Letters to the Editor
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Dialing for dullards
My god -- he dialed it in again!
Nah, just kidding. I wanted to scoop the weekly troll. Hurrah for me!
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Very well done!
Thank you!
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Two reasons...
...I look forward to Sunday evening: The Simpsons and a new TMW.
Bravo.
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If you think scooping a troll is a victory, knock yourself out.
Personally, I'll be happy when TT has a Democratic President to make fun of. It will be a welcome change, not to mention a chance for Dan to stretch his ouevre.
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A guy at Slate's Fray
...tells me he solved the mystery of Walter Reed: he claims it was all the fault of maintenance workers.
Yes, for years and years, maintenance workers took orders from helpless and impotent administrators and never bothered to fulfill them, hence the inevitable deterioration of the hospital and the silent sufferings of the soldiers for decade after decade. And then one day, the Washington Post just decided all out of malice to embarass the president by blaming him for the failings of the maintenance workers. It's all so very simple, you see. Everything is the fault of the liberals and the unions and the blacks and the poor people and the newspapers and never the fault of the rich or the powerful or the government--unless the government happens to be controlled by the Democrats.
The Republicans are definitely the responsibility party, assuming responsibility to mean: it's always somebody else's fault and NEVER ours.
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The boy detective shows the childish logic of consrvativism
This weeks TMW certainly had me chuckling. Detective Jones is so typical of how the main stream media treat liberals or even those who want to understand the true nature of events. If you listen to NPR you hear this all the time, let alone Fox News.
The toon also points to the high level of tolerance in the MSM for bombastic statements from the right. Imagine if a liberal hurled the same epitaph at W as Coulter used to describe Edwards? Also imagine the number of death treats that person would receive. It just goes to show how unreasonable the state of debate has become. Hard to fight emotion laden mud with facts and logic.
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Surreal Letters...
Okay Haans,
Put up or shut up... What NPR broadcasts do you listen to? Have you heard Daniel Shore's commentaries lately? All Things Considered? Morning and Weekend Editions? Nina Totenberg? Maura Liason? How about On the Media? What about PRI's The World? You can't be serious calling public radio MSM.
I don't know what fantasy world you live in, but if you can't tell the difference in quality between NPR and FOX News we're in trouble. What sort of whacked-out Devil's spectacles are you wearing? Where were you when they were passing out discernment and common sense?
Yes, NPR reporters can be a bit overly polite at times and not go for the jugular vein, but there is absolutely no way that a person of unimpaired judgement would lump them into the same category with FOX News and dismiss them as you have. It's out-and-out irresponsible. And it's unbalanced, unbelievable statements like this that a large part of the problem today.
Wait... This is your first letter. I know...You are a Republican Sock puppet!! Did this letter come from the Conservative Covert Co-option and Confusion to the Enemy Corps? I'll bet that this is part of Karl Rove's latest strategy... No doubt you a part of the Far-Right Fascist Front that is out to Take Back America from the Godless Goddess-loving Liberals? I'm sure that that explains it.
Oh my god... What's happening? Now I'm losing it... It's finally getting to me. "Liberals" at Salon.com are so mucking with consensus reality that I'm in danger of going off the deep end myself... Perhaps I'll have to become a Radical Conservative Independent Liberal instead.
What's happening to Salon.com? Why is it leaving such a sour taste in my mouth these days? Is this what I pay for? Perhaps it's just the price of civil society... But it makes me want to be a hermit.
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Horatio
Tom was writing during the entire Clinton administration if you're that interested. You can read the eight years of strips he did on his website.
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Emyth
Haans wasn't comparing NPR to Fox, he was saying that NPR has its own failings. And it does. If you want a rundown of the ways NPR goes easy on rightwingers go poke around the FAIR website. Here's a good place to start.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1658
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Haans
Please, no malice intended at all; just trying to be helpful. You meant epithet, not epitaph.
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No mystery
No mystery why our maimed fellow Americans were treated so shamefully -- their medical care was privatized and outsourced to a KBR/Halliburton subsidiary, after the Army demonstrated it could do the job cheaper with government workers, and was forced to change/fudge its calculations! They start a war under false pretenses, profit from it, then make even more money shitting on the people they've hurt. Unbelievable. NANCY, DUST OFF THE I-WORD !!!!!
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Actually....
The problem with Walter Reed is that the VA has never delt well with PTSD or closed head injuries.
It is great with new limbs, lousy with those things it can't see.
The mildew and other cosmetic issues were nonissues in the greater problem with the way the VA has always delt with these issues.
Part of the problem does have to do with the buracracy involved in the health care system though it is doubtful that a public or private institution would perform better given the history and nature of the institution.
The standard operating procedures for PTSD in the VA is to prescribe insanely powerful drugs that are not indicated for stress disorders. Whether this is because the VA has never spent the money to upgrade its training manuals or because the VA's drug negotiating procedures requires them to walk away from the table if a drug company won't meet their price is unknown to me, however one can easily see how such a problem would exist in either a private or public institution.
The problem for the VA is a systemic doubting of nonvisible illnesses. This is due most notably to what one might call the Klinger syndrome. It is the tendency in the armed forces to first presume a soldier who can't work, simply doesn't want to work. This probably has some basis in fact, but causes for problems the likes of which we are now seeing in Walter Reed and elsewhere.
One problem I've always had with the notion of government healthcare was its proponents view of it as a cureall. Governement healthcare is not imune to the burocratic and cost concious problems that plauge private healthcare. It's sole advantage is universality, and lack of profit motivation. However, at the same time, the lack of profit motivation can lead to great inefficincies and lack of service. It can be assumed, if you are young and healthy and possesing of some income that what ever system you are in will work for you, and if you are old, or sick, or without income, any system you are in will be difficult for you.
Universal government healthcare is something whose time has come, one just shouldn't kid oneself about its advantages and disadvantages.