Letters to the Editor
Rowyna
Published Letters: 105 Editor's Choice: 36
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biggest mistake
[Read the article: Fred Thompson on abortion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Maybe his biggest mistake was actually admitting that he plans on stacking the deck at the Supreme Court instead of purusing a constiutional ban (that he would undoubtably lose).
Most people wouldn't mind the introduction of a constiutional ban in the House/Senate because we all know it would be defeated. I think many of the people who are publicly anti-abortion would privately oppose a ban when it came down to a completely annoyomous vote. Stacking the judiciary prevents a vote, and prevents proper representation. For all intents and purposes, it is 'cheating' on the whole debate. Many militant pro-lifers would be happy with this, as they desire the end to abortion no matter what. But I think the many fence-sitters, or people who are casually pro-life (but who haven't actually been believing that abortion will ever really be overturned) would have been made very uncomfortable with the idea of Thompson getting to choose Supreme Court justices.
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wheres the media covrerage?
[Read the article: When did we become like Syria?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The greatest outrage to me is that this case and incident (and others like it) has largely passed under the collective radar of the American public. There were some brief articles about this particular case in the MSM (and it was often portrayed as an anomaly rather than a systematic coordination that kidnaped hundereds, possibly thousands of persons merely suspected of having terrorist links and sending them other to countries where they are tortured). After the inital page 5 article, this disapeared off the "entertaining news features" list for most media.
This story should not have just "gone away". The media should have made it a public priority, and shown people the face and truth of what 'rendition' is. That they didn't shows starkly how far the mainstream media has fallen into "info-tainment" rather than acting in the public interest and right to know.
But hey, no worries, right? Why care about this stuff. Better just to pop over to the NYT and read the most emailed article, one about "teeth grinding". I'll tell you what makes MY teeth grind -- the lack of real stories of importance, and the MSM's abandonment of their civic and public responsibility to expose government abuse and cover-ups.
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thatcher
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton: Better as a flight attendant?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Good Lord. If electing a president (or PM) has anything to do with men's speed dating preferences, how on earth did Thatcher get in? I think you're spot on when you say that men (and women) probably AREN'T voting for the candidate they'd most like to date. I'm frankly quite scared if they are.
On an unrelated note, how funny is the Queen Bee with male slaves comment? There's another NYT article published the same day in the science section talking about how all the workers in a bee-hive are actually sterile females (and why hollywood seems to insist that most of the insect world is male... and can talk, but thats another issue). Maybe she should have a chat with the science section editor before talking about Queen Bees and male slaves!
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still up to his old tricks
[Read the article: John "One Australia" Howard has a problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Howard might appear to be backpedaling on his former inflamatory comments regarding Asian immigration, but continues to enact policies trying to limit long-term immigration, especially that for refugees.
Recently his minister for immigration made several racist remarks about the inability of Sudanese refugees to integrate into the community (you see, can't pick on the Asians anymore, better pick on the Africans) as well as blaming them for being violent and forming gangs (ironically a few days after he made these statements a Sudanese youth was bashed to death by a group of caucasains. the minister and Howard by proxy refused to apologise or even admit that their comments may have fueled the attack).
In the past year the Howard government also instituted a citizenship test (prior to this citizenship was granted to any permanent resident who fit the character requirements and who had lived in Australia for the requisite time peroid). The test is ONLY administered in ENGLISH. What a great way to prevent those pesky Asians from voting! Deny them citizenship based on their somewhat patchy English (which does not of course reflect their intellegence or adherence to Australian values... but rather how well they can understand the questions on the test).
Less recently we can reflect on the Prime Minister's enlightening comments re the Cornulla Riots. In the riots, people who appeared to be of muslim decent (ie anyone the least bit middle eastern or hell, even medditerranian looking) was attacked by a mob of white, flag-waving hoons. The Prime Minister denied the riots showed that Australia had a problem with race.
What a crazy country this is. Being an American in Australia has really opened my eyes to how blind we can all be about our own country's flaws. I have friends here who are totally intellegent, caring people who will come out with statements about Asians, refugees and (the biggest of them all) Aboriginals that simply boggle my mind. I honestly believe that it IS part of the national value system here to be a tiny bit racist. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.