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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Published Letters: 177 Editor's Choice: 10
The blogs were a good idea at first, but I agree with some of the other posters: they too often degenerate into silliness. Snark is the major problem here. War Room was nice for a while, a digest of election-related articles, but on some dry news days it sounds a little too precious. I won't even talk about Broadsheet or VideoDog. Thank God Peter Daou boils the political blogs down for me so I don't actually have to read the damn things.
The no-portal comments also ring true--don't try to embrace the latest blogging trend just to be all things to all people. And, heaven forfed, don't become slashdot! I was surprised by how many slashdotters are coming out of the woodwork here--myself included. But I go to slashdot for the slashdot experience, and I come to Salon for the Salon experience. Goofy in-jokes, friends-fans-foes-freaks, karma whores, geek subculture--that's fine for slashdot, and I like to keep it there. In 1998 I discovered a web magazine that actually had interesting, informative and thought-provoking journalism, which was simply amazing. The in-group subculture was nicely limited to TableTalk and the Well, neither of which I felt interested in reading.
When I go to a journalism site, I like to read edited articles produced by professionals with an ear for language, not the latest home-brew screed. There's plenty of places for screeds on the Web, and sometimes I seek them out. I'd rather not find them on Salon.
Not to get caught up in a what-goes-into-Salon flamewar, but I found this piece to be interesting, thoughtful, thought-provoking, and well-written. Exactly what I'm looking for when I come to Salon. I don't just come for the politics.
It's funny, all during Whitney's reign on the charts (I grew up in the 80's), I never thought of her as black, or white, or brown. She was pop. Just like Janet Jackson, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Tina Turner, Samantha Fox, or any other greater or lesser stars in that universe. To this white boy, race never really entered into it.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about that:
"The diamond allotrope is metastable with respect to the graphitic phase under normal conditions; that is, graphite is thermodynamically favored over diamond (ΔG = −2.99 kJ / mol). However, the rate of conversion from diamond to graphite is extremely slow due to the presence of a large kinetic barrier to this rearrangement. It would take an extremely long time (possibly more than the age of the Universe) for an appreciable amount of diamond to decay into graphite."
I guess a diamond is as close to forever as makes no difference.
Since I came late to the scene, I had to go back and watch the first three seasons of "24" on DVD. It'll suck a lot out of your week, but it's worth it to watch the show in (close to) real-time.
Of course, if you've watched the show since its inception, this might not be as cool as my experience.
It took Dubya to make me actually remember the first George with fondness.
Looks like he's finally pulling the plug on his political career. I hope there are some K Street openings for him.
And it'll be vat-grown protein. Sure, there'll be problems with ramping up production, but from a cost standpoint, there's no comparison. We as a society love cheap meat, and we can't really push living animals much further. Vat-grown protein needs no feedlots, produces no fecal matter, doesn't waste nutrients on eyes, horns or feathers. The process could possibly be sterile from one end to the other. Vat-grown protein will spawn its own set of problems, contaminants and health issues, surely, but for factory food production, this is the wave of the future.
I realize that lots of people react horrifically to the idea of fake chicken and ersatz beef, but if it makes Taco Bell cheaper and safer, most people aren't going to care.
> How many people will be looking out the window
> with the contemplative awe such sights deserve?
You'd probably have to pry me from the window with a crowbar to stop me from looking.
The competence that this administration has always proded itself on has trickled far down the ranks, evidently.
"Our enemies never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
I saw Peter O'Toole first in "Lawrence", of course, and was struck by the weird masculine/feminine blurring in that character. That stuck with my perception of O'Toole for a long time, until I saw "The Lion in Winter", a friend's cult favorite. I was amazed to see how well he played Henry II, a hairy, manly-man character if there was one. I reached a new appreciation for the actor after that.
He's over and done. What a tool. When Sam Brownback isn't happy with your war, the writing's on the wall. Too bad Joe can't read it.
If *only* half the members of the spineless former Congress has opted for that career choice instead of rubberstamping everything President Bush did. I think this might be an insult to shoe salesmen everywhere.
If *only* half the members of the spineless former Congress has opted for that career choice instead of rubberstamping everything President Bush did. I think this might be an insult to shoe salesmen everywhere.
Sorry you missed the glory that was "Heathers", Stephanie. I was one of the teenagers who helped give it "street cred" back in the day, so I suppose I now have to take responsibility for this dud. My bad.
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
