Letters to the Editor
-Mona-
Published Letters: 915 Editor's Choice: 1
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About the militai motif
[Read the article: The fun and excitement of civilization wars (fought from afar)]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glenn posted:
Over the past couple decades, prior to the Bush Era, the people who needed the sort of psychological fulfillment that comes from prancing around as Hofstadterian faux-warriors waging Civilization Wars obtained their fulfillment from playing board and video games or, at worst, dressing up on the weekend in camouflage costumes and -- rather than playing golf or going fishing -- marched around in militia formations, primed to defend the nation from Janet Reno and her squadrons of hovering U.N. black helicopters. It was equally pathetic, but at least the damage was minimal.
Back then I was very critical of Reno, and the Waco obscenity in particular. But my saying so, for those who knew I identified as a libertarian, invariably brought accusations that I spent my weekends in camouflage, face painted accordingly, playing war games in a Michigan woods.
In reality, I wore Nine West heels and Jones of New York suits, and wouldn't have been caught dead romping with the militia loons. I agree with Glenn's point, but it was and is possible to have objected to some of Reno's policies without being a nut.
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@Kasimira
[Read the article: The fun and excitement of civilization wars (fought from afar)]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I imagine writers from Taslima Nasreen in India to Salman Rushdie in Britain, from hapless cartoonists in Denmark to police-protected human rights activists and politicians in the Netherlands, and finally to teenage girls slowly bleeding to death in the back seat of a Texas taxi, know very well how distinct ideas can be, and the price you can pay for them.
I agree with you completely, and am outraged at what has befallen Rushdie and the Danish cartoonists. But how does that undermine anything in Glenn's post(s)? There are some Arab states where Islamic law renders life hellish, and a few Muslim immigrants to the U.S. don't leave their barbarisms in their country of origin. But how is the solution making war on every Muslim country or demonizing all of Islam?
Muslims are not some homogenous mass. The vast, vast majority in the U.S. acclimate to our laws and constitutional values.
Muslims are not going to Kill Us All, and while certain of them are depraved in their political/religious agenda, they are not nearly uniformly so. Female genital mutilation in some Arab states will not be solved by bombing the bejeesus out of Muslim countries.
In any event, scare-mongering about the *exaggerated* threat of certain Muslims to the *United States* serves only to sustain Perpetual War and erosion of civil liberties in the U.S. To realize these things is not to deny the very awful practices in some Muslim nations.
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Glenn, what about the Oregon case?
[Read the article: The courts and Congress affirmatively conceal and protect lawbreaking]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Is that not still alive? The defendants in that case know -- because of a govt screw-up in discovery -- that they were subjected to the warrantless eavesdropping, and so overcome the standing hurdle.
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The Fox Video...
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]especially amusing because after the young man shocks (shocks!) with his accusation that the station is a "festival of ignorance" and that there are a million dead in Iraq, they segue to an inane Star Trek piece with short-outfitted young women who are to meet Captain Kirk.
The whole thing is emblematic of everything that is wrong with our news outlets, not just Fox -- tho it is by far the worst.
Are their no more missing white girls in Aruba or runaway brides to transfix the nation?
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Bless you, WT
[Read the article: Obama shows that dismissing slimy right-wing attacks is not difficult]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Identity politics are a dead end, either for white or black folk, let alone for all the other colors and genders, as well as the multicolored and gendered among us. Coalitions are what make political power; splintered coalitions are the first sign of failing power. The Democrats learned this in the Seventies. The Republicans -- Lord willing -- are about to learn it in the Oughts.
First, I'm a tepid Obama supporter. But I do not regard him as the Political Messiah, tho I guess many do.
But for god's sakes, this thread has deteriorated into abject nonsense and bullspit about race and elections, as well as baseball(!).
Look, racism is never going to go. Human beings are hardwired by evolution to fear the Other, and to act in tribes. It takes enormous thought, education and introspection to significantly ameliorate that in almost any individual.
Add in American whites who want to be perceived as non-racist but would never live in heavily black neighborhoods for one reason: crime, and you have an explosive situation that no one wants to discuss out in the open -- blacks and whites mostly discuss this dynamic only in their separate enclaves. Any honest discussion of race would entail addressing this pervasive white fear, but most whites are afraid they will be ostracized for even admitting they hold their fear.
But Obama somehow manges to transcend that dynamic, as Jesse Jackson never could. I'm positively shocked at the number of whites in my conservative area who are in the tank for Obama, yet who would would slash their wrists before moving to the closest city that is 75% black.
Race in America is very complicated, but the next election is not. Obama is, in my view, the best roll of the dice. And his pigmentation aside -- as well as some serious problems in poor, black American culture, and white inability to understand what a legacy of slavery and Jim Crow may have done to engender it -- that is why I'm voting for him.
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"Mona, and anyone else who perhaps doesn't get it"
[Read the article: Obama shows that dismissing slimy right-wing attacks is not difficult]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I "get" it. But Kitt, look, have you noticed how often a bright guy such as yourself ends up in sophomoric, insult-laden "arguments" with quite a few others?
Me, I just usually ignore the ones who bait me (and libertarian-baiting is a favorite blood sport here for some), and kick myself the few times I instead have perpetuated a degradation of the discussion.