Letters to the Editor
melthough
Published Letters: 1264 Editor's Choice: 102
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The working class is not all white, believe it or not!
[Read the article: Obama and the white working class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Where did he say "white"? He said "working class." I do think the remarks were very clumsy. But they sound a lot worse if you assume he is only talking about white people, because it makes him seem racist. So...where did he say that he meant white folks? Just last month we were talking about the antipathy between "black" and "brown" working-class folks, and then Wright's racist comments about people not like himself. Why are we assuming that Obama only thinks white people are bitter? Because he said the word "guns"? Are you responding to what he said or what you are assuming he meant?
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One more piece of advice
[Read the article: What every freelancer should know]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Unless somebody has already said this? If you file jointly with a spouse and s/he has a Real Job, fill out the W-4s for the Real Job with 0 exemptions. Depending on your relative incomes, if you do that, you may not need to file quarterly taxes; you may even get a refund. (But ask that trusted tax advisor to do the math first.)
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Boy
[Read the article: House Republican blasts Obama as "that boy"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Southern men do refer to each other as "boy" and "old boy" all the time. Though it does usually mean you're criticizing or ribbing someone, it does not usually mean something racist. (My dad is from West Virginia, and Kentucky dialect is similar.) Didn't Bill Clinton refer to Obama, Edwards and Richardson as "those boys" last year? I am less likely to give Mr. Kentucky a pass on the casual reference to the secret national security simulation, but I think that's really just swagger. He just made himself look like an insecure dork.
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The last "boy" issue
[Read the article: House Republican blasts Obama as "that boy"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/us/politics/13clinton.html?ref=politics
Remember that? Everybody made this huge deal about Bill playing the "gender card" because he called John Edwards AND Barack Obama "boys." I don't remember anyone thinking it was a racially charged comment. It was barely gender charged, IMHO. And if it was - so what? Is subtlely gender-charged language going to turn me into a Republican Pod Person or something? People can judge for themselves.
My point is that southern men say "boy" about and to each other all the time. I think if I were a Kentucky Republican, I would pay more attention to when it was appropriate to use that word - and this wasn't one of those times. However, I do not think he was making Obama out to be a shoeshine boy; I think he thought he was ribbing a peer. I am sure he would have used the exact same language about Bill Clinton, but it might have been something more like "That boy don't know when to keep it in his pants." I think you guys have your race-dar turned up waaaay too high. But even if this idiot meant to call Obama "boy" just because he is black, whom does this hurt? What are you afraid of? Let the man's foot stay in his mouth. People can judge for themselves.
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During the time when dresses like this were very common,
[Read the article: Shocker: Angela Merkel has boobs!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]wearing pants would have been considered a scandal. If folks didn't realize before that Merkel was female, I feel very sorry for them.
And she does look great, unlike that boob who played dress-up in a flight suit (which seems to have included some extra padding - was that perhaps the same transmitter he wore on his back that one time?).
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Great answer - but didn't address antidepressants
[Read the article: I quit being a musician because I couldn't play without drinking]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Six months on an antidepressant can be like emotional training wheels to teach you different thought patterns. Don't rule it out because of fear. Makes it sound like you're addicted to your depression. Depression is parasitic. It doesn't teach you anything. Antidepressants don't change your personality and don't keep you from deeper understanding; they just make it so you can come back after you descend into hell. Go for the music, but don't rule out a short stint on antidepressants. It really can help you learn new ways of thinking about yourself.
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Thank you, Mark Penn.
[Read the article: Poll trajectory points to trouble for Clinton campaign]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I do not understand why Democrats - as H. Clinton did, like Kerry and Gore before her - keep taking advice from strategists who do not have their interests at heart. I think these folks who think they have to stop being who they are in order to speak to The American Voter are the ones who are out of touch. People want you to be yourself - and they can tell when you are not being yourself. The footage of HRC's ACTUAL landing in Bosnia was very sweet and touching and real. It made me miss her. Too bad it was tainted by the failed attempt to pretend she was something she was not. Nothing to do with being female, everything to do with following a Democratic pattern of following bad advice to try to insult the intelligence of the same voters Obama was just criticized for insulting. If she had been herself and based her campaign on her strengths, she would already be the nominee, and would have a good shot at the presidency.