Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 146 Editor's Choice: 12
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If we don't make fundamental change, we will be gone with the wind
[Read the article: Gone with the wind]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What practically no one is willing to say about mitigating the effects of global warming is the imperative for living with less, or at least not having more. We will have less, whether willingly or not, so we might consider changing our economic system to a Steady State economy. We might consider having fewer people in a sane, orderly fashion, rather than through wars, mass murder, and climate-caused natural disasters.
Instead, the argument is confined to the "need" to have cleaner energy that allows for expansion of economic output forever. Good luck. What this feeble attitude reveals is an intellectual cowardice, a conventional wisdom that dares not consider the only real option that we have: to change fundamentally the way we live on this planet.
Al Gore provided a start, a first breakthrough in facing our common predicament. But he is a dedicated growth forever advocate. Now we need someone of similar stature to take the next step, and to expose the growth fallacies that keep us headed in a suicidal direction. Herman Daly has for decades made the case for a steady state economy, but no one listens. It would take someone on the level of pope or president to make the issue part of the public consciousness.
Since this is not likely to happen any time soon, the consequences of infinite growth will get more serious. The planet is not able to support infinite growth of output, and won't. We will have lower output, a lower population, and a sustainable relationship with the ecosystem one way or the other. I prefer doing it the easy way, but the hard way is almost inevitable. The controlling elites on this planet are too greedy and cowardly to face the situation. Maybe Salon can start talking it up. Herman Daly is pretty easy to find. He's at the University of Maryland.
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The snowball effect
[Read the article: How Iran played the hostage "crisis"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This incident is a perfect example of how easy it is to defeat the Bush criminal organization. Being a criminal organization, the gang is entirely predictable. They will always look for a criminal opportunity, regardless of the situation.
The Iranians know this, and outsmarted the Bush gang, easily finessing the propaganda attempts at demonizing them. Even the "U.S." mainstream media couldn't put this Humpty Dumpty together again, though not for want of trying.
What will be amusing, though risky, from here on out, will be to watch how the Bush crime family becomes increasingly desperate as their criminal plans keep failing. At some juncture, critical mass will have been reached, and free-fall will ensue.
The key factor in all this is the military. At what point will the senior leadership have had enough of being suckered, scammed, played for chumps and used, and decide that enough is enough. All of the military academies, the Citadel, VMI, Texas A&M, OCS, and ROTC stress duty, honor, and country throughout their training. Surely there is some remnant of that training in the upper echelons, and eventually it will awaken from its dormancy.
The momentum of the planet is against the BCF, and it is building daily. We can help that momentum build by relentless, continuous pressure. Justice delayed is not justice denied. It's only a postponement.
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Jerks in a circle
[Read the article: Iraq: Why the media failed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First, a grammatical correction. The word media is the plural of medium. So a medium of mass communication would be a newspaper. "The media" is a generalization for the variety of means of communication: radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, movies, and even music. Saying "Why did the media fail so disastrously in its response to the biggest issue of a generation?" is referring to the plural as singular. It detracts from the quality of the work.
Otherwise, this is a great analysis. The mix of factors is pretty accurately represented. It's hard to say which is the most odious, but the hands-in-each-others'-pants nature of Washington journalism is probably the one that is most worthy of condemnation. What is likely to go down as the watershed, or benchmark, or hologram for egregious co-mingling of journalists with political operatives is the recent appearance of NBC's David Gregory as part of Karl Rove's hip-hop group, all in great admiring fun, at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner. The formerly "crusading" Gregory revealed his true allegiance: himself, his career, his access, and his presence on TV, the modern day validater of existence.
The circle-jerk relationship between the established media and the power elites will not end any time soon, but neither will the problems they exacerbate. Propaganda will not make global warming go away. Propaganda will not make the rest of the planet love everything "America" does. Propaganda will not solve the budget, immigration, terror, race, economic inequality, pollution, or personal freedom problems. At some point, bullshit will have to give way to truth. Let's hope it is before the country is destroyed.