Archive for the 'letters' Category
SMACKDOWN
On Valentine’s Day, one of my favorite cartoons, the family guy aired an episode in which one of the main characters woos and dates a girl with Down Syndrome (you can watch it at the link, but warning: NSFW).
If you’ve watched the show, you know that calling Family Guy’s humor “caustic” is like calling John [...]
I Get Letters
Hello, Mr. Sqwire. On your Brendan Calling blog you have given me credit (or blame?) for a story that was actually reported by my colleague Chana Joffe-Walt. In any case, thank you for listening to NPR.
–Ina Jaffe
She found me on facebook. I wrote back and suggested they fire David Frum and hire me instead. [...]
Bill Hangley Writes a Letter to Stu Bykofsky
Hi Stu:
RE: your bicycle column of 11/23:
Obviously, the more bikes on the streets, the more important it is for bikers to respect the rules and not ride recklessly. At the same time, the bike has to be recognized for the flexible, human-scale thing that it is – it’s not a car, and the world will [...]
Feelin’ the Heat
Over the past few weeks i’ve written about PA State Senate majority leader Dominick “Satan” Pileggi, who is blocking Philadelphia from raising its sales tax by a penny, in a crazy-stupid-not-crazy-haha game of chicken with governor Rendell. Pileggi, being the Devil Himself, has some predictably evil ideas about how we should allocate our funding for [...]
Read More..>>Shameless Self-Promotion: An Open Letter to the Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer
Copyright Ray Skwire
Dear Mr. Tierney, Mr. Jackson, Ms. Shea, and Mr. Schefer:
Your on-staff blogger Will Bunch made an accurate observation last night:
But I think the real news was buried deep in the show, and it came during a broader discussion of the Inquirer’s lineup of op-ed columnists, which recently added not just Yoo but ex-Sen. [...]
LTE: Philadelphia Daily News
I distilled my post about the execrable Christine Flowers and her ridiculous diatribe about marijuana into a letter, published today in the daily news:
E CHRISTINE Flowers’ March 27 op-ed opposing legalizing drugs:
The piece starts with a false construct. No one credible is talking about legalizing all drugs in response to Mexico’s drug war or our [...]
The Times Responds, and So Do I.
This is great. You tell me who’s right.
Diane McNulty diane.mcnulty@nytimes.com>
Dear Mr. Skwire,
Thanks for writing — and for reading The New York Times. Regarding Maureen Dowd’s column, behind almost all “pork” projects, one can usually find something of worth, including jobs. What makes them “pork” is that they are inserted into bills by Senators [...]
OPEN LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES: HIRE SKWIRE, FIRE DOWD.
diane.mcnulty@nytimes.com
Clark Hoyt, public editor: public@nytimes.com
Dear Diane and Clark:
I point you to the following website, associated with the Philadelphia Weekly…
Brendan Skwire is performing an invaluable public service today: The Philly blogger is fact-checking Maureen Dowd — and, by extension, Sen. John McCain — on her characterization of a number of “pork” earmarks in a new spending [...]
Response to Senator Casey
Dear Senator Casey:
I received your letter dated 12/15/08, regarding our disagreements regarding your vote for the poorly named “bailout” of the financial sector: as I have stated previously, “handout” would be a better word. Your letter in response is wholly inadequate, unless one is looking for evasions, straw men, and red herrings. Also, you [...]
Open Letter to Mayor Michael Nutter
The following letter was sent on Friday, November 14, 2008. It’s bad policy to involve my employers in my blogging, so dates and names have been redacted.
The Honorable Michael A. Nutter, Mayor
City Hall, Room 215
Philadelphia, PA 19107
November 13, 2008
Dear Mayor Nutter:
It was a pleasure bumping into you on [date redacted] at [my employer's event, redacted]. [...]
