Letters to the Editor
kenkapkk
Published Letters: 131 Editor's Choice: 13
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No room for dialogue
[Read the article: My lunch with an antifeminist pundit]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As an early childhood expert for over thirty years, I take exception to numerous pronouncements, opinions, and "statistics" tossed off by Kate O'Beirne in her interview. The Perry preschool project, which followed children from quality child care over twenty years found that for every dollar invested in such quality care, society benefited in a savings of seven dollars in terms of better adult adjustment, career choices, lack of social maladjustment among other factors. Ms O'Bierne's constant pointing to "opinion polls" is irrelevant as to the proper needs of children. In my experience, quality child care settings offer options, choices, socialization and learning opportinities that are far beyond the capacity of single parental care in the home.
If one wishes to engage in more in depth duscussions about choices and options concerning partition of time and cultural support to allow more time with family, perhaps we could talk about how the constant restructuring of the tax codes to favor the wealthy as outlined by Bartlett and Steele in their book "Who Pays the Taxes" has been a primary culprit in forcing families into two working parents.
But to have a nuanced dialogue with a rabid ideologue such as Ms O'Beirne is clearly impossible. Contrast her assaultive style with Dan Gottleib or Terry Gross on NPR and one sees the difference between truly adult behavior and the behavior of one who has no capacity for understanding anything beyond a strictly black and white vision of reality.
I find Ms O'Beirne frankly as toxic and noxious as some of the extreme feminists she sets out to discredit. Her perception and revision of cultural history is ludicrous. Whatever meaningful points she has to make are drowned in the rantings that put her in the O'Reilly-Limbaugh class.
This is why we have problems in America, power hungry predators who portray themselves as cultural saviors, whether from the left or right.
Ken Kaplan
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Why I stopped
[Read the article: Will you miss "The West Wing"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I love Cary Tennis immensely, his column is one of the best things about Salon and he hit the nail for me right on the head. I stopped watching the "West Wing" right after the 2002 elections. The dissonance between reality and the fantasy of a liberal President was too great. What was the point? So ditto, ditto, ditto, Cary. Perhaps great minds think alike.
Ken Kaplan
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What about boundaries?
[Read the article: My mother-in-law, my mother-in-law, my mother-in-law!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cary's core advice is sound, but misses some essential aspects. I agree that if ML behavior is as rude and invasive as depicted, then something is wrong with the husband's lack of support.
But where were the writer's boundaries to say no to ML demands if they were outrageous at Thanksgiving. " Too bad mom, I just gave birth. Find a good hotel and go out. Or we eat Chinese." If that creates tension with husband, then the marraige is not so idyllic. Or, "no more unannounced mother's day visits". Etc.
Part of Cary's advice would be to point out that "changing oneself" also means establishing healthy respect for oneself and saying "no".
But we see this through DL lens. The truth might lie somewhere between. But DL has enabled ML and needs to put foot down where appropriate. The smaller slights should be ignored. The really egregious ones? No.
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calling kate o'biern
[Read the article: Men in love]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Send this article to Kate O'Bierne. She might learn something. (Not likely). Wonderful to see thoughtful, thorough, non ideological examinations of cultural issues in depth with compassion.
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Poignent Reply
[Read the article: Why can't my mother accept my bisexuality?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just am continually grateful for Cary Tennis. Although the issue at hand is not my issue, the devestation of parental attack was. A very poignent response. He is a treasure.
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Right On
[Read the article: Oscar castrates himself]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What more can I say? A nauseating evening capped off by the biggest weasel cop out. I actually watched for some escapist pleasure only to feel confronted again by this hideous capitulation to right wing pressure. What hypocrites to be so self congratulatory while spinelessly kissing ass.
Crash? Are you kidding me? Stiff, sterotyped, shallow, shriekingly in your face Crash?
To quote Bill Mahr, "I don't hate America, I'm EMBARRASSED by America."
I looked for some commentary the next day and for ten seconds all I heard was right wing radio ranting about George Clooney?
What a country.
Ken Kaplan
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Exactly
[Read the article: The Fix]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Maybe it seems that way to the Times, but the trades and other insiders have been guessing for a long time that "Crash" would carry the greater appeal to Academy voters. Why, you ask? The award for best instant analysis goes to the Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan, who saw the "Crash" victory coming, writing: "In the privacy of the voting booth, as many political candidates who've led in polls only to lose elections have found out, people are free to act out the unspoken fears and unconscious prejudices that they would never breathe to another soul, or, likely, acknowledge to themselves. And at least this year, that acting out doomed 'Brokeback Mountain.'" He adds that Academy voters picked "Crash" because, perversely, "it is, in some ways, a feel-good film about racism, a film you could see and feel like a better person, a film that could make you believe that you had done your moral duty and examined your soul when in fact you were just getting your buttons pushed and your preconceptions reconfirmed."
Exactly.
Ken Kaplan