Letters to the Editor: November 2011

Single Dumbest Passage Ever

To the Editor:

This morning, I picked up the October number of Chronogram and was assaulted by the single dumbest passage I have ever read in an American periodical. Congratulations.

In this piece by your “founder,” Jason Stern, we are told that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s September speech to the UN was a “refreshing dose of truthiness.” Notwithstanding the appalling bad grammar (“truthiness” is not a word), your willingness to praise and find common cause with one of the worst leaders in the world today is revealing. What it proves, if this needed further proof, is that there is an alliance between the extreme left and jihadis worldwide, based on their shared anti-American philosophy. Much of this nonsense stems from the pen of Noam Chomsky, easily the most idiotic and monochromatic thinker in the world today. To him, and those who follow him, an enemy of my enemy is my friend. Thus, any anti-American loon becomes worthy of support. To express warm feelings toward Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his remarkably hypocritical garbage at the UN simply defies logic, only inane ideology could foster such a thought.

Let’s start with whom precisely we are dealing with here.

According to Amnesty International’s 2010 report on Iran:

“Iran remained one of the states with the highest rates of execution and one of very few still to execute juvenile offenders: at least 388 people were executed, including one by stoning and at least five juveniles.

Human rights defenders, including minority and women’s rights activists, lawyers and trade unionists, continued to face arbitrary arrest, harassment, prosecution and unfair trials throughout the year. Some were banned from traveling abroad.

Torture and other ill-treatment in pre-trial detention remained common, facilitated by the routine denial of access to lawyers by detainees and impunity for officials who perpetrate violations. Methods reported included severe beatings; confinement in tiny spaces; deprivation of light, food and water; and systematic denial of medical treatment. At least 12 people were believed to have died in custody in 2009 apparently as a result of ill-treatment or lack of adequate medical care.

Sentences of flogging and judicial amputation were imposed and carried out. In February, the Supreme Court upheld a sentence in which acid would be dropped into the eyes of a man who had blinded a woman with the same liquid.

Iran maintained one of the highest rates of execution globally. At least 388 people were executed, including one man who was stoned to death and at least five juvenile offenders sentenced for crimes committed when they were aged under 18. At least 14 were executed in public. The actual totals were believed to be higher.”
And this person, this Ahmedinejad, this piece of wretched refuse, is worthy of praise in your periodical? You should be very ashamed of yourself, if you are capable of that emotion.

John Motavalli, Southbury, CT


Beinhart for President?

To the Editor:

Thank you, Chronogram and Larry Beinhart, for expressing exactly what I have been wishing our (mostly) wonderful President Obama would say and do. Larry Beinhart’s article [“Entitlements vs. Investments,” 10/11] perfectly captures the wrong way the president is trying to do the right thing. Of course it’s about investing in America—why oh why does our president let the Tea Party brand our hard-earned (and paid for) safety nets entitlements?

I can’t say any of this any better than Larry Beinhart does, so I have posted his article on my Facebook page and urge everyone out there to save your October issue of Chronogram—copy the article—and send a copy to President Obama. This is the message our president needs to send!

Kitty Brown, New Paltz