Letters to the Editor
mattwa33186
Published Letters: 395 Editor's Choice: 41
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Ellen
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not protesting, but I am kind of a stickler when it comes to etymology :)
The original meaning of atheist, from the Greek, is "godless" and referred to those who affirmatively denied the existence of the gods.
Agnostic means "unknowable" and refers specifically to those who take the position that it is not possible to ascertain the truthfulness of claims of the existence or non-existence of a Supreme Being among other things, such as the nature of reality.
The definitions have been corrupted over time, mostly by the Catholic Church, to where atheism is now a term incorrectly applied to anyone who does not believe in the Judeo-Christian God, including Buddhists and Pagans.
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P.S.
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think the definitions are what's dividing us. By the one you are using you are certainly an Athiest. It's just not the proper, original definition. Maybe I am just being old fashioned.
I don't think not believing in God is intellectually arrogant or anything negative, really. I do think calling someone an idiot for believing in God (as some on here have done, not you) is just as intolerable as telling someone they are going to burn in hell for not believing, and that those who deny the existence of God outright are being intellectually dishonest when they assert that logic supports that position.
And I really don't care how many people don't believe in God :)
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Eh
[Read the article: What, was "Mandy" already taken?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Getting Johnny Sac in the video was pretty good. Thanks for the link that let me bypass giving them my email.
Do you think Hillary realizes that aside from being impossible to listen to for more than 20 seconds, Celine is Canadian? Are there clues and hidden messages everywhere in this video, like the carrots representing the labor of illegal immigrants and the Canadian song representing globalization? :) Maybe the kids making out is contraceptives in the schools!
But overall, it kind of sucked.
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@mattielisbon
[Read the article: What, was "Mandy" already taken?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Bush administration already has "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" as their theme song :)
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Screw Impeachment
[Read the article: Imperial presidency declared null and void]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The court has made the illegality of the administration's actions clear. If they don't release the prisoners against whom they lack enough evidence to even bring charges, Bush needs to be arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced. End of story.
Are we to accept that the laws which protect a sitting President from being prosecuted still protect him after his actions have been judged felonious and he continues to commit them? Bullshit. If Congress is stocked with co-conspirators and cowards, some DC judge needs to step up and issue a warrant for the President's arrest because a felony is being commited by a citizen within his jurisdiction. Bush is not above the law. This needs to be made clear to him.
So, we have a President who thinks we simply are better than everybody else, and we no longer have to be better than everybody else. We have an AG who thinks the Constitution is quaint and is not ashamed to say so in public and on the record. We have at least one SC Justice who seems to think that our rights are granted by the President rather than endowed by our Creator. And we have a Congressional majority more concerned with how all this is going to help them in the next election than how it is harming the citizens they are supposed to be serving.
I'm half expecting to see a picture of Osama Bin Laden standing in front of a huge banner that says "Mission Accomplished".
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My God
[Read the article: Richard Cohen's brilliant (and unintentional) exposé of our media]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My cynicism about the internet in general and chat rooms in particular leads me to the conclusion that Tony Snow was the man behind the keyboard here.
I particularly liked the part where he blamed us (the great unwashed, jail loving, vengeance seeking American public) and liberals as a whole for criminalizing politics rather than the politicians who are commiting criminal acts.
Ignoring the fact that there was no prosecution for the underlying crimes because Libby obstructed justice and completely dismissing the fact that he was found guilty by a jury of his peers.
Forthrightly proclaiming that our dislike for criminal acts on the part of our employees is just a symptom of our dislike for the war, implying that if we were kicking ass in the Middle East we would only love these guys all the more for their acts of treason.
Towing the party line by claiming Libby is a scapegoat because there was no prosecution for the underlying crime, ignoring the fact that the judge and prosecutor discussed that on the record (for the record, since it was an obvious point of law) and concluded that obstruction can't require an underlying crime - something Cohen could also ask Martha Stewart about if he ever got it in his head to actually talk about facts - due to the nature of obstruction and because it's a crime all on its own.
And topping it all off by not only minimizing the responsibilities of the Fourth Estate, flying in the face of every documented statement on the subject of the First Amendment by the likes of Jefferson, Franklin, and Payne (perhaps he thinks they are quaint), but then stating that the symbiotic, enabling relationship between the press and the government actually makes America a better place than an adversarial one would. Did the WP get this guy from Pravda?
Excellent article, Glenn.