Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 260 Editor's Choice: 22
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Dear Cintra...
[Read the article: And they're auf!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Does anybody really care?
If you do, thank you for contributing to the dumbing down of the country.
I've really need to find a new site that doesn't spend so much time reviewing bad movies, moronic fashion trends and the lives of celebrities that I couldn't care less about.
Fellow readers: Any suggestions on sites that cover politics, science and culture without the tender biases of the cub reporters that make up the majority of the Salon staff?
(with appologies to Greenwald, Conason, Kayima, Reuben Bolling--and a few others-- who are the reasons I subscribe to this site)
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Pragmatism anyone?
[Read the article: The blind giant of the Middle East]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is a thoughtful article but I think that it tries to hold on to the myth of the State of Israel as an ideal gone wrong. Perhaps it’s time to entertain the heretical idea that perhaps—just perhaps—creating a Jewish state in a land that had been occupied by Muslims for millennia wasn’t such a judicious idea to begin with. The fact is that the State of Israel was not an organic creation. Anyone really wanting to look at the situation honestly has to concede that Israel was created by the U.S. and Britain as a solution to a refugee problem; refugees that for economic and anti-Semitic reasons neither the U.S. nor Britain wanted to assimilate at the time. Did anyone at the time really think that establishing a theocratic state that worshiped Yahweh that was surrounded by other theocratic states that worship Allah—both of which firmly believe that the land was deeded to them in perpetuity by their respective gods—were really going to get along?
As other letters in this thread have said, it’s time to take a pragmatic approach and stop supporting a genocidal state that imposes apartheid on its minority. The U.S. needs to put its foot down and give Israel their marching orders (of course that also means getting rid of the pretension that Israel is a sovereign state. Face it, any country whose citizenry receive six times more federal aid per capita than the residents of any American state need to give up the silly notion that they can make their own policy).
Unfortunately, the US foreign policy is heavily influenced by a theocratic leaning cabal that believes in the same kind of scriptural hooey that fuels this hogwash between the Jews and the Muslims (The supreme irony is that the Christofascists who have made this truly bizarre alliance with Israel are doing so because they see the destruction of Israel as a fulfillment of prophesy. After all, how can Israel be destroyed if it isn’t on the map? The Zionist boosters think this is a hoot but hey, why look a gift horse in the mouth).
Unless all sides can take a rational approach without basing their foreign policy on old political tracts (i.e. scripture) there will be no solution except the solution that has reigned supreme for the past 50 years: bloodshed and ethnic hatred.
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Who's the "Weird Old Coot" Camille?
[Read the article: Blood-and-guts politics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I know that many find the letters about Paglia’s monthly mental effluvia much more entertaining than her actual bloviations so here’s a quick summary so you don’t have to dumb yourself down actually reading the column:
1. The ritual flak about Hillary and the “old guard feminists” that support her (What would a Paglia diatribe be without it?).
2. The standard paragraph fawning over Rush Limbaugh and company. This month Camille has trotted out this gem: “...talk radio, from both hosts and callers, have been truly operatic in drama and intensity. It's been a riveting spectator sport. But this eruption would come as no surprise to longtime listeners.” Is your spine tingling as much as mine?
3. Another paragraph of Camille wresting over the true origin of global warming: “…this heavily politicized battle, which has been very difficult to follow for everyone but fanatical true believers. Climate change, whether man-made or (as I think) natural, will remain a vital issue for decades.” Evidently Camille was too busy listening to right wing talk radio when the undisputed global warming verdict came in years ago.
4. Three paragraphs of her shock and awe at the death of Susanne Pleshette.
5. Four more on another one of Paglia’s morbid obsessions: Susan Sontag. These segue into seven turgid paragraphs droning on about what movies she watched recently (two of which were a fawning tribute to ‘Revenge of the Sith’; one of the least accomplished of the Star Wars series).
My question to the panjandrums at Salon is this: Is Paglia subject to any editorial oversight at all?
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Xrandadu Hutman
[Read the article: Blood-and-guts politics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for the info. I was not aware that Camille had stated that she wouldn't see 'An Inconvenient Truth'. It says a lot! Including that she's much more ignorant than I imagined (and I have a good imagination).
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Bookishcynic's Question
[Read the article: Blood-and-guts politics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Over two thousand letters to the editor in the past year have asked that very question. We’re still waiting for an answer from Salon- but here are the reigning theories in their order of probability:
1. Her obnoxious contrarian spewing is good for business. More hits, more advertising dollars.
2. Complete contempt fro the readership on the part of the Salon editorial staff.
3. An elaborate but not very funny practical joke on Salon readers.
4. Paglia actually pays Salon to publish her mind farts.
5. Camille is blackmailing Salon with incrimination pictures of drunken staff participating in a dog and pony show in Tijuana.
Admittedly, the last three are a stretch but in the absence of more rational reasons the mind is forced to go down disparate trails.