Letters to the Editor
Laura Maschal
Published Letters: 26 Editor's Choice: 2
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Um ...
[Read the article: Gen. Petraeus takes it all back]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He's in charge of military operations in Iraq. He's not in charge of determining whether fighting "the terrorists" in Iraq is good for America's security in general. In fact, how the hell could he be expected to determine that? (I could buy that he should be able to answer more detailed questions from which one could draw conclusions about the overall security bonus of our being in Iraq, such as, "have your troops seen any evidence that jihadists in Iraq are planning to attack the United States?" or "in your professional opinion of our military's capacity, do you believe the size of our presence in Iraq strains our ability to respond militarily elsewhere?")
But COME ON (Congress)people ... there is only one person who SHOULD be able to answer that question and explain himself coherently. And he isn't. He isn't just in charge of our military operations in Iraq, he's in charge of all our military operations, and charged with maintaining America's safety.
He's our lolpresident, and he doesn't give a damn.
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Dude, it's the Cruciatus curse.
[Read the article: J.K. Rowling's Crucio curse on fan's Harry Potter book]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I hate to be the TOTAL nerd here, but it's the "Cruciatus curse," not the "Crucio curse."
Ahem. Moving on.
I love you Farhad, but you are not making a good argument here. There are two things to be discussed -- fair use and the role of the web in re-interpreting and collecting content.
It's fair use if it's excerpted to comment on it, but the current site, and one would expect the printed work, don't so much copy as remix the content. Just as Rowling said, she can either search through a printed Potter book, or she can use his site ... because it's basically a new way of presenting the Potter books. And that's interesting, that she's OK with it, but obviously it infringes on her right to present her material. If it were commentary or scholarship, that would clearly be different.
What's much more interesting is the way that the web has erased the boundaries between yours and mine, which I think maybe you were getting at. Extreme fans will always, and have always, taken "ownership" of characters, but there was a distinct wall between the taped Star Trek episodes/movies and the world of fanfic. In the digital age, it's easy to cross-reference every single Buffy script and episode and create new guides to the episodes. But is remixing content really different than creating new content? Many fans would say they're both creative endeavors, and when you change the context, certainly you can change the meaning of content. True that. But from an intellectual property perspective, changing the context doesn't change the copyright.
Take a second look at the focus of your post, and use the online lexicon to check your use of HP slang. :)
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I am so incredibly disappointed
[Read the article: Is race dying? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... in Gary Kamiya, for not thinking his article through whatsoever, and in Salon, for publishing this.
Someone already pointed out that whites don't THINK of themselves as a homogenous "race" either ... yet we behave as one. Thrown into a situation with five random black folks and five random white folks, the groups will certainly divide and interact along racial lines -- even if race is a construct -- but if separate may interact along lines of class.
Great civil rights leaders have never, by the way, denied that class is a huge part of our racial animosity and oppression here in America, Gary. Read Dr. King.
Meanwhile, someone read this stuff before it gets published. This article just makes no sense whatsoever, and minimizes the very real problem of institutional and personal racism in America. Sounds like Guiliani: "race! 9/11! everything changes! blah blah blah!"
Not to mention the incredibly clinical, removed, yet also INSTITUTIONALLY RACIST use of the term and grouping "black underclass." If I hear that again I will tear my damn hair out.
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Of course ...
[Read the article: Should we euthanize the Yorkie?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Grandparents are worth more than Yorkies, and I say that as a crazy cat lady ... and of course there are different standards with respect to human and pet euthanasia.
But what Cary says makes perfect sense: First, could you live with yourself if you were so flippant and callous as to say, "she'll forget about the dog?" Just because she has Alzheimer's does not mean she should be treated as a person without agency, for heaven's sake. You cannot do this to your grandmother. And you cannot treat the dog with so little respect.
Second, the dog is a SYMBOL. This isn't about the dog. This is about being in your mid-twenties and suddenly tied to your family when it feels like your family is going over a cliff. This is about not knowing what to do, maybe not having the resources to hire caregivers and so on. Dancing around the edges of this letter are family members who aren't getting involved, tradeoffs the LW has had to make ... the dog has become a metaphor for what isn't right and isn't fair and isn't easy, and hell yes it's not, but it's not about the dog.
Finally, if your grandfather is considering suicide over the dog, either you're employing hyperbole or it isn't the dog. It's still about more than the dog, and he needs help, now.
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Even on my obviously-20th-century teeny laptop screen ...
[Read the article: Oh no, is Apple's movie rental plan going to suck?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... the Netflix Watch Instantly feature has been great. Free a certain number of hours per month per plan. I have already devoured the first season of Heroes and am now into Season 2.
What Farhad is saying, I think, is that the old walk-into-Blockbuster-esque model is not going to fly here. He's right; they've got to get more creative.