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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
wychwood
Published Letters: 344 Editor's Choice: 2
For non-technical stuff, that is to say, for opinions, the peer review in the form of these letters is a great educumacational tool. I often nod along with a Salon article only to have the very different POVs from the letter-writers broaden my own view of things. The internet as a whole, with its spectrum of opinions, theoretically provides a vast informal peer review of practically everything. Whether the chaff will drown out the wheat is a bit of a worry... But twas ever thus...
Trouble with the internet is, someone who is banned can simply get a new account and re-register. And most people who post are using a cover name anyway. I can't imagine anyone figuring out who I am from my Salon name of "Wychwood". BUT...I am thinking that I'm going to re-register myself and use my legal name...on the other hand, there are horror stories out there of people being cyber-stalked by nuts who take offence at posted opinions... The obvious answer is some one (or a whole crew of someones) vetting each letter before it's allowed through, and I don't suppose you have staff and budget enough for that...
A boost for a day when I was feeling really down on the human species...
Ben Sen said of the Mormons, the "church is straight as the proverbial arrow (now that the polygamy problem is under control)..." I recommend he go the full Monty and say "now that the polygamy problem is almost under control".
If we're gonna talk about biology of bees - they don't have a momma-and-poppa traditional two-parent monogamous family thing either. And, actually, tho it's only about "frickin' bees", a lot of kids will get imprinted with this movie as to how bee societies work. Maybe it's a mite silly to worry about how it relates to human patriarchy (or maybe not), but it seems to me more important that it relate a little better to actual bees.
But there are degrees. Everyone who reads Salon and posts letters (it occupies a significant piece of each day - and probably Salon is not the only internet reading and writing we-all do...what about Slate, the W.P., the NYT, various special-interest e-lists...) is indulging addiction to some extent. But when it occupies every spare moment (and moments that shouldn't be spare) and there is a perceived need to hide it, then that's *too much*. Solution? Ah, well that's for greater minds than mine... Getting A Life, perhaps, the LW already has one...perhaps too much of one, which is a problem. We all do need time for ourselves and our own indulgence, but it has to be balanced with (sigh) realism...
100% agree. Not just because I have slow internet, and any film clip is painful, but, right, I want to READ on my own time... And the irritating "cute" accompanying music, no, no, no. More and more I feel I'm losing out when bits of my Salon and Slate go to video...
EXCEPTION - some video'd letters to the editor might be (briefly) fun...
Everyone must have been watching those programs and had their brains stolen by the mentalists. Well, except Owen, who had enough surviving wits about him to point out the BIG CHEESE of incredibly cheesy programs, the incredibly cheesy I-can't-believe-what-I'm-seeing program, Tila Tequila. It'll take some doing to out-cheez-tastic that one (and I don't want to watch the program that - inevitably comes along and - does...some things go beyond fun and into the-universe-culminates-in-THIS?)
There's so much mean-spiritness and insults and stuff in some of the Salon letters and other forums, but the responses to Cary and the people who write in to him are always reassuring about human nature. Yeah, the inside/outside thing is always good to remember - never judge how a book is feeling by the sprightliness of its cover. Write on, right on, live on, Cary and letter-writers and responders!
Maybe I'm showing my age, but the guy's suggesting the two of them take a trip together used to be a euphemism for getting a room. And if the LW is a teenager, as some speculate, then surely it's inappropriate for the older man to be suggesting a trip - ? Reading over the letters thus far, I think it's Not Nice for the man (or woman, in other cases) to do the whole hanging-out-together and "datey" things while not offering any clues as to his feelings, because SURELY HE KNOWS how all that stuff comes across to the other person. He should say, at intervals, something like, Hey, isn't it great to be able to hang out together and be friends without worrying about all that sex stuff intruding on our nice, like, friendship. Since this guy hasn't done so, it's incumbent upon the party with the crush to say something...and Cary's advice sounds good.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
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