Letters to the Editor
Tideswimmer
Published Letters: 383 Editor's Choice: 47
-
Could it be satire?
[Read the article: The man who ended our Nixon nightmare]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Having read the article and all the subsequent letters, and knowing Shapiro's work from his other columns, I can't help but think that Shapiro meant his column to be a satirical piece about the way everyone else has leapt on the "Ford, right man, right place and time" bandwagon.
That Banana Republic line is just too outlandish, too strongly worded, too in your face to be taken seriously. Surely, as others have pointed out, there could be no better test of the strength of the constitution than to have had Nixon called to task for his deeds. Shapiro surely can not be saying that the first order of business for the next president should be to soothe the country's jangled nerves with a nice little blanket pardon for this administration's murderous crimes.
Next time, there should be no pardon, no matter the cost to the American psyche. Our leaders have behaved despicably. We have allowed them to behave despicably. Our leaders need to be held to account, and neither should we get off without being forced into some serious questioning of who we are as a nation. We seriously need, on the national level, to regain even a shred of humility and concern for how our actions effect others. This process should be painful. We should not just be allowed to move on.
I think Ford meant his pardon honorably, but the problem was it came at no price to Nixon. Nixon should have been forced, as he would in any other court, to attest to his crimes in exchange for it. He should not have been left in the position of being able to salvage his reputation even to the degree he was able in later years. He should have stood before the nation as a confessed criminal.
Even at that, you know there would still be that certain percentage of people who would defend him, just as you know that if Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld came forth tomorrow and admitted that everything they told us was complete bullshit, there'd be that contingent who would still lay the blame for everything at the feet of some 'homosexual agenda" and all that nonsense. Liberal media surrender monkeys boo-hoo-hooing about the slaughter of some rag head A-rabs, and such.
The country needs the trial as much as the leaders need to be tried. We really must be forced to look at our national character.
-
Hey, What Gives?
[Read the article: It's not a wonderful life]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I set the recorder to grab the Giant Squid show, but what they broadcast was a show about mongols. Not the same thing at all. Where is my giant squid? That show was going to give meaning to my whole Christmas watching. Damn.
-
What does your little flame war have to do with the Giant Squid?
[Read the article: It's not a wonderful life]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Here you all are prattling on with your little insults when an entire giant squid has gone missing! Discovery HD changed the giant squid show out with a show about mongol hordes or something.
Can we get back to talking about what's important? Don't you get it? Run for your lives! There's a giant squid missing. If it catches you, you can try your puny little insults out on it, but I wouldn't expect not to be torn limb from limb, nor devoured by its ravenous parrot-like beak. Converted thus into ten pounds of squid feces, your little war will seem mighty stupid.
A little decorum in the forum, please.
-
The sad story
[Read the article: No time to heal]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sidney Blumenthal has told this story a couple of times now, but it needs to be told and retold until it finally sinks in: The current mess we are in is the final result of 30 plus years of tenacious, unrelenting, obsessive work by Cheney and Rumsfeld and their cabal. 30 years!!!
The madness of that, the horror. No matter the obstacles, setbacks, political shifts, changing tides, and etc. Nothing... Nothing... could dissuade them from creating this screaming nightmare situation they've inflicted on us all. Hundreds of thousands to millions of people dead in those same 30 years... in the name of ... what is it exactly? I don't even know. What is the impetus that has kept them so doggedly on trail of whatever it is they are pursuing? Madness!
-
Thanks for the guide
[Read the article: Beyond the Multiplex]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Time will tell if you are right about these films, but it's encouraging that you were able to get the correct take on Starship Troopers. It's always discouraging trying to explain that film to Americans who seem, just as with the current situation in Iraq, completely unable to get it.
-
More than a phone
[Read the article: Going mobile]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just watched the video of Job's Keynote and read the article by Farhad Manjoo. I'm uncertain of Manjoo's tone. He seems anti-Apple one minute and impressed the next. He seems to have a grudge against the iPod, for sure.
Fair enough, but I think Farhad completely missed the mark in his assessment of the iPhone. There is definitely a bigger picture here. Sure, Steve Jobs is a master salesman, but the potential for the iPhone is breathtaking. It's a computer that fits in the palm of your hand. It runs OS X. As another letter writer noted, it's got bluetooth built in. Get this thing hooked up to some peripherals and other devices, let software developers get their hands on it and create applications and you're going really see the phenomen Jobs spoke about.
$500 may be too much for a phone, I don't know, but it's a mistake to view this as just a phone. Its potential is huge.