(May 3, 2010)
[Want your letters published? Then, please include your first and last names and your city and state of residence. Also, please, enter in the subject line of your e-mail "Letter to the Editor," and specify the article or the subject on which you are commenting.] Providing faction fight. Michael Barker's Mother Jones And The Defence Of Liberal Elites To the Editor: In "Mother Jones And The Defence Of Liberal Elites" by Michael Barker, Swans Commentary, provides just what the Left has always had lacked: a faction fight. Yes, everybody knows that the National Endowment for Democracy [sic] is a cabal of right-wingers trying to export the U.S.-style plutocratic electoral system as "democracy." We've known this since the 1980s, when NED started. Mother Jones tried, and admittedly failed, to approach the subject from a fresh angle. If there is any indictment of publications on the Left, sadly, it is that they beat dead horses well past the corpse's decomposition. As a result, unless you live in a cabin in the woodlands of Oregon, The Nation, MJ, In These Times, etc., rehash stale news from the admittedly biased and capitalist newspapers, to the point that I have stopped subscribing because I very rarely learn anything new from them. Moreover, as a journalist with an ethnic minority background, I have made brief, unhappy incursions into these publications and found their editors appallingly unacquainted with anything but the WASP elite and the Bund-like Left ghetto. African Americans, Hispanics, anything else? Fuhgeddaboudit! If Swans Commentary, which I respect along with Dissent as publications that do not try to present news most publications on the Left sadly can't be bothered to cover in a timely and novel way, really wants to tell us something we don't know about progressive publications, it would be a positive plan to make them more lively, newsworthy, less preachy to the choir and more truly inspiring. Cecilieaux Bois de Murier http://cecilieaux.blogspot.com/ Washington, D.C., USA - April 19, 2010 ********** A Potpourri of Popery -- Swans April 19 Note From the Editors To the Editor: The penis and behind of a little boy are too important to be left in the hands of a priest. The fate of these priests is too important to be left in the hands of the ever-forgiving Church. The moral compass of the Church is too important to be guided by the hands of the Vatican. The Vatican is too important to be guided by the hands of the Papacy. The Papacy is too important to be guided by the hands of the Pope. The Pope's hands appear to be in hot water. I recently overheard an irate old man perorate about the above at a neighboring restaurant table. His great-grandson, he said ardently, had been repeatedly raped at age 10 to 12 by his parish priest who used Jesus' name and cruciformed Nestle bars to sweeten fellatio and swear him to silence. He made a Nestle cross of his two index fingers. "So whaddawe do?" someone scoffed. He said, "We should form a secret punishment squad. God would forgive us. I still have my WW2 .45. Pow Pow to the balls. Or do something else to catch the public interest, like we've nailed some pervert senators." Then he quoted Lord Bertrand Russell, who abominated a sinful "statesman." "Like most politicians," said Lord Russell, "he had a card up his sleeve -- but unlike the others he thought the Lord had put it there." Great-grandpa's real solution? "A Catholic Morals Czar for the U.S. -- somebody like Chicago's mayor Richard Daley, or ex-president Bill Clinton -- someone of repute accustomed to dealing with high-level bullshit, but someone who didn't like little boys." Art Shay Deerfield, Illinois, USA - April 21, 2010 ********** A Man of Men: Review of Nagler's Is There No Other Way? by the late Mac Lawrence, December 2002 To the Editor: This man is genius. His proposed way of life is not a simple and straightforward way of existence. It takes hard unyielding work. It takes time, effort, commitment, and love. He lives his truths and shows us by example just how to survive and overcome, in today's troubled world. I would hope that many souls follow his example and learn by doing. He will go down in history as a "Human Being" to be reckoned with. A true leader in the movement of nonviolence. A man of men. Bob Roddy Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada - April 30, 2010 ********** We appreciate and welcome your comments. Please, enter in the subject line of your e-mail "letter to the editor," and specify the article or the subject you are commenting on at the beginning of your e-mail. Also, ***PLEASE,*** sign your e-mail with your name ***AND*** add your city, state, country, address, and phone number. If we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country. Send your comments to the Editor. (Letters may be shortened and edited.) |