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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
etyfreak
Published Letters: 70 Editor's Choice: 3
You know, I'm really starting to believe these folks think names are just a series of sounds bereft of meaning.
Cogito ergo sum?!? Latin? Here?
I thought King had finally grown a brain, or at least Buster was old enough to start giving him writing tips (Football tips wouldn't hurt either, look at the records). Then I saw the disclaimer. Please King, don't go using up all your brainpower at once. I remember a few years ago King used the word "ecdysiast" and the column wasn't the same for weeks.
I was unaware that the US had passed the Board of Health Enabling Acts. Here I thought we had a constitution and a legislature to pass laws. I thought the board of health's job was sanitation, especially in poorer neighborhoods. Been to Harlem or Queens lately? They ain't clean. These idiots can't fix the real problems so they come up these out of left field, "fix-all" solutions. Only it won't work. People will still get heart disease and become obese. So they'll pass another ban on saturated fats. Then all fast food. Then all junk food. Then meat and potatoes will become too expensive for the poor to afford, so they'll pass a free grain dole. And by then we'll have a nice, subservient underclass ready to vote for whoever promises to increase the dole by a larger amount as the standard of living drops lower and lower.
First smoker, then fatties, couch potatoes are next (mandatory exercise, failure to comply results in revokation of health insurance?).
Just kidding. This is a great step forward. Almost a leap, really.
RE: Carole Simmons
I guess the name Alan Keyes is also missing from everyone's radar, even though Obama beat him as a carpetbagger for the Illinois Senate after Ryan dropped out. Don't forget Keyes ran for President in 1996 and 2000, and won 14% of the vote in Iowa. So what if he's a Republican? He still ran.
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Are the names Al Sharpton (2004), Carol Moseley-Braun (2004) and Shirley Chisolm (1972) missing from Mr. Shapiro's history books? And Jesse Jackson may have been "dissed and dismissed" by Mr. Shapiro, but certainly not by those who voted for him in the primaries. How insulting is that statement to thousands of voters who not only voted for Mr. Jackson, but also worked on his campaign and tirelessly worked with him to register Democrats, Black and White.
Hooray for Barack Obama. I'm tickled to death that he is in the race -- or soon will be. But let's not rewrite history.
Carole R. Simmons
"The only justification the U.S. government has provided for keeping the other three is the moniker "enemy combatant," a term that has been made up solely for the purpose of denying them prisoner-of-war protection and civilian protection under the Geneva Conventions"
The enemy or unlawful combatant term describes anyone who doesn't meet the requirements of the Geneva Convention as a "combatant". These are the requirements
From Wikipedia (love it) . . .
Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, provided that they fulfill all of the following conditions:
-- that of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;
-- that of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance (there are limited exceptions to this among countries who observe the 1977 Protocol I);
-- that of carrying arms openly;
-- that of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.
I think that by and large most of the Iraqi insurgents, al-Qaeda, and Taliban do not meet the definition of a combatant because they don't have a fixed distinctive sign, but they don't follow the other 3 much the time either (note the "ALL of the following conditions"). There's a fancy latin legal phrase meaning "the inclusion of one is the exclusion of the other" ("Expresio unius exclusio alterius est" I believe) that since they don't meet the standards for a combatant they have NO protection under the Geneva Conventions (from the US, the UK is different because of the additional protocols). That means they are not POWs and could be shot out of hand, condemned to hard labor, etc.
I disagree with the concept of Guantanamo prison, but I think the legalities have been followed.
And the angel of the lord came unto me, snatching me up from my place of slumber. And took me on high, and higher still until we moved to the spaces betwixt the air itself. And he brought me into a vast farmlands of our own midwest. And as we descended, cries of impending doom rose from the soil. One thousand, nay a million voices full of fear. And terror possesed me then. And I begged, "Angel of the Lord, what are these tortured screams?" And the angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of the carrots! You see, Reverend Maynard, tomorrow is harvest day and to them it is the holocaust."
Tool "Disgustipated"
Also, Plutarch was famous for his biographies, not sonnets. I think the other letter was right that the reviewer was thinking of Petrarch for the sonnets. However, Plutarch did write a long discourse on food, with such chapters as "WHAT IS THE REASON THAT HUNGER IS ALLAYED BY DRINKING, BUT THIRST INCREASED BY EATING?" and "WHETHER WINE OUGHT TO BE STRAINED OR NOT."
-----project gutenberg
Regarding vegetarianism, I think the crying over animals is sanctimonious crap, the diet is mainly healthy with some exceptions, the ecology is speculative, and please spare me the philosophy.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
