Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 349 Editor's Choice: 71
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Ask Patrick Dorismond's Survivors
[Read the article: Giuliani family values]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]..if Rudy left their family alone. No, he didn't. After Dorismond was mistakenly shot and killed by the police, Giuliani went in front of cameras and declared "He was no altar boy. He had a juvenile record".
1.) Patrick Dorismond had, in fact, been an altar boy
2.) He had a SEALED juvenile record. Dorismond was 28 when he was killed. His record was sealed; it was over. My former brother-in-law and one of my cousins have sealed juvenile records. One of them is now a successful business owner, the other is a high-ranking member of a federal agency. (For the record, they are both white.)
It takes a special kind of person to go in front of cameras to expose the sealed juvenile record of a dead man whose only crime at the time of his death was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This same "special" type of person, Rudy Giuliani, also demanded family privacy when it was revealed that his father was was a violent felon who spent 5 years in Sing Sing for armed robbery and who was described by a psychiatrist with the City's Department of Hospitals as "a personality deviate of the aggressive, egocentric type. This aggressivity is pathological in nature and has shown itself from time to time even as far back as his childhood. He is egocentric to an extent where he has failed to consider the feelings and rights of others."
Like father like son?
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My Mistake
[Read the article: Giuliani family values]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In my letter, I said that Rudololph Giuliani's father, Harold Giuliani, spent 5 years in Sing Sing. This is not true. Harold Giuliani (under the alias Joseph Starrett -- he lied about his name, address, age and occupation when arrested) was sentenced to 2 to 5 years in prison. He was released after serving one and half years in Sing Sing. He spent 4 years on parole.
This information is from Wayne Barrett's book "Rudy!: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Guiliani" You can read an excerpt of it here, which gives details of Harold Giuliani's life.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0027,barrett,16192,1.html
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Don't Forget Science
[Read the article: Seizing American supremacy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As rising countries like China, Russia and Venezuela use their new-found wealth to educate more and more modern scientists -- who will use their science education to develop new technologies (including weapons technology) -- we've got a willfully ignorant group of neocons in power whose indebtedness to religious nutcases is so deep that American science education no longer includes things as basic as evolutionary theory and belief that the planet we inhabit is more than six or seven thousand years old. It's indebtedness to religious fundmentalists and to greedy capitalists is so deep, they refuse to give federal funds for stem cell research. The fundamentalists insist that zygotes are human babies and that stem cell research is murder. The greedy capitalists don't want stem cell patents in the hands of the federal government; they want private industry to fund stem cell research so they can grab those patents.
The US got caught short when the USSR sent Sputnik into space. Thankfully, JFK realized that we shouldn't continue to rely on European ex-patriot scientists and he called for increased funding in science and mathematics education. The fundamentalists were relegated to the fringe, where they belong in a modern society.
Unfortunately, we don't have a JFK in office as Russia, China, India and Venezuela prepare to zoom past us in technological development.
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It's Only A Reflection of the Larger Picture in the USA
[Read the article: Women are the new men on TV]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We have a feckless fratboy masquerading as president. We have an insane man running the country as vice president. The White House Chief of Staff keeps a book entitled "Walter the Farting Dog" on his desk (you can't make this stuff up -- google "Josh Bolton farting dog"). Top White House aides and high-ranking administrators charged with running our country's most important departments call reporters and divulge the name of a covert CIA agent for publication. When an investigation is undertaken, all these men suddenly lose their memories and become blithering idiots -- just like the ditzy blonde TV bimbos of the past! As a final coda, the "real" source of the spy revelation, Richard Armitage, purports to be nothing more than a big old harmless gossip - it just happens that this gossip maven is a former Deputy Secretary of State as well as a former high-ranking CIA operative during the Vietnam War. Silly boy!
Who was the spy who was outed? Valerie Plame, a blonde but not a ditz. A very capable-seeming woman who had an important job relating to weapons of mass destruction.
Who does our fratboy president send out to the media when he wants to deflect attention from himself? His wife, who does not attempt lame jokes or give juvenile nicknames to world leaders.
Who does our fratboy send around the world as our top ranking diplomat? A woman in black Ferrigami boots.
Television is merely reflecting the zeitgeist of our time.
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It's Only A Reflection of the Larger Picture in the USA....... Cont'd
[Read the article: Women are the new men on TV]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Who is the Speaker of the House? A woman.
Who is the top Democratic candidate for president at this time? A woman.
The women seem a lot more capable and less idiotic than the men. You didn't see these women histrionically weeping over poor Terri Schiavo in Florida. You won't find them tapping their feet in a airport bathrooms looking for quick anonymous sex or hiring a prostitute (though their husbands may, for all we know).
Is it any wonder the fiction so resembles the fact? The men running this country are idiots. The women seem a bit more grounded. Not much, but more than the men.
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"The amnesia-inducing drug Vercet.."
[Read the article: Reason to believe]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]..is spelled "Versed."
It has replaced Valium as the drug most likely to be nicknamed "Vitamin V" in hospitals.