Letters to the Editor
number1laing
Published Letters: 106 Editor's Choice: 9
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The Rule of the Conservative Blogosphere
[Read the article: When the National Review attacks]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The amount of time they spend on a topic is inversely related to its importance. Abu Ghraib, torture, illegal wiretapping - they say stuff like, "I don't know much about it, but it doesn't seem like a big deal to me". Stuff like Rudy Giuliani proven to be a liar, Scott Beauchamp, extra smoke in a picture, Jamil Hussein, the full force of the entire right-wing blogosphere comes crashing down.
Isn't it weird, by the way, how often they say they don't know much about these important, weighty topics? Isn't it, like, their job to know about it? I guess it's a branch on the "I can't recall" tree.
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Who do you have in mind, Glenn?
[Read the article: The Democrats' responsibility in the wake of Gonzales' resignation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am not saying that to be smug - I really have no clue! This administration won't hire a dogcatcher unless it promises undying fealty to the overlords. The White House is not the center of the executive branch nowadays, its a Royal Court, and I don't even think they have it in them to pick someone you describe. Even though it's absolutely necessary.
The only person I could think of is Patrick Fitzgerald or Reggie Walton, who are the letter-of-the-law no-nonsense conservatives the Administration (and its backers) pretend to love. But of course, the key word is *pretend*, the only thing that matters is loyalty. What will happen?
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Look at the President
[Read the article: Miss dumb blond USA?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Didn't he not know the name of Pakistan's leader? Didn't he not know the terms Sunni and Shiite until *after* we attacked Iraq? Unlike the President, Upton has no power at all and her stupidity (or just plain silliness) really has no ramifications at all. Remember, the President was elected IN SPITE of the fact that he is a bit dense. Yes, that's right, the fact that he didn't know these things turned out to be an *asset*. Twice. John Kerry's fluency in French turned out to be a *liability*.
We are a country of idiots and Upton's performance was a reflection on us all.
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Netflix vs. BB
[Read the article: Does Blockbuster edit its movies?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]E,PLURIBUS,UNUM - Carnal Knowledge is on BB. Bad choice.
I use Blockbuster, and that partly stems from the fact that, way back when, I was on Netflix, before BB was on the scene, and they did pretty much suck. As the only game in town, they pretty much did what you'd expect, raise prices while lowering quality (quality being, the number of movies you could have at a time), damaged DVDs, etc. And most of the Blockbuster horror stories so vividly described in the previous Machinist post undoubtedly originated from BEFORE the time Netflix existed.
I am glad both companies exist. It keeps them honest. Funnily enough, Blockbuster turned down an offer to buy NetFlix for like $50 million way back when! Then they went and spent 10 times that on their copycat service, surely this must go down as one of the most boneheaded corporate decisions of the past decade.
The online services, with the NC-17 thing excepting, are exactly the same. BB's customer service is fine (I just had my first damaged DVD a couple weeks ago, I got a replacement in 2 days and didn't even send back the broken one), turnaround is super fast, I get free game rentals once a month, etc. etc. And the reason they are exactly the same is because both companies are there fighting it out.
I will also agree with Farhood and say portable ratings would be nice. I can think of another example: the Xbox 360 has achievement points, which are unlockable points you get for completing certain objectives in each game. They add up to a publicly available gamerscore. For most games you can get a rough approximation of how deep you got into the game based on the gamerscore. It's a really great feature, and far more popular than Microsoft ever thought it would be. Playing games without achievements feels so... 20th century. The PS3 doesn't have it now, but Sony is coming up with a copycat system. Wouldn't it be better for MS and Sony to put aside their differences for a second and make a unified achievement and gamerscore system? Most big gamers have both systems anyway. That's my dream.
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If anything its going to make it worse
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What marquee team is going to play App state now? They have contracts with a few (Georgia, LSU, and Florida was mentioned by ESPN), but what happens after that?
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If anything its going to make it worse
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What marquee team is going to play App state now? They have contracts with a few (Georgia, LSU, and Florida was mentioned by ESPN), but what happens after that? It's going to be funny to see these big, bad programs running away from a tiny D-1AA team but it's going to happen! I bet at least one of those 3 schools got lawyers looking for ways to void their contract right now!
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So, in other words...
[Read the article: Gen. Petraeus' fuzzy math]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Iraq has had, at the very least, two 9/11s this summer. Actually, more like twenty if you account for difference in population.
The more we hear about Petraeus, the more he just seems like a tool for the Bush Administration. He is all too happy to indulge them and spout their bullshit. I feel a bit wrong even saying that thanks to the bombardment of propaganda I have gotten regarding Petraeus but it is what it is. At every turn he has been propped up by the Bush Admin and in turn has said their exact talking points.