Letters to the Editor
stickmon
Published Letters: 41
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Rove at Watergate hearings?
[Read the article: Shipwrecked]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"...vicious smear tactics of the Nixon political operation, learned there by Karl Rove, who was called as a witness to testify about them before the Watergate inquiry..."
You learn something every day. First that Hillary was an aid in the hearings (the core of Safire's hatred towards her), as was Fred Thompson. Now this.
Since the hearings were televised, doesn't that mean that there should be footage of Rove's testimony available somewhere? THAT, I'd love to see... Turd-blossom when he was just a little shit.
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Make Your Case...
[Read the article: A conservative court tells Bush: Enough]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This reminds me of one of the best movies ever made about journalism, "Absence of Malice". In the climactic scene, Wilford Brimley, the no-nonsense Asst. Attorney General calls the over-zealous (dare we say 'rogue') District Attorney on his questionable tactics, and tells him to 'Make your case', right here, right now.
Rent the DVD for a great story, and (hopefully) a hint of how this current obscenity should come out in real life.
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Evidence Tampering?
[Read the article: Money for nothing, chicks for free]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So now we have evidence tampering by both the offices of POTUS and VPOTUS?
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The new Elements of Style...
[Read the article: All the news stuff that's fit to print]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This reminds me of Jeff Goldblum's character in The Big Chill. A People Magazine 'writer' who knowingly describes his craft as being allowed to write about anything he wants, as long as it can be read in the time it takes to take the average crap.
!
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What's good for the goose...
[Read the article: Jesus: The coverup]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The question is, should Baigent now be sued by Hugh J. Schonfield, the author of "The Passover Plot", which proposed this theory 40 years ago?
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Talk about the pot calling the kettle black...
[Read the article: Ann Coulter and those "millionaire broads" from 9/11]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Last time I looked, it was GW who was 'hiding behind 9/11' in order to cut off debate.
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The movie 'experience'
[Read the article: Beyond the Multiplex]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Our movie-going now consists mainly of must-sees driven by our 10-year-old. Even in that group, every movie faces a 'now or on DVD in a few months' triage.
By and large, very few movies are that much better in a noisy, rude theater than they are on our home theatre (which as the ultimate advantage of 'pause'.)
But the final straw recently has been the proliferation of cell-phone toting cretins who have added blinding screens to their arsenal of boorishness.
Enough already.
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Appliances shouldn't require security expertise
[Read the article: Is that iPhone security hole really so bad?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"...don't need an Apple-enforce nanny state looking out for us. Look, it is not hard, at all, to make a Windows PC completely secure."
Uh, no, it is actually quite difficult for the average person (i.e. people with actual lives) to 'completely secure' a Windows machine. An entire generation of IT professionals owe quite a tidy living and debt of gratitude to MS for selling their swiss cheese of security products to the world. That 'they should just buckle down and become security geeks' meme is what Apple has shown to be a fraud.
The problem with the 'Windows is just a bigger target' argument is that MS faults are due to both neglect and intent. Security holes such as ActiveX are/were the result of predatory engineering (e.g. the intent of burying Netscape with a technology aimed at giving them a cheap, quick edge. A playground for malware? "Who cares.")
BTW Farhad, you can't have it both ways... either Apple is being a marvelously responsible by preventing 3rd party crapware from being loaded on the machine, or you think that being security conscious is 'a bug'.
Nevertheless, kudos for recognizing that Apple will likely deal with such security revelations quite responsibly.
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Less is More
[Read the article: AppleWorks is dead. Long live AppleWorks?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've used Excel and Word at work daily for the past 15 years, and consider myself moderate power user of both.
The fact is that both are textbook examples of bloatware. I spend 90% of my time using 10% of the features.
I'm looking forward to switching to iWork on my home Mac precisely BECAUSE of the pruned feature list.
That's a feature, not a flaw.
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Using Nazi techniques does not equal 'being' a Nazi.
[Read the article: The poisonous rhetorical legacy of Karl Rove]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I see the obligatory aversion to any Nazi reference showing up already.
But I'm tired of having it decreed that no lessons can be learned from the Nazi experience, and that recognizing their techniques automatically means that the subject is being accused of 'being' a Nazi.
The 'big lie' was indeed a child of Goebbels. Sorry, but its important to point out why that technique is so insidious, and the company you keep when you use it.
Likewise, the word 'fascist' has been declared off limits because the historically illiterate in this country equate Nazi and Fascist. They were NOT the same thing, and equating them keeps us from identifying the elements of fascism that are truly creeping into our society.
Call it as it is when the shoe fits.
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Diminished executive power? C'mon!
[Read the article: "One bomb away"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"The central irony is that people whose explicit goal was to expand presidential power have diminished it."
And exactly how is that the case? As best I can see, the Bush administration has demonstrated that the congress, and indeed the constitution ultimately are powerless against an administration that simply hunkers down behind the stone wall. Forbid Justice from investigating or prosecuting, and game over.
The unasked question I would like to see addressed to all Democratic candidates is the following:
"Exactly what would you do to reverse the doctrine of 'Unitary Executive' that has accumulated so much power in the presidency over the past 7 years? Specifically, would you work with Congress to eliminate any credence to 'signing statements', and would you work to finally concisely define 'Executive Privilage' once and for all to prevent its abuse?
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wait a minute...
[Read the article: The return of Karl Rove]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The right has succeeded in confabulating 'healthcare decisions' with 'payment responsibilites for years. That's the crux of the 'socialized medicine' bogeyman.
But beyond that, simply pose the choice of healthcare decisions being made by a 'government bureaucrat' who's job it is to pay for the care, or by an insurance bureaucrat, who's job it is to DENY coverage.
The latter is what we have today. How's that working out by the way?