Letters to the Editor
Ijon Tichy
Published Letters: 452 Editor's Choice: 69
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Give a man a microphone and he blathers for life
[Read the article: A glimpse at Versailles]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Give a man an opinion and he rants for a day. Give him a microphone and he rants for a lifetime. Why are our media journalists so vacuous and empty, and yet so cocksure of the superiority of their vacuousness and senstive and defensive to any critique? Well... sound like people you knew in school?
My first year in a large and prestigious lawfirm was entertained by an extremely attractive young woman from a fine law school who expressing one of the few moments of political idealogy couldn't understand why there were so many unemployed people begging on the streets of Houston when there were so many job listings in teh Sunday Houston Chronicle. Most job listings aren't even for real openings, just to fill the personnell file. Most people washing my windshield or begging for a buck don't have an engineering degree. Those little facts never seeped into her well coifed and educated brain.
What you, Glenn, have not quite pointed out yet is that you get what you hire. Chris Matthews, Glenn Beck, Glenn Reynalds, Katie Couric all act this way because they are this way. They were hired for their total lack of intellectual curiousity, in the same way that Ted Koppel was released for actually having a sense of curiousity. We have the media we have not because these people take marching orders, but that they were born to take marching orders and actually believe in their own vacuousness. They wear it as a badge of honor and, if challenged, are quick to point out that they are a major media figure and you're not. Cogit ergo sum. George Bush is the Decider, the Commander Guy, because you are not.
We live in a world where people are important and must be trusted because they are important and must be trusted, not because they did anything to earn their importance or trust. Paris Hilton is the George Bush of celebrity. She has no redeeming qualifications, but, like Traci Lords, owes her existence to rich wrinkly old men with serious sexual and intellectual issues and too much money on their hands.
These same people hire morons to act as personnell directors to hire more morons. People like you, like Ted Koppell, like anyone with any sense of inquisitiveness or common sense or comes off as the least bit threatening to the more intellectually challenged, is given walking papers or a quick rejection. Gushing, fawning, photogenetic sycophantic wannabes that make the personnell director look good, their boss look good and can read anything on a teleprompter with a perky smile and straight face, are the real face of our national media.
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What she meant to say
[Read the article: Quote of the Day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What does "unilateralist" mean? Judging be her snap response to the reporter she had no idea what he was talking about and was demanding he explain a concept she had not the slightest idea of what it meant. In six years this administration had gone to great pains to act like it was the alpha dog of the world and would never allow anyone to threaten it's position of military supremecy and would act unilaterally and preemptively against anyone it considered a threat to its interests. To ask "Who are you calling a unilateralist?" isn't a challenge, its a question by someone who doesn't even know what the word means.
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Shooter
[Read the article: A glimpse at Versailles]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Every industrialized nation with universal healthcare has better healthcare than us. They're citizens are healthier, their access to doctors quicker and more accessible, and the myths of waiting lists, myths. Our own citizens drive to Canada and Mexico to get not just prescription drugs, but dental and medical care they can't afford to get here. Companys and insurers are now offering employees free trips to countries like Thailand to get surgery our great and glorious health care system can no longer provide at anything near a reasonable rate.
But hey, if equating universal healthcare to the chance you may one day get laid helps you out, well good luck with that.
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First!!
[Read the article: George Tenet cashes in on Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There is an interesting connection between this article and one in How the World Works on a book called "Untapped: The Scramble For Africa's Oil." In that book, the auther explains how both Western Countries and corporations did more damage to African countries with petroleum resources than good. When we look at the Middle East, there is much to learn from Untapped. Our country and these corporations listed by Tim Shorrock are acting for the same purpose as Exxon/Mobil, Shell, et al in Africa. The difference, for now is how much of the financial opportunity is intelligence and insurgency related as opposed to mere exploration. But Africa is not without its profits in intelligence and mercenary endeavors. It just seems that the Middle East controls this market.
It is for a different post, but as the conclusion of Untapped reached, the worst thing that ever happened to Islam and the Middle East, was the discovery of oil. I swear it is like a child on the verge of walking only to be paid off and coerced to continue to crawl just for some effing oil.
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Is Olberman's ideology relevant when it makes no sound?
[Read the article: Brit Hume is a "journalist"; Keith Olbermann is "partisan"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What is clear from watching Olberman is that is driven by a sense that those in power must be critically viewed and he takes special delight in exposing falsehood's, corruction, ignorance and hipocrysy. Since there is fertile ground to say the GOP and Bush admin in particular are very fonts of such attributes, Olberman, Stewart, Greenwald, Colbert and others who choose that career direction will look like they are biased against conservatives and therefore leftists. I would argue that were Dems in positions of power they would like come under the same scrutiny and mocking ridicule by these same people. That wouldn't make Olbermann a liberal traitor, let alone a conservative, just someone who thinks power should be held to account and a close watch. Kind of what those liberal Godhating enemy coddling Founders like Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton and Adams.