Letters to the Editor
RufusRyker
Published Letters: 7 Editor's Choice: 2
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The goodness of google's heart
[Read the article: Google: Nice work if you can get it]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Any idea WHO google wants to attract with these fabulous perks? The company is fairly open about this -- they want the smartest of the smart, mostly programming geniuses who not only scored 1600 on their SATs but had enough time left over after completing the test to translate the entire essay section into sanskrit. They offer these wonderful things because they are competing with Microsoft and Yahoo for a very limited pool of applicants. Which is why your local Walmart will not be matching these fine perks any time soon. Then again, if you are pregnant and get a job at McDonalds, you can probably steal $500 worth of french fries when the manager isn't looking!
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You people are pathetic...
[Read the article: Parsing pain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Eichmann? Hitler? Stalin? The comparisons are just idiotic.
I have to think that most people posting here, or reading Salon in general are spoiled. Spoiled by safety, by comfort, by a complete disconnection from real pain and suffering. The feeling of waking up in the morning knowing that the chances of anything truly harmful or painful happening to either you or your loved ones is extremely remote. Only you don't "feel" it, because you've never lived any other way, and it has nothing to do with wealth or what section of town you live in.
It's telling that the signature image of the "torture" scandal is a man attached to wires. It's significant for what it does not convey. The wires weren't real, the electricity non-existent. Real torture uses real electricity, real knives, real pliers. Nakedness? Try disfigurement, mutilation, body parts severed. Pain so severe that death is welcomed by the victim when it finally arrives. Humiliation? Imagine the humiliation having to dig your grave alongside your child, who must dig her own.
If you think John Yoo, or Donald Rumsfeld, or George Bush represent how bad things have gotten, you don't know bad. Your "bad" doesn't hold a candle to the much worse that millions have died experiencing. Bad can get worse, much worse. And then it's too late.
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Can Salon verify who exactly "Riverbend" is?
[Read the article: Uncertainty and horror in Baghdad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Who is "Riverbend?" Can Salon answer that question with any authority? "She" has been publishing a blog for well over 3 years now, all while remaining safely and completely anonymous. She, or he, or they never a have a bad word to say about Saddam Hussein, or the despicable "insurgents" who murder her fellow iraqis every day. We have no idea whether she is a she, or a he, or a they, whether she even lives in Iraq, what her past relationship was with the regime of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist thugs. In the meantime, other Iraqi bloggers, like the men writing for Iraq the Model, actually sign their real names to their pieces and risk their lives by doing so. Salon and others who have embraced the anonymous "Riverbend," risk any credibility they have by publishing a writer whose background remains entirely obscure.
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My response to "Teemu Leisti" and company
[Read the article: Uncertainty and horror in Baghdad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Does "Riverbend" have a right to remain anonymous? Of course she does. She can call herself Riverbend until the cows come home. My letter was directed at Salon and other media outlets who re-print her blog entries without verifying that the author is who she says she is. Ethically, this is a questionable practice.
If say, the Weekly Standard started re-printing the blog of an anonymous writer who only presented an unblemished, rosy picture of Iraq, we'd have every right to insist that the editorial staff at the very least confirm the author's identity. And if said author turned out to be some right winger living in New Jersey, the publication's reputation would deservedly suffer.
If you go to Iraqi Bloggers Central, you will find many linked bloggers who are not anonymous -- some of who provide a portrait of present day Iraq that is anything but rosy. I think "Riverbend" has attracted more attention because of her unwaveringly bleak outlook and her complete inability to say anything remotely positive about the post-Saddam Iraq. But hey, it got her a book deal. The few book reviews I've read also fail to mention that the only source for information about Riverbend comes from Riverbend herself.
How much effort would it take for Salon editor Gary Kamiya to insist on a 15 minute phone call with his star blogger. I'm just speculating, but if she is the daughter of a Baathist diplomat or high ranking official, who received the kind of education and benefits that most Iraqis under Saddam could only dream about, then I think Salon's readers deserve to know that. She can still remain anonymous and call herself Riverbend, even when staring at a mirror.