Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 88 Editor's Choice: 1
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Robert Draper really LIKES Bush?
[Read the article: The scruffy charms of an insecure president]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What the hell does that mean?
Does Draper get into the psychology of the former cheerleader, i.e., has there ever been a straight one? Or rumored binge-drinking on the non-ranch ranch? Or the calling-by-name (as opposed to "the lady from AP") of Jeff Gannon (well-connected gay escort in Washington, D.C.) in the White House press pool?
Does Draper tackle the calculated dismantling of the Bill of Rights and the EPA and God knows what else? Haven't read the book, so I don't know.
But what I cannot understand is how you can "like" someone like that. Bush seems to be a sociopath ... and, now that I think about it, they can be quite charming. But usually, once one has figured out the sociopath's game, one does not associate with the sociopath any further. Or like him.
Draper seems to be just another of those power-fellating queens that swarm around the locus of power, like Scooter Libby.
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$1 a song is too much?
[Read the article: Radiohead's new album: Choose your price]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How can someone say that?
I am fascinated with this whole concept of allowing people to set their own prices for an artist's works. As some have pointed out, radiohead DID play the game to their advantage for some time. I'm not a radiohead fan - i cannot relate to, nor really trust, a singer who sings with his eyes closed - sorry thom we can't see the movie you are watching. but good for them if they are scaring the shit out of the industry.
As a artist who has spent many years - many - mastering the components of songcraft, singing, and production (as opposed to marketing and self-promotion): writing, the playing of instruments, including programming and sound design, the use of all sorts of arcane electronic gear and effects, as well as the ins and outs of arranging and orchestration, spent many thousands more on gear and software - hiring a studio to get the best vocal recordings, live drums, and backing vocals (from other artists I've had to pay) ... then hundreds of hours actually arranging the songs, finally delivering a vocal cd to the mixing engineer ... another cost of $3500-5000 to get an end product that will actually sound comparable to a radiohead/u2/coldplay cd ... that's before mastering and then the actual production of physical cds, and printing. And then I will have advertising, promotion, and payola - yes even for college stations - costs after that.
sorry for the run-on sentence ... even now i know i left some stuff out ... :)
I hope that when I put these songs up online for purchase in the next couple months ... whether it be itunes or pay-what-you-want on my own site ... I get at least a buck a song. As much of it for me as possible.
If you want to pay $4.50 to radiohead because it's more than they would have made from a label, i think that is simply justification for stinginess.
If you love the music, pay MORE!
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Pollock, Kandinsky and all those guys were frauds anyway
[Read the article: Here's looking at you, "Kid"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Read "The Painted Word," by Tom Wolfe. Most modern art, post WWII, was a fraud perpetrated on the world by an incestuous cabal of painters, dealers, and critics in New York City.
That this girl's (or whoever's) work has been compared favorably to theirs pretty much drives that point home once and for all.
Thank God for Andy Warhol and a few others who refused to join in way back when.
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they are all batshit insane
[Read the article: What you missed while watching "Oprah"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]of course, since they own the voting machines ... getting elected won't be a problem.
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The whole thing is a Psy-Op magnification of fear and imaginary threat
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I picked up a friend at the Oakland airport last night. I go there often. I stopped the car, saw them coming my way (not close by, but visible). I opened the trunk and a door. A guard told me to move the car. I pointed at my friends heading our way. He called back-up. Within seconds another wannabe cop was behind my mercedes (I'm a blond middle age white guy, not named muhammed) in a little golf-cart with flashing lights. I got the message. Got in the car and drove up to terminal 2, which was pretty much deserted and my friends hurried over and we were off.)
Al Quaida has won. We are a nation of pussies on prozac living in gated communities. You can't even take a piss on BART anymore, the bathrooms are locked. And we are not safer. Not a bit.
Totalitarians are the same all over the world. The prey on fear. They promote ignorance. Their currency is lies. In the middle east, it's a bunch of assholes in turbans. Here in this country they come in the form of the modern day Republican Party, over-fed toilet pansies.
Didn't the Soviet Union restrict travel within its borders? We are heading that way.
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Atheism is a religion
[Read the article: Proud atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Atheism is a no-God belief system, a self-defined, man-made construct: in other words, a religion.
They cannot disprove the existence of God, they can only prove that a lot of religious people are hypocrites, that many wars are fought in the name of religion, and so on, as if this somehow proves there is no God.
If you say this to them, they start squealing like stuck pigs,"No, it's a simple fact!!! You are a Republican!!!"
Believe me, I am not exaggerating.
This reminds me of "There is no God but Allah!!! Death to the infidel!!"
They now speak of evangelical atheism. I rest my case.
I don't think atheists are reviled. I sort of pity them that they cannot imagine the wonder and mystery the lies beyond the limits of their egos and mighty intellects.
And I laugh when they start squealing.
So easy to push that button!
On another, more serious, note, what happens when furries try to hop on the LGBT (do i have the order correct?) rights bandwagon?