Letters to the Editor
brdsht
Published Letters: 16 Editor's Choice: 1
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Corollary to "Perfect Scam"
[Read the article: This Modern World]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Of course, the corollary to Zandru's "Perfect Scam" is that the Republican Party will create a fiasco so great that it will be claimed only Republicans are smart enough to fix it.
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Morning in America
[Read the article: Don Imus is vulgar. So what?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Mr. Keillor misses one point on his piece about Don Imus. Imus's tone was laconic, never shrill. That's what made his show so seductive, his ability to put down people who never did anything to him without raising his voice or sounding angry.
Whatever. The intended audience and the effect were the same, and life is better after we change the channel.
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Will it run Vista?
[Read the article: Tech week in review: Intel joins cheap laptop drive]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can't wait to see how a $100 laptop will run Windows Vista Basic.
Maybe the Gates foundation can prevail on Microsoft to provide an OS that will run reasonably well on a Celeron-grade machine. Like XP does.
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An alternate theory
[Read the article: David Brooks' field trip to the White House]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glenn Greenwald infers that because Bush is speaking with his base, David Brooks and others of the right-wing punditry, that he's being frank because he's with friends. Ignore what Bush says in public, the core of the man's ideals are shared in private seances in a cave, then revealed to the sinners--I mean voters--by oracles such as Brooks.
Greenwald's inference assumes that Bush is principled enough to have core ideals. Through the well-documented haze of lies, nepotism, alcoholism, past drug use, religious conversion, and plain unconcern with reality that Bush operates under, I can only assume that his motives are much baser.
Bush's only ideal is to keep his ass covered. His rationale and methods for the conversion of Iraq were so outrageous, and public approval so dependent on the belief it would be over in three months, that failure was only inconceivable because it would be personal. Bush has to finish the job or fight to his death, or at least keep fighting until he's removed from office.
Extreme conservatism has always been susceptible to authorities higher than the people's will--Divine Providence, the Invisible Hand of the Free Market, ein Volk, ein Vaterland, and Bushido. History has shown cranky conservatives to be the perfect medium for hearing and retelling myths of higher wills, a fact the Bush administration has been most willing to exploit. The love of the Republican Party for the nation is so true that it will let us crucify its second-begotten (after Reagan) son.
Bush knows his administration is going down, but he or his handlers are setting the stage for a Republican resurrection. Perhaps two decades from now, as we've already seen with Vietnam, long after the troops have become civilians and the horror has been forgotten, the last glowing ember of doubt over that reluctant withdrawal can be re-ignited against the true enemy, the Democratic Party.
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Sounds like my father
[Read the article: The National Review mind]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Many years ago, always after he'd had a few drinks, my father would regale his audience with similar fantasies and theories over the holiday dinner table. As much as he struggled with this, tone of his voice was less educated and aristocratic, but the content was essentially the same. After once daring to contradict him, I quickly learned that if I wanted to finish eating I'd better do what everybody else was doing--ignore him in polite silence.
He finally got the idea and started shutting up. He also cut back on his drinking in front of the family. I like to believe that he also grew more tolerant of people who disagreed with him.
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Fresh air
[Read the article: Born-again sneaker freak]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]After all of the stridency and sanctimoniousness of the late 60s, the 70s blew in like a cleansing breeze. All of a sudden it was OK to pursue your passions, and the hell with being relevant. Distance running was a part of this. It might be exploitative of Nike to try to evoke this time with a new product line, but after eight years of 9/11 and Dick Cheney I'll try anything.
My running hit its peak around 1980 when the Waffle Trainer was my shoe of choice. The decline came after screwing up my knee on a 14-mile run and switching to Brooks because Nike discontinued the Waffle. I wonder if a new pair of Daybreaks might bring back some of that edge.
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Bluetooth manners
[Read the article: Why are Bluetooth headsets so lame?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just wish people would take the damn things out of their ears while they conduct meetings. Meeting with a Bluetooth wearer is makes you feel less important than whatever else might or might not be coming through the air.
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Christmas reverie
[Read the article: All I need for Christmas]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm with you, Mr. Keillor. I go into my Christmas reverie, too, whenever they play Joni Mitchell's "River" on the radio.
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A diabolical plot
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]More and more, it all looks like a diabolical plot by big government and big media--denigrate, debase, and devalue the product of people who work hard for what they get. Then, we're too busy grumbling about our our fellow workers to notice who is really ripping us off.
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The no-sweat economic recovery
[Read the article: The politics of an economic nightmare]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Reich passes over the underlying reason for credit crunch and housing slump--the no-sweat recovery strategy devised by the GOP, in partnership with Wall Street, and enabled by the loyal opposition. According to this plan, recovery would happen without paying people to do any work and without doing anything to add intrinsic value. This obviously results in people not having cash to buy things and then buying things with credit from foreign producers.
We're living in a derivative economy now. Real needs and value are not our concern.
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Compare & contrast
[Read the article: The C.S. Lewis take on Gates and Wal-Mart]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Any attempt at trying to find differences in the motives for Gates' and Wal-Mart's newly discovered consciences is splitting hairs. I'm sticking to Mr. Leonard's story unless someone has some new facts.
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Putting your mouth where the money is
[Read the article: Republicans make Fox News sick]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What the whole Fox Business Network escapade shows is that while most people will believe what they want regarding current events and politics, they demand accurate data for guiding their financial decisions. Fox gambled and lost when it decided to cover business with the same entertainment and propaganda formula that its news channel has been giving us.