Letters to the Editor
Glenn K
Published Letters: 39 Editor's Choice: 5
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Guess you had to be there
[Read the article: "Rent"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I loved Rent the first time I saw it in D.C., went out and bought the CD, played it again and again... an experience that, believe it or not, many others shared. A few years later I saw a horrendous version in Dublin - I was actually praying for Mimi to die in the end. So the first point is, yes the material can be overly preachy and bombastic, depending on how it's presented.
The second point is, I think Rent is a bit like The Breakfast Club. If you see it at the right time, it can become one of those shows that stays with you long after you grow up and think, "Wow, was I ever that self-involved?" You can laugh at the characters in hindsight because you're really laughing at your youthful self, but the show still resonates because you recall the feelings it evoked at that time, when you were just as young and silly as the characters.
And, truthfully, when I listen to the CD now I actually find myself sympathizing more with Benny (the evil land developer) than the smarmy hipsters, and that makes me kind of sad.
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Didn't like her... still don't
[Read the article: Hillary takes a stand -- on flag burning]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As a determined liberal independent who never really cared for Hillary Clinton, I welcome her stance as it makes mine that much simpler. Now when my knee-jerk Democrat friends argue that Hillary should be nominated "because she has the best chance of winning" (a flawed presumption in itself given that these bozos once applied the same labels to Kerry and Gore), I don't have to go into a whole diatribe as to how she really doesn't represent the left - I can just point to the flag-burning issue. Really, it's a nice symbol of her stances in general - too craven to stand up for the left, too ambitious to say what she really believes (whatever that is).
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Actually, the voters may not be *that* stupid
[Read the article: Broken Hammer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While it may boggle the mind as to how anyone could vote for someone as clearly and demonstrably corrupt as DeLay (I'd argue that an indictment is not necessarily indicia of corruptness, but everything else is - people are innocent until proven guilty after all), it was not necessarily "stupid" to vote for him.
The fact is, Tom DeLay, as a powerful and influencial member of Congress, is capable of delivering the goods to his constiuents. The people of the 22nd Congressional District of Texas are simply engaging in classic rent seeking behavior - it may harm everyone else in the country to have DeLay in a position of power in Congress, but it directly benefits these constituents. This is the same logic that leads people decry pork barrel spending in every other district except their own - do you think everyone in Alaska was truly against the ridiculous and exorbitantly priced "bridge to nowhere?"
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I fail to see the problem...
[Read the article: The left splits over immigration]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I fail to see how amnesty for immigrants would hurt workers. Regarding the argument that more workers drive down wages, that's fairly obvious from a supply and demand viewpoint, but it also seems fairly obvious that the low-wage labor market is not absolutely tied to supply and demand. Were this a completely "free" market for labor, there would be no need for living wage laws. The existence of these laws indicates that, in their absence, wages would be significantly lower, for citizens and undocumented aliens alike.
The solution is equally obvious: enforce the living wage laws stringently for all employers. This would help undocumented laborers and citizens alike.
As for the cries that inevitably arise that increasing labor costs would raise prices for consumers, the answer is equally clear: if consumer prices were the overriding factor in our economic policies, we would have no minimum wage laws, no overtime laws, and taking the slippery slope to the bottom, we'd have child labor, legal sweatshops and slavery. Clearly, our country has decided as an overarching policy that we're willing to cause consumers to pay higher prices so that workers can earn a living wage. So let us not wail and rend our clothes when the most vulnerable amongst us attempt to enter the labor force on the same terms that apply to all.
-Ryan Kriger
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Brilliant, but not earth shattering
[Read the article: The truthiness hurts]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I pretty much agree with all the previous postings - when I saw the clip I was blown away by the fact that Colbert had the balls to stand a few feet away from the president and say what he did. It's one thing to do his act in front of a studio audience that's in on the joke, quite another to take that joke into enemy territory. And he was a complete success, he could have easily come off as a humorless scold (as some did say of Jon Stewart when he took on Tucker Carlson), but his tone was perfect, and he pulled off a marvelous feat.
However, let's not kid ourselves. Will this launch a round of serious introspection amongst the cognoscenti, the punditocracy, and the media? Will this glaring presentation of the emperor's wardrobe have any effect whatsoever on the administration? Of course not.
If anything, this event may be looked upon as yet another symptom of the administration's downfall, on par with the equally brave words of Harry Taylor, the real estate agent who criticized Bush at one of the carefully controlled "town hall meetings" in early April. Clearly, the fact that these two men, among others, have the bravery to speak truth to power is a wonderful thing, but I think this is just a reflection of the national mood, not the start of a revolution.
-Ryan Kriger