Letters to the Editor

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sysprog

Published Letters: 2957     Editor's Choice: 2

  • Rushbo: Religion & Prayer could have prevented the Massacre

    [Read the article: Charles Krauthammer takes rank hypocrisy to new lows]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_041707/content/01125107.guest.html

    Maybe there needs to be more religion and prayer at our universities, folks. Maybe there needs to be a sense on college campuses that there's something bigger than the individual. Maybe there's something larger than the professor. Maybe they're not too young to learn that there are many things in life larger than self, and maybe being able to take comfort in a relationship with that which is larger than self ( i.e., God) would have a calming effect on some of these people who go absolutely nuts and lose their sanity. - - Rush Limbaugh

    http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/141236.aspx

    C.B.N. News
    Christian News 24/7
    Investigators are going through Cho's hate-filled rant, looking for motives behind his murderous rampage . . .
    . . . "You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing," Cho said in one clip. "Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people." . . .

    - - Christian Broadcasting Network

    Kevin Drum notes that it's the nature of commentators to point to the news of the day and say that it validates their previous worldview. However, there are varying degrees of decency and varying degrees of honesty when indulging in this widespread habit.

    CBN (hardly my favorite gang of fundamentalists) may be trying to show that Cho wasn't a good Christian (I think we can all agree on that point) and/or trying to show that Cho was insane, but CBN are a heckuva lot more honest than fact-free Rushbo.

  • Krauthammer on TV last night

    [Read the article: Charles Krauthammer takes rank hypocrisy to new lows]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    http://foxnews.com/specialreport

    Special Report with Brit Hume
    Thursday, April 19, 2007
    [on Harry Reid and Iraq]

    CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: "American people have worries about the war, but saying it's lost is only a minority opinion."

    http://rasmussenreports.com/2006/War%20on%20Terror_Monthly_Update.htm

    Rasmussen Reports
    50% Think History Will Judge Iraq Mission as Failure
    April 16, 2007
    Thirty-three percent (33%) of American voters believe that history will ultimately judge the U.S. mission in Iraq a success. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 50% of Likely Voters believe the mission will be deemed a failure.

    Were I equally dishonest, could I, too, be on the TeeVee?

  • Krauthammer, as *still* viewed by millions.

    [Read the article: Charles Krauthammer takes rank hypocrisy to new lows]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/02/20040212-2.html

    THE WHITE HOUSE
    For Immediate Release
    Office of the Vice President

    VP Remarks at the AEI Annual Dinner
    Remarks by the Vice President at the American Enterprise Institute Annual Dinner
    Washington Hilton and Towers
    Washington, D.C.
    February 10, 2004
    7:35 P.M. EST

    THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thanks you. (Applause.) Thank you all very much. (Applause.) Thank you, Chris, and it's a pleasure tonight to join all of you in honoring Charles Krauthammer -- a man I admire very much, and am proud to call a friend. The Irving Kristol Award is named for one great American, and tonight we bestow it on another . . . I spent a time at AEI when I was a scholar . . . Lynne and I are truly grateful for our many years of association with the American Enterprise Institute. AEI has developed a reputation, well deserved, for disciplined scholarship, intellectual integrity, and fresh insight into public policy . . . you get used to the shifting attention and the passing enthusiasms that characterize so much of our political commentary. You learn to take it all in, and then to select out the well considered judgments of a serious thinker. You begin to listen through the chorus in search of that one clear note. And so often, that clear note is the commentary of Charles Krauthammer . . . Whatever the subject at hand, Charles gives the reader evidence and argument, never just sentiment and the conventional wisdom. His great intelligence is guided by principle and an understanding of the world as it is. These qualities produce special insights . . .
    - - The Vice President

    Like it or not, the Vice President still speaks for many millions of people. Krauthammer isn't just a fringe figure. Krauthammer is respected (even if not by Salon-dot-Com fans) and Krauthammer is influential. Why are we even debating whether he is?

  • The fire-bombing of Dresden by the RAF

    [Read the article: Charles Krauthammer takes rank hypocrisy to new lows]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    as Churchill apologist Martin Gilbert has noted, was "but one small part in a broad campaign."

    “The fire-bombing of Tokyo was far more devastating, and yet we never hear Tokyo discussed. To bomb Dresden, at the request of the Soviets, was but one small part in a broad campaign. It was not even ordered by Churchill, who was on his way to Yalta at the time, but by Attlee; yet there is no reason to suppose Churchill would have reacted any differently.”

    Stalin's role in the fire-bombing of Dresden is pretty well accepted now. It was Uncle Joe's idea. Clement and Winnie were just following orders.

    Gilbert's talking points do make me wonder, though. Why does the fire-bombing of Dresden get so much attention, amongst all the other atrocities? For instance, McNamara noted that, if the U.S. had lost WW2, his own role in bombing civilian targets in Japan would have earned him a place in a war crimes trial.

    There has never been a "good war."

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