Letters to the Editor
ELYDOG
Published Letters: 498 Editor's Choice: 43
-
Fundamentalists in Retreat
[Read the article: How to turn white evangelicals into Democrats]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are a flood of 'reasonable' Christians right now trying to rescue the image of 'evangelical' Christianity. Just when the fundamentalist evangelicals are in political retreat and decay across the country, and are splitting on issues. Listen to any dreadful episode of "Speaking of Faith" on NPR and you'll see what I mean.
What really exposes an ideology is the real world, and the real world has been very unkind to political Christians. They have lost evolution fights in Kansas and Ohio. Their political advocates have gone down to electoral defeat across the country in 2006. Their leaders are exposed over and over again as personal hypocrites, interested in money and sex and power while they condemn everyone else for those 'sins.' Their ideology (abstinence for instance) has proved completely ineffective in stopping pregnancy, or in much of anything else. The science of global warming has set them on their heels. Their maximum leader, Bush, has become of the lamest of ducks.
Perhaps instead of catering to these people, we should just tell them the truth. Economics trumps moralistic hokum every time, and eventually 'Jesus' can't get you a job... unless the church hires you, of course. Black people figured this out long ago.
'Render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar's' is a recipe for allowing Ceasar to control the world. In fact, Christianity became the religion of Ceasar for precisely this reason. They made their pact with Imperial Roman power and left persecution behind, and actually became the persecutors. They again have made a pact with 'power' for the last 7 years. What they really have to 'leave behind' is that pact.
-
Science doesn't care what you want to think
[Read the article: The cold truth about climate change]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If global climate change fills the subway tunnels of the NYC transit system with ocean water, all the way up to Wall Street, will the half wits at the WSJ pay attention?
Probably not.
New York had two big rains in the last year that did the same thing. Increased rain in certain locations, of course, is another sign of warming.
Did that affect them?
No.
Is this a rational argument for them? No. It is their ideology, simply put. They can't believe because it argues against the foundation of capitalism, uncontrolled 'growth.' If they believe, they will fly to Kansas, and we can't have that.
-
Nice Legal Theory
[Read the article: Conspiracy theory in the frozen North]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I saw this same legal theory in an article yesterday in Bloomberg, attacking the German car maker Porsche for denying climate change. Porsche wanted to sue mayor Ken Livingston in London for taxes on high carbon vehicles coming into London. Porsche was at the top of the list.
The article basically made the same arguement. Instead of trying to forstall global warming, or making their vehicles more 'green' Porsche stuck out their chin and told everyone to go to hell. As in the Big Tobacco cases, Porsche is setting themselves up for legal claims by not trying to mitigage carbon damage.
So is Exxon, and so is the coal and ethanol industry too, I think.
-
Support Network - None
[Read the article: Welcome to the nuthouse]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This women sounds a bit neurotic. Pick up the crying baby, jeez, maybe it's gas. It's usually gas, so burp the freakin' thing and put it back. Maybe the baby has colic, so give it the 'colic rock' on your arm, stomach down.
If you don't have friends who are just having children, or parents that can or want to help, you don't have a support network. You have to 'hire' help. This country doesn't have a support network. You are on your own. Husband sits at the office while new baby is at home? Husband doesn't monitor baby at night? Upper middle class woman, no doubt. Husband detached.
I can't read anymore...
-
Oil
[Read the article: The cold price of hot blood]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Kamiya notes that the war drove up prices, and points out these authors think that the war was not for 'oil', as the government and oil companies wanted lower prices. At chance.
Actually, has Marx has pointed out, war always destroys the means of production, and so makes products it destroys more valuable. Most people who go to war know that.
The high price has benefitted the oil companies, which form the backbone of Bush's economic support.
"Control" also relates to oil, and miltarily controlling the heart of the oil fields in the middle east is not unrelated.
-
Robbe-Grillet was a great novelist
[Read the article: The man who ruined the novel]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I read everything Robbe-Grillet came out with, and, at the time, it immersed me in a different world. The narrative was twisted into repetition, the objects of the world became smaller, time lengthened, people became quieter, and mysteries were behind every corner and door. Whatever the 'theory', it is the pyschological impact that counts.
Stoned? No. Just good writing. And it was not for 'snobs' or 'intellectuals' only. I was only a kid in college. Robbe- Grillet didn't kill the novel, or the 'experimental' novel, Corporate America did that, along with the astounding lack of cultural diversity and anti-intellectualism in the U.S. The 'masses' had nothing to do with it. Marche's Americo-centric view of Robbe-Grillet is far off.
But then, maybe I am a 'surrender monkey.' Just using that term, in fake jest, shows Marche's criticism is located somewhere around John McCain's politics.
-
Ben Sen hangs ten
[Read the article: The man who ruined the novel]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ben,
Films are more like short stories than novels. They are also a different medium, which can go where novels can't, but also cannot go where novels can. Principally in the depth department.
I always like novels over short stories, as short stories are slight. And many films are slight, just based on their format. It can take many hours to read a decent book, and maybe 3 hours to 'watch' a long flim.
Since many good films are based on novels, you might want to re-think that one. Or maybe not.