Bits & Pieces
I'm going to use excerpts from letters today, instead of one entire letter. I usually don't do this, but there are a few things I want to respond to, all buried in long, generally uninteresting letters. If something catches your eye, remember that you can read the letters in their entirety in the opinion section of the Post Standard online site, linked at the right.
The first bit is taken from a letter supporting Republican congressional juggernaut Jim Walsh. I don't deal too much with local politics here, but I will say that Jim Walsh is the only Republican I repeatedly refused to support, even when I was a Republican. Admittedly, however, this was mostly because I played soccer with his snot of a son, who pretty much acted as a walking definition of the phrase 'sense of entitlement.' The letter is basically a hodgepodge of blame, however, and is littered with inaccuracies that would mean little to those outside of the state. The letter ends as follows:
The problem with this is, it doesn't hold up to observable reality. The drop in unemployment is often touted as evidence of a strong economy, but if this were the case, one would expect confidence in the economy to rise on a national level. This doesn't pan out, however. Less than 37% of Americans feel optimistic about the economy, and even fewer trust the Republican Party to continue to handle the economy. Can this be blamed of the War in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina?
Well, blaming Katrina doesn't pan out. Katrina was a devastating storm, but the drain on the economy is certainly not unprecedented. While it may not be the worst strain, however, continued research continues to suggest that there might be someone to blame for the increased strength of hurricanes. Peer-reviewed studies show that global temperature increases have warmed the surface of the ocean, which can be shown to cause stronger, more dangerous hurricanes. The average summer surface temperatures of the world's oceans have risen steadily, almost a full degree Celsius since 1970, with the North Atlantic showing the most dramatic increase. Much more dramatic, however, is the effect a few degrees can have on hurricanes; in 1970, less than 20% of hurricanes reached category 4 or 5. In 2005, category 4 and 5 storms comprised almost 40% of hurricanes. Category 1 hurricanes, once the most frequent, are now the rarest. When one considers that the Bush Administration has hired aides, lacking any science degrees whatsoever, to edit empirical data out of studies to lessen the evidence of global warming, one has a difficult time calling this a nonpartisan issue. The corporate interests of the far right continue to mock global warming as false science, despite the fact that there has never, not once, been a peer-reviewed study of global warming that did not find overwhelming evidence of human activities leading to global rise in temperatures. While many on the left tend to be a bit too apocalyptic about the issue, at least they are willing to confront the problem from a scientific perspective. More and more, I find myself unable to excuse the responsibility of the far-right over environmental issues.
I'm not even going to touch trying to claim that the war in Iraq 'is not a fault of either party,' especially in light of recent reports that the Bush administration was provided with intelligence that strongly suggested that Iraq had no WMDs or nuclear program, and that intelligence was ignored and never presented to Congress, despite the claims of fanatical war advocates that 'Congress had the same intelligence the President had.' Congress had the evidence the President gave them, and a lot of good intelligence was omitted.
So, yes, there are problems affecting the economy. Am I willing to let the Republican administration dodge their responsibility? Absolutely not. When your party controls every branch of the government, you are responsible for the majority of decision. When things go wrong, blaming the minority party is just lazy.
The next bit is pretty self-explanatory:
Well, no shit, Jack. Syracuse is predominantly Democratic. Why would it surprise you that there are more letters that show left-wing leanings than right? Given that national support of the President is at 33%, as reported by the network that most vigorously supports him, is it surprising that there are fewer and fewer people supporting him in an area that didn't even vote for him in 2004? Blaming the paper is stupid... just a year ago, pro-war letters were constantly printed. It's the reason I started this blog in the first place.
Maybe the paper prints fewer pro-war letters because they get fewer pro-war letters. Given local and national sentiment, this should be expected. This kind of thing is probably the second strongest catalyst, after corruption, behind my abandoning the Republican Party. When things haven't gone their way, they've become a bunch of whiners, and frankly, it's embarrassing.
I'll provide a little background for the next excerpt. Following the cancellation of the Duke lacrosse season, due to the rape scandal that has brought to light a culture of entitlement and superiority within the team and on campus, Duke players wrote letters of interest to other Universities, ready to jump ship to get the chance to play elsewhere. Syracuse University athletics director Daryl Gross announced that the Syracuse lacrosse team would not be accepting any of the suspended Duke players.
Of course, Erin completely misinterprets Gross's reasons for refusing to accept Duke lacrosse players. It's far from juvenile... Gross feels that the members of Duke's lacrosse team have been punished as a team. It was not simply the rape at Duke that caused the suspension, but the malicious culture surrounding the team, made evident by the rape, the accounts of witnesses, and intercepted e-mails. Part of being on a team is accepting responsibility as a team, and the team was held accountable and properly punished. Those seeking to play elsewhere are attempting to dodge their responsibility. Schools that accept those players are basically undercutting the punitive actions of Duke and, by default, condoning the actions of the team. Gross has made clear that Syracuse will not be doing so.
The concept of taking responsibility may seem juvenile to Erin, but I would argue that the players did plenty of acting juvenile on campus, enjoying a climate of appeasement that led to the rape of a woman by three members of the team. Accepting responsibility and respecting the punishment handed down to them may be the first mature thing many of these players have done in a long time.
Finally, I need to point out that unlike the rest of the letters today, this next one is shown here in its entirety. Nothing has been left out... at least as far as the published letter goes.
And thus is Jack's theory, that letters to the paper are in any way filtered, debunked.
The first bit is taken from a letter supporting Republican congressional juggernaut Jim Walsh. I don't deal too much with local politics here, but I will say that Jim Walsh is the only Republican I repeatedly refused to support, even when I was a Republican. Admittedly, however, this was mostly because I played soccer with his snot of a son, who pretty much acted as a walking definition of the phrase 'sense of entitlement.' The letter is basically a hodgepodge of blame, however, and is littered with inaccuracies that would mean little to those outside of the state. The letter ends as follows:
On a federal level the economy is good, unemployment is way down. Money is being spent but we are at war and we have had some major storms that are costing millions, if not billions. This is not a fault of either party. - L.E.
The problem with this is, it doesn't hold up to observable reality. The drop in unemployment is often touted as evidence of a strong economy, but if this were the case, one would expect confidence in the economy to rise on a national level. This doesn't pan out, however. Less than 37% of Americans feel optimistic about the economy, and even fewer trust the Republican Party to continue to handle the economy. Can this be blamed of the War in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina?
Well, blaming Katrina doesn't pan out. Katrina was a devastating storm, but the drain on the economy is certainly not unprecedented. While it may not be the worst strain, however, continued research continues to suggest that there might be someone to blame for the increased strength of hurricanes. Peer-reviewed studies show that global temperature increases have warmed the surface of the ocean, which can be shown to cause stronger, more dangerous hurricanes. The average summer surface temperatures of the world's oceans have risen steadily, almost a full degree Celsius since 1970, with the North Atlantic showing the most dramatic increase. Much more dramatic, however, is the effect a few degrees can have on hurricanes; in 1970, less than 20% of hurricanes reached category 4 or 5. In 2005, category 4 and 5 storms comprised almost 40% of hurricanes. Category 1 hurricanes, once the most frequent, are now the rarest. When one considers that the Bush Administration has hired aides, lacking any science degrees whatsoever, to edit empirical data out of studies to lessen the evidence of global warming, one has a difficult time calling this a nonpartisan issue. The corporate interests of the far right continue to mock global warming as false science, despite the fact that there has never, not once, been a peer-reviewed study of global warming that did not find overwhelming evidence of human activities leading to global rise in temperatures. While many on the left tend to be a bit too apocalyptic about the issue, at least they are willing to confront the problem from a scientific perspective. More and more, I find myself unable to excuse the responsibility of the far-right over environmental issues.
I'm not even going to touch trying to claim that the war in Iraq 'is not a fault of either party,' especially in light of recent reports that the Bush administration was provided with intelligence that strongly suggested that Iraq had no WMDs or nuclear program, and that intelligence was ignored and never presented to Congress, despite the claims of fanatical war advocates that 'Congress had the same intelligence the President had.' Congress had the evidence the President gave them, and a lot of good intelligence was omitted.
So, yes, there are problems affecting the economy. Am I willing to let the Republican administration dodge their responsibility? Absolutely not. When your party controls every branch of the government, you are responsible for the majority of decision. When things go wrong, blaming the minority party is just lazy.
The next bit is pretty self-explanatory:
The Post-Standard is not a "leftist" newspaper? Including Paul Boucheron's April 20 letter, there are five that are anti-war and anti-President Bush. Including the always inspiring Paul Krugman's, "Pearls of Wisdom."
Zero in support of the war on terrorism or in praise of the current administration. Paul, that's pretty much the way it goes. We right-wing "war mongers" occasionally get a letter printed, but you folks get the most. - Jack
Well, no shit, Jack. Syracuse is predominantly Democratic. Why would it surprise you that there are more letters that show left-wing leanings than right? Given that national support of the President is at 33%, as reported by the network that most vigorously supports him, is it surprising that there are fewer and fewer people supporting him in an area that didn't even vote for him in 2004? Blaming the paper is stupid... just a year ago, pro-war letters were constantly printed. It's the reason I started this blog in the first place.
Maybe the paper prints fewer pro-war letters because they get fewer pro-war letters. Given local and national sentiment, this should be expected. This kind of thing is probably the second strongest catalyst, after corruption, behind my abandoning the Republican Party. When things haven't gone their way, they've become a bunch of whiners, and frankly, it's embarrassing.
I'll provide a little background for the next excerpt. Following the cancellation of the Duke lacrosse season, due to the rape scandal that has brought to light a culture of entitlement and superiority within the team and on campus, Duke players wrote letters of interest to other Universities, ready to jump ship to get the chance to play elsewhere. Syracuse University athletics director Daryl Gross announced that the Syracuse lacrosse team would not be accepting any of the suspended Duke players.
Mr. Gross' reasoning for not considering Duke players or even recruits is ludicrous. I am not even a lacrosse fan, but the responses of Daryl Gates sound juvenile.
"I think it would be inappropriate" to even consider transfers from Duke? Why?
Transferring is a common practice among most schools across the country. Mr. Gross' reasoning that these players choose Duke in the first place, therefore we should not accept them, is childish...
... Also, Mr. Gross is clumping all Duke players in as guilty by association. I understand not wanting to consider those charged, but what about the other 44 players? - Erin
Of course, Erin completely misinterprets Gross's reasons for refusing to accept Duke lacrosse players. It's far from juvenile... Gross feels that the members of Duke's lacrosse team have been punished as a team. It was not simply the rape at Duke that caused the suspension, but the malicious culture surrounding the team, made evident by the rape, the accounts of witnesses, and intercepted e-mails. Part of being on a team is accepting responsibility as a team, and the team was held accountable and properly punished. Those seeking to play elsewhere are attempting to dodge their responsibility. Schools that accept those players are basically undercutting the punitive actions of Duke and, by default, condoning the actions of the team. Gross has made clear that Syracuse will not be doing so.
The concept of taking responsibility may seem juvenile to Erin, but I would argue that the players did plenty of acting juvenile on campus, enjoying a climate of appeasement that led to the rape of a woman by three members of the team. Accepting responsibility and respecting the punishment handed down to them may be the first mature thing many of these players have done in a long time.
Finally, I need to point out that unlike the rest of the letters today, this next one is shown here in its entirety. Nothing has been left out... at least as far as the published letter goes.
To the Editor:
Everybody is acquainted with Alice in Wonderland. How about a news story that fits our time? For its title, I suggest: Malice in Blunderland.
Phil
And thus is Jack's theory, that letters to the paper are in any way filtered, debunked.
posted by Zafrod at 1:50 PM
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