Letters to the Editor
sajwan
Published Letters: 487 Editor's Choice: 13
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antisemitism
[Read the article: Lee Bollinger's big moment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Fighting antisemitism here is a complete waste of time." - ~~~~~
Well at least you got something right, (maybe because even a broken clock is right once a day?).
Fighting antisemitism here is a complete waste of time because there is no anti-sematism here except in your grand illusions.
And speaking of hate, who do you hate more, Muslims or Christians? While Jews have had a mixed history with both religions, the Christian relationship absent recent modern history was the worse.
Anonymous, congratulations on your second smear attempt. It was better, but still substance free. Try another twinkie with your diet coke.
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Cowards and Power
[Read the article: My questions for President Ahmadinejad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Mr. President, I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions" - Bollinger
Well I wonder what would happen if an Iranian university invited Bollinger to speak. Would he accept or take his own intellectual courage, tuck it between his legs and run?
Bollinger had some good questions but Columbia invited the Iranian leader to speak, not to debate Bollinger. A debate sets different expectations and is understood to be adversarial by nature. Bollingers confrontation was a cheap shot and thus my conclusion of him as a coward and a boor.
As far as "speaking truth to power". Maybe Bollinger giving a simliar speech confronting Bush is speaking truth to power, but Bollinger is a citizen of the USA, which is the POWER, the power to wipe Iran off the map, the power to dismantle and destroy their infrastructure. What power does Iran have? The power to limit the amount of SUVs sold in the USA?
There is a larger context here, which is the script being pushed by neo-cons, and suckled on by the uncritical media, that has Iran being the next "new" evil country that needs to be toppled for freedom, Mom and apple pie. Oh and control of the oil is nice to.
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It's like Sports Talk
[Read the article: David Brooks and the deceitful tactics of the Beltway pundit]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]David has a common approach with radio sports talk shows. Radio host makes some wild assed assertion then bases the remainder of their show on this initial unsubstantiated assertion.
For example baseball player x is identified as dogging it by not coming back from an injury quickly enough. There's the assertion, then comes the bloviating: He is not really hurt. He is faking it and providing a bad example to youngsters and besmirching the game of baseball. He should be fired and his pay docked, or be traded immediately or labled a coward and traitor, there are so many other players who fought thru injuries, he wasn't that good a player, who needs him, etc ad-nauseum. The whole problem is there was no effort to identify what the injury was, what is the usual recovery time for such an injury, or how have baseball players in the past responded to this injury. THE FACTS ARE IRRELEVANT. And if a caller calls into the show to share some actual information or facts based in reality, not just in the radio hosts mind, they are ridiculed and shouted off the radio.
So it's easy to understand. If the facts do occassionally line up with Davids views, that's fine but not necessary. What is important is to create an entertaining enough assertion that will piss people off, get them riled up whether pro or con, so in the case of the radio host they call his talk show and in the case of David Brooks people refer to his dumb ass views and articles.
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Webb versus the Lieberman-Kyl amendment
[Read the article: David Brooks and the deceitful tactics of the Beltway pundit]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks sysprog and Senator Webb.
But Joe has a follow-up question:
Why have hearings where you'd have to collect facts, read stuff, ask questions, listen to answers, and have to think real hard, when you can just make stuff up, feel self-important and get payed just the same.
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Graphic Imagery
[Read the article: Dan Rather stands by his story]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If the stand alone question "is this a forged document" could ever go to court, the likely outcome would be a hung jury. The pros and cons on this board point to the many inconsistencies, suspect methodologies, and so on. In the end, why should we care. Do we get to negate the fact that Israel bombed the shit out of Beirut, because there was one, ONE "faked" photo out of hundreds?
The reality is that there is plenty of other evidence and witness statements that substantiates the case Rather made. And I won't detail them here, because hell it's fonts and typewriters that are important.
Bush dodged Vietnam (duh) and he did not complete his service (duh), the issue is how the emperor can be naked, in the middle of the public square, babbling how beautiful his clothes are, and people are then easily led to debating fonts. How does that happen? God, sometimes I think we are a nation of morons.
Rather was railroaded and CBS will be shown that it found it in it's own best interest to suckle at the tit of Carl Rove. Wow, now there's an image.
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Speculation
[Read the article: Dan Rather stands by his story]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anonymous,
Yes I am being emotional, probably hyperbolic, if not vitriolic. But your speculation that CBS would not fire Rather because it could cost them money is as valid as the speculation they did fire Rather so it would not cost them money. At a certain point, the focus was no longer on the content of the 60 minutes piece but instead shifting to questioning the integrity of CBS.
That's why my hope is that Rather does not go for a settlement, no matter how tempting, and he forces this to trial where all the laundry comes out. Then we no longer need to speculate.
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Question Answered
[Read the article: Rush Limbaugh and the "phony soldiers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Gosh, two assholes. That finally answers a question I've had for a long time. I was wondering how he could ever move his bowels with his head up his ass all the time.