Letters to the Editor
Marshall
Published Letters: 46 Editor's Choice: 2
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The thing he didn't mention...
[Read the article: Charlie Wilson's unfinished war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The thing that Mr. Wilson didn't mention is that we supported the hard Islamic factions over the social democrats in the 1980's, and what I have never been able to understand is why. (This is part of the problem with doing war in secret, there is no examination of who you are aligning with and why.) But the fact remains that we systematically supported resistance groups that hated us, and did not support groups that wanted to be like us, and some day I would like to know whose bright idea that was.
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Voting while black
[Read the article: How much voter fraud is there, really?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That's what these laws are trying to prevent.
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Start quoting oil in Euro's
[Read the article: The education of an oil reporter]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Maybe one reason why demand hasn't gone down is that the price elsewhere hasn't gone up is that the price hasn't changed that much in other currencies. Plot the price in Euros or Rupees and you won't see such a strong need for a reduction in demand.
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In China, it is called "night soil"
[Read the article: Is there enough pig manure to feed the world?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Night soil is human manure, and it is commonly used in Asia as fertilizer. Ours tends to go into the rivers, and then into the sea, which oddly enough is where much of our fertilizer goes (as agricultural runoff). We need to start thinking of our planet as a spaceship, where we recover the nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium we need to the extent possible, rather than flushing it away.
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Irony is dead at the Washington Post
[Read the article: Fred Hiatt on the noble glories of occupation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We have been pounding Sadr City by air for two weeks now - and Fred Hiatt writes this tripe ? People should take a look at Gorillasguides.com (mostly arabic, some english) or Aljazeera English to see some of the carnage. Fred Hiatt must not pay much attention to what's going on - and I suspect that's a feature, not a bug.
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Prices go up quickly, down slowly.
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton throws economists off the bus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This really is pretty dumb. Anyone who pays the slightest attention knows that gas prices, like credit card rates, tend to go up quickly, down slowly. So, if you cut prices by 5% at the source, it would take months for that to be seen at the pump, and that assumes that there are no other price fluctations - and one or two bombings in Basra could take of that.
And there is also a breathtaking absence of means - how is this to be done ? By Congress ? Is it even in the schedule ? We are running out of time to pass anything serious in an election year - and have any of the leaders of the Congress signed up for this ? Not that I have heard, and without them a passage of anything before the summer just isn't going to happen.
So, we have a bad idea that won't help the people it is supposed to and has no actual prospect of getting enacted and, oh, by the way actually was proposed by Republicans. Is this really the best that she can do ?
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I thought that OSS 117 was supposed to be an American ?
[Read the article: If Austin Powers were French -- and funny]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The OSS was, of course, the predecessor of the CIA. And Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath was supposed to be from Louisiana. Did all of this get changed in the new film ?
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He never did stop sucking.
[Read the article: Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Washington Post covered for Ronald Reagan shamelessly. The man never gave a speech without numerous "mistakes," which would be called lies if one wanted be less charitable about it, but which the press largely ignored (as later on the press ignored the clear signs of his worsening Alzheimer's during his second term). At the time, I could not understand this reaction but, after Iraq, it seems to have been an early warning sign of the degradation and corruption of a once great newspaper, and of the press in general. At this stage in their decline, it is hard to care one way or the other what the Washington Post thinks about anything.
Worse than merely sucking, the man was also a racist, of the vilest sort. To anyone to whom this seems extreme, I invite them to consider why he launched his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He didn't just appeal to racists, he made a conscious decision to appeal to those who supported racist murders.
So, no, I refuse to degrade the name of our first President by linking Washington National Airport to the name of our 40th President, and I feel very confident that we will get his name off of it officially in due course.
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We are not that different.
[Read the article: China's earthquake and the Mandate of Heaven]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We are not that different in the West. If the economy is bad, people will generally vote against whoever is in power, regardless of whether or not they have had anything to do with the problems in the economy.
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Generations of sacrifice
[Read the article: High standards at the Washington Post Op-Ed page]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is notable that whenever people talk about "those who trace their bloodlines back through generations of sacrifice," they neglect to mention the descendants of the slaves.
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And who doesn't ?
[Read the article: Interview with former "Donahue" producer and MSNBC pundit Jeff Cohen]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]now -- they seem to want to convey -- they're just so confused and astonished that anyone could possibly think that about them.
I can only conclude that the pundits get their media feedback from their Moms, as that is the only group that would be so non-critical of them on such an obvious failing.
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Impeach after the election
[Read the article: Rep. Kucinich introduces articles of impeachment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Note that impeachment is not conviction, but I strongly think that the Congress should vote articles of impeachment, as that would make it impossible for W to pardon everyone on his last day in office.
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Not dead yet
[Read the article: British debate highlights the cravenness and complicity of congressional Democratic "leaders"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm not trying to be defeatist about it - just realistic.
You say that, but you have consistently throughout this long struggle assumed that it was lost at every stage - and it's not dead yet. Assuming that the battle can be won is essential to winning the battle.
By the way, the Democratic party has a new leader now - what does he say about this ? He could stop it with a word. What is the best way to put pressure on Mr. Obama to do the right thing here ?
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The real danger
[Read the article: The right's game-playing with "dual loyalty" and "anti-Semitism" accusations]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The real danger is this
"Anti-semitism" accusations have been cynically exploited for so long by right-wing advocates as a bludgeon to silence debates over Middle East policy and for cheap political gain that the accusation has become trivialized to the point of irrelevance.
Once it becomes trivialized, watch for the rise of real anti-semites.