Letters to the Editor
amyleetee
Published Letters: 42 Editor's Choice: 1
-
for cryin' out loud
[Read the article: Repeal the Second Amendment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Take the sale of guns out of the hands of retailers.
Frackin' duh!!
-
Thompson
[Read the article: Fred Thompson's biggest role yet]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]will soon have to prove that he is more than just an act? where were you a few years ago when the voting population elected a posturing power monger, again, and then 2 years later did a collective 'never mind', apparently?
We (and I use the word loosely) don't care about substance and integrity. We want a good sitcom or a neat 60-minute crime drama. We elect stereotypes, not leaders.
I can't have been the only little kid circa 1960 who thought that the President was a tv show. Lots of what we need to know we learned before kindergarten.
I can't help but make a connection between how we elect presidents and our record low test scores among industrialized nations.
-
Interesting
[Read the article: I enlisted in the Army -- but now I've changed my mind!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]>I joined the Army in 1980. I strongly disliked every minute of it, and it's also probably the best thing I could have done at the time<
It had just ocurred to me that aside from reality (pesky, ain't it?), it's kind of a moot question. And then I read the above. No one can predict what will be good for personal development because personalities do the most uncanny things in our progress, or not; never mind what a certain set of circumstances might mean for *societal* development (or not).
There are many ways in which people can be divided into 2 camps, as countless comedians et al have pointed out. The one that stands out for me is those who believe life is a crap shoot and those who do not.
Personally, I believe that things decidedly do not happen for a reason. I believe, decidedly, that meaning can be gotten from anything.
-
defending Steph
[Read the article: "Georgia Rule"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank-you Xrandadu Hutman for that. I was about to ring in but prolly not w/the equanimity that you showed. Someone else put it well also.
It seems that there are people who don't understand reviews beyond the 3rd grade book report.
Garry Marshall? My memory ain't what it once was but the last thing I remember him doing that was actually good entertainment was Laverne and Shirley. I'd like to be disabused of that belief, really I would.
-
I third that emotion
[Read the article: We had a secret online affair ... and then he killed himself]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What Lobelia said.
-
the economic reality of the United States, which is that blacks are generally poorer than whites -
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Bingo. The origins of racism are based in fear, esp. the fear of poverty. Someone made a snarky comment once on one of the forums about the old left or socialists or communists or some such group of n'er-do-wells claiming that class trumps race and don't they feel like idiots now. (Don't remember the article.)
Well think about this for instance -- whom do practicing racists villify more, generally, Japanese people or Latinos? Has any latinamerican country ever attacked the US? Has Japan? But there are far more Latinos living in poverty than Japanese.
We do indeed need a new national dialogue on the subject. Excuse me, we need our first national dialogue.
So many of us are so defensive that we can't seem to stand discussion of racism. For cryin' out loud! Gary Sheffield is not Marge Shotz.
-
yum
[Read the article: Adventures in snail hunting]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Having blown the chance to start a garden this year, I now have a new project. I wish I'd known before that you could eat ordinary snails; that they don't have to speak french to be escargot.
(though I think I'll research snails in the area just to be sure).
Many thanks for the info and the guffaws.
-
letters
[Read the article: Joe Lieberman, from his indie perch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There have been articles in Salon where the letters have been more interesting than the piece itself, especially since the open letters policy.
We have a winner!
And there are some instances where I go directly to the letters and skip the article all together. Not so this one. I was waaay too curious to see how Shapiro was gonna do this.
I agree w/the jedimaster that putting Lieberman in stark relief was the way to go for many reasons; foremost of course being he would not have gotten the interview otherwise. And after many many hours of watching/listening to the Dick Wolfe franchise, what kept running through my head was his 'defense lawyer' made a mistake putting him on the stand.
On the other hand I also agree w/the poster who wrote about him not being significantly different from the majority of democrats and it feels a little like scapegoating. But please, he set himself up!
-
statistical noise
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was struck by the following findings:
3. Similarly for attendance, white umpires only slightly increased their strike percentages during high attendance games: from about 32% to 32.1% against white pitchers, and from about 31.3% to 31.5% against minority pitchers.
4. Minority umpires, again, seem more affected by high attendance: Their pitch percentage increased from 31.5% to 32.3% against white pitchers, and decreased from 32.3% to 30.9% against minority pitchers.
and I think it bares more scrutiny than just writing it off as statistical noise, as pithy as that sounds.
Why wouldn't umpires have internalized the same dislike, distrust, and fear of those who on the whole live exploited, stigmatized and most importantly, poor lives that we all have?
The fact that there's only a slight difference between white umpires favoring white pitchers in high attendance games on the one hand, and minority umpires favoring white pitchers at a higher rate speaks volumes about the (unconscious) internalization of racism. White umpires can't possibly experience the same pressures, unconscious and otherwise, that minority umpires do.
I'm glad you're at the table (and I bet Thrasher is too) Being late to the table is by no means a distinction. Just being at the table can get you in trouble these days.
Keep doin' what you're doin'.