Letters to the Editor
DCLaw1
Published Letters: 808 Editor's Choice: 2
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Al Qaeda is made of people!
[Read the article: Tucker, Jonah, Elizabeth and Jillian]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Today's hysteria about the car bombs in London is a fantastic example of the infinitely malleable and demogogic "Al Qaeda" designation. I'll put it in simple, pseudo-syllogistic terms.
abject corporeal fear = 9/11© = bin Laden = Al Qaeda
Al Qaeda = insurgency in Iraq
Al Qaeda = "homegrown terrists" in London and elsewhere likely having no direct ties to bin Laden or Al Qaeda as it was known in September of 2001, and who cannot be separated by a shallow mind from law-abiding muslims.
Place above ingredients in a bowl and blend with pants-wetting hypotheticals of what-maybe-in-our-imaginations-could-be-possible, and what you have is society beset literally on all sides by a monolithic mass of swarthy terrists, vaguely all responsible for 9/11©, collectively and from a distance forming a pointillist image of a sneering Osama bin Laden.
Cue visceral craving for strongman leader to calm our trembling fear of our own coddled imaginations.
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ever even been to New York?
[Read the article: Tucker, Jonah, Elizabeth and Jillian]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]London has been saved from carbombing.... London also has cameras on a lot of corners. Any qualms here about that kind of surveillance? Should NYC do the same?
Even on September 10 - you know, when we were still in that post-1776 mindset - New York City did in fact have "cameras on a lot of corners."
Their presence, as we now know, was largely responsible for helping prevent the destruction of the Twin Towers.
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Sicko
[Read the article: Tucker, Jonah, Elizabeth and Jillian]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just got back from seeing Sicko. Very impressive. And heart-wrenching.
With the sickness of our media institutions being so pervasive these days, I have to say it's truly inspiring and refreshing to see the film community step in to provide a much-needed check on stupidity, abuse of power, and greed.
An Inconvenient Truth utterly transformed the global warming debate, and one can see a distinct difference in the national discourse since that movie came out. He quite literally ended the false debate we had been having, in a single coup de grâce. Now, we have Sicko, even more brilliant in my opinion, which has the very real capacity to create a similar paradigm shift on the topic of health care. With this film, Michael Moore has truly elevated himself to something qualitatively different than what he was before. It will be much harder for critics to malign him now, though they will certainly fight like dogs to do so.
It's absolutely breathtaking how, with our government having failed us so spectacularly, people in the private sector (in Gore's case, people forced into the private sector) have risen to the occasion to restore some semblance of democratic balance and good sense.
I count certain bloggers in that constellation of good citizens too. I have great hope in our national capacity to return from the brink of venality, insanity, and idiocy. Sicko is just one more beautiful example of the grass slowly breaking through the concrete.
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Joseph Wilson
[Read the article: Lewis Libby owes his freedom to our corrupt political elite]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I wish I had been home to comment when Glenn first posted this.
Chris Matthews' interview with Joseph Wilson today was chilling. Joseph Wilson has always been a serious man, but his tone today in that interview was downright grim. He's a very competent and dedicated person, so I think he will remain a significant gadfly on this issue for some time.
I only hope that this Congress heeds the call to finally do what the American people elected it to do.
Glenn:
More than nearly any other commentator, I think you have cut straight down to the marrow of this Administration's systemic abuses of power. The Manichean/Machiavellian theme truly comes the closest to explaining their behavior and philosophy. Tragic Legacy and Gore's Assault on Reason are the preeminent Volumes I and II on the sickness in our government that will long tarnish the dignity of our country.
And a word on courage. Courage is best defined not as how one stands up to his enemies, but how one stands up to his friends. Once again, Mr. Bush has demonstrated that he answers only to the ever-shrinking minority in the authoritarian right, and is utterly contemptuous of any semblance of the public interest.
Bush and Cheney's Mutt-and-Jeff routine is a veil for the inescapable fact that they are simply two hemispheres of the same ideological brain.
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jtp118
[Read the article: Lewis Libby owes his freedom to our corrupt political elite]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But just as a rhetorical method, might it not be more effective to introduce a little wit or humor? Or at least the appearance of even-handedness? I can imagine a Republican or centrist reading your posts and just (incorrectly) dismissing them as extremist liberal hackery ... you might get a wider readership with a little less vitriol!
This is a misplaced characterization and assumption. First, Glenn isn't being vitriolic, he's being blunt and unequivocal. If you think his tone is vitriolic, you are reading something between his words that is not there.
Second, if you agree with Glenn's premises, then you would have to acknowledge that the Administration's actions amount to nothing less than a fundamental assault on democratic principles, the rule of law, and the public interest itself. If you further accept this as true, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with calling it exactly what it is.
If you want an example of what milquetoast, ambivalent journalism and commentary produces, look no further than the self-aborting non-statements of Howard Kurtz and similar conventional media figures. We have definitively come to a point in our political and governmental environment where half-hearted, self-apologetic, or anodyne attempts to reach the unreachable simply will not do.
I submit that those who would reject Glenn's very logical arguments on the basis of his "vitriolic" tone alone would find it impossible to agree with him no matter how polite and mild-mannered his writing.