Letters to the Editor
ondelette
Published Letters: 1988 Editor's Choice: 19
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@Media Memory Loss
[Read the article: Newt Gingrich's 1997 trip to China]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Starwheel, Glenn,
I had a theory for a long time that the lack of memory in the media came from databases that went back only a certain length of time, but this is beginning to not be the case with old stuff, and as both of you have mentioned, they were reporting the newer stuff themselves.
I think they have a vested interest in ahistory (igh, a word?). Initially, this interest protected their pundits from accountability on their pronouncements. As time went on, I think they realized it also protected the "quiet pundits", the editorial boards, who also essentially make pronouncements by deciding which stories to push. And I come to realize, it also protects some of their sponsors, particularly the pharmaceutical industry, which relies on people having limited memory of reported stories about drug side effects, for instance.
No?
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Chomsky doesn't say how
[Read the article: The American media's fringe ideological view of Pelosi's trip]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]William,
I read the Noam Chomsky thing, interesting idea, promoting democracy in the States. But, and this is aggravating, he doesn't say how.
The whole reason we are so in danger of losing our democracy is because we believe it is so ingrained in us it can't possibly go away. You hear it, oddly enough, from people who don't vote. You hear it from people who complain about jury duty. "It can't happen here."
It would be nice if Chomsky, or someone else, had a plan for convincing Americans that they need to be on their toes about their democratic birthright. Loss of it is creeping up on us like global warming.
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Two comments on the Logan act history
[Read the article: The American media's fringe ideological view of Pelosi's trip]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Add my thanks, sysprog, interesting. Two comments:
1) They should have had their heads examined sending Elbridge (is it really Elbridge? I always learned Eldridge) Gerry to do anything important.
2) In reference to comments made earlier, and to apparently some of the insinuations from around the White House, Syria being a State Sponsor of Terror has absolutely no bearing on the Logan Act.
Oddly enough, it DOES have bearing on people who participate in ISO standards meetings, they need to be briefed and debriefed because they are technically representing the USG. Way OT but an interesting fact.
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@ Mona, quick question
[Read the article: The American media's fringe ideological view of Pelosi's trip]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What is a Xian Zionist? A Zionist from Xi'an?
(sorry if I missed the explanation somewhere, inquiring minds want to know).
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Eritrea/Ethiopia
[Read the article: Life-changing sanitary pads?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ethiopia has opened its prisons to U.S. extraordinary rendition. Meanwhile Eritrea bans female circumcision. I didn't know these countries were so different.
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Thanks for the explanation!
[Read the article: The American media's fringe ideological view of Pelosi's trip]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you to everybody for the definition (also the explanation of the X to someone who is more familiar with pin-yin than Greek).
Not to quibble, but isn't that what they used to call Reconstructionism?
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Does everything justify genocide now?
[Read the article: The right-wing brain in action]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Used to be the theory of the ubermensch justified genocide. Now the theory of the untermensch does. Do Glenn Reynolds and Michael Ledeen realize that the "wealthy, secular" people in Iraq are not in Iraq anymore? They are hanging out in refugee camps or overseas, Darrell Issa and Nancy Pelosi might have even seen some of them when touring Syria, where the markets are safer than Indiana.
Tell me the destruction of the "new nation, conceived in liberty" by these monsters is reversable. I need to know.
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Depends on the famine
[Read the article: Life-changing sanitary pads?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Women who are starving and have lost their body fat are unable to menstruate. It's one of those inabilities, like the inability to think clearly, the inability to tolerate heat, the inability to stave off disease, the inability to move, the inability to feed oneself, that gradually claim the body and mind as one dies. I can remember when people seriously thought that we would have cured starvation by the year 2000. Sorry for the OT.
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An amnesty proposal
[Read the article: The right-wing brain in action]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]These people are monsters.
They ran as conservatives, and have got the conservative vote, but they aren't conservatives. Conservatives are people who hate taxes and like to sing the Star Spangled Banner with a lump in their throat. They aren't evangelicals either. Evangelicals are people who write The Battle Hymn of the Republic because they support abolition, people who go build houses for the poor on weekends.
But these, they started with pre-emptive war. They moved on to extraordinary rendition and torture. The continued with fantasies of a global war, World War IV some of them called it. And now they have started to rehabilitate genocide. They have lost their humanity. In the antiquated vocabulary of the pre-electronic society, they are no longer human, they are monsters, because what they desire is monstrous.
I propose an amnesty. All the conservatives who want to go back to being cheap on taxes, and pro-business, and singing the Star Spangled Banner with a lump in your throats, please do. All the evangelicals that want me to remember that you spearheaded the abolition movement and help the poor, I will. I promise never to mention this thing that took over your party or your church, I promise to argue with you with a finger in the air over whether starting small businesses or building houses and handing out checks is the right thing to do in New Orleans. I will even promise to get together with you once in a while and build houses and sing the Star Spangled Banner, I'll work on the lump in my throat.
Only help us get these monsters and put them where they can't do any more damage.
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@Holly
[Read the article: The right-wing brain in action]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That bentonite is mysterious and threatening when first encountered by journalists and propagandists is only demonstrative of their absurdly rarefied liberal arts educations -- and their total lack of exposure to the practical arts of modern society.
While I agree with your characterization of the mystery and lack of knowledge of common chemicals, what does it have to do with liberal arts education? A liberal arts education by definition exposes people to a wide range of subjects and instruction before specialization. These people are suffering from lack of exposure. My bet is they didn't get a liberal arts education, in anything but name.