Letters to the Editor
Alec Elixir
Published Letters: 90 Editor's Choice: 7
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Carroll on Reagan
[Read the article: Addicted to war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To the editors:
James Carroll is greatly impressed that Reagan went against all his advisors to make peace with Gorbachev. Yet a better president wouldn't have had to, because he wouldn't have surrounded himself with such inept extremists in the first place. (The same applies to JFK.)
Oddly, Carroll doesn't seem to notice the degree to which the Reagan presidency paved the way for the later hawkish policies he deplores. For example, would the current administration be displaying such contempt for the truth, the law and innocent lives if the whole Reagan administration hadn't got away with their Iran-Contra crimes scot-free?
Yours Sincerely,
James J. Matthews
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Learning hard lessons
[Read the article: A kinder, gentler war on terror]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Recent polling data suggests that self-described liberals are far more interested in ending the Iraq war than in pursuing al-Qaida, and that a large proportion of Democrats now oppose not merely the Iraq conflict but also the earlier invasion of Afghanistan. Many American liberals, he concludes, 'no longer see the war on terror as their fight.'"
Considering how the Iraq war has played into al-Qaida's hands, ending it might do as much to undermine them as Washington's inadequate pursuit has. And maybe the new liberal opposition to the Afghanistan invasion comes from the bitter realization that this operation was the intentional thin end of the disastrous Iraq invasion. If liberals no longer see the War on Terror as their fight, that's because they see how counterproductive it's been.
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Re: "the disaster no one can forget"
[Read the article: 9/11 hits TV]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If nobody can forget 9/11, that's because they keep reminding us of it.
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Amen!
[Read the article: Choosing Giles over Wade]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It seems a shame to get rid of China's character system when there's such a vast, fascinating history behind it. I actually started learning Chinese because I liked the characters. The "radical" system is nifty, adding extra meanings to a character. For example, "po" (break) includes the radical for rock: I can just see an ancient Chinese using a rock to break open a clam shell. And "jue" (decide) includes the radical for ice, suggesting the liquidity of deliberation freezing into the solidity of decision.
You know, besides the writing system, Chinese isn't tough in all respects. Its grammar system is fairly simple and straightforward. And in some ways Japanese is harder: there you put a preposition at the end of a clause instead of the beginning.
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The tip of the iceberg
[Read the article: Confucius finally invites women to the party!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Those 1.5 million descendants are just the officially-recognized ones. Almost everyone living in the world today is directly descended from Confucius, and Mohammed, and Caesar Augustus, and Buddha, and almost everyone who had children 1200 years ago or more.
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Another reason they got pregnant
[Read the article: When it comes to abortion, women literally can't afford to wait]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I read somewhere that half of all abortions are cases where they used contraception, but it failed.
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Hey, don't dis SAILOR MOON!
[Read the article: Soaping up superheroes]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The episode where supervillain Neflyte sacrificed himself to save Molly and gained redemption was truly moving.
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No problemo
[Read the article: I love journalism but I hate asking uncomfortable questions]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I love journalism but I hate asking uncomfortable questions."
So become a Washington reporter. :^)
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Centrists?
[Read the article: A bombshell with a long fuse]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Perhaps even more significant is the fact that the authors are a gang of plodding, blue-chip, ultra-mainstream centrists."
Even Edwin Meese?
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The problem isn't the population explosion, it's the consumption explosion
[Read the article: Nine billion or bust!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Gandhi said, "The earth supplies enough for man's need, but not enough for man's greed."
But this problem can be solved. If the world has (say) an oil supply that'll last 108 years at current consumption rates, if we reduce consumption at a consistent 1% a year every year, then the supply will never run out.
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This reminds me of a Cloris Leachman line on the sitcom PHYLLIS
[Read the article: My 13-year-old still believes in Santa Claus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"When I was six years old Daddy told me there was no Santa Claus. For nine months I prayed to God for Daddy to be wrong! Then he told me there was no God."
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It's all in the name of "decency"
[Read the article: Banned performers turn to politics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"When A inconveniences B to protect X, A is a scoundrel"--HL Mencken
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Credibility?
[Read the article: Why Democrats can stop the war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Rick Perlstein worries that "today's only credible antiwar party" (the Democrats) will fail to take "a position to credibly end the war."
Credible is as credible does. If the Democrats won't back a credible policy to end the war, they are not a credible antiwar party.
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King Mongkut
[Read the article: Thailand takes off the gloves]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That's the same Thai King who had the misfortune to hire Anna Leonowens to teach English to his household, and she turned around and wrote two books telling a pack of lies about him. (Princess Tuptim wasn't really put to death, et cetera et cetera...)
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The Rohmer movie title
[Read the article: "I Think I Love My Wife"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wasn't the Rohmer original called CHLOE IN THE AFTERNOON? LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON was a 1957 Billy Wilder movie with Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn.
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Musical propaganda
[Read the article: A neocon primer: Regime change in 18th-century India]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]At London's Victoria & Albert museum of applied art, in the India section there's a cabinet made in Mysore at the time of the war--it has a musical instrument inside--in the form of a statue showing a symbolic tiger pouncing on a British soldier!
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Here's a link to a page on that instrument
[Read the article: A neocon primer: Regime change in 18th-century India]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/asia/object_stories/Tippoo's_tiger/index.html
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How to achieve gun control
[Read the article: Why Democrats dumped gun control]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nationalize the manufacturers and be very choosy about whom you sell guns to. (And nationalize cigarette manufacturers too.)
Be realistic: ask for the "impossible."
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The Republicans got it half right
[Read the article: Last refuge of the scoundrel]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Democrats are appeasers, but it's the White House they're apt to appease.
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We'll never know...
[Read the article: The legend of Rahm]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...whether Dean could have won in 2004. But Kerry's own "electability" turned out to be exaggerated, didn't it? My own feeling is that under Dean, the Democrats would have at least escaped losing four Senate seats.
Anyway, I'd rather have Dean as president, even a struggling one, then Dean as chairman of an opposition party.
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Remember your priorities
[Read the article: A cause they've long ago forgotten]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Impeachment talk, however, is a counterproductive distraction to the real business of getting the Democratic candidates for president up to speed and in fighting shape."
My apologies for thinking that reasserting the rule of law in the United States was more important than putting the Democrats back in the White House.