Reader Mail
Keeping Our Word
Ted Kennedy’s passing. ACORN’s retreat. The shrinking church. A clunker of a government. Plus more.
(Page 2 of 2)
If the healthcare proposal is bad, which it is, let’s dismantle it on the facts. Take it apart line by line with undisputable facts that leave no room for partisan bickering. Let’s avoid articles like this one that attack individuals and use peoples’ pasts as a way to dismantle their credibility. In poking Wallis repeatedly as being angry and condescending, even chauvinistic, the author falls into Wallis’s own frustrating trap. One can tell that the author is angry at Wallis because he is not fitting the wealthy, conservative right, whiteboy, family man image of the conservative churches. This betrayal by Wallis of the “proper” response of the church is evident. Couldn’t this whole article be put into quotes and used in a subtext of a liberal author’s similar rebuke of the right? Let’s stick to the facts. I find my interest peaked in the congressman from Oklahoma who is actively fighting against this horrible bill with true knowledge and understanding of the issues. While not a fan of Wallis or his politics, this article was equally disturbing.
Warmest personal regards.
— Robert C. McGarvey, OD
POTTER PATTER
Re: Patrick O’Hannigan’s
Harry Potter, Crypto-Conservative:
It is absurd to compare Rowling with Tolkien in that Tolkien never wrote his books for children, whereas Rowling did.
And equally absurd is Smith’s assertion that the Potter books are “based on nothing.” They are based upon decidedly libertarian themes of freedom, courage, and the right to self-defense.
Your Founding Fathers would find little to grizzle about.
— Susan Ryder
New Zealand
Letter to the Editor View all comments (11) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 8.27.09 @ 7:06AM
Since I would rather talk about Harry Potter than Ted Kennedy, I am glad to see this old topic reborn. I agree with those who praise used books with writing and underlining; in fact, I have a book in my own library called 2081, by Arthur C. Clarke, a nonfiction book in which he attempted to predict life in that year, and I go back through it and post dated comments on his predictions which are fun to go back and read from the far future. Most of his predictions have already come true. However, he assumes in that book that people will still smoke heavily and people will still consider a dark tan both healthy and a sign of affluence in the future. Interlining a book is a privilege of ownership. (In fact, one of my sisters borrowed my Shakespeare for school use, and her liner notes are sometimes hilarious.)
The writer of that petulant screed quoted above is still thinking of *punishment* as the smack on the nose with a newspaper stuff meted out to toddlers. The wise person comes to recognize that punishment can come long years later and see clearly where he or she went wrong back in the day. My neice turns 19 next week. Her mother reflected today that at this age she herseelf had entered her first disastrous marriage, and the very thought now makes her knees wobble as she looks at her daughter. Punishment can be a lifetime sentence, whether you are Harry Potter or a random Muggle. The older you get, the more you figure that out.
Alan Brooks| 8.27.09 @ 1:02PM
Ted Kennedy always kept his word:
when marijuana and cocaine dealers would ask him to send a gofer to drop off the dough and pick up the dope, the gofers would be there punctually.
Alan Brooks| 8.27.09 @ 1:05PM
Ted always kept his word to purchase dope with untraceable cash.
Alan Brooks| 8.27.09 @ 1:09PM
Ted knew how important organic produce is; he always purchased organic marijuana.
Alan Brooks| 8.27.09 @ 4:27PM
Ted was a troubled man who couldn't help snorting a little, well, you know, the sort of powder that looks very much like um... confectioners sugar. Ted liked to go to bed with women other than his wife-- but don't we all? Why just last night I was in bed with an 18 year old girl; it was great. Best I ever had. But I was so drunk I don't remember much. Let's stop being so judgmental. Larry Craig, though, is someone I don't approve of, the queer... not that it's wrong, but...he just rubs my fur the wrong way... in a manner of speaking of course.
I'm not gay!
not that there's anything wrong with being gay, of course. But Craig did the Tinker Bell Two step in a public lavatory, and that is silly. But not Ted,
Ted is ... was, um, uh, normal, I mean he had a few ... problemoids, but don't we all. Look, Ted is just a human being like the rest of us, like Jacko and Roman Polanski. By the way, you touch my kid, then I take a steak knife and turn you into a woman. I'm no pushover. But I'm very forgiving, as long as you don't step on my toes or look at me the wrong way. Ted was a decent guy who was better than you, you rightwing flyover resident! Who in the Hell do you think you're dealing with? My attorney paid twice as much to go to law school as your punk lawyer did, you republikkkan troublemaking homophobic Larry Craig-forgiving ..."