Letters to the Editor
Amity
Published Letters: 1114 Editor's Choice: 106
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LBS on simplicity and hurling insults
[Read the article: Schumer: Arrogance or impotence?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... the multinational control of the media has served to render these people invisible.
The mainstream corporate press is beside the point. I'm talking about Salon's own editorial stance — one broadly shared by other traditional liberal news organs like The Nation, and by liberals in general and particularly, in my personal experience, intellectuals and those in the professional civil service — which guardedly opposed the Bush regime's policies at the same time that it shied away from radical notions like impeachment or even simple a priori rejection of the Bush agenda over the years. Salon's Michelle Goldberg mocked the foolishness of war protesters during the runup to the invasion of Iraq, and then had the temerity years later to state that nobody could have predicted the debacle that the American occupation had become. Liberal thinkers and writers here and elsewhere continue to articulate this view even now: "Look what's coming to light! If only there were some way we could have known!"
Don't get me wrong — this is hardly a sin of which I regard Salon as particularly guilty. As you may have noticed we both support the magazine with money as well as time. In fact I bother to write letters to the editor here because I think they have a chance of making some difference, however small, and because I have a well-founded faith in Salon's ability to undertake courageous, independent reporting and analysis.
And though I like to hurl insults at Salon's editors in my letters, I'd certainly count them on the side of 'doing good for our nation.'
This would make me laugh if it weren't a personal attack on me. I doubt that any criticism I have to offer, however bold, pales by comparison to the actual insults that Salon's editors surely receive with the regularity and predictability of the tide.
But in the spirit of constructive engagement, to regard my original comment as the mere hurling of invective it stands to reason that you must see no merit to my assertions. Can you elaborate? Where am I substantively wrong?
As for doing good for the nation, that again is beside the point. I'm talking about doing good for liberal thought, upon which (I believe) the good of the nation ultimately depends.
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Is that the Internet's fault?
[Read the article: The Internet is making us stupid]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A central problem, Sunstein argues, is that Americans now think of themselves more as consumers than as citizens.
This is an excellent characterization but it has nothing to do with the internet. In fact, internet culture has done a great deal to counteract the monolithic quality of the traditional news media. Whatever view one might take of their politics, there is a general consensus across the American political spectrum that the mainstream media all say the same thing, whether or not it has any basis in fact. (And that the right-wing noise machine, or the right-thinking patriots of Fox News and its ilk if you want to be fair and balanced, all says its own, and different, same thing.)
So why didn't the interviewer ask Sunstein to explain his particular focus on the internet?
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My Next Computer
[Read the article: Once and for all, proof that Macs are cheaper than PCs]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Over the years I've gone back and forth between using Macs and Windows PCs, depending on my work. Most recently it's been Windows, but I've really enjoyed my encounters with OS X, and it's been great seeing Apple return to producing good systems based on superior design.
So I was sold long ago — my next computer will be a Mac! I've been certain of this for a while, and I look forward to my purchase.
... in about 3 years. See, the thing is, I haven't bought a new computer in quite a while, and I expect it will be a while before I do. Why should I ditch the tools that are already working for me? So if Apple is still doing as good a job sometime into the early 2010s, they'll have a new customer.
I can't imagine my attitude is unusual, and it has nothing to do with resale value.