Letters to the Editor
Baloo.
Published Letters: 223 Editor's Choice: 8
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The truth is...
[Read the article: What you missed while watching "Project Runway"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I agree that CNN is a joke. The issue is that if the news were serious and real a lot fewer people would watch, a lot fewer! And that would be okay. No one is supposed to be watching the news anyway, except for some academic types and the people who are into the nitty gritty, the grass roots.
When you have the uninspired masses engaged in the election of a national leader because news corporations like CNN decide that they can make money from it by jazzing it up or throwing in some sex and scandal for good measure, then you encourage what philosophers have always known to be the worst form of government and social order--you have a true democracy, rule by the masses, rule by the mob.
CNN is the modern day, democratic equivalent of Rome's Coliseum. Like the Coliseum, CNN and the rest of the news media play to the lowest common denominator, rousing the mob and making our government subject to its intemperate, immodest, capricious, unimaginative and unintelligent demands. The mob is very nearly insane and a government by the people is an insane government.
Thankfully the founding fathers read philosophy and were aware of all this. The system they put in place is meant to mediate against rule by the mob. The only question is whether all this "infotainment" is A) an insidious effect of the decay of our form of government and of the larger culture of which it is a part or B) an illusion of control spoon fed to us (the mob) by the ruling classes.
Probably it's a little of both. This article is, like others have said, a product of the same forces that created CNN, ableit more clever. The only question is whether its cleverness is enough to mediate against the lowest common denominator or whether that cleverness is just a ruse, a tricky way to stay above the fray and "sell" the very same product in packaging that makes it seem like something better.
The truth is it's not something better but I still love it because it's cynical and funny and that's about the best the better part of us in the mob can muster these days.
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Give me a break!
[Read the article: John McCain, selective denouncer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]These are two completely unrelated things. The MoveOn ad was distributed nationally and publicly while the "bitch" comment came from a citizen, one person asking one question in a small, social gathering.
To imply as you do that one is the same as the other is retarded. Even now that this woman's statement has become national news it does not stand to reason that McCain has to repudiate her for her stupid remark. It is not she who is at fault here. It is the media that aired the comment and is now stoking it and milking it for its infotainment value.
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To All the Brothers and Sisters, hear me out!
[Read the article: Michelle Obama gets real]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You've been excluded for too long in this country from everything that has to do with money and power. I know you hurt, I know you want someone to give voice to your anger, to your pain, to all the shit this country has put you through. But brothers and sisters you've got to realize such a person could never be elected president of this country. Obama is not running for president of the black people of the United States. He's running for president of ALL of the United States. Last time I checked your only 10% of the population. So, give the brother a God damn break! You think any of the other candidates are going to care about you more than he and his wife? Seriously!
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Cojones!
[Read the article: Michelle Obama gets real]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's funny how scared you liberals are of the Republicans. 'The Republicans will smear us, the Republicans will smear us.' Shut the fuck up! And fuck the Republicans. If you vote for Hillary out of fear of the Republicans then the Republicans have won. So grow some fucking balls for Christ's sake!
Obama is not fucking prissy ass John Kerry. He's got a mean streak. Someone tries to swiftboat this brother you better believe he's gonna bring it! If you watch the debates you'll see it.
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Only scratching the surface!
[Read the article: The "Kite Runner" controversy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The sexual abuse of children is common practice in Afghanistan. The majority of the perpetrators do not understand and do not believe that what they are doing is damaging to their victims. They have no concept of the rights of children and some even believe that children are not likely to remember what is done to them. I presume such an attitude is common to many underdeveloped nations, where the sexual abuse of children is rampant. Afghanistan, the poorest country in the world, is no exception. This profoundly damaging practice is so common and so longstanding there as to rise to the level of a tradition.
This issue is common knowledge to most educated Afghans as it must be, I presume, to Mr. Hosseini. That he has not used the success of his book to draw greater attention to this tragic problem is a crying shame. So, for him to say that sexual abuse is only a plot device is in this case cowardly at best. For while he basks in the attention and the wealth that his luck has brought him (thanks in large part to 9/11), the voices of thousands, if not millions, of Afghan children go unheard.