In These Times

Latest Comments view all 16

• • 13 Jul 09
  • 3:53 pm

  The decline of the newspaper is obviously a very complex event but the noise from the lunatic fringe that appears at the bottom of most Internet pieces these days does make one long for the plain paper, the bottomless cup of coffee at the local diner, and the sounds of Sunday. Just because everyone can, doesn't mean that everyone should. One problem that I see has been the newspapers' caving in to some sort of lowest common denominator best described by Curtis White in his "Middle Mind." A certain star system, too, has installed itself, even among simpler publications like this …

  Posted to Death of the Newspaperman

• • 16 Jul 09
  • 4:18 pm

  Hi blackhorse, sorry to get back late, I am actually trying -- in vain -- to query stories again... Good question. Actually from neither and both.... The noise is a combo of everything from instant messaging, email (which is cheap and available), Twitter, blogging, etc.... By now there is so much message flying about, so many people are involved in the discussion, there is no possible way for any news of real importance to get through. Add to that the unbelievable sanguinity of the audience (even here in Europe, alas) , which gets bored of any story that is developing for …

  Posted to Death of the Newspaperman

• • 20 Aug 06
  • 12:41 am

  Dohrn and Ayers make a great deal of sense and they do offer some vital hope in extremely dark times. They may have been fugitives from the law, but the law, back then, was in great part being dispensed by criminals. The war in Vietnam was criminal, we had a criminal running the country, for example. We have the same situation today, only far more accute, because we simply haven't really done our work on the Vietnam and Watergate disasters. As a society, I mean. So amen to those two, who put their finger on the sore spots: No opposition, a …

  Posted to Debunking the 60s with Ayers and Dohrn

• • 22 Aug 06
  • 12:20 am

  Well, regarding those are comments that are obviously made for the shock effect and somewhere in the nether regions of tasteless, I couldn't agree more. I don't know much about either D or A (in fact I only read the article originally because I thought it might be about Kevin Ayers, one of the only pop singers I every liked)... I personally have another 12-14 years before I get up there into that age range. I certainly hope that people will not start judging me for the things I did or said when I was in my early 20s. We are …

  Posted to Debunking the 60s with Ayers and Dohrn

• • 23 Aug 06
  • 10:04 pm

  By the way.... Why are we really discussing these people's past... In the article they make points about the present and its youth movement if I recall correctly. For whatever reason, A and D may or may not have said some silly things when they were barely out of adolescence, they turned to violence (and we may all dislike violence, but there comes a frustration point, when violence does become the only apparent way out, especially in a Kafkaesque system, be it democratic or otherwise) because there seemed to be no other way out in extremely violent times. And for whatever …

  Posted to Debunking the 60s with Ayers and Dohrn