Letters to the Editor
truck51
Published Letters: 30 Editor's Choice: 2
-
From new transmitters come the old stupidities...
[Read the article: Hipster rebel punk outsiders -- 99 cents a dozen]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The only rebellion now that can have any meaning at all is the one that questions not only authority, but all received wisdoms, that stimulates the rebel to think critically as a way of life, that is skeptical of all parties, the rebellion where one examines the role he or she plays in the present (maybe up-to-the-minute) drama. Find sources that you trust, but don't believe in them. Come to your own conclusions.
-
San Francisco music scene
[Read the article: Forget the Haight and Woodstock]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]WWolfe has it partly right. Detroit, Philly, New York all were vitally important in the growth of 60's (and later) rock. When Cleveland was chosen as the home for the R&R Hall of Fame, a lot of San Francisco pundits, Bill Graham among them, squealed and whined about SF not being chosen as the museum's home. After all, they said, we built this City on rock and roll, or some such bullshit.
Well, I think LA had a much more influential music scene than we ever had up here. We grew some important artists for sure--Janis, Grateful Dead in their better moments, Moby Grape and a few others including what became the execrable Starship--but LA bred the Byrds, Buffalo Springield, Warren Zevon, X...the list goes on. San Francisco (no matter how much fun the Fillmore was)just couldn't hold a lighter to LA.
-
Fervor
[Read the article: They called me a child pornographer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There is still such a fervor about childhood sexuality that you got to wonder what's in people's minds. Psychtherapists of a certain mind actually believe that satanic cults sexually abuse(d) little children, and the children don't remember the abuse until the psychotherpists...(wait for it)... hypnotize them!
What kind of projection must be going to be so fearful of children and their developing sexuality that you have to arrest people for taking pictures of their nude little kids. What a scary time we live in, we Americans who seem always to be afraid of something.
-
Whoa!
[Read the article: Mel on the cross]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just how is Gibson asking for forgiveness? By avoiding specific references to his anti-Jewish speech and to his sexist remarks? And, really, do I give a shit that he aplogizes? He's another rich bigot who has revealed a stripe of prejudice and hatred a mile wide. Why should David Duke be forgiven for his racism if were to aplogize? With the damage he has done? And Gibson's alcoholism is no excuse: his prejudices and vitriole came from somewhere inside him; the alcohol just loosened what few inhibitions he possesses.
Ironically, he has benefited greatly from working with and for Jews, but I guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree. Ancient hatreds passed from father to son.
-
Yes
[Read the article: Mel on the cross]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm puking right now.
-
RE: cucumber
[Read the article: Mel on the cross]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't think Mel's illness matters. Alcoholics and addicts--and I work in a social services agency--cannot excuse bad conduct because of their "illnesses." Somone fucks up, badly, and then gets a pass because they're "only human." It just won't do. You are repsonsible for your actions when they affect other people. You shouldn't get to skate because you went into rehab. The culture of victimization works to excuse reprehensible behavior. I'm sick of it; that's my excuse.
-
Re: Aillene
[Read the article: Mel on the cross]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Supposed anti-Semitics remarks"?! He said that Jews are responsible for all the wars in the worlds. It's in the officers' reports. If that ain't biogtry of the first water, then I really am damned.
Instead of banning the "F-word" from this forum, how about banning stupidity?
-
Security and rudeness
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A couple of weeks ago I flew into Newark International from Milan, arriving in the early evening. As my fellow passengers and I entered the new customs hall (arena?) we were greeted by TSA guards and customs police, who told us which lines to queue in.
After a few seconds, some people pulled out cell phones to announce their arrivals to family and friens, just as most of us do. The guards AND the police immediately began barking ferocious orders to put away the phones. Because of the hall's size and echoing acoustics, not everyone could hear these storm troopers, so some folks continued talking on their phones.
That infraction gained them a personal visit from an armed Federal bulldog who literally yelled at these callers to put away their phones, not just end the calls Some people had their cameras out taking pictures of the building. They got even worse treatment.
Why returning Americans and guests from other countries have to subjected to this abusiveness is beyond me. As the Pilot pointed out, we are subsidizing this system. I realize cameras--and camera-phones--may pose some kind of low level security risk, but to be treated this way by people I employ is outrageous and stupid.
So there!
-
Good stuff
[Read the article: Diet your way to a long, miserable life!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Well, *I* thought her piece was damn good. The upper-middle class in this country is so self-involved, so narcissistic, that this kind of crazy self-control becomes acceptable. Weighing out arugula! Every quote by a CR person made me think, "what do they want to do with their extra years"? No sex, no (or very little) wine, no strenuous exercise, no good food, no children. No children, for fuck's sake. because they want to live forever. What selfishness!
And, what these CR assholes seem to ignore is that even we Americans are living longer. Heart disease is less frequent, people live longer and better with certain cancers, many diseases are preventable.
Fanaticism in the service of longevity is no excuse.
-
Gospel of Food
[Read the article: The bunny vs. the blue box]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I highly recommend everyone read Barry Glassner's new Gospel of Food, subtitled Everything You Think You Know About Food is Wrong. An antidote to all the received wisdom of the food police who insist that all the tasty ingredients in our diet are bad for us (wrong), that fast food is inherently fattier and more caloric than the food in fine restaurants (wrong), and that our upper-middle class diet is the way to go for our lower-class brethren (wrong, but ongoing for a hundred years).
Galssner is a sociologist from USC who wrote The Culture of Fear. I am a food snob who enjoyed being taken down a notch by this book.