Letters to the Editor
smartalec
Published Letters: 51 Editor's Choice: 4
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and?
[Read the article: "Big in every way"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One of the beautiful things about the internet is that it empowers (sorry, I'm in Cambridge, Mass -- have to use that word at least once in every post; it's the law) everyone. All persons their own press magnates.
So, rubadub, Chad, scavok, this is your moment. Show us how it's done. Since you so clearly recognize the faults and failings of this piece, you can now rectify the problems -- surely an easy task, for people of such insight, such depth, such mental prowess. And who knows to what it could lead? Just like the old Peanuts strip, in which Charlie Brown shares (with Linus, was it?) his fantasy of snagging the line drive from the stands, and the manager cries, "Sign that kid up!" Bylines, articles, book tours -- maybe a guest OpEd at the Times?
It's your big chance, kids -- show us what you got. Boy, I can't wait.
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suck-up watch
[Read the article: This Modern World]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Okay, I realize it's pathetic and self-abasing to not only BE a rabid fanboy of a friggin' comic strip, but to admit to it (albeit under a pseudonym). But Mr "Tomorrow" really is, I think, a genius, in the literal meaning of the term. He's got a gift -- one that I think borders on the unique -- for taking very complex, intricate, layered, and nuanced realities, and summarizing them in ways that are simplified, but never oversimplified; accurate, on point, elucidating, and of course, hilarious (if only by way of laughing to keep from crying, of course).
Can't say I give him full credit for the humor, though - for some of that, we owe the lunatics of the various cliques and claques depicted so brilliantly. The Christianists, the Faux News fen, the corporatists, and all the other reichwing authoritarians (not to mention our pusillanimous Democratic "leaders" and all the "sensible liberals") have taken their absurdities so far beyond where any satire of even just a few years ago could have predicted...
And, as one of the older strips pointed out, isn't it pathetic when so many of the facts that show up in these cartoons would actually be complete news to most Americans?
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I thought obscenity...
[Read the article: Quote of the Day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...had been outlawed by the Supreme Court?
Because that comment, the rally, and the entire Republican response over the last six years to the pain and loss of that day is the quintessence of obscene.
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homophobia, much?
[Read the article: Larry Craig is back]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]right here at Salon?
Nah, couldn't be.
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aeschylus beat me to it
[Read the article: A non-di-nahy-uhl di-nahy-uhl]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We lefty types are supposed to be all about levelling playing fields and providing equal opportunities and access for the differently-abled (or, as the community might prefer, to the "temporarily abled," since, as they rightly point out, any of us who live long enough will sooner or later be needing beaucoup assistance).
It's been clear for years that W is a person with dyslexia, or something closely related thereto. It's incumbent on us not to be giving him a hard time about that.
The facts that he's a mass murderer; a war criminal; a war profiteer; a hypocrite; a physical and moral coward; a parasite on the public; a traitor to the Constitution, the people, and the spirit of America, not to mention his own professed God; a pathological liar; a dry drunk; a serial failure; and probably a borderline psychotic, are more than enough to hold against him. Worrying about trivia like this is not only unnecessary, it's counterproductive, a distraction from the real issues.
Of course, as other posters have pointed out so well, it's also a distraction from noticing that Dana Perino's way of dealing with what should be a non-issue is perfectly representative of two of the biggest problems with the Bush cabal -- an inability to accept responsibility for anything at all, no matter how inconsequential, and the constant need to attack anyone (and especially anyone from the media) demonstrating insufficient obsequiousness and servility.
Who cares if he can't say "Kyrgyzstan" w/o a cheat-sheet?
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@mizbinkley
[Read the article: Bill O'Reilly explains the African-American]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]9/25, 11:37am: "Too often, we dismiss our enemies or people we disagree with when we should be watching them carefully. Because the O'Reillys of the world are influencing politicians and voters."
Amen.
BO is clearly a lost cause -- but many of his followers are not. The returning "Reagan Democrats" and "Security Moms" are just the first wave. The lies of the reichwing in general and the Bush Cabal in particular are becoming more glaring, as the realities of Iraq, tax cuts for the rich and the corporations, globalization, and global warming become more inescapable to more Americans. We ignore these people -- or worse, assume they are inevitably and ineluctably our political adversaries -- at our own peril, and at the peril of the country and the world.
I can't remember which book it was in, but one of the very best stories that Michael Moore tells is one of meeting some of the Michigan Militia, and how they made it clear to Moore that they could have been allied with the left on many economic and political issues, if they hadn't been made The Enemy by the left. Gov Dean was absolutely right -- and has proven it with his 50-state strategy -- in saying that the guys with the shotgun racks in their pickups with the rebel flag plates should be voting for our crew.
But in order to counter their propaganda, we have to know their propaganda.
The one thing I'd like to know: are the O'Reillys and Imuses of the world the media successes they are despite their racism, or because of it? Actually, cancel that -- I'm probably better off with the illusion that it's at least a possibility that it's "despite."