Stephen L. Goldstein, AKA The Trendsman The Sun-Sentinel

August 16, 2009

Stephen L. Goldstein, AKA The Trendsman
The Sun-Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301

RE: “Public’s Fears Being Manipulated” – Is fears a verb or a noun? Some comments on today’s offering in the Sun-Sentinel.

My dear Professor,

It’s a shame that when you were young and possibly educable you never encountered the Trivium. It was, is, and will be made up of Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic, the building blocks of Western Civilization. Logic is not a parabolic curve.

For instance, in this morning’s intentionally obfuscatory screed on how nasty Republicans – Are there any other kind? – are shaping the health care debate. You say that 260 protestors cannot speak for 6.7 million citizens of Indiana. You say that “by their silence [they] disagree with the protestors”. If that is the case then, Logically, the Vietnam War was the most popular war in American History. Further, since less than 1/10th of one percent of the American people heard Martin Luther King speak in 1964, using your Logic, the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 & 1965 would never have been passed.

You said it; I didn’t.

In Latin it is Qui tacet consentit. The literal translation is He who is silent consents.

You mention the 2000 Presidential election brouhaha as did Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her recent trip to Africa. 3 things cry out for a better pen than I can bring to it.

#1 – How anyone from Cook County, Illinois can mention anything about any election anywhere is beyond satire. Since hearsay evidence is one of your favorite assets I tell you that I heard that Mayor Richard Daley confessed on his death bed that he was most ashamed of fixing the 1960 Presidential election.

#2 – If the Nobel Prize winning, Academy Award winning former Vice President, AKA Alpha Gump, had carried Tennessee, his home state, or Arkansas, Clinton’s home state, he would have been President if he didn’t get one vote in Florida.

#3 – In a note of supreme irony the 2000 Presidential election was decided in 1987 when Robert Bork was denied a seat on the Supreme Court. The second vote was 7 to 2 in favor of Bush. The key vote, the vote whether or not to accept the case, was 5 to 4. If Bork had been on the Supreme Court the vote would have been 5 to 4 against accepting the case. If that had been the case we would not have been attacked on September 11th, we would not have had Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Wilma, 120% mortgages would still be available, and we would not now have drowning polar bears. Yet one more example of your wonderful Logic.

You say “we are cursed with perilous [italics yours] times that are intolerably dangerous”. Your solution is typical of a card carrying modern American Liberal. In typical iron fist in iron glove style so reminiscent of Hitler and Mussolini you say “serious media commentators must connect the real [italics yours] dots for the public”.

Since you work for a company in bankruptcy you may be seeking other employment. Have you thought about applying for the soon to be created White House Media Czar? Obviously, since you know best [italics mine] you will help serious media commentators connect the dots for the public. Or else.

There is one point that I will heed.

You say that you “predict/fear that some kook will go over the edge and shoot or physically assault someone”. I fear that someday you will know that the black helicopter squad personally led by Darth Cheney is coming to get you. That will surely send you “over the edge”. Should I ever see you in a Post Office or a FedEx Kinko’s I will assume you are packing. I am going into a duck and cover mode.

At my peril I will give you once piece of universal advice about fire arms. Whether they are long guns or pistols be sure to remember that the sharp end goes into the breech first.





Kevin Smith