Letters to the Editor
Svensker
Published Letters: 494
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Chekmarks & Shooter
[Read the article: The NYT on the administration's "debate" over whether to attack Iran]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm one of the ones who ignored what shooter was saying and jumped on him. I understand your point and believe that civility and engaging the "other side" is a good idea. However, in shooter's case, I have NEVER seen him engage. He comes here, he drops his little "gotcha" bombs, a "heh" or two, and leaves. He never discusses, he never backs up anything he says with reason or argument. He is the definition of a troll. I used to believe it was better to try to engage anyway, at least so those undecideds or passersby would understand the issue, at least.
But, on this issue, I've got no time for shooter and his dittohead group of warmongering idiots. He and his brethren have dragged this country into the mud, are responsible for hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded in Iraq and the middle east. And they are FLIPPING getting ready to DO IT AGAIN!!!! I say, f*ck them and the horse they rode in on. I'm sorry, but no, they don't get to "play" anymore. They are dead set on taking this country into another war and possibly starting WWIII. They get no mercy from me.
Now, if you can argue this is bad tactics and will make it harder to prevent the coming war, then I'll suck it up and be polite to shooter and The Gang That Wants to Blow Up the World. Otherwise, no more Ms. Nice Girl.
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Chekmarks & Civility
[Read the article: The NYT on the administration's "debate" over whether to attack Iran]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Give Peace a Chance ...
If we (as a country) continue on the path of totally disrespecting each other, of throwing our hands up in the air and shouting "You're an asshole and don't know nothing ..." how in God/Budda/Wizard-of-Oz's name are we going to lift ourselves out of the muck and start to heal this country of all the damage that's been done these past years?
You know, it isn't just the Bush Administration that's caused things to go downhill. It's also talk radio, our general greed and rampant consumerism, our lack of civility. All this crap has coarsened our dealings with one another - period.
When do we start to try and rise about this shit?
-- chekmarks
Yes, I agree to some extent. I've been working at being a Quaker for the last few years, and the Friends' testimony of peace and "that of God in every person" is a very difficult testimony to live. So I struggle with how to deal with the "shooters" of the world, especially difficult for me because I enjoy a good snark. And probably my "grammar police" counts as a snark and was not one of my better Quakerly moments.
So, yes, trying to see "that of God" in shooter and Dick Cheney (gad!) is required of Friends, and treating others with respect, even if one disagrees with them strongly, is required. But countenancing genocide and torture is not required, and I believe that the shooter and his fellow travelers are murderers and torturers, and they must not be allowed to act any longer. Nor do I think you can "reason" with them any longer. It is past that point.
I apologize for my snark and will strive not to snark in future. But I won't treat shooter's "arguments" with respect, nor pretend that he and his brethren are acting in anything other than bad faith. They are insane -- temporarily I hope, since my dear brother is one of them -- and a danger to the world and themselves, and must be treated as such.
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Wringing his own hands, WT
[Read the article: The NYT on the administration's "debate" over whether to attack Iran]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]WT, simple and elegant. Thanks.
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Karen Re Quakers
[Read the article: The NYT on the administration's "debate" over whether to attack Iran]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've witnessed the standing up in disapproval. In my Meeting, it took the form of people just rising where they were, silently. Eventually the person being reprimanded realized what was going on and STFU. It's very powerful, let me tell you.
No, Quakers don't tolerate everything. But they must be kind and loving even when saying "no". That is the tricky bit. It's the old Christian thing of "hating the sin but not the sinner".
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Gads
[Read the article: Richard Cohen's brilliant (and unintentional) exposé of our media]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]better to keep the light off
a morbid fear of jail
Awww, poor widdle wich 'n' impowtant peep-hole.
I starting to understand the French Revolution.
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Versailles PR
[Read the article: Richard Cohen's brilliant (and unintentional) exposé of our media]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You starting to understand why I use the term "Versailles."
You right.
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Radical Islam
[Read the article: Preordering week for "A Tragic Legacy"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]where America cravenly surrenders to radical Islam in Iraq with no regard for the severe risks and devastating consequences.
Hahahahahaha. Geez, you guys.
By the way, when did we declare war on radical Islam? (Personally, I find radical Christianity and Judaism more problematic -- can we declare war on them, too?) Somehow, I thought we had gone to war with Saddam, who was a secularist. We also seem pretty p.o.'d at Syria, which is run by secularists, and at Iran, which had been trending away from the radical stuff until our Brilliant Leader's warmongering got everyone all riled up. Who's this radical Islam you think we're fighting?
Please, go back to your basement and get out the Risk board again. Bring your friends Dick, Georgie, Wolfie, Richard, Michael, Scooter, Jonah, et al with you, would you? It will help keep the rest of the world safe if you can keep the neo-wacks away from the real bombs and stuff.
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War on Iran and Fresh Water
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My goodness, the tank certainly did get all funky overnight, didn't it?
Meantime, none of the Fringe Liberal Blogs are reporting that the House overwhelming voted to ask the U.N. to recommend that it charge Ahmadinejad with violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The only two no votes were Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich.
Next big step on the war wtih Iran, supported BY THE DEMS, and no one's talking about it on the blogs.
http://www.antiwar.com/paul/?articleid=11171