Letters to the Editor
number1laing
Published Letters: 100 Editor's Choice: 9
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Buckley
[Read the article: William F. Buckley Jr. is dead at 82 ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I heard Buckley died, I thought of that TNR article from last year about the National Review Cruise, where crazed right wing lunatics spend thousands of dollars to hang out with the lunatics they read in the National Review. Buckley was the one who was pointing out how crazy guys like Podhoretz sound, yet the audience was cheering on Norm while calling Buckley old and senile.
I would say that it is sad that Buckley is the sane one in this movement, but then I remember he built the movement. Perhaps there is some justice in that he lived long enough to see the beginning of the end of his brand of conservatism, as it turned into little more than rampant paranoia, anti-intellectualism, warmongering, and the raw lust of power for power's sake.
RIP.
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Clemens
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Saw a quote from Rusty in the SC ticket that made me laugh: something like, "we are excited to move to the courtroom, which has rules, unlike the court of public opinion".
Hey, asshole, YOU jumped on the Mitchell Report. YOU tried to win the trial of public opinion. YOU were the one who flat out called McNamee a liar. YOU said you would be vindicated.
Now, Clemens looks like an ass of giant McGwire-esque proportions on Capitol Hill, resorting to talking about his butt (as shown on Daily Show) and hiding behind his wife (!) and facing down a federal investigation for perjury.
Clemens needs to fire whoever came up with this "get out in front of it" strategy. Even if it was Clemens who came up with it. It could not have gone worse.
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Favre
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Brett Favre was so beloved because he let his fans share his trials and tribulations with him. His wife's cancer, father's death, painkiller addiction, etc. He really is an old-school public figure that is happy to let it all hang out there. It kind of let us know that yes, here was a man making millions of dollars and doing what he loved but his life wasn't perfect and he went through a lot of the same crappy stuff we all do.
The game is really going to take a hit without him.
On the gridiron, I really think Aaron Rogers is ready. He looked brilliant in that game against the Cowboys - brilliant in that he took 31 snaps in two years prior and was thrown in the biggest game of the season by that point. Unlike guys like Philip Rivers or Brady Quinn he kept his mouth shut and realized he would get his shot eventually. I don't think the Pack is gonna win 12 games next year but they have a good future ahead of them.
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Definition of privacy?
[Read the article: The banality of the surveillance state]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I remember that statement and it sent a chill down my spine! But mentioning the coverage made me think of something that happened right after 9/11. Remember when Ari Fleisher said something like, "Americans have to be careful about what they say and do"? That got a HUGE amount of press. Remember when Bill Maher got canned for saying that the 9/11 hijackers were heroes to people who believed in that ideology (something that should be so obvious it need not be mentioned)? Also got a HUGE amount of press.
A top intelligence official saying we should change our definition of privacy to, in effect, letting the government and private companies (!) handle all our information and know everything about us is just as significant as what Ari Fleisher said. And it got, comparatively, almost no press.
The Bush Administration has done a fabulous job of browbeating the press, in effect scaring it to do its most important work. A fabulous job.
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of course it has been
[Read the article: Cheney calls Iraq invasion a "successful endeavor"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Iraq has been wildly successful and almost everything they could have hoped for. Thanks to the war Iraq is now a capitalist, free market paradise for corporate raiders and modern day robber barons. It's enabled huge amounts of money to pass from public to private hands with no regulation, no accountability, no rule of law. The instability of the place is a bonus, it means that it takes big, multinational, powerful companies to do business there. Big, multinational, powerful companies which all seem to have Cheney's best friends in charge, of course.
Only 2 problems: one, an oil law giving control of all revenue to big oil companies has not yet passed. Also, Bremer and friends instituted all sorts of Friedman-esque "free market" reforms upon seizing control of the country and they haven't worked out. I know they were hoping the country would turn into a modern utopia which would allow people here to point and say, "it's working so well there, why don't we have a 15% flat tax here yet?". But 5 years out of 100 means its still pretty early!
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Rudy
[Read the article: The media's special relationship with John McCain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I keep thinking of Rudy Giuliani when I think about this. Remember, as late as maybe 6-10 months ago he really was the frontrunner. The media kept calling him America's Mayor and the Hero of 9/11 and the guy that turned Gotham around.
But over time, the word kept coming out that the rhetoric didn't match the reality, that firefighters and policemen actually hate him, that he is awfully like Bush in all the worst ways. And he collapsed.
In 2000, the media was able to get away with all the junk about having a beer with Bush and the like because we were coming off prosperity and peace and the blogs weren't there and the media had an intense dislike of Gore. This time around, we are stuck in a war America hates and entering perhaps a deep recession. It's true that the media loves McCain but the media can't ignore that stuff and they can't ignore McCain's moronic brand of hawkishness.
I do think, though, they will ignore it until there is a Democratic candidate and that candidate will blast McCain on these things. I hope that happens soon, though, as the longer it goes on the more traction McCain gets.