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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
leftistgadfly
Published Letters: 249 Editor's Choice: 11
The title of this article must have been suggested by the editors of the Weekly Standard. Why is Salon going out of its way to tarnish a word associated with the contemporary Left? Most bad policy initiatives seem "progessive" at the time -- should we try to take credit for all of them? Are we going to see an article about Iraq titled "Progressive Warfare"?
Sandra is of course correct that the word fits the times. In those days, everyone and their uncle was a "progressive", much in the way that politicians of all stripes embrace "reform" today. It is naive, however, not to look at the word in a contemporary context also. Today it has a left-wing connotation.
Words are the weapons of politics. Salon is an unabashedly left-leaning journal. It is appropriate for Salon to expose embarrassing episodes in US history, regardless of the political affiliations of the bad actors. It is another thing, however, to "spin" them in a way that would gratify the editors of the Wall Street Journal.
Consider the words of Robert Frost, "A liberal is a man too broad minded to take his own side in a quarrel."
Before we bash the Unitarians, remember that the oldest, most conservative Christian church of them all was caught moving around priests who molested children. Now THAT is freaky.
Steve Nash should not be the MVP. Period. There is no statistical analysis that indicates that he should be the MVP, unless we simply decide that whoever gets the most assists is the MVP.
You can say that Suns would have won 20 fewer games without Nash, but that is a guess, not an observation about reality. And if we are going to play that games, where would the Lakers be without Kobe Bryant? Nowhere.
The argument that he improved over last years stats is bogus because scoring has increased all over the league.
Maybe in the future the NBA should simply have a category for "Most Valuable Player with Intangible Qualities Related to Being White", or simply "Most Valuable White Player". Then they can give Nash an award every year without compromising the integrity of the MVP award.
wstander -- Showing that Nash leads in assists and free throws percentage does not make him the MVP. I guess I should have written, "There is no statistical analysis that indicates that he should be the MVP, unless we simply decide that whoever gets the most assists and/or has the highest free throw percentage is the MVP." My bad.
But since you bring it up, Kobe scored nearly three times as many points on free throws this season as Nash: 696 vs. 257. Bryant leads in this category. And it is not like he gets fouled a lot because he has a low percentage. As you note, he is an 85% free throw shooter.
Cohen must be hoping for a gig at the Wall Street Journal. I have read this exact argument, namely that random angry people are going to keep the Democrats from winning, literally dozens of times at OpinionJournal. It doesn't really bother me, because the more conseratives believe this reasoning the more complacent they will be.
"Youth is wasted on the young."
John Edwards did not introduce the subject of Mary Cheney's sexuality at the veep debate; Gwen Ifill did. If Mary Cheney didn't want people to talk about the subject, she should have dropped an F-bomb on Ifill.
What Edwards said was, "Now, as to this question, let me say first that I think the vice president and his wife love their daughter. I think they love her very much. And you can't have anything but respect for the fact that they're willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter, the fact that they embrace her. It's a wonderful thing. And there are millions of parents like that who love their children, who want their children to be happy."
Gee, what a mean, conniving SOB!
When my workplace got a Mac "Cube" (the one that made the computer press coo because it didn't have one of those silly fans), a sort-of-engineer I knew, who was actually a Mac lover, predicted that it would overheat and crash frequently. He was right.
Why Apple designers have trouble with these basic principles of thermodynamics is beyond me. I guess they figure if it looks pretty everyone will be happy.
Has anyone coined this word yet? It seems appropriate. Mac lovers sure seem to put up with a lot. Like that engineer I mentioned who predicted that the Mac Cube would overheat. He seemed to think that it was the customer's fault for not realizing that it was just meant to look pretty and not actually be used.
I guess Mac users really buy them out of love... and you know what they said about love.
If it works, this drug will give a big advantage to older, homelier, wealthier men compared to young, handsome, penniless men when it comes to attracting women. The reason: the drug could make a plain-looking man seem attractive (or at least screwable), but no drug has been invented that makes a poor man seem wealthy.
So the French are sexually liberated and enjoy getting it on more than Americans? Gee, where have I heard that before. Maybe every movie made about France for at least the past fifty years.
Seriously, this hoary theory is so old and tired that if it was a penis it would need a Viagra just to achieve mild tumescence. I suppose your next headline will be "Jerry Lewis: Beloved in France".
Do the French own refrigerators? By Rapaille's logic (as quoted below) they must hate and fear whatever it is that they put in their refrigators. Unless they only use them to store things that are indisputably dead. Like, say, rocks.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
