Opinion: Mailbag: Bo, Gangs, panchos, Obama and X

Why not Bo, she’s not stupid, blondes have more fun anyway. She’s right on the horse slaughter issue, Americans don’t eat horse, why let foreign corporations slaughter them to ship overseas. The foals, the mares, pregnant or even while giving birth are slaughtered. Stolen horses are not checked to see if they are stolen, young, healthy and gentle horses are slaughtered, ones that were once pets. Horses are not food, they are companions

As a former techer who used to work under Ken Noonan I would like to point out: If you take any rational graduation metric and place it along side the ‘great success’ and the ‘improve...quality of education for all our students’ you begin to understand the grand canyon size leap many in the Ca. State Ed. world use to promote their Disney view of our public schools. Dealing with reality will always be step one in any meaningful school improvement plan. RE Lowe

The way I , a ‘pancho’ sees it: a guy or gal from whatever country he comes from,legally or illegally,has the right to decide what issue he / she is gonna follow. Personally, I am against the 1966 Cuban Adj. Act under Johnson. Also against any kind of ‘Amnesty ‘for illegals or that phony ‘Dream Act’ pushed by that jerk from Illini, Sen Durbirn. Also that stupid ‘official Day for a National Holiday for M L K. The way I see it is :the whites who voted for it thought they were gonna ‘civilize’ the scum who commit THE heinous crimes. No such luck,bro ! Now,the way I see it is: that chicano lawyer in yore article thinks, stupidamente. that if one does not think as he does one is a ‘pancho’ and all that garbage! I hate that kind of lidercillo! Chico Ramos

Thanks, Curtis... I love your article...and I LOVE your radio show! Wish you were on every single day!!! You are the greatest! Thanks, Diane L.

Mr. Taylor is spot on in his article ‘ Is America ready for Obama’ in the LA Times, commenting on the New Yorker cover page cartoon encompassing all Obama stereotypes. This is not satire, it is a lesson in apophasis. Apophasis is defined as ‘pretending to deny what is really affirmed’, or basically saying something by not saying it. So it is with cover of the New Yorker magazine. Intending to be satirical, the cartoon of Barak and Michelle Obama reinforces the caricatures it is intended to dispel, just by sitting on magazine racks as people walk by. Regardless of how noble inside articles may be, more people saw the cover than read the magazine. Thus, the very ideas the drawing was supposed to satirize are ingrained in the psyches of the politically un-savvy as they enter the voting booths this fall. Alaeldin RachidFort Collins, CO.

The New Yorker magazine might indeed have put Barack and Michelle Obama on its cover in a satirical setting; but I fear that many people who see, not buy, the magazine will be reinforced in their beliefs. If they were to purchase the magazine and discover in the pages that the cover drawing was a compliation of all the negative and totally preposterous ideas too many voters have of the Obamas, then I could relax and assume the readers’ intelligence would draw the rightful conclusions. But that is wishful thinking because the people who are convinced the cover of the New Yorker depicts the truths are people who do not have the intelligence to buy a magazine of that calibre. Walking past a kiosk or seeing the publication on display in a grocery store’s checkout lane could be the only time those people view it, and therein lies the danger. It would be much more beneficial to the Obamas if a popular magazine would have on its cover the truth spelled out in bold letters. It would do a greater service to the Obamas if television networks and cable stations would tell, unequivocally, that Barack Obama is not nor ever has been a Muslim; that Michelle Obama does not belong to nor ever has belonged to a black power organization; and that both Barack and Michelle Obama love the United States of America. Why else would anyone spend all his time, energy, and money on a long, drawn-out campaign for the hope of being elected to the toughest and most aggravating job there is? Sharon LangeLas Vegas, NV

I live in the wilds of Las Vegas, and have a number of culturally diversified friends, and love them as friends. When I see Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton, or read a column like the ones being published about Mr. Obama crying foul every day, it creates a generalization of diversified cultures, and as much as I am sheltered from the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media, at some point, my friends and I are going to realize that we are not supposed to be friends, but bitter enemies because of what the people of my color do to people of their color, and vise-versa. The painful part of the whole scenario is that it is not my grandparents trying to talk me out of dating a particular girl or associate with a particular friend, but by the person calling foul because the stereotypes exist. At some point, the entire country is going to realize that there is a cultural difference, and then no one will be happy or safe. Blair Adamson

Blair, i agree w/ your op ed on the New Yorker cover of M/M Obama. While I get the satire( and many who read the New Yorker will) the problem is the coverage it gets in the msm , which is aimed at an audience who reads at the 6th- 8th grade level. To be blunt stupid, uneducated people will see it and it will reinforce their mistaken ideas about the Obamas. I think the New Yorker showed poor judgement on this one( although making mistakes is everyones right inc, the editors of the N.Y). ken humberston

Number one, Barack Obama is 50% white so stop the howling about African Americans! Number two, politics is a dirty and nasty business....if ya can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!Duh..................the left usually freaks out if the First Amendment isn’t honored....well, it’s being honored by The New Yorker mag and if you don’t like it, TOUGH................if it was an offensive cover on John McCain you guys would be digging it. BHO is a big guy, a smart guy. He knew what he was getting into. Let him fight his own fights KitSeattle

A GUY THAT HAS NOT DONE ANYTHING IS A SHAME...........IN FACT IT’S A JOKE.....WE SHOULD LOOK AT COLIN POWELL...

Dear over opinionated, Why are all black people called ‘African American’? I am a decendant of German but I’m not refered to as German American, nor people from Italy refered to as Italian American. Is not Obama from India? That would make him Indian, would it not? If that’s the case, you can’t really claim him as your ‘fellow African Americans’.... Charlie L

Who cares what color he is? It’s his politics I’m afraid of! I’d vote for Obama in a heartbeat if he was conservative. Quite being so paranoid. Mike Hardesty

Shame on the New Yorker for fomenting such hate-mongering in the name of ‘satire’. It merely preyed on the fear and fodder for more gossip already existing in the imagination of the ignorant, the superstitious, and the entrenched uneducated who insist on thinking in terms of ‘us versus them’ whether it’s within our borders, communities, families even, or outside of our borders. Your comparison of German American to nazi characters in front of a gas chamber as ‘satire’ is about as funny as this past week’s portrayal of the Obamas. I thought James Carvelle’s cynical response on CNN was inappropriate and odd as well. How ironic that Obama’s ‘radical’ idea for ‘talking’ to ‘enemies’ (the US & Iran!) is actually being borne out by our ‘axis of `allied’’ administration--a 180 degree turn in behavior more consistent with our European constituents....And Obama was correct all along: our focus should have been on Afganistan rather than Iraq. So much waste. Hmmm....who are the real terrorists and war criminals within our own feral administration? Rove? Cheny? Oh, no....our own president?--’God bless him’ as Nancy Pelosi is reported to have said, whom we have to clean up after? I hope my daughter’s generation rises up and helps rid us at least for a term or two of the Republicans and their radio/TV surrogates (Limbaugh, O’Rielly, et. al.) because of their hate-mongering. Jeanne Maria TemplemanSacramento, CA

I do not feel this was racially slanted. It was Obama slanted. Leave the racism out of it. If Obama wants his wife to talk and be out in the ‘front-lines’ on his behalf, she has to take the heat that comes with the job, good and bad. Frankly, I do not want another First Lady running her agenda, or any agenda behind the President’s back again, Hilary was more than enough. The First Lady is not elected to any position. Frankly Barbara Bush was the perfect First Lady. She was there to be the President’s wife and helpmate. Not his political partner. It is abominable that Obama does not wear the United States of America Flag pin. No excuse is acceptable. He needs to salute the United States of America Flag. No excuse is acceptable. And when our national anthem is played ... it stands for our country ‘from sea to shining sea’, it needs to be stood up for when it is played, and sung. No excuse is acceptable. ESPECIALLY by the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! He will be the HEAD of the United Forces of this country. People will be taking orders from him, laying their lives down on the line because of his orders and some will be buried six feet under the ground because of his orders. The President of the United States of America! And if the President of the United States cannot stand up for the Flag of our country and salute the flag that stands for our country he does not deserve to be the President of our country. It is that simple...just that simple. Irene I. Crawford

I am not Black American, I am White American, who has been a Republican that will be voting for Barrack Obama in November; but I take great exception to the New York Magazine trying to sooth their blatant mistake by saying they were just trying to present a ‘satire’. If this had been a flaunt at a White American, there would be a demand for apologizes - can you imagine if a true to situation ‘Satire’ was presented addressing the current administration - there were be mountainous cries from the extreme conservatives - and some of the new media. But the greatest injustice of the New Yorker cover is the ‘divisiveness’ of their art. There is an absolute certainty that many citizens will be subjected to the cover through all the media coverage and will NEVER read the article which supposedly defends Barrack Obama. Recently we have had the erruptions of Don Imus and Jessie Jacksons racial slurs that has received a considerable amount of confortation; which they should. The editors of the New Yorker need to know that the majority of all races believes that their cover page satire, is not only in poor taste, but is devisive and creates a ‘metal’ picture that is damming. That is irresposible and the American public should object with great emphasis that we expect better of leadership - perhaps the New Yorker doesn’t have the moral centrist to be a leading magazine - we should turn or backs on their future publications - I will. Mike Henderson, retired American Citizen

The funny part apart it is that if it was any other rag that said these things it would have changed the outrage andor if it was any other candidate. So when it is found offensive to you, it must offensive? That is exactly the point you are arguing against. Self, self, self, and more self. Can’t you tell that the whole system has become offensive, not just the little edge your editor asked you to rail against. But as long as you are willing to flap your lips in this manner then it will continue until there will never be another president that finishes with a shred of respect and dignity left. Sorry but you are the enemy, as long as you can’t fix yourself, it will remain so. His Bondservant, Steven W. Hutchinson

I and a lot of people I know thinks the same that the new yorker was right on the money about him and his wife Shane Green

It is not whether the U.S. is ready for a black president, is it ready or more liars, swindlers, corrupt, hating people. I pray no one votes for this man Obama because of the color of his skin. Look at what he stands for, and that is the demise of America as we know it today. He is getting money from suspicios soces, I think. HB Lambeth

iworked for the L.A TIMES for 24 years. If the Chandlers still owned this paper we wold not see some your editorials thay was so slanted. Give the fact an stick your intergety. james wooten.