in the US for speech that demeans women, immigrants, Jews, Asians, etc. What Griffin did was mock the beliefs of a nearly all-powerful majority (99% of our political leaders are devout Christians), and that to me is fine. Critiquing the powerful isn't just a right, it's nearly a responsibility. It's interesting that Donahue's stance is the opposite: it is BECAUSE most Americans are Christian that Christianity shouldn't be mocked (classic authoritarian stance). So presumably, then, he would support the converse: only minority groups should be demeaned/mocked.
-
The last time you ran this picture...
[Read the article: A setback in Anbar]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... there was a discussion about the look of panic in Sattar's eyes. I suggested you give him a though-balloon saying, "I'm so screwed right now." So yes, 'out team' was again correct about what's going on in Iraq. As Tiberius would say, when will our terrible reign of correctness end?
-
Yep.
[Read the article: Fox and the White House]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Kelly: Big shoes to fill.
Perino: Yes.
Clown shoes always are.
-
@caiubi
[Read the article: Jamie Kirchick's fantasies of the grave Muslim threat]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think you'd like The Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff. Sacreligious, profane, dirty, funny, but makes Jesus out to be a pretty cool guy. (Christopher Moore)
-
Yes, there is a conspiracy
[Read the article: Clinton, Petraeus and MoveOn: Giuliani smells a rat]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just about everyone in the 'reality based community' is out to get you and Bush. Coincidence?
-
So there's this little thing...
[Read the article: Know your rights: The Kerry Taser incident]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]called 'civil disobedience.' You may have heard of it. People sit somewhere, protest, chant, and refuse to move along when asked. They may go limp when cuffed and lifted to a paddy-wagon. Being 'tasered' is not the normal police response (or water cannons, or dogs, any more). To say that anyone not obeying a police officer 'deserves to be tasered' takes us back to 60's Alabama. Police use of force has to be responsive to the threat level, not simply disobedience.
-
Dear god this plan looks horrible
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton's healthcare 2.0]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My primary complaint about our current healthcare industry is its complexity: the layers of accounting bureaucracy as you enter a clinic/hospital, the tons of THIS IS NOT A BILL/THIS IS A BILL that flood my mailbox every time I go to a doctor. Nothing she proposes will touch this, and could in fact make it much worse by expecting people to keep track of this paper-flow to use when jumping in a larger river of tax-deduction paper. While hospital corporations and insurance companies continue to make their insane profits.
-
This plan is the 'clintonism' at its worst
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton's healthcare 2.0]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Bill Clinton perfected this 'strategy': stake out a right-of center policy (eg. welfare reform, gays in miltary, DOMA, etc. etc.) and get rewarded by having the right label it "left-wing," therefore pulling the center dramatically to the right. With this move by Hillary Clinton, 'single-payer' has now moved from the center (polls show a majority of Americans supporting it when it is carefully explained to them) to being a far-left pipe-dream. What used to be a right-wing idea is now already being called 'socialized medicine' simply because it's coming from Hillary. The Clinton touch is poison to any true progressive policy debate.
-
Oooh - I love the 'future Bush fantasy' game!!
[Read the article: Bush's stairway to paradise]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I side with those who want to see him a broke and homeless street bum, hated by his wife and children (accompanied only his dog, who doesn't like him much either, but enjoys the food scraps people throw at his master). Then I see ex-presidents Carter and Obama working together to build him a house somewhere. On Mars.
-
In other words...
[Read the article: "I'm the C student, and just look at who's the president"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I got myself an A in assholery.
-
Should airline passengers be allowed to carry weapons on board?
[Read the article: Giuliani: 9/11 helped change my views on gun control]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Of course, because having to use box-cutters to hi-jack a plane is so stupid. They're almost useless! Terrorists would much rather be able to use guns, like in the good-old days.
-
Is Israel a European country?
[Read the article: Giuliani's proposal for endless Middle East wars on behalf of Israel ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That is the core question. The notion that Israel is a European colony within the middle east has been the founding principle of those opposed to the existence of Israel since 1948. The notion that Israel as not a colony but an experiment in hope - that a multi-ethnic country of Jews and Arabs could exist in the middle east - will be dead if Israel joins NATO because the issue goes back to colonialism: is it right or wrong for there to be a European colony in the middle east? Middle Easterners (and anti-colonialists everywhere) will always answer that question in the negative.
-
Way to go KitchenGirl
[Read the article: Is Star Simpson's "fake bomb" just an art jacket?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But you should probably just let Anonymous Fascist be. You're gonna give youself an ulcer. Those who are eager to lock up/taser/shoot eccentrics who make them feel uncomfortable aren't worth the time.
-
The Iranians are sending weapons into Iraq!
[Read the article: Turning Ahmadinejad into public enemy No. 1]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Good thing we don't do that sort of thing.
They're also sending in adviors!
Good thing we... oh, you get the idea. The difference between what the Iranians are doing in Iraq and what the US is doing, is that the Iraqis generally seem to want the Iranians there. Either there will be never-ending war in that part of the world, or Iraq will become a full and friendly ally of Iran. Guess which option our right-wing seems to prefer?
Oh, and the 'anonymous' who's repeatedly posting reminds me of an old and predictable Salon troll, RealName, who seems to have gone underground.
-
@typesbad
[Read the article: Lee Bollinger's big moment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, all these people are making Ahmadinejad look reasonable, which isn't easy to do. Protesters claim they don't want Ahmadinejad spewing his 'hate,' when Bollinger boils over with it. Bollinger has the nerve to call him an intellectual coward? Who's speaking to 'the enemy' on their home turf? Every criticism I've ever seen leveled at Iran, valid though it may be, pales in comparison to what can be said about Saudi Arabia. A dictatorship? Treatment of women and homosexuals? Yet, when was the last time there were mass protests when the Saudi crown prince was visiting? Oh yeah, they're 'our brave friends.'
-
Hmm.
[Read the article: The math is fuzzy, but Bush knows the answer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Is Bush taking it for granted that Clinton is going to be the next president?
Well that's interesting in and of itself.