Letters to the Editor
gradysu
Published Letters: 156 Editor's Choice: 40
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When did we all turn to porcelain?
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The thing I was amazed about with this whole controversy was not only how much airplay it got, but how dramatic the language was. I heard more than one journalist refer to the Rutgers players' "ordeal."
"Ordeal"? Are you kidding me? Some people have had their homes and lives destroyed by Katrina, others have lost their whole families to tsumanis. Soldiers barely out of high school lie in rat-infested Walter Reed hospital missing limbs, or worse. THESE are ordeals. Getting insulted by an overaged frat boy is, well, just that. It's insulting. It's not a freaking "ordeal."
If not for the Imus flap, the Rutgers team would have come home to a rally, and then proceeded back to the classroom and relative obscurity. Instead, they ended up on every national news program and newspaper in the country, and were Oprah-fied to boot. They and their coach seem like nice, smart women, but Jeez, they were lionized to the point where you'd think they were Rosa Parks, Marie Curie, and Mother Teresa all rolled into one. I would have found it very refreshing if just one member of the team had put the whole thing into perspective and said something like, you know, this was insulting and offensive, but other people have real problems.
What Imus and his sycophantic sidekicks said was disgusting, and they should have been called out for it. But it's hard to argue that they actually subjected anyone to an "ordeal," for God's sake, and quite unwittingly, they turned the team's 15 minutes of fame into a week and counting.
That said, I can't say I'm sorry Imus is gone. He and his sophomoric sidekicks are an anachronistic breed whose time has come and, I hope, gone. They're like your Dad's creepiest friends from work -- the ones who come over, drink too much, laugh at one another's sleazy, unfunny jokes, and leer at your butt as you run past them to the kitchen before heading back to your room. They're relics who feel threatened by everyone who's different from themselves, and have to belittle people in order to feel superior.
And while the First Amendment does protect racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic bigots, the marketplace has a say also. And I'm glad, frankly, that the marketplace said, okay, the millionth time is one time too many.
Now the marketplace can move on to Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, and the rest of this disgusting mob.
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What's The Matter With Gun Owners?
[Read the article: Why Democrats dumped gun control]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"To win elections, Democrats need to reason with gun owners rather than insult them."
When have Democrats "insulted" gun owners? This is a fallacy right up there with "the Democrats sneer at religion." Where is the evidence to back it up?
And how do you "reason" with people who buy into the sleazy Republican scare tactics hook, line and sinker, and who reflexively, in classic Pavlovian style, push the Republican lever -- flagrantly voting against most of their own basic self-interests -- any time someone screams, "They're gonna take away yer guns!!"
Maybe Thomas Frank's next book should be called, "What's The Matter With Gun Owners?" as this seems to be another of those "values"-related issues that people make stupid, blind assumptions about, based on rank emotion and a poor grasp of the facts.
In the meantime, the Democrats should chip away at the issue in a non-frightening fashion, much the way you tiptoe around people who are a little, well, off. Start with the assault weapons ban, which most people support, and send up a clean, rider-free bill. Dare Bush, who claims to support the ban, if only anaemically, to veto it. Then go on from there.
They should also remember that one of their main -- and growing -- constituencies is suburbia, which is generally on their side on this issue, and will likely be increasingly concerned about it in light of this week's massacre on a college campus. They shouldn't make the mistake they've made so frequently before, of pandering to a constituency that largely holds them in contempt while ignoring those who agree with them.
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Step away from the keyboard
[Read the article: "Heartily ashamed"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nathaniel Blake -- another proud member of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists -- says that while he doesn't know if he would have had the courage to jump in front of the shooter, "I know that I should be heartily ashamed of myself if I didn't."
Since he's obviously so keen to prove his manliness, can we test his theory somehow? I'm sure lots of people would be happy to don an ammo vest and pack two handguns, and then be locked in a room with this guy. I'm a pretty bad shot myself, but I'm guessing I could hit him after he passed out in a pool of his own bodily emissions.
Alternatively, the pasty-cased little chickenhawk could test his courage in Iraq.
I also love how people like Rush Limp-baugh and Bill O'Reilly -- in the absence of ANY evidence that the shooter is being martyred or sympathized with by anyone on the left -- go ahead and bloviate anyway, saying they're surprised that this isn't happening, or predicting that it will happen eventually. Talk about smeared if you do and smeared if you don't.