Letters to the Editor
schencka
Published Letters: 31 Editor's Choice: 2
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Moving to Amsterdam....
[Read the article: The bicycle thief]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"America -- love it or leave it!" they said in the 1960s, and they might as well be saying it now.
Well, if you really love bicycling infrastructure, you might as well give up on America and move to Amsterdam.
The Big Three killed by bike path.
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On Cheerfulness
[Read the article: Don't be a morose teenager]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]From the Continent:
"There is one thing one has to have: either a soul that is cheerful by nature, or a soul made cheerful by work, love, art, and knowledge."
"One must never have spared oneself, one must have acquired hardness as a habit to be cheerful and in good spirits in the midst of nothing but hard truths."
--Both from Friedrich Nietzsche
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Ken Burns' reluctance to make "The War"...
[Read the article: You must remember this]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...shows. The editing, timing, choice of pictures, the inserted fake battle sounds -- all these make for a production of less quality than "The Civil War." Less emotionally moving, more tired, more predictable, more frustrating when important events and foreign perspectives are left out.
Also, having the stories told "in their own words" by plainspoken septuagenarians is, sorry to say this, a liability. Shelby Foote these folks are not.
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Violence and Militarism...
[Read the article: The latest revelations of lawbreaking, torture and extremism ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]have always been integral to American culture. Only countries that have bore the brunt of total war forsake policies of violence. We may never see it.
The Bush Administration sees no problem radicalizing DC -- it's what they sought out. They show us our cultural depravity. The US is waning as the unipolar cultural and economic hegemon of the world -- it only took seventeen or eighteen years after the USSR fell.
We are in our "late phase" of dominance, and the world may be better for it.
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Message to a right-wing radio personality
[Read the article: The ADL purports to respond again]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dan Conry is a local radio personality on KTLK 100.3 FM, the Twin Cities' main talk-radio station.
Dear Mr. Dan Conry,
Today I heard you describe Democrats as "goose-stepping" and "jackbooted" in their support for one of their presidential candidates.
Your usage of Nazi imagery is not only inaccurate in its description of Democrats, it also disrespects the historical reality and legacy of the Nazis.
The Holocaust, the greatest crime against humanity the world has seen, was committed by Nazis, and this is no laughing matter. Nazi terminology should not be bandied about in a haphazard, joking fashion.
National organizations like the Anti-Defamation League have actively worked to help Americans understand the historical reality and graveness of the Nazi legacy, and your joking use of the phrases "jackbooted" and "goose-stepping" deserves the ADL's condemnation.
This is no "politically correct" language policing. Idle, joking, and inappropriate language regarding the Nazi legacy, such as yours, masks the reality of the Nazis and the Holocaust for new generations.
Sincerely,
Adam Schenck
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Western Iowan...
[Read the article: Well, he's the King of something]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm a Western Iowan (transplanted away, though), born and raised, and Steve King is a disgrace to my family and me.
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Iowa's Elites...
[Read the article: The secret to Mike Huckabee's success]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Eric Woolson, Huckabee's Iowa campaign manager, said, "[...] Very few people from Iowa have a very privileged background."
For the record, I would just like to say that I'm one of those "privileged Iowans," as the son of a small-town attorney.
And yes, I held a job scooping hog shit.
No wonder Romney, Guiliani, and Hillary Clinton, for that matter, are fading as Huckabee, Edwards, and Obama surge.
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Destroying the Noise Machine
[Read the article: Let the voting begin]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is a nice feel-good article. Yet I remember many intelligent individuals predicting that John Kerry would deliver in 2004.
He did not, of course, but why? The majority of Americans receive their political wisdom via inside-the-beltway narratives about candidates, on thousands of non-Salon-type outlets. In 2004, Kerry windsurfed and got Swift boated; W. cleared brush and threatened those that "attacked us." In 2000, Gore lost just enough votes to lose the election by being characterized as a "liar" who "invented the internet," both of which were ludicrous talking points, but effective nonetheless.
The accuracy of Bush's 2001-2003 use of force didn't matter at the time; what mattered was that people understood his finger was on the button *for us*, and he was willing to push it.
Reality has sunk Bush in the ensuing years, but the "who do you want with his/her finger on the button?" question should lead who Democrats support--it's the question that determines elections.
I am male, and I support Hillary Clinton because her campaign is disciplined enough to attack the noise machine without apology or hesitation. Hillary has been fighting them since 1992. So she has "high negatives." The way our government worked during the Bill Clinton era has positives that far outweigh this, and Hillary can run, in effect, a Clinton reelection campaign.
What about Hillary's finger on the button? She strikes me as informed, authoritative, decisive and unblinking. That's why she voted for the Iraq War Resolution. Bush and the Kool-aid Right fooled us that time, yet we still need someone willing to press the button.
So the Right wants to paint Hillary as "the bit**?" Margaret Thatcher was one too; that characterization plays to Hillary's strength.
I'm voting for Hillary the realist over Obama the inspirer and Edwards the fighter for the underclass. Clearing the American air of a nasty effluvium has never been more important.
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Re: Ramesees & Greenwald's Capitalizations
[Read the article: George Bush told the truth yesterday]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]By capitalizing a word like "Serious," Glenn shows us how the word "serious" is a transparent, shrill, craven Beltway Talking Point. Turn on cable news a bit, and one soon finds this use of "Serious."
And by capitalizing a word like "Terrorist," Glenn shows the word has become an empty signifier: i.e. there is no terrorist -- there's only a Terrorist, which is a rhetorical construction created for the bludgeoning of one's political opponents. And the sad thing is that there are terrorists out there, but the people wielding the word Terrorist have little interest in them. Note the post on the 24-style GOP FISA advertisement.
Glenn's moderate usage of the capitalization trope highlights transparent Talking Point Language (TPL), which does everyone a great service.
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Alibis and Blogging
[Read the article: Is Briana Waters a terrorist?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]She has no specific recollection of where she was on the 21st; most likely, she said, she was sleeping at home in Olympia.
Hey, another excuse for daily blogging -- one can always remember where one was by looking up old posts, and even prove it with IP address information.