Letters to the Editor
uptoolate
Published Letters: 87 Editor's Choice: 2
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ARGHHH!!!
[Read the article: Interview with Helen Thomas]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Congress laid down on the job."
English verb conjugations are among the easiest in the world. So why would a respected journalist of umpteen decades' experience use this lazy, ignorant construction?
Did the person who (mis)transcribed the interview foolishly assume that Ms. Thomas would have used such sloppy language?
Or was someone simply channeling W?
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My heart breaks ...
[Read the article: Big momma's house]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... for this woman and her husband. As someone who endured my share of abuse from the adoption racket before finally becoming a mom through fertility technology, I can imagine how devastated she must feel.
Ma'am, if you are reading these posts, I say hang in there. Do what you can to prevail. If you can find an agency that will treat you like a human being, then do it. If you can't, and it turns out that you simply have to lose more weight, you've done it already, you can do it again. Just grit your teeth and jump through whatever asinine arbitrary hoops those swindlers make you jump through, and then, when you are finally successful -- and they have no more say over you -- tell 'em to go fuck themselves.
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AKA "Word Snob"???
[Read the article: Chatty Cathy, Taciturn Ted?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]AKA - I love your stuff, but you are an English teacher and you write THIS?
"I tell all my women friends who complain about the things their husband's don't do ...."
I mean, ya gotta go to the trouble to put in that ridiculous apostrophe, so WTF?
Also, for everyone, when someone's not interested it's not "disinterest" for cryin' out loud! It's "uninterest." Two totally different things.
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Amen, AKA, plus ...
[Read the article: The burden of being John Edwards]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Foot-in-mouth is a disease that infects everybody, but when you're in the public eye it can be fatal. EE is gonna learn fast that when voters say they want public figures who speak their mind, who are unscripted, spontaneous, "authentic," ad nauseum ... they don't really mean it.
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Tasty!
[Read the article: Everything they touch turns to gold]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Some years ago, the New Yorker told of an intriguing study that took place when McDonalds was launching its ultimately futile reduced-fat burger campaign. Before the launch, McDonalds fed focus-group participants both regular and reduced-fat burgers in unmarked wrappers, and the participants reported that the reduced-fat burgers tasted BETTER. But when consumers encountered the reduced-fat burgers in the store, openly packaged as a “healthy” alternative, they concluded just the opposite.
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No difference between Dems and Repubs?
[Read the article: Cheerful boos for Hillary]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How come the "no difference" argument seems to be embraced mostly by people who otherwise would vote Dem? The argument is neutral from a political point of view, so it should be embraced equally by both Dems and Repubs.
But it's not.
I recall reading Gloria Steinem many years ago suggesting that the "no difference" argument gained traction in the public discourse right about the time that blacks and women, i.e., large, Dem-leaning constituencies, began participating in politics to a greater extent than ever before.
If she's right, what an interesting coincidence.
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True, Tree-ee, but Sadder Still
[Read the article: How strong is the Democratic presidential field?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]==>>Even if the Democratic candidate is well qualified and well funded, with a clearly articulated vision of the future and a plan to get there; and the Republican candidate is a stumbling, inept, quasi-criminal...the Republican could still win. Personality is what matters in presidential elections.<<==
I would add that even if the Democratic candidate has all of the above AND a more likable personality, the Repub could still win.
Read Brock, Alterman, et. al. on the staggering mass-communications advantage of the Repubs--from the milder GWOT cheerleaders at CNN and the NYT to the hundreds (or thousands?) of right-wing lunatics on AM radio. Repubs have a Super Bowl-worthy sound system, Dems are straining to be heard through handheld paper megaphones.
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That Other Wing-Nut Obsession
[Read the article: The Democrats' "gay debate" dance]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ever notice that the folks who ostensibly hate abortion are the same folks who truly hate gays -- the demographic with the world's lowest rate of abortion?
Ever notice that nobody in the public arena -- of any religious, political, or sexual persuasion -- seems willing to point this out?
Why is that?
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Salad, dainty, WTF?
[Read the article: Meatheads]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I once read a book on what and what not to eat when you're lunching with the boss. NEVER order a salad, they said, too hard to eat without making a mess. No kidding. It's the last thing I would stuff in my mouth if I were trying to appear dainty. Though I adore eating salads at home alone. Like a slob.
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They banned WHAT??
[Read the article: The collapse of Karl Rove]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"The dominant Christian faction ... banned liquor from convention hotels ...."
In Texas? And got away with it?
These people are more dangerous than we thought.
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If Dems had the cojones ...
[Read the article: War Room contest: Pick the Democrats' bumper sticker]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]their bumper sticker, aimed at the morons who vote repeatedly against their own best interests -- and most everyone else's as well -- would be two simple words:
GROW UP.
Yeah, I know, I know, not pandersome enough. But oh, so long overdue.
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Compartmentalize ... if you can
[Read the article: How can I love my Republican parents?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am lucky in that my late Eisenhower Republican parents recognized the modern-day GOP as the criminal enterprise that it is, but I do have some childhood friends and cousins who are GWB supporters. We do not discuss politics, and so I am able to compartmentalize when I am around them. As other LWs have suggested to “Bad Son,” it can be a useful technique.
But not always an easy one.
I was reminded of this the other day when I came across a photo on the Web of Christine Hanson, the youngest victim of 9/11, who perished on one of the hijacked airliners. I don’t believe that GWB and his cohorts engineered that atrocity, but I do believe they could have prevented it had they given a tinker’s damn. So when I gazed upon the photo, I thought not only of little Christine, age 2, incinerated, but also of GWB, at his “ranch” just weeks before the attack, blowing off the infamous warning of how bin Laden was, indeed, “determined to strike in [the] U.S.”
Then I thought of the millions of individuals (including you Nader voters) who in 2000 helped to make GWB the most powerful person on the planet, even as the man’s ignorance and incompetence were excruciatingly obvious to anyone with a shred of common sense. And at that moment I could not fathom wanting to have anything to do with such individuals, ever.
I sympathize with “Bad Son” and wish him the best.
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Is it just me, or what?
[Read the article: Hey, Dems: Run against Bush -- and toughen up -- or lose in '08]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]==>> unless there's another terrorist attack on our soil in the next 18 months, the connection to George Bush is going to be a tremendous liability ...<<==
And if there is? If GWB fucks up as badly as he did in 2001 and lets us get attacked again, then he’s no longer a liability?
What is WRONG with Americans?