Letters to the Editor
Sandy Yago
Published Letters: 92 Editor's Choice: 3
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There may not always be an England
[Read the article: The troublesome priest]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The devolution of Britain as an inspiring idea, that 2 centuries ago had empowered people like General Napiers in India to stand up and defend the lives of women about to be thrown onto a pyre, has reached dispiriting extents with prominent Brits like Bishop Williams or the journalist Robert Fisk.
Fisk, of course, after he got nearly stoned to death in Agfhanistan, turned the other cheek, then his entire wide white ass, and for good measure his inoperative cojones, for a slap, whip and kick to his assailants by stating "if I had been them I would have tried to kill me too." Now this parody of Hamlet, Williams, voices a similar idea, saying essentially: we can always think, and think more and if we think long and hard enough we can conclude that what's the point really, endless is the possible number of all thoughts. If I were them I would want sharia law in Britain, too. So might as well we can want sharia law in Britain.
In inverse proportion to the aforementioned downward trend for the desire to submit oneself to a greater, nonrelativistic organizing principle (e.g. the "Greatness of Britain" or "Christianity"), there has been a steady growth in the number of people with deep psychological need to view themselves as sophisticated relativists such as the bishop and the scribe. While submitting onself to a principle viewed as superior in an absolute sense, the person's basis stance is humility. The basic stance of those who see no principle great enough that is worth submitting themselves to, and thus turn to advocating relativism, is narcissism. Such people call themselves "liberal".
For those who are about to protest, consider this: (meant as a salient example, not as a full fledged argument, consider the word limitations here) most of the argument on the so-called "liberal" side is that if we do X or Y (waterboard, forbid sharia, things like that) then we are "not any better than the terrorists".
But I submit: "we" are in fact not any better than the terrorists. It is our political system, economy, philosophy, religion, atheism, etc that are better than those of the terrorists. But it will require the acceptance of the very notion that there are ideas, countries, religions, etc, that are better than others, in an absolute sense, so much so that it is worth fighting and even dying for them, and they happen to be ours. But that is anathema to the relativist reveling in his own sophistication and thus humility goes out, narcissism wins.
The statements made by Williams or Fisk are part of the frenzy with which the 'liberals" are trying to outdo one another in the pursuit of wishing to look even more ubertolerant, never-before-seen superthinking. There is nothing more important for them then "being better than" everyone else, even if the ideas they promote call for surrendering to people who have announced their intent to annihilate or at least assimilate them, in other words, even if the propositions are suicidal - culturally speaking in the Bishop's case, almost literally in the case of Fisk.
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Obama is just as white as he is black. (If you think about it. But you don't)
[Read the article: It's OK to vote for Obama because he's black]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What type of thinking makes a person born to a White mother and a Black father to be declared "black"? Or, as a matter of fact, a person born to an Oriental mother and a Black father to be declared "black", like Tiger Woods?
Not one that, if you dig deep into it, seems very attractive. The following unexamined assumptions in the thinker's mind may be possible:
- women don't count.
- white is uncool, asians are irrelevant.
- miscegenation spoils the race and the offspring is socially "black".
- "I'll do anything not to look like a racist!"
Whatever it may be in Mr Kamiya's case, on Salon today Obama is judged by his character AND by the color of his skin. The Dream is over, the sour smell of bad coffee is everywhere.
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The Believers
[Read the article: The cold truth about climate change]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Beyond the thick walls, well-locked double windows and richly draperied curtains of the large and ornate Salon, where the Believers mull about, drinking sweet, flavored chais and moccufrappachinos, there is a world full of ugly and dangerous creatures. All Saloneers should abstain from any contact with such creatures lest they risk a swift and humiliating excommunication from the hallowed caverns.
Such a dark, menacing, crude creature is the Drudge, who, as Everyone knows, with his big and crooked rake rakes the mud on the other, wrong side of the tracks. Yes, even the mentioning of his name is considered a faux pas here but just pretend, dear Saloneers, that you are hearing the wind and the wolves howl.
Well, right now as this distinguished article happens to be illuminating the main page of Salon and the Believers, dressed in earthy colors, the key to the Prius in their pockets and purses, gather underneath, giving heartfelt expression to their beliefs and to their contempt towards the deniers, there are two articles linked to on that Other site.
One is about Temperature Monitors reporting widescale global cooling (so much cooling in the past year that it had wiped out nearly all of the warming that occurred in the past 100 years), and another one about how the Arctic Ice has recovered and thicker then before at some places.
Well, move along, nothing to see here, everyone to the tables please, the Tofumisu is being served!