Reader Mail
Teenage Wasteland
Kids these days. Coogler outpouring. Libs in hysterics. Plus more.
A NATION OF IDIOTS
Re: David N. Bass's
The Not So Greatest Generation:
I have four kids under the age of 55 and I don't trust anyone
under the age of 65. Never saw so many people become such
idiots in the history of this country.
-- Jo Dermody
I think the names of the Three Stooges may be beyond the under-30 crowd -- when (and where) I was growing up, they were on practically every afternoon after school, but these days, and for some time, it's been taken up by assorted talk shows and sobfests, plus a few more recent-vintage sitcoms. The Three Stooges may be lost in the mists of time to them -- i. e.: it came and went before they were born.
You might have better luck getting them to name, say, the past
and current cast of "Desperate Housewives." But don't ask me
-- I've never been able to sit through an entire episode without
channel surfing.
-- Robert Nowall
Cape Coral, Florida
CARELESS LOVE
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s
Nicholson Baker Coogler:
How I love the annual J. Gordon Coogler award -- let me tell you
the ways...
-- M.J. Casey
North Miami Beach, Florida
HILLARY'S EGO TO AL'S ID
Re: George Neumayr's The
Cavalcade of Cant:
When reading Freud's old papers one becomes acutely aware that the great doctor dreaded the "hysterical" patient. Here was his greatest obstacle, his most profound disappointment, the one form of illness he came to hold out the least amount of hope for a cure, even a containment or recognition of its insidious energies to harm the patient and damage so many others.
For the reader, he gives examples of such people, enough space for realizing the signs of hysteria.
Tell me Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore...god this list could go on (even I may qualify): Are these people hysterics?
Yes, they just might be. My opinion, based on what I think I know. Freud came to not want such as patients, and I don't want such as leaders.
Enter stage left the Rolling Stones singing their song about satisfaction.
One has to find some humor in times like this, even if dark in content.
Never thought I'd have a new 1000 yard stare!
-- R.Philips
New Mexico
AND PIGS WILL FLY
Re: Peter Ferrara's
Obama's Race to the Past:
Letter to the Editor View all comments (33) | Leave a comment
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Michael L. Hauschild| 1.16.09 @ 9:06AM
Mr. Kessel is a classic example of "pick and choose."
The "Trust, but verify" icon he quotes fired all of his air traffic controller "brotherhood" in the interest of public safety.
David Govett| 1.16.09 @ 12:47PM
Never trust anyone over 30 percent.
Ken Jackson| 1.16.09 @ 1:36PM
Mr. Kessel punctuates his screed by referring to his "true libertarian idea." This is classic blowhard-speak for "I'll do as I want and to hell with everyone else." Not exactly libertarianism, is it, when the consequences of your actions contribute to the illiteracy and general ignorance of the body politic. Kessel is a typical line-toeing, brain-dead union automaton, firmly rooted in the herd mentality and asking, "What's in it for me?" No challenges here. Makes me wanna barf.
Alan Brooks| 1.16.09 @ 9:36PM
a union libertarian in NYC education? a chimera.
Obama had better not mess education up, at least not too badly for a black president, anyway.
he gets two chances. one now, one in '12.
IMKessel| 1.16.09 @ 10:38PM
Mr. Jackson, my students are more literate and prepared after they have been with me than before. I am no miracle worker, but the students left in my charge do learn to ask questions and not go on canned assumptions. What evidence have you that "I'll do as I want and to hell with everyone else"?
Mr. Brooks,
I am impressed; you used the word "chimera" properly, though I modestly conceive of myself more of a conundrum.
Either gentlemen, please explain why a person cannot work within a corrupted system and not be corrupted himself? Is that the a priori assumption? Can’t a man can swim in the ocean and not become a fish? A weak minded person might well be swept up in the whirlpool of agitprop, but some can stand with integrity within the system and not become a cog in it.
Mr. Brooks, Mr. Obama and his people made a great deal of his color for political points, but they knew that was truly a chimera. What is the meaning behind your statement regarding his messing up education? Please elucidate.
Alan Brooks| 1.17.09 @ 1:13AM
conundrum? always confused it with dilemma... Plainview Old Bethpage Hi Skool grad.
near Hicksville, next to Syosset. you know where?
now to swim in the ocean, you might not be a fish but you will wind up swimming with barracudas.
so after wasting 30 years as a futurist (teecher recommended 'futur shok' in '70) i learned something, just one thing:
it is not only easier to destroy or damage something, it is far FAR easier to do so.
Obama can easily mess education up, by not reforming it properly, and then later on education drifts back to its natural state of inertial mediocrity.
why? because if you place scholars with dunces, the pious with JDs you have negative reinforcement in the classroom.
put dunces and dunces together in the classroom and you get dunce-reinforcement. put JDs in classrooms together and you get JD reinforcement.
doesnt work,
so you have students mixed up together like swine and you muddle through.
am no longer an optimist. social progress is over, now it is scientific progress.
i quit the foolish futurist union, the dues are paid up. leave it to the next generation to make the same mistakes.
and mess up.
Obama is loathe to even tinker with DC education, as he is 'No Drama Obama', and this is one hell of a time to make waves. turf wars, and all the depressing rest of it.
commissions, recommendations, more commissions issuing reports, more recommendations...
im not angry with you, im angry with Newt, and toffler and teecher.
know how you shouldn't read something but you do anyway?
but you trust teecher.
Paul Nelson| 1.17.09 @ 7:58AM
Ira Kessel,
While Alan Brooks may have used "chimera" properly, you almost certainly misused the word in you statement. "Mr Obama and his meople made a great deal of his color for political points, but they knew that was truly a chimera." The Chimera, at least in the Iliad, was a mythic three-headed beast, with the front of a lion, a snake's head at the tip of the tail, and a goat's head rising from it's back.
Alan brooks| 1.17.09 @ 9:04AM
Ira,
teechurs at Hi Skool (near Woodbury Rd; the road running through Woodbury-Syosset) didnt clarify the distinctions between Paradoxes, conundrums, dilemmas.
but perhaps students in NYC learn better because they think faster?
IMKessel| 1.17.09 @ 10:52AM
Please see secondary definition.
Main Entry: chi·me·ra
Pronunciation: \kī-ˈmir-ə, kə-\
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin chimaera, from Greek chimaira she-goat, chimera; akin to Old Norse gymbr yearling ewe, Greek cheimōn winter — more at hibernate
1 acapitalized : a fire-breathing she-monster in Greek mythology having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail b: an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts
2: an illusion or fabrication of the mind ; especially : an unrealizable dream
3: an individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution
A. Brooks| 1.17.09 @ 12:08PM
we wont quibble.
Ira, am curious, do you know Plainview?
IMKessel| 1.17.09 @ 1:30PM
No, sir, I don't. Plainview is northeast of here.
Be well, sir.
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