Letters to the Editor
Ray Sharp
Published Letters: 91 Editor's Choice: 12
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The belt isn't all that's outdating
[Read the article: God to Margaret: Always with wings!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I read an article in a recent Alantic Monthly that compared Judy Blume's coming of age stories to a couple of new works that deal with sexuality in girls. One was called The Rainbow Party, I believe, where every invited boy receives oral sex from the girls. The article's point was that Judy Blume was describing female sexuality as something wonderful, God-given if you will, that women should experience on their own terms for their own pleasure. Apparently, she wrote another book about a young woman's initiation into pleasurable sex. The reviewer lamented that today's books (societal attitudes?) are focused on servicing boys, a step backwards from the "Liberated Seventies." I guess it's more than just the belt that is outdated.
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Impeachment Versus Insurrection
[Read the article: The I-word goes public]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The line at the end of the story about the likelyhood of a popular uprising to overthrow forcebly Bush tyranny may be the kind of thing I'd say after 5 or 10 beers, but no sober person believes this would happen in today's circumstances, let alone succeed, even if it were morally justifiable. We're not in Boston 1775, Paris 1789 or St. Petersburg 1917, where a few rabble-rousers could bring down an out-of-touch oligarchy. Yes, we are ruled by an out-of-touch oligarchy, but how is a peacenik like I going to defeat the U.S. military? Such idiotic statements completely undo the goal of the article and the forum it describes: to make a Bush impeachment seem plausible and responsible.
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3rd place
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]They used to have a third-place game many years ago (35?) before they went to a Monday final. But nobody really cared.
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Blame the Messenger
[Read the article: Are Scott McClellan and John Snow on the block?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The reason Bush's popularity is waning has to do with the mess, not the messenger. Rumsfeld, Cheney, the whole rotten cabal, that's who needs replacing, not the press secretary.
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Emotions get in the way of logic
[Read the article: The scapegoat]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sports fandom, like love, conjures emotions that can cloud, or completely bowl over, logic. Both inspire us to believe things we should know deep down are false.
Ms. Walsh says of a criminal investigator:
"I have never met Novitzky, have never seen him interviewed; I would never accuse him of racism. But given the outsize dislike Bonds inspires, it's hard not to wonder if such intense personal animus, wherever it springs up, might have a racial component."
Notice how Walsh sees the Bonds investigation as a personal vendetta, perhaps racially motivated? Notice how she seems to adopt the pat accusations of her sports hero, against all logic of responsible journalism? I suppose she has broken no actual libel laws, but you can see how irrational devotion, in love or in sports, can strip people of their intellect and even ethics.
I have never met Walsh; I would never accuse her of letting emotions overrule her logic. But given the outsize hero worship Bonds (and Clinton) inspires, it's hard not to wonder if such illogical tendencies might have a sports-obsession component, or is it just because she's a woman?
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Whitney Who?
[Read the article: Didn't she almost have it all?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Geez, Salon, who cares about that old crackhead. Give us more reporting on Britney, Jessica, Mimi and Beyonce. That's what we read Salon for. Someone needs to get to the bottom of this visit to the Federlines from Protective Services, PRONTO!
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Map
[Read the article: Is the "Israel lobby" distorting America's Mideast policies?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The map is meant to convey the alleged influence of Isreal on American foreign policy by covering Iraq as well. It's satirical. Geez.
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Concentration Camps?
[Read the article: "I'm the decider"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's getting tough to know where reality ends and wacko conspiracy theory starts -- Progressive is reporting Halliburton is getting $385M to build domestic holding centers for illegal aliens.
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A Plan
[Read the article: Bolten has a five-point plan, but where's Iraq?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1. Annouce that a Democratic Congress will implement an exit strategy for Iraq, while reclaiming the Legislative branch's supposedly co-equal powers on war, foreign policy, the purse-strings, etc.
2. Get out the vote.
It's time to press the advantage and go for the checkmate.
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no vale nada
[Read the article: Destination: Mexico]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As has been pointed out already, this piece is worthless. Any undergrad who took a survey of Latin American Lit course could have compiled a better list, more reflective of Mexican culture. I'll add Rosario Castellano to the list; her poems about gender politics, religion and culture offer insights into Mexico and the universal.
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Celebrate!
[Read the article: Joe's fall from grace]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you Salon. I think one more day of gloating and celebrating the death of Joe-mentum is called for. I'm glad to see that sanctimonious, holier-than-thou turncoat get his comeuppance. I'm sick of him and the whole unholy NeoCon-Fundy alliance that is dragging us toward Armageddon. I didn't like the man when he denounced Clinton, I didn't like him when the rabbi told us to vote for him at my neice's bat mitzvah, and I loathe his support of Bush's war. I'll be dancing the horah on his political grave.
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The real scandal
[Read the article: Tom the Dancing Bug]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...Is still Iraq. I was just harranging someone the other day, saying "I can't believe the GOP is going to be thrown out over a sex scandal, Iraq is a million times worse." She said "I don't like to talk about politics or religion." I said, "Well, I'm an atheist, too." She said "I'm not suprised.
Best cartoon since the one where the terrorists in the cave are reading the New York Times and learning that their banking transactions are monitored, after one says you get a free ipod for opening an account and the other guy says "Let me see that... Son of a jackal, it's only a Shuffle." That line always cracks me up.
Keep up the good work.
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Last straw in the manger
[Read the article: Don't like Christmas? Get a life]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I thought long and hard before renewing my Premium subscription, not because I have never once received the magazines I have signed up for in the last 6 years, but because the inanity of celebrity bullshit and TV reviews and shallow puff pieces mascarading as social commentary has nearly crowded out the investigative reporting. War Room and Tom the Dancing Bug, about all I read any more, does not justify another year's subscription price, when I could just send the money to Move On and be done with it. But this article was the last straw. Salon, you can take your god damned sugar cookies and shove them up your irrelevant upper middle class progressive ass. There, I feel a little better now. Just 26 more fucking shopping days till fucking Xmas!