Letters to the Editor
Margalis
Published Letters: 614 Editor's Choice: 16
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Church and State
[Read the article: The Ron Paul phenomenon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ron Paul's ideas about the separation of church and state and his claim that the US was founded as a Christian nation are so wrong and deceptive, that they should preclude him from being elected president. A democracy cannot be a theocracy at the same time.
"What is your favorite bible verse?" - Tim Russert, Democratic Presidential debate
http://margalis.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-is-your-favorite-bible-verse.html
You are preaching to the choir here. Unfortunately for many Americans the more theocracy the better.
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@ondelette
[Read the article: The Ron Paul phenomenon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm no Ron Paul supporter, so I'm not going to defend his exact policies, I've just tried to explain the general thrust of them.
I'm not sure if things like Pell Grants and Stafford Loans are part of his education agenda.
Homeschooling is one of those things where people confuse cause and effect. Homeschooling works at all because most homeschooling parents are very dedicated and take very active involvement in their children's education. Having less interested more "normal" parents homeschool would be a disaster. It's not that homeschooling is better, it's that the type of parents who homeschool are more invested to begin with.
Favorite quote, from the Boston Public Library (I used to walk past it on the way to work every day): THE COMMONWEALTH REQUIRES THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE AS THE SAFEGUARD OF ORDER AND LIBERTY.
That is a great quote. IMO the single biggest problem with the Bush Administration is that it considers a properly informed populace a bad thing and actively fights against it.
That is why I appreciate it when Glenn brings up things like how many Americans think Saddam was behind 9/11. The Bush Administration encourages misinformation and stupidity, precisely because information and education are the safeguards they want to disable.
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@Paul Dirks - you make no sense
[Read the article: The Ron Paul phenomenon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why is it necessary to have the federal government meddle in our states affairs?
Um.... Jim Crow and Intelligent Design education comes to mind right away.
Intelligent Design education is decided at the purely state and local level, the federal government has nothing to do with it.
Your assumption is that the federal government is always smarter than state and local governments and can correct their errors. Back that up.
What happens when it is the federal government that is backwards? What happens when the federal government uses my money to pay for abstinence-only sex education that provably doesn't work? What happens when the federal government fights a useless war on drugs?
My local government is much much smarter than the federal government. There are times when the feds have stepped in and made things better, but there are times when the feds have made things much worse. There is no law that says the feds are magically just plain better than other governments.
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I'm amused at the people who think big government protects against big business. When was the last time that was true, and which political party is going to make that true again? Hint: Not Democrats or Republicans.
The Federal government doesn't protect people from big business any more than it feeds money to it.
Look at corn-based ethanol as a perfect example -- an environtmentally useless product that merely siphons money off to giant agri-businesses at the expense of products that might actually help the environment.
Seriously, which Democratic candidate is going to have big government fight against big businesses rather than coddle them?
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@RMP
[Read the article: The Ron Paul phenomenon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm not a Ron Paul supporter, so I can't give you any specifics.
I just think it's somewhat delusional to say that big government should protect us from big business when that simply isn't what big government does and few of the candidates have any interest in that.
Sure, it *should.* But it doesn't and it won't, not if a Republican is elected and not if Clinton is elected. Neither party has much interest in that, both are ruled by special interests and corporations, the difference is only in which interests or which corporations.
Voting for the lesser evil is fine as long as people realize that's what they are doing. If Hillary is the nom I'll vote for her because she'll be better than the Republican, but we're talking about a 3 instead of a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Government does not stand up for the little guy - there's no money in it. Corporate lobbyists literally write our bills.
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No mention of Alan Dershowitz?
[Read the article: Democrats in big, big trouble because of the Great Iraq War -- again]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010832
Democrats and Waterboarding
The party will lose the presidential race if it defines itself as soft on terror.
Isn't it odd that wingnuts are always full of great advice for Democrats, and that advice is always "you need to behave more like us."?
It's like the Colorado Rockies giving advice to the Red Sox in the middle of game 4 of the World Series. "You guys better swing at more bad pitches or you'll lose!"
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Take off the military uniform
[Read the article: Democrats in big, big trouble because of the Great Iraq War -- again]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I haven't seen any comments or posts about the irony of GWB asking Musharraf to take off his military uniform.
Ha ha I saw this in the crappy Metro paper this morning. What can you say? It just makes zero fucking sense. Is Bush getting senile already?
It truly boggles the mind.
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Facebook page?
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]King Kaufman is a senior writer for Salon. You can e-mail him at king at salon dot com or visit his Facebook page.
I can't visit your facebook page, not in my network.
Will you become my facebook buddy? You'll have good company - I'm friends with a giant sandwhich.
Also I'm totally good friends with your friend...uh...Arianna Huffington!