Monday, December 04, 2006

letters to gil smart vol. 1.0

This is the first of what I’m sure will be many times that I write about the letters to the editor responding to Gil Smart. I’ll keep this short. Once again out of every letter written about Gil not one contains anything even remotely resembling thought. One asks if it was “necessary to spew out all that vitriol.” Another says Gil’s column is “a good laugh.”

A third goes all out calling Gil’s column “hurtful,” “nasty” and “divisive” and says that Gil is “a liberal first and an American second.” Why is it that you never see any liberals questioning the patriotism of conservatives but that criticism goes the other way so often? Not only that, but the accusation is made immediately after calling the liberal “hurtful,” “nasty” and “divisive!”

While these were fun I think the letter that takes the cake is the one that brings the “War on Christmas” into the picture. A testament to the ability of the masses to truly go off the deep end, the WoC is possibly the best imaginary issue in the history of modern American politics, possibly in the history of politics period. I think of it as the political equivalent to Orson Welles reading the War of the Worlds over the radio sending people into a panic. The New York Times on October 31, 1938 says it all:

Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact
I just wish that I would see one letter to the editor criticizing Gil Smart on the basis of an argument that he made.