Letters to the Editor
swilldog
Published Letters: 184 Editor's Choice: 20
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GOP media trick at its finest
[Read the article: The plane, the plane!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is actually quite an instructive little lesson on media manipulation. The RNC puts out its asinine hit piece that its media lackeys (the Moonie Times, FauxNews, *ucker Carlson, et. al.) can run with and get a few media cycles of anti-Dem blather. On top of that, Tony Snowjob can stand on the podium and act all serious and fair-minded.
Win-win for the GOP: Smear campaign gets lots of traction, the White House looks reasonable -- and even more so now that "Fancy Nancy" can be added to the lexicon without it looking like it came from Generalisimo Bushista and the rest of the junta currently sucking the Treasury dry.
What a shame for us and the world at large that this is the only kind of mission they can accomplish.
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how dare she?!?
[Read the article: Oprah's ugly secret]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Support a message that advocates positive thinking and encourages people to make their lives better? What a MONSTER!
I've seen The Secret. It has its flaws, oh yes it does. It oversimplifies things, several of the experts say some unfortunate things (such as "nobody knows how electricity works," which in this pseudo-philosophy should more correctly be stated, "nobody knows exactly what energy (electricity) is."), and it overly caters to the "I wanna be a millionaire" mentality.
On the other hand, it does a serviceable job presenting to a mass audience two basic notions that I think everyone should be familiar with:
-- Thoughts are things.
-- Negative thinking begets negative results.
The larger philosophical questions that frustrated the author -- particularly "Did the victims of [insert tragedy here] bring their suffering unto themselves?" -- are ones that philosophers continue to wrestle with. I hardly think we should all grab our torches and pitchforks and go after Oprah and the producers of this video because they managed to gloss over such existential conundrums that vex even the greatest thinkers of our time.
I, for one, commend Oprah for trying to help people. We all can argue til we're blue in the face as to whether her support for this particular message is misguided or not, but at least she's doing something.
Finally, a plug: for anyone interested in this kind of stuff presented in a less sensationalistic and more intellectually curious way, I'd recommend looking in to Concept Therapy (http://www.concept-therapy.org). They're a state-chartered educational institute headquartered in San Antonio, TX, and are not out to sell anyone anything (other than continuing coursework and related materials) or convert anyone to any religion. For a person entirely not inclined toward "self-help B.S.," I found a lot of their approach rather helpful.
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those birds
[Read the article: Beyond the Multiplex]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, they're grackles. I firmly believe that they're what the makers of Jurassic Park used as the model for the behavior and movement of velociraptors. If they were twice the size, no human could live here because they'd eat all our eyeballs right out of the sockets.
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The Big 3 are still alive?
[Read the article: Arnold Schwarzenegger: "The Republican Al Gore"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Who knew?
And here I thought they'd committed suicide years ago.
Newsflash to US automakers: Innovate or die. It's not enough to milk the pickup truck market and make weak knockoffs of quality Japanese and German vehicles. Anyone with at least three brain cells can see that. And having some two-bit GOP stooge do a dog and pony show won't change that.
When your sole profit-making operation is your auto finance arm, you've got bigger problems than the governor of California.
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Paraphrasing Elephantman
[Read the article: Gonzales aide to take the Fifth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"La la la la laaaa.... I can't heeaaaarrr yoouuuuu... la la la la..."
It would be so incredibly funny if the amount of denial dripping off these diehard neo-cons wasn't so maddening.
Face facts: It's coming down. And your precious little Shrub and his cabal of inept buddies are pushing the whole Machiavellian nightmare that is this administration over the cliff -- all this despite the most inept mainstream press corps since the early 20th century pulling out all the stops to keep the American public in the dark as long as possible.
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and I thought I was a sports fan
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I know the conventional wisdom (such that it is) about MLB is that it is a sport in decline. And I'll freely admit that I've not exactly been following how America's alleged passtime has fared since, oh, about the late 90s (boy, that lockout worked wonders, didn't it?).
Having said that, wow. I thought I was a fairly knowledgeable sports fan, but after reading today's and yesterday's MLB predictions columns I have to admit I recognized no more that 10 - 15% of the names King mentioned. Who are these players?
Since the end of the 90s, I've really only followed the MLB teams, not the players. I knew the players on my hometown team, the Brewers (don't laugh), because I occasionally skimmed the papers to see how badly they sucked each year compared to the last. But after that, I have had little to no motivation to keep up with it all.
And here we are, about 10 years later, and I damn near monumentally could give a rip about the game. I hope my team does well (hard to shake those childhood allegiances), but when they inevitably fail to live up to those hopes, it's almost as if MLB doesn't exist until October-ish -- when I get to be unsurprised to see the Yankees and/or Braves jockeying for position for the 39th straight year, it seems.
Now NFL offseason coverage, that I dig. I'd watch 9 hours of the NFL draft before I'd watch 3 hours of a televised baseball game. And I'd gladly watch 3 hours of an MLB game in person before I'd subject myself to 9 hours of Mel Kiper and the rest of the ESPN talking heads. And better still: I'd trade those MLB tickets in a heartbeat for an afternoon game at a minor league park. Let's see if MLB can process that equation (which surely applies to a large number of casual sportsfans out there) and turn it into an interesting, marketable product for the non-MLB junkies. And no, I'm not exacly holding my breath on that one.