Letters to the Editor
jdmf
Published Letters: 99 Editor's Choice: 11
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In other words:
[Read the article: "America at a Crossroads" veers to the right]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The main stream media, which indubitably include PBS among thier number, has made 21 films which suffer from the flaws of the main stream media: intellectual flacidity coupled with crippled, superficial, manipulative propaganda instead of desperately needed information and insight. Nonetheless, the series is being given significant play because Bush cronies infiltrated and perverted the institutions that are responsible for its production.
Quelle surprise!
Bravo to Salon for unveiling this wretched spectacle. But I cannot say that anyone who has been paying attention should be surprised...
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I fail to see how this is a failure of the Democratic Party...
[Read the article: Why Democrats dumped gun control]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Salon -- this piece represents some crashingly poor political analysis. The lack of meaningful gun control policy since Clinton is somehow the fault of the Dems?
Umm. As I recall, except for the brief period when Jeffords switched parties, until January we had been living in a country governed entirely by Republicans at the federal level. Almost all the policy, legislative and judicial decisions of the past 6 years have been driven overwhelmingly by Republican agendas -- not Democratic ones.
So even if the Dems have retreated on gun control issues (and, frankly, Koppelman is either being lazy or stupid by invoking the positions of such "stalwarts" as Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman as representative of the Dems because when last I checked neither of them was a Democrat) it's hard to see how Democratic equivocation has made any difference.
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What consequences would those be?
[Read the article: The attorney general's "tremendous credibility problem"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]An uncomfortable day of testimony secure in the knowledge that Bush won't fire them because they are doing exactly what he wants?
Unless Congress starts making consequences happen there won't be any...
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Ignorant author...
[Read the article: "I'm so tired of America"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Um. It is a little painful to watch when a reviewer/author tries to sound cool, pretentious and knowing and instead falls flat on his or her ass and just revelas a whole lot of pretense and ignorance. Just like Dana here.
Let's just take those Berlin references, shall we...
The Tiergarten is Berlin's central park. It's big, messy and the center of lots and lots of gay sex and nudity in the open air. Nothing about it is "manicured," except possibly the nails of some of the trannies who cruise there.
Sanssouci is the name of Frederick the Great's summer home in Postdam. Also a queer reference here, cause Fritz was a raging, people hating homo, whose BF was hanged when Freddy was still a young man (before he was king).
Ok. All clear? Salon... please try to keep Dana from making a fool of her or himself... We subscribers really expect better from this magazine...
Thanks.
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What FredRated said .. the first and second times.
[Read the article: What Democrats need to learn about power]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First reaction was what Fred first wrote verbatim: "What a crock of shit...".
But more seriously -- what Mr. Galen lacks is any convincing explanation for his claim that the power dynamic between the White House and Congress favors the White House. It is not enough to say, as he does, that FDR changed the direction of power in DC. That's -- as Condi would say -- of historical interest, but it's not clear that the laws of physics that applied to politics in the 30s still apply today. And it's manifestly untrue that the MSM and press are hostile to Dubya. They are incapable of removing their brown noses from his a$$hole -- all you need to do is watch the Daily Show or Colbert to figure that one out.
So what should one take away from this: Ignore Mr. Galen, Dems. Just ignore him. Pelosi is not Gingrich. The war is not Medicare or Social Security. And Mr. Galen is not on your side. He is trying to convince you that you are less powerful than you are. Just don't listen.
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Who cares?
[Read the article: Potterpalooza]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Am I the only one who finds the Harry Potter books to be mediocre -- at best? I mean, come on. Other than getting young people to read, they have little to recommend them. The world that they create is pretty sterile and rendered in monotonous tones of unrelieved black and white. They characters are, for the most part, predictable and unsurprising. The plots are dull. And the writing leaves little to the imagination, except well-defined connundra in the form of cliff-hangers. I won't even get into their treatment of magic and sorcery, which is so flat as to be embarassing.
There is tons of really first-class fiction in this genre out there -- newer and older, from the Edwardian "Five Children and It" -- essentially about unintended consequences -- to the contemporary "Bartimaeus Trilogy" -- a very thoughtful and fun treatment of human weakness, empathy, and growth.
I can only hope that people use Harry Potter as a starting point and branch out from there.