Letters to the Editor
prunes
Published Letters: 784
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Innumeracy
[Read the article: American war culture in a nutshell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I first heard of the concept of "innumeracy", it sounded like a snotty little math-teacher neologism.
But it seems like every day I see people who literally cannot compare two big numbers, who cannot make estimates, who do not understand compound interest, who do not understand how basic accounting works.
It is not hard to get a calculator and make some quick estimates about something like tracking troop numbers, but if you don't even know where to start, you are at a loss and will believe anything some politician says.
The issue is, to me, most clearly demonstrated in the pernicious and seemingly immortal trope that "Democrats raise taxes" and "Republicans lower taxes".
If the government needs $1 for the budget, they can tax the dollar, or borrow it. If they borrow it, it will have to be paid back with say, $1.06 (the six cents are the interest) in taxes next year. Or, you could cut the budget item and tax $0.
The second option is a higher tax, and this is the option that Republicans have universally chosen since 2000.
Now, if Republicans really cut the budget instead of growing it to record levels, their "tax cuts" would really be tax cuts. But instead, we have been saddled with an enormous tax burden that will drag on our economy for years.
Many liberals are concerned that Republicans only "cut" taxes on the wealthy, but even the wealthy are getting screwed: the Republicans have borrowed SO much money at this point that I suspect the effective tax burdens on corporations and the wealthy are climbing overall, even if at a lesser rate than the poor's.
Republicans have taken advantage of the public's misunderstanding for years now, it's completely dishonest and an incredibly stupid way to run a budget, besides. It's going to bite us all.
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Dammit!
[Read the article: American war culture in a nutshell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Correction:
Where I wrote:
our Congress has already squandered nine times the [national budget] on pork alone
that's wrong. I don't know where my brain was, thinking about too many things at once.
I meant to say:
our Congress has already squandered nine times the [cost of the Iraq War] on pork alone
Yeesh, that's what you get for composing posts in pieces with copy/paste.
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@Quillian the Elder
[Read the article: American war culture in a nutshell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My daughter is working on a PhD. in psychology. She has a field day with Glenn Greenwald's columns. So many seething insecurities bubbling just below the surface. Classic passive-aggressive behavior. She might finish early at this rate!
No passive-aggressiveness in THAT comment, boy...
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@(~~~~)
[Read the article: American war culture in a nutshell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No has an actual response. Ok thanks. At least NOW you're being intellectually consistent.
There were several responses, and while I don't know if they are "actual" under whatever criteria you're rattling in your noggin, they made sense to me.
Let's explore your comparison:
President Bush announced today a "Global War on Fire", after a terrible fire in New York killed around 3000 people.
"We must not allow fire to destroy our freedoms. We will do whatever it takes to put out all fires everywhere," said Bush.
Although the suspected arsonists were from Saudi Arabia, Bush rushed as many of the nation's firefighters to Iraq. The tactics his top fire officials proposed involved setting many fires in populated areas, so that, at minimum, ten times as many Iraqi citizens were burned to death as the terrible conflagration in New York. "You have to fight fire with fire," said Bush. Not only that, more firefighters were killed setting and putting out fires in Iraq than were New Yorkers killed in that terrible blaze.
Pundits Hagan and Kristol recently suggested that the firefighters were not trying hard enough to defeat fires in Iraq and they should stay there getting killed until all fires are put out. Firefighters who suggested that setting more fires to put them out was not the most effective way of dealing with them, but were derided as cowards and as being "soft on fire."
Does that sound stupid to you? Then don't compare apples and oranges.
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@Iokannan in the Well
[Read the article: American war culture in a nutshell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In any case, how does mandating servicemembers be treated as human beings constitute "showboating"?
Self-centered pricks often assume that other people are only nice because they're getting something out of it. Conversely, they assume that spiteful, greedy people are "just being honest."
Not saying this is Hornet's ish, but I do think it has something to do with the perceived "seriousness" of the neocons.
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@anon
[Read the article: Limitless wrongness]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No, the country doesn't ASPIRE to be a superpower...it IS one by the grace of God.
Seems more like a punishment to me.
Christians should not aspire to power.
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@Charles Bird
[Read the article: Angry, hateful liberal bloggers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]With few exceptions, conservatives are attacking Islamism, not Islam. That you conflate the two concepts is why people are reacting to you the way they are.
Anyone who is clear-eyed enough to distinguish between Islam and Islamism should also be able to handle the fact that the most virulent Islamist actors could not bring an existential threat to the US even on their best day, with their most competent loyalists, and with 10x the funding they actually have.
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@Anonymous
[Read the article: Angry, hateful liberal bloggers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Which doesn't actually operate anywhere and then they use this to claim that ALL Muslim states are the mideast/Asian equivalent of freewheeling Holland.
Nobody says this, idiot. The only people who pretend otherwise are setting up a terribly-constructed strawman.
I really need to find this hot sandy Holland. Where can it be? Iran? Turkmenistan? Malaysia? Egypt? Yemen? Syria? Algeria? Sudan? Somalia? Northern Nigeria? Afghanistan? I guess Morocco would be one they only occupy and terrorized Western Sahara and built a so called Apartheid wall. Or maybe Tunisia - they're sort of an unrepresentational monarchy. Or maybe Libya?
Way to use Wikipedia smart guy.
If you hate totalitarian governments so much, quit voting for them.