Letters to the Editor
Reality-based Liberal
Published Letters: 774 Editor's Choice: 100
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I agree with Ferraro...
[Read the article: Geraldine Ferraro still needs to apologize]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...and I support Obama.
That is not to say he didn't also get where he is through hard work, or that Clinton didn't get where she is through her own kind of hard work. But both have benefited from their born attributes.
This is not to say anything about them, or a lack of qualifications. It says more about the U.S., where we use tokenism as the lazy way to make up for ingrained racism and sexism. I think Obama has new things to offer the electorate, regardless of his race, but I think our public conversation (thanks to our media) is so damn fuzzy that it needed the color of his skin to act as a metaphor for his new offerings. It has also helped turn out the black vote, just as Clinton is turning out many (certainly not all) women simply because she is a woman.
And I don't blame voters for making decisions on such matters either. I'm a white male and so my ethnicity and gender have never lacked for representation. If I were a woman or a black in this nation I'd be itching for a change. Hell, I'm not alone among white males who are pleased a punch that our next president might not be one, so I can only imagine how women and blacks must feel.
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@ scathew
[Read the article: Geraldine Ferraro still needs to apologize]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While I think my post made it clear, my headline saying I agree with Ferraro was probably a bad one. She said "only" and I clearly do not think that. Obama never rode on his race at all, as far as I can tell. It has helped him, but he doesn't appear to have ever asked for that help.
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Carville is more clever than some Salon posters
[Read the article: Carville wants resignation cease-fire]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He did not call for the end of back-and-forth bickering. He called for an end to the calls for an end of such bickering.
He wants a muddy playing field because it favors his candidate -- which is why he used Power as an example. While I tend to agree about the resignations being a bit silly (you can cycle through hundreds if you want to work surrogates), Carville is working for his candidate. Expect no less from a professional.
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Notorious WES
[Read the article: Obama and Clinton plan to cool it]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hey, I've been looking for the speech by Obama's preacher that has everyone all pissed off and all I can find is an excerpt where he talks about this nation historically being run by rich white people and that Clinton doesn't know what it's like to grow up black. Both of those theses are true, so I assume there's something else. Could you post the YouTube link so I can see for myself?
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This is funny
[Read the article: Dr. Laura to Silda: It's all your fault!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A post on women bashing and this entry is "red starred":
News flash for Dr. Laura. Guys will always try or at least want to have sex with younger, hotter, sluttier versions of whoever they are married to or dating. You can be married to a Saint who cooks, cleans, and loves sex four times a week. But your always going to be looking (maybe not doing and hope to god not paying) at something else.
Men are dogs. I know I am one. Women at aren't the problem, men aren't the problem. The real problem is a system of morals, imposed by people like Dr. Laura, that is contradictory to our biological needs and wants.
A woman berating women is crazy but a man slurring men is, well, "refreshing."
And if you agree with the idea that men are dogs, then is it so outlandish to say that they need their egos stroked by at least one person -- their wife? I know nothing of the Spitzer marriage, and I know enough about Dr. Laura to know she's a nut. But a lot of men, particularly high achievers, probably do need their mate to make them feel like an alpha male -- out of biology, not out of some evil possession. What's more, many women want to view their husbands this way. It seems to have been an attribute of evolution that has persisted. Women make men feel special and men need that, so they partner (our pairing, unlike birds, does not seem to be as biologically determinate as it is a social reaction to more subtle biology).
It makes sense: in a complex society, not all men can be alpha males, so having someone close to them make them feel like they are, at least to one person, strengthens a bond. Men who don't cheat can be one of two things: a rare, strong person who is so able to impose social morals on their biology that they don't cheat, or someone who is a woman's champion, and doesn't want to return to just being a regular guy. So Dr. Laura might be on to something, even if her motives and intellectual balance may be called into question.
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sajwan's subconscious speech
[Read the article: Who wants to be a Democrat?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't like uppity n...
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@ tom payne
[Read the article: Who wants to be a Democrat?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He goes well beyond that, attacking a black man for going to church with someone who is pissed off about racism (can't he just put it nicely?). And then smears him for going to a church with a black man who has some kind of indeterminate relationship with yet a third black man who attacked another religion (I didn't look back, but I assume that he hasn't attacked Clinton for calling McCain her friend, when McCain supports Hagee).
Black people just haven't gotten far enough to be able to enjoy the freedoms that white people do. I mean, it's just not right for black people to affiliate with blacks who know black racists, but hell, they can affiliate with white racists directly nowadays, so look how far we've come!
Here's a good post, tom:
http://lesserevilparty.blogspot.com/2008/03/wright-is-right-about-some-things.html