(May 9, 2011)
[Please include your first and last names, and your city and state of residence. Thank you.] Correction: Jonah Raskin's Nothing Is Sacred: Hunter S. Thompson, Gonzo Journalist Folks, Jonah Raskin's interesting essay "Nothing is Sacred" has two typos in the paragraph that mentions me. You might want to repair: I'm a senior writer at Bloomberg News. (There is no such beast as the "Bloomberg Report.") The title of my book is Bear Hunting with the Politburo. (Not "Polit Bureau.") All the best. A. Craig Copetas Paris, France - April 25, 2011 [ed. Correction done with note appended at the bottom of the article.] ********** Debt and Spending: Gilles d'Aymery's Blips #109 To the Editor: Whether the Ryan plan is the best solution for the US budgetary crisis can be debated but it cannot be denied that the U.S. is facing a double whammy: Too much debt and too much spending. The service of the debt may be bearable as long as the interest rates remain near zero. But what will happen to the servicing of the debt when inflation kicks in and interest rates shoot up dramatically as in the 1980s? Any household that spends more than it takes in, financing the difference through various borrowing schemes (equity loans, second mortgages, credit cards, etc.), eventually ends in bankruptcy court with a foreclosed home. The US government is no different. If it does not put its (our) house in order, it will eventually default. We better take our medicine now and share the sacrifice. At the very least, the Ryan plan has the merits of confronting this bleak reality. Regards, Darrell Johnson Tempe, Arizona, USA - April 30, 2011 [ed. A household cannot create money and its members cannot force their employer(s) to increase their salaries. The US government controls the currency and can raise revenues from their employers, the taxpayers. Big difference! For debt and spending, please read the Blips #110.] ********** Sharing with a Navajo: Gerard Donnelly Smith's Geronimo's Skull To the Editor: I wanted to thank you for the poem. I posted a paragraph (hard to pick one) and the link on my facebook page -- part of a long conversation of umbrage over the most recent co-optation of this enormous person's name. I have been working with formerly homeless veterans for the past nine months. I wonder if I can share this with one of them, a man from New Mexico, a Navajo. Thanks for considering it. Melinda Artz UNR School of Social Work Reno, Nevada, USA - May 4, 2011 [ed. Certainly. Thank you for asking.] ********** Rexroth on San Francisco and the Sixties at the Bureau of Public Secrets To the Editor, As many of you know, during the last fifteen months I've been posting Kenneth Rexroth's weekly [San Francisco] Examiner columns from the 1960s, each on the 50th anniversary of its original appearance. In May 1961 Rexroth began doing two columns per week, so from now on you can expect to find a new column uploaded each Saturday and each Tuesday. Many people have told me they've been following the columns as they are posted, imagining themselves being back in that period at the very beginning of the legendary sixties, looking forward to finding out what will be happening each new week and what (invariably provocative and unpredictable) things Rexroth will say about it. The remarkable array of columns that have been posted so far can be accessed at: http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/sfe/ As a preview of things to come, you can also explore my earlier selection of some of the more interesting columns: http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/sf/ Ken Knabb "Making petrified conditions dance by singing them their own tune." Berkeley, California, USA - May 2, 2011 ********** 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.) |