Letters to the Editor
swilldog
Published Letters: 184 Editor's Choice: 20
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how about the NFL gets off its "high horse"
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... when we all stop apologizing for scumbags whose entourages shoot people. And paralyzes some. Deal?
Assuming, of course, that police forces across the country are not just punishing them for the trivial non-offense of "shooting a firearm outside an Atlanta strip club at 4:00 a.m. while black."
Don't get me wrong: I'm fairly certain that there's a goodly share the men in blue who hound these guys constantly for being "wealthy and irresponsible while black." Which is, of course, wrong. But you're gonna have a hard time finding people who will apologize for the kind of behavior Mr. Jones and his associates seem to revel in (or certainly don't make a scintilla of effort to avoid).
And on a personal note, RealName: who peed in your Wheaties lately? You've been awfully (and at times, irrationally)curmudgeonly of late. Lighten up, man.
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a hip new phone for the AARP generation!
[Read the article: The anti-iPhone]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Don't be afraid of me," Jitterbug says. "I'm just like the phones you're used to. Look, I even have a dial tone! My buttons are easy to read and press! I'm not so small that your arthritic hands would struggle with holding me. I'm a cell phone you can love, grandma. Love me. Looooooove me."
And really, what's wrong with that? I think it's great that they've come up with something that my grandparents would feel comfortable using. Truly brilliant design and marketing that knows its demographic inside and out. The only thing missing on this is a dial instead of buttons. Or maybe a crank on the side. ;-)
But if you really want to sing the praises of a bare bones phone, there are tons more out there that accomplish what this does and still meet the usual requirements of most mobile phone users -- size, convenience, reliability, and price. Jitterbug is a niche product (and for its niche it sounds like a great one), not any kind of response to this column's apparent archenemy, the iPhone.
I personally use Virgin Mobile, and have their Slice model phone. Currently going for 40 bucks, and it fits comfortably and nearly invisibly in my front jeans pocket. The phone is basic enough -- no camera, I don't bother with internet access (so I don't pay for it), and I can get and receive text messages from those friends of mine that like to use that feature. There's no contract, and because my wife and I don't use our mobile phones a heckuva lot the prepaid plan ends up costing us about $20/month for both of us, if not less. It's far from perfect (it uses the Sprint network, which sucks only slightly more than others in my area), but it's easily the best phone I've owned for what I need from a mobile phone, which ain't much. Of course, your mileage may vary.
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Hey Captain Shrill:
[Read the article: "Sicko"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The letter writer who mentioned "profit" from criticizing Moore was making reference to a South Park episode ("Underpants Gnomes"). The gnomes had a three step process for getting rich: 1. Steal Underpants, 2. ???, 3. Profit! Much hilarity ensued.
I can understand how one could be confused if they hadn't seen that cultural landmark of an episode, and so I'll gladly give you that. But geez, dude, take it down a notch.
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you left out the international intrigue
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think one of the interesting stories that'll pan out over the next few days is Milwaukee's selection of Yi Jianlian (or EE TEE-an-LEE-an as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's columnists are quite kindly spelling phonetically for us), and how his handlers (i.e., money-grubbing scumbags) and possibly the suits in the NBA front office will try to extricate him from the much reviled city on the lake.
The agents and the endorsement guys don't want him there. The Chinese national team folks don't want him in a small market midwestern town that lacks a sizeable Asian population. I'd venture to guess that David Stern and the rest of the borderline evil NBA types want him elsewhere, since they could care less about the small market teams -- or hell, teams in general. They want marketable players, and if the league had its druthers I wouldn't be at all surprised if they weren't working on a plan to scrap the whole team structure and instead create a league built on the premise of rotating 2-on-2 matches with infinite permutations of different uniforms -- Collect all 256! I love thi$ game!
They're all trying to throw around their muscle to get the Bucks to trade the guy. In interviews, Jianlian sounds like he's been managed on how to reply, but even still he sounds like the Bucks would be just fine with him. And god bless 'em, it sounds like the Bucks actually like the guy and hope he'll be on the team. I may be wrong on this, but expect more drama in the coming weeks.
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he summed it up himself
[Read the article: "They don't own the Democratic Party"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Joe: "I really believe that at the end of the day, the public in the primaries, as well as the general election, are going to judge me for all of who I am."
...and the current consensus -- which can pretty much be confirmed by his entire political career -- is that he's not Presidential material. Biden's prickly, "who-needs-the-grassroots" "you-kids-get-off-my-lawn" attitude isn't going to win him much support at the end of the day. Sorry.
He's a great policy guy. Kind of like Cheney except that he actually respects the Constitution and doesn't eat the hearts of puppies. If we're lucky, he'll make a fabulous Vice President or Secretary of State. Lord knows we could use his (or Richardson's) expertise in those positions, especially after the disaster that is the Bush/Cheney administration.
If he's as savvy and in earnest as I think he is, he should start sending out feelers to Obama and Hillary now -- and hedge his bets and send someone to chat with Bloomberg. Bloomberg/Biden would definitely give the independents a lot to think about, perhaps even moreso than with Hagel.
P.S., Joe: You're right -- No blogger "owns" the Democratic Party. And guess what? Neither do you.