Letters to the Editor
foam peanut
Published Letters: 45
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Instead of conspiracies we had mysteries
[Read the article: "True Enough": More on truthiness and Apple fanboys]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Growing up in the fifties, I swear before I even learned how, I was taught "You can't believe everything, you read". And yet we didn't feel deceived. We trusted reporters' good faith while accepting sources were secondary, information was limited, and honest mistakes could be made and go uncorrected for lack of accessible truth. Uncertainty was implicit. To be called a know-it-all or opinionated was then an insult that is now unimaginable. People entertained conspiracy theories for fun, but a pervasive awareness that we just couldn't know dissuaded belief.
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For America's sake, listen to Greenwald not the likes of Slaughter (what an apt name).
[Read the article: War advocates like Anne-Marie Slaughter demand that you forget the past]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank goodness for Glenn, who along with Dan Froomkin of WaPo, is the smartest on the internet, having never once for the record misled us or been wrong.
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The Swift Boats have been launched
[Read the article: Rev. Jeremiah Wright isn't the problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It immediately struck me, an older white woman and 14th generation American, that Rev. Wright's crime was his giving voice to a painfully honest view. That Barack is now swift-boated as anti-American and anti-white by association is merely the standard M.O. of inverting his message by opportunistic design. The candidate who would unite us all in love is said to have "thrown his white granny and her walker under the bus." Punditry who said he was naive and too hopeful suddenly insist he's slick and cynical. I despair Gary is right. We'll elect not the president we need, but the one we deserve.
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Why odog11 can't have his wish...
[Read the article: Rev. Jeremiah Wright isn't the problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The CIA isn't about "to cook something up for 14th generation Americans" because comprising 45 million of our citizens, they have long since infiltrated the CIA.
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So stealing the view from those who own it and can't afford more than a view is ok?
[Read the article: The strange case of midnight renegade oleander gentrification camouflage]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why didn't the neighbor ask if she could plant the oleanders? Without permission, her "nerve and cunning" constitute garden-variety criminal trespass and illegal encroachment. I personally would advise the nice neighbor, since he's good enough to care about the nice old lady victim of a third neighbor, whose secretive crime is a dire sign of that dreaded neighborhood hazard - the fussy busybody - to ask himself if she objects. Though my guess is she'll say "no" she "understands", if she hedges (pun again intended) he could show that cunning and nerve Cary admires to help a neighbor in need of defense against the lawless by digging them up, though I doubt he will, being smart enough to be afraid of fussy busybody criminal neighbors. Unless the criminal intends to sell her house tomorrow, her "property values" are immaterial. Before the oleanders are large enough to do their trick, the old lady will be likely be dead and/or gone along with her son, who will have the smarts to sell, so the mean neighbor's crime won't pay a penny, but will be a debit on her life record. Besides, a hedge can get sick and scraggly, too. That said, fact is, plants ARE are the best neighbors.
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Love the planeted oleanders? Itch to bomb Iran? Think Rev. Wright should be shot?
[Read the article: The strange case of midnight renegade oleander gentrification camouflage]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cary's labeling of LW's concern as "charming", followed by his postulating an absurd response, only to point out its absurdity, is deft parody. His send-up of a callous elitism falls a bit flat, however, when he dismisses an actual crime as "class warfare". Karl Rove, who invented the phrase, wouldn't go that far. For all the beauty they might bring, should the encroached-upon victim of criminal-theft-of-use of her property live so long, they'll always be a bigger stick-in-the-eye for their humiliating, cruel message. I'd advise LW to approach the neighbor and offer to dig them up. If the neighbor does demure, as she likely will, having lived long enough to put plants in perspective, at least she knows she can depend on one neighbor to respect not just her but human decency and the law.
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In defense of Cary...
[Read the article: The strange case of midnight renegade oleander gentrification camouflage]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He seems in need of and surely deserves a fully-paid break from answering us guys on Salon.com, if only to regain his balance and get out more in the world that used to inform well his answers. (If the owners think my money isn't where my mouth is, I'll have them know, harumpf, I'll even renew my subscription.)
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Don't worry about the law taking sides against the old lady. American law is better than that (mostly!)
[Read the article: The strange case of midnight renegade oleander gentrification camouflage]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]domini,
In a neighborhood over 40 years old, there's unlikely to be a homeowners association that enforces codes, such as you mention that keep newer developments up to snuff or under boot, depending on one's perspective. I think we can assume the oleander planter, prior to going to the significant expense and legal liability of encroachment, did her darnedest to sic the law on that poor old woman. Little doubt, to her consternation, she was told by the police no health code violations existed, and what's merely unsightly isn't unlawful. (Tall enough grass is actually a health hazard known to attract rats and poisonous snakes.)
Thank you, domini, for a wholly decent posting.
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I gather I haven't missed anything by not listening to Mr. Limbaugh's show.
[Read the article: Limbaugh off the hook for voter fraud ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Don't worry, I'm the only one going to jail."
"The check is in the mail."
"Wear [your voter fraud] as a badge of honor."
"It's my sister's panties. Sure I told you I had a sister."
"Trust me on this. Hillary. cannot. actually. win."
"Manipulating election results has always been the sole responsibility of the drive-by media."
"I'm a cute lovable fuzzball"
If I called Mr. Limbaugh a socio-pathic liar, he'd take it as a compliment, right?
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The MSM has never apologized to Gore, to Kerry, nor to Barack**
[Read the article: Keith Olbermann apologizes for his Clinton remark]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The media is at once sexist and inappropriately deferential to Hillary, whose pretense of being interchangeable on issues with Barack is routinely indulged. Her position toward Iran is down low with the GOP. So too is her amendment to protect flags, not just from their owners, but from our mean, old First Amendment. Her sponsoring it, even after her staff had failed to locate a single report of an actual burning by an American, moves it far right of Barack, past McCain into the depths Republican hell.
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Sureally very funny
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Considering today's dedicated to denying there's a dark side to mothers, this is bracing. That the honchos at WaPo didn't axe it like they did Breathed's skewering of neocons, is a credit to moms not WaPo.