Letters to the Editor
WeikuBoy
Published Letters: 487 Editor's Choice: 62
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Idolaters!
[Read the article: Bill Donohue and the big chocolate Jesus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not that I really care. (They're the ones going to hell.) Still, it would be nice if these militant catholics and evangelical christians could stop trying to impose their bizarre superstitions on an educated world long enough to actually READ their bible. And yes, the idiot Florida congressman who sought to require display of the ten commandments but was unable to name any more than three or four of them on Colbert is classic, and really does say it all.
Hey look! The virgin Mary just appeared on a potato skin in rural Kansas!
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A; Oh Yeah, They Can't (and Don't)
[Read the article: Rehabilitating Rove]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Q: How do those celebrity journalists party down with people like Rove and Bush Jr., then the following day report truthfully, no matter how inconvenient it is to their GOP friends?
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U.S. Corporate Media's Best Week Ever
[Read the article: Observations about John Harris' replies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Junior Bush's favorable singling out of Politico told me all I needed to know about it. But two other related occurrences during this past week were particularly disturbing:
1. David Gregory and Brian Williams frollicking on stage with Rove and Bush Jr. at this year's Colbert-less White House Stenographers Dinner. Really, how are these celebrity journalists supposed to party down with so-called republicans (who hate the republic), and then go back to reporting the truth about the GOP''s corruption, incompetence, and lies? Oh yeah, they can't (and don't, and never have).
2. Richard Wolffe, whom Glenn has previously criticized, appeared on 'Countdown' and regurgitated word for word the GOP party line. To wit: the Dems MUST get serious and "fund the troops" very quickly, or else be blamed for "losing the war." It apparently never occurred to Wolffie that Bush-Cheney ought to start listening to We the People and end their disastrous occupation of Iraq.
Seriously, the main lesson of the Internet Age is that talented outsiders do a much better job of seeing clearly and reporting truthfully than do the pals of Rove and Bush Jr.
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A Plea to Glenn's Loyal Followers
[Read the article: Observations about John Harris' replies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I resent taking the time to write what I consider to be a well-crafted letter concerning one of Glenn's thought-provoking columns -- only to have my letter instantly relegated to page 10 of 20 (eg) because some inconsiderate jackass decided to bury it beneath multiple pages of third-party material cut and pasted ad nauseum. While I generally enjoy the letters of my fellow readers, please remember that your particular posts are not the reason I am here.
1. If you can't make your point in three or four concise paragraphs (at most), then perhaps your thinking is not as clear (or as entertaining) as you imagine it to be.
2. A link and/or short quote from a third-party source is sufficient. If I want to read more, I will follow your link. But multiple pages cut and pasted is very annoying.
Look, I realize Glenn's blog serves as a de facto chat room and surrogate life for a small group of his pre-Salon audience which posts to and for each other all day long (literally); but can't you guys and gals allow Salon's general audience some little space in which to have a serious discussion before you take over and start running the letter tallies into the multiple hundreds with the stuff that is of interest (if at all) only to you?
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The Facts of Liberal Bias
[Read the article: Observations about John Harris' replies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A letter much earlier in this thread stayed with me and struck me as profound -- so much so that I had to go back and find it today. I know facts are anathema to the Authoritarian Right, and therefore serious news channels (BBC and CNN International) are the true opposites of Faux News and the Echo Chamber. I know MSNBC and U.S. CNN assist Bush-Cheney by distracting America with the Missing White Woman and Meaningless Celebrity Court Case of the Month But it wasn't until Paul Rosenberg's "Sorry Glenn but the Facts are Partisan" that I was able to take the final step and see clearly that serious fact-based news providers (to the extent they still may be found in the U.S.) are indeed partisan, in the Bush-Cheney "if you're not with us you're against us" sense. By daring to report the facts such providers are actively defying the Neverland world view and acting as "liberal" partisans in an Orwellian '1984'-ish sense. To the Angry Authoritarian Right, GOP propaganda is truth, and the truth has become Lib/Dem propaganda. Very scary.
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The Fundamentals of Idolatry
[Read the article: A depressing victory for Bill Donohue]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]World Religions 101: Islam forbids the use of religious images; and this prohibition has been so strictly enforced that Islamic art is devoid of all depictions of any human beings. Muslims are violently offended by ANY images of their prophet Mohammed, not merely those by infidels or which are intended or deemed to be derogatory to their religion.
Christianity also forbids the use of icons; however, this prohibition generally has not been enforced. Personally, I have been shocked at the idol worshipping I witnessed on my few visits to Catholic churches here and abroad; and I believe this was one of the complaints against the decadence of the Renaissance-era church that resulted in Protestantism.
It is silly and frankly ignorant for militant Catholics to compare their own "outrage" over this Chocolate Jesus to the protests that would result from a similar image of Mohammed. The Catholic League is objecting only to the irreverence it imagines, not to the sculpture itself, just as the faithful protested Scorcese's 'Last Temptation' yet flocked to Gibson's "Passion'. They are not against idolatry; they merely want to control the idolatry of others.