Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 181 Editor's Choice: 44
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Personally, I've given up
[Read the article: Big Brother, who cares?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]On the bus home yesterday, I sat down with a good book (actually, a book that is by a former Salon columnist, but I'm not brown-nosing, just telling the truth for once), and next to an attractive woman. Behind us, and I'm not sure how far behind us, but perhaps two rows, there was a young woman on the phone. And the young woman proceeded to tell someone on her phone, and by extension everyone on the bus, all about this wonderful job opportunity she had, where these people would have her temping somewhere for about 50 days and then she'd have two weeks paid vacation, and they'd pay for her transportation, and an apartment (a "corporate apartment", which she made sound so enticing) and a rental car, and wasn't this the perfect thing for her to be doing right now?
And I have to admit, I was sorry to get off the bus, even though it was my spot, because I thought it was a pretty interesting opportunity myself. And I wanted to hear more, but to hear more I'd have had to stay on the bus. Or perhaps get the cellphone number of the attractive woman next to me, and have her give me updates. But I couldn't get the number because she was so engrossed in the other woman's conversation I couldn't get her attention. Plus, how could she listen properly if she'd have to give me the equivalent of simultaneous translation. And of course bus etiquette now is that you have to talk at the top of your lungs, so the rest of the bus could hear, but then the rest of the bus would have told her to pipe down, they were listening to the woman with the great job opportunity. And anyway, the job would have been taken, if not by the woman on the phone, then by any of the twenty or so others listening raptly to her conversation.
Welcome to the 21st century, everyone. In the 20th century, everybody knew your name. In the 21st, everybody knows your business. So I guess it's all right if the government does, too.
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We Need to Separate Out What's Going On Here
[Read the article: 'Tooning out humanity]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The author seems to think that these cartoons are inherently racist, a point of view that, as others have pointed out, is poorly and insufficiently argued.
What's really going on here is an attempt by Muslims with completely different agendas to impose an Islamic value--not showing Mohammed's face--on the rest of the world. Perhaps the Koran speaks in terms of how everyone, not just Muslims, must behave, but it's not just my right, it is my duty, to deny its application to me and any random Danish cartoonist and newspaper publisher.
So the next cudgel in the struggle is "racism" or "hate speech". But these cartoons are not racist and they are not hate speech, any more than any random cartoon of George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton is. Crudely put, the point of view is, "bad things are being done in Mohammed's name; maybe it's time to consider how much responsiblity for those bad things should be placed on Mohammed."
The irony, of course, is that more bad things are being done in Mohammed's name as a result of this. If there's racism here, it is being perpetrated by those who blame all Danes for something published in their country. Can a Muslim who would attack a random Dane or supposed Dane expect better treatment for his co-religionists against the real crime of 9/11?
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WBC Attendance Correction
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually, there were no first round games played in Anaheim. Ironically, the empty seats were in the Tokyo Dome.
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Reading Trillin Out Loud
[Read the article: Our Alice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I hope Rebecca Traister will be pleased to know that her father is not the only one to read Trillin out loud to his family; I've been doing it for twenty five years. The Tummy Trilogy is a cultural landmark in our family; I once smashed the speed limit the whole way across Missouri to get to Arthur Bryant's before closing time. We had brunch on our silver wedding anniversary at Shopsin's. And we were fortunate enough to meet Bud Trillin (if you see him in person, it's pretty much impossible to call him anything else) at a book signing. He is very huggable in person, but you can see the wistfulness when he talks about Alice.
I haven't read the New Yorker article and I'm a little scared to do so, because I was crying hard enough at Traister's article.
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Show me the money
[Read the article: The scapegoat]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Baseball, despite everything you read and hear about Bonds, is not played for all-time or single-season records, it is played for championships. Yet I haven't heard anyone suggest that the A's return their 1989 World Championship trophy because Canseco admittedly and McGwire allegedly were dopers (Ms. Walsh, that would give your Giants their elusive World Championship; make this a crusade).
More to the point, if all the games involving Canseco, Ken Caminiti and Rafael Palmeiro for sure, and Bonds, McGwire, Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa, and a legion of other suspects were played under false pretenses, false enough that they need "investigation", where do I line up to get my refund?
Last year, I attended the game where Rafael Palmeiro got his 3000th hit at Safeco Field in Seattle. Both the Mariners and Orioles sucked that season, yet there was a larger than usual crowd out there, in case he was going to make the mark. We now know that Major League Baseball knew at the time Palmeiro got that hit that he had flunked his drug test. Yet they trotted him out there, let the tickets get sold, let him smack his hit and stand there and interrupt the game (at an opposing team's stadium) and get mobbed by his teammates and all that crap, knowing it was just as false as a three dollar bill. I have the moment on video. Think it's worth anything now?
The owners are not just complicit in all this; they take no responsibility and pocket the cash.