Letters to the Editor
Xrandadu Hutman
Published Letters: 2714 Editor's Choice: 52
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Dear anonymous idiot (two posts above),
[Read the article: Why Blockbuster is gaining on Netflix]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nope, I don't work for Netflix, nor am I in any way associated with them, but I am a customer. I was also a Blockbuster customer and a Hollywood Video customer. Since getting a Netflix account I have completely avoided the latter two businesses. I actually liked Hollywood Video and had very few problems with their service and return policy. Blockbuster was another story.
Everything I posted about my experience with Blockbuster was true. They really did send me several threatening notices after I accrued only a $3 late fee. These notices implied that soon a collection agency would be on my case if I didn't pay up. I mailed Blockbuster's corporate headquarters a letter of complaint and their notices mysteriously stopped.
The practice of "Astroturfing" is real. Type it in on Wikipedia and you'll get lists of companies (including Microsoft) that really have engaged in aggressive astroturfing campaigns. There are many more that have been caught than what is listed on Wikipedia. Then there are all the companies that haven't been caught. There are quite a few marketing/PR firms that make big money contracting for companies that want to improve their images. They send letters to newspapers posing as average citizens, form "grass roots organizations," and post on message boards, among other methods.
There were at least three messages in this thread that I noticed seemed particularly generic and in the style of a PR flack. I clicked on each of the accounts and it showed that they had no other messages in their histories. This led me to suspect that they might have been written by PR companies. It is possible that I am wrong on this, and that people wrote their first and only Salon posts just to weigh in on the Netflix vs. Blockbuster debate.
As for you, I think it is evidence of your cowardice that you felt the need to post anonymously. I am not even sure what your point was, other than a garden-variety "nyah nyah" type of turnaround. If you have something of substance to say regarding the Netflix vs. Blockbuster subject, please, let's hear it. I have already made my own case. I think Blockbuster sucks ass.
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Got yarmulke?
[Read the article: I've had three miscarriages and my husband won't wear a yarmulke]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The LW states, "my conclusion has been that god probably exists...but doesn't really play any sort of essential role in my life and is just some sort of vague entity out there."
Then she says it's important to her to raise her children Jewish, indoctrinating them with a belief in God.
In other words, the LW only barely believes in God, but she wants to raise her children in a way that tells them the story of God as if it is completely true.
Her husband declining to wear a hat is not the LW's biggest problem here.
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Farhad trips himself up
[Read the article: Hey, Americans can too find the U.S. on a map!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Clearly she's as sharp as a marble, but I buy her excuses -- she was nervous, she couldn't hear the question."
The person who's as sharp as a marble here is the one who "buy[s] her excuses." She couldn't hear the question, Farhad? Really? Is that why she precisely repeated the question at the beginning of her answer?
"And there's something else that bothers me about the Upton kerfuffle: The question was wrong."
Farhad, you lose points for using the word "kerfuffle." Try being creative for a change instead of jumping on the trendy word bandwagon. Second, how is the question "wrong"? The questioner cited "recent polls," and you were unable to find any polls that she might have been referring to. But what were your search methods? I am beginning to think your research consists of typing keywords into Google. Try doing a Lexis/Nexus search or hitting a library sometime.
Easier still, you might simply have contacted the organizers of the event and asked them how they formulated their questions. Did you even try?
"But no survey I can find supports this number, and, indeed, the most respected studies looking into what Americans know about the world paint a far rosier picture."
Farhad says "the most respected studies" but then refers to just one study. As somebody mentioned, the 94% stat is an upswing from another stat in 2002 that was closer to the vague 80% stat cited in the question.
Nevermind that Farhad completely misrepresents the actual meaning of the question (he keeps asserting that "most Americans CAN find the U.S. on a map, by gum!" even though the question reaffirms this). Farhad claims some sort of thoroughly researched knowledge that disproves the question when all he's got for evidence is one survey. That's just sloppy and disingenuous journalism, even if Farhad pads the rest of his column with long-winded explanations.
Only two days into reading this column and I'm convinced Farhad has some issues with basic logic. In the last one, Farhad claimed Blockbuster had an advantage over Netflix because Netflix lacked "data portability"....even when Blockbuster ALSO lacked "data portability"! ("Netflix won't let you leave," etc.) Farhad never bothered to admit the basic dishonesty of this tack. Now he's bungling such simple things as believing that this contestant "didn't hear the question" when she obviously did hear the question.
Please clean up your act, dude.
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just curious
[Read the article: Why bathroom sex is hot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If a married man, with children, who leads life as a complete "family values" heterosexual, is having gay encounters every so often in secret locations, what does that make him?
Does that make him "gay"? I mean, he obviously LIKES living as a heterosexual on several levels.
Does it make him "bi"?
What does it make him?
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Got yarmulke? part 2
[Read the article: I've had three miscarriages and my husband won't wear a yarmulke]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was thinking about this a bit, and I think my last post was a little rude (man, am I in a bad mood lately).
I feel for any couple that tries to grapple with the issue of having different religions (or lack of religions). I do hope that all of the attendant problems are ironed out before the arrival of children.
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Wow
[Read the article: Why Blockbuster is gaining on Netflix]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What a loser.