Letters to the Editor
dwg
Published Letters: 140 Editor's Choice: 18
-
Go Ann Ominous!
[Read the article: Camille's back!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]More! Come on kids, let's keep this show on the road - we can hit 700. The country is so not about Camille Paglia anymore, and neo-fascist-skirting schtick. Nerdnam is right too: it's the message that's the medium now, at least until we peel the country away from frat-boy armageddons. Then we can get all complacent and frothy again, or not, and Camille wouldn't do so much damage.
BTW Camille, I think Edwards and Bush actually have the same haircut - it's called the Executive Cut, you can get it at Supercuts for about $10.95. It's just that Edwards has, let's face it, better hair. And Kerry's supremely healthy mop - don't get me started.
-
I want to know.
[Read the article: Ann Coulter on John Edwards: "Faggot"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I appreciate knowing what kind of red meat the CPAC is being fed today. I trust Tim Grieve to report on things that help to explain exactly how weird the right wing is these days. I want to know, and I want to have that as ammunition when someone with progressive credentials, like, oh, Camille Paglia, gives a big wet kiss to Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbough, and anyone else who works tirelessly to cheapen our lives and our discourse.
I want to know exactly the level of sickness that Miss Coulter exhibits, exactly what an animal she is (and not in a good way). I don't want to pretend she doesn't exist, because she daily gives succor to the worst in our society, and we need to have that clearly in our rear view as we try to get out of the horrific mess the uncivil, incompetent, loathing, craven hard right has gotten us into. If we can.
Thanks, Tim, for being vigilant. Always.
-
Fever dreams
[Read the article: Neoconservative Eliot Cohen's new position at the State Department]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The neocons are so over (not) that they're hiding in plain sight. Wonderful, succinct post. Thank you.
-
Hold your applause
[Read the article: "The first time I was back since the storm ... drugs were everywhere"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Busiest port in the country. 4th busiest in the world. Founded at an extremely providential point on the largest river system in the northern hemisphere. Main urban center of southern Louisiana, which holds 11% of the nation's petroleum reserves and a fifth of the natural gas reserves. Chief prize for the largest land acquisition in the history of our country. It's called the Louisiana Purchase, and it's synonymous with the historical importance of New Orleans. If you're anywhere from Montana to Oklahoma, Minneapolis to Little Rock, there but for us go you.
The city was founded on a natural levee of the Mississippi as it turned towards the Gulf. It was never below sea level until parts of the surrounding swamps were converted to housing in the 40's. It is sinking (not unlike many coastlines), in part because of hardcore engineering to keep the river in place, and in part because of the wholesale national sucking out of oil and resources from the coastal environment. It has variously been the 3rd or 4th largest city in the country, a pestilent stew of recurring diseases and the center of a virulent and profitable slave trade. French, Spanish, Indian, African, Caribbean, Anglo-Saxon, German, Italian, Irish, Jewish, Vietnamese; it has a polyglot culture like no other on the planet. It is ground zero to the only indigenous American art form - jazz. It is one of the pressure points of the New World.
In 1722, four years after being founded, a hurricane nearly destroyed it. Here we are again.
Cruel drugs and debris aside - it could be saved for the cost of a month of Bush's war, the cost of the Marshall Plan. If Clinton were here, the lifeline would have been thrown long ago. Its inhabitants are plunging back into work to save their homes - completely grass roots - with unfailing hope and utter uncertainty. It's a coalition of the willing: no one has to move back, including baby thugs. So much for the blameless.
This resourceful city, which is running out of resources, will recover on its own, or it won't. But it won't be for lack of sympathy from so many good Americans touched by its plight, nor for lack of vitriol from armchair urbanists who would see a great city go down without missing a beat. It is defenseless and media-less, unlike New York, and so everyone's free to take pot shots.
Do your worst..........to some of us, it is still buried treasure.
And remember - when oil and temperatures are through the roof; when tornadoes increase, breadbaskets dry up; the north freezes and southwest burns; when Florida sinks or a city shakes, by earth or dirty bomb - We Were There First. First great American city to die of incompetence and neglect and man-skewed nature - with no infrastructure funds, or federal leadership of any sort, in sight.
Wow - we're the avant garde. If we make. we'll tell you how.