Letters to the Editor
droogoy
Published Letters: 608 Editor's Choice: 9
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Kucinich for sure!
[Read the article: Stop lying to yourself. You love Dennis Kucinich]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Let's not make any bones about it. Kucinich is a deep thinker,and read and has the other candidates vastly outgunned via intellect. His answers in respect of quantum entanglement and the basic quantum measurement problem (appearing in the last Esquire) were absolutely fascinating. And I said to myself: "Any one who can understand this is fully electable in my book".
Besides that, his wife is the hottest hottie on the scene, and would make one helluva first lady. Her beauty and class would be welcome refreshing sight compared to the dowdy matron Laura.
As for his UFO sighting and all the media rigamarole about it, big effing deal! As J. Allen Hynek, the Northwestern Univ. professor of astrophysics once said: "Of course UFOs exist! What you really mean when you ask such a question is whether I believe they are space ships from other worlds. HOwever, technically, the "UFO" means unidentified flying object so it leaves that question open".
Even if Dennis isn't the nominee I will be voting for him as a write-in. It is time to put principles over .....errrr.... pragmatism and triangulation.
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Alone vs. World
[Read the article: I feel your pain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Alan Greenspan and the rugged individualists may love Ayn Rand's libertarian vision of each person alone against the world
That bunk went out after the British Social Darwinist, Herbert Spencer, was exposed for the fraud he was. Trying to use natural selection (from Darwinian evolution) in a social context. Recall it was Spencer, when he wrote a series of propaganda before his visit to the U.S. - who insisted it is right that people should die if they cannot fend for themselves, and hence no support of the state ought to artificially prolong their genes.
Well, I've yet to see a rightist do without props or state support, and until they do sir Allan is talking twaddle and we know Rand lost it in her later years, became a psycho case and had to have ECT.
When hedge funds start collapsing, and sub-prime bogus bonds go sour, these apes are the first to scream for the "Mommy" goverment to bail their asses out. They profess the hard hand of markets but can't live by them themselves. For history, look at the S&L bailout in the 80s and the bailout of Long Term Capital Management in 1997 - and now the subprime schmucks get their widdo hands held by the Fed in interest rate cuts.
These fuckers talk a good talk, but in the end it is BS pure and simple.
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Polarization & rednecks
[Read the article: The Internet is making us stupid]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]gregrocker wrote:
Welcome to Nation of Rednecks.
Indeed, and Joshua Zeitz in his illuminating piece ('Dixie's Victory') in American Heritage) showed clearly how the US of A came to be the land of confederate flags, NASCAR and bible belt religiosity long before Dubya got in and crystallized it into a bad ongoing national joke.
Any fucking moron or imbecile can write about how we need to come together and sing 'Kumbiyah' - but the facts of history since 2001 disclose we are dealing with aggressive, venomous vermin who are intent on destroying this country. In this zeitgeist, being palsy and bi-partisan doesn't get it done.
Rovian tactics and politicizing every federal decision mean, rather, one must endorse and embrace (just as vehemently) all the OPPOSITE memes. This is the basis of memetic warfare. (In the same vein, as a recent WaPo article noted, anti-religious mindsets are now growing as a counterpoise to all the religious zealtotry of the past 15 yrs.)
To insist liberals sit down with conservatives of the Bush ilk is to demand a surrender pact. To leave all our principles and social investment there for the trashing. This is not on.
Another thing, when weasly politicos on the "left" give in so often to aid and abet the verminous Right, it is expected that online rage (of the base) will increase in compensatory fashion for the spineless representation on offer.
This author obviously doesn't grasp the dynamic. He'd do well to read 'The Lucifer Principle' on how specific memes engender their opposite and why this is necessary to preserve a social, cultural and political equilibrium.
As I have said before, we (on the left) will never EVER accept any of their presidents, and they will never accept ours. The only recourse is to split the country into "Red" and "Blue" states (or analogous regions based on politics) like India and Pakistan did in 1948.
It is abundantly clear we cannot live together, nor should we even try.
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Mailer's work
[Read the article: Norman Mailer 1923 - 2007]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Mailer's work was uneven. His best novel remains The Naked and the Dead which I read before starting college in 1964. It was timely, as Vietnam was just being ramped up.
Most of his other novels were mostly forgettable.
His entry into non-fiction was a non-starter. In Oswald's Tale, for example, it was evident he had taken the Warren Commission's "kool aid" that Oswald did it. Which no one with more than air between the ears now accepts. (See also my early letters to do with the JFK assassination on Salon- just click on 'droogoy's other letters' and hit the first 1-5 pages)
That said, Mailer like other larger than life authors, did make life interesting, especially in the 60s.