Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following Salon Premium Member:

Paul Dirks

Published Letters: 2149     Editor's Choice: 7

  • You have it exactly backwards

    [Read the article: The president receives "lessons" from his neoconservative tutors]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    saying "a majority of American Jews are against continuing the Iraq war" are the same thing as saying "Don't get me wrong, I have many Black friends, but Black people sure are"

    No a better analogy is saying "Most blacks think Alan Keyes is a fascist moron... and they're right!"

    Pretending that you can discern unspoken motives in posts and use that as a basis to discredit the opinions thus expressed is quite simply reprehensible. It certainly places you in no position to determine who has "veered into questionable moral territory".

    Your moral judgement simply has no standing as you've already wasted it with false accusations.

  • Now we're getting somewhere....

    [Read the article: The president receives "lessons" from his neoconservative tutors]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    The spreading of hatred and the continuation of warfare relies on our ability to overgeneralize and lump people together. Our friend David is providing an excellent demonstration of how it works. By treating "Palestinians" or "Jews" or "the left" as monolithic structures that one can refer to as if they were individuals, the deaths of actual individuals can be excused and don't qualify as murder.

    The fact that enough Americans are lazy enough to think that there's any relationship between what we're doing in Iraq and the war on terror is another example of this thinking in action.

  • Say what you will.....

    [Read the article: Support for al-Qaida plots on large right-wing blog]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    The problem these folks have with Jimmy Carter is that he's a genuine Christian who has always tried to live by the values expressed in the Gospels. THEY HATE THAT!

  • It's unfair

    [Read the article: Support for al-Qaida plots on large right-wing blog]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    For you to cherry pick LGF comments...

    after all THEY never do anything like that....

    oh wait!

    http://www.dailygut.com/?i=2317

  • More RW fun

    [Read the article: Support for al-Qaida plots on large right-wing blog]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    http://www.dailygut.com/Comment.php?i=2317

    By Right...

    Puffington is a traitor of the worst kind. That slut came to this country and now bashes our leadership? Deport that whore.

  • I wrote to Wapo

    [Read the article: Support for al-Qaida plots on large right-wing blog]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Howard Kurtz recently did a profile on Michelle Malkin and also expressed disdain over comments posted at Huffington Post.

    Michelle just linked approvingly to a site that’s also expressing disdain over certain comments at Huffington post,

    http://www.dailygut.com/Comment.php?i=2317

    Noteworthy comments include:

    By rumsfeld_forever

    Holy shit. Fuck those comments.

    However didn't go after Jane Fonda did not do the United States a favor.

    These people are dumber than... God damn, I think these motherfuckers just set a new low.

    Fascinating that KSM would want to go after Clinton; I thought the terrorists hated Bush!

    KSM and those people commenting should drink urine.

    Wow, am I pissed.

    By Right...

    Puffington is a traitor of the worst kind. That slut came to this country and now bashes our leadership? Deport that whore.

    By Nilbog

    Sir,

    I strongly resent the implications of your post and demand satisfaction. My sister is both a slut and a whore. You have slandered her good name by speaking of her in the same breath as Puffington.

    There are clearly the anger issues evident within the right-wing blogosphere yet these are routinely ignored while any left-wing comments of similar vitriol are highlighted in a condescending manner prominently in your paper.

    I am personnally offended at the apparent imbalance.

    Thank you for your attention to this matter,

    Paul H. Dirks

  • Once again a troll EXACTLY proves Glenn's point!!!

    [Read the article: Support for al-Qaida plots on large right-wing blog]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    This is no more newsworthy than it is when it happens on progressive blogs

    By the same token, its also no LESS newsworthy....

  • Cause and Effect

    [Read the article: Support for al-Qaida plots on large right-wing blog]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    It's painfully obvious that those right wingers aren't real big on details.

    Actually its the inability to tend to details that drives them to be wingers in the first place.

  • Just for yucks....

    [Read the article: Support for al-Qaida plots on large right-wing blog]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    I actually started reading down the thread at LGF. What gets me isn't the posts that suggest that Carter should die. It's the totally bizarre misunderstanding of what liberals actually believe. I know I've said before that LGFers view the world as if it were a comic-book but I had no idea just how widespread (and reproducable) the phenomenon was.

    Now THAT would be a good angle for some MSM attention.

  • I took a minute to

    [Read the article: Support for al-Qaida plots on large right-wing blog]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    page through some of the comments on the original WaPo article.

    I thought there was a fair amount of idiocy coming from both sides of the divide so I added the following...

    The cry wolf effect is now in full force! This guy is undoubtably a scumbag but Bushco has so blown its credibilty that half the people commenting here are willing to forget the fact. There's a real war on terror going on here folks! Unfortunately, having decided that a war on Iraq would be easier, we've pretty much given up on the REAL fight and having done so, once an actual terrorist speaks half of us dont believe a word of it and the other half thinks it proves that Bush is a genius! A little reality would go a long way about now.

  • But isn't that exactly what some people on this thread are doing?

    [Read the article: Support for al-Qaida plots on large right-wing blog]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Most of the comments I've seen here have been directed specifically at LGF'ers and others of that ilk. Few people deny that there are some basically descent people who self-identify as conservatives. But that said, their relative silence over the last 6 years has allowed the foamers to pretty much dominate our discourse for quite a while now. The public service of shining a spotlight on foamers is both necessary and appreciated.

    And, I might add, vitally important.

  • Someone is suffering from a severe case of projection I'm afraid...

    [Read the article: Support for al-Qaida plots on large right-wing blog]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    But look on the bright side. If the Soviets had succeeded in installing global Communism, then all religions would be outlawed and we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

  • You didn't highlight the funniest part....

    [Read the article: Gonzales' unprecedented efforts to block a FISA investigation]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    The President decided that

    protecting the secrecy and security of TSP requires that a strict limit be placed on the number of persons granted access to information about the Program for non-operational reasons. TSP is subject to extensive oversight within the Executive Branch.

    In other words, the program is Double Super Secret and you can't have the decoder ring. Besides, its all OK because everyone who attended our super secret meeting agreed!

    Can I go home now, I here Karl calling me to dinner!

  • Nostalgia.....

    [Read the article: The DOJ's explicit refusal to obey the law]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    I still remember to this day that moment in 1974 when my father (a lifelong Republican) came home from work and exclaimed I'm going to pop some popcorn, sit down and watch them impeach the President!