Comments on: Katha Pollitt has Balls

By: Tim Elhajj

Tim Elhajj — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 03:26:20 +0000

About the time Katha Pollitt was refusing to let her daughter fly the flag from thier living room window, I was calling my (then) 16 year old son to tell him his last name was Arabic.

He was like, “What? Why are you telling me this!”

Having lived with his mother most of his life, he had no idea. But it’s clearly an Arabic name and I wanted him to know in case someone tried to pull something on him.

I didn’t get the feeling Ms Pollitt was speaking for all Americans. At the time, I actually did hang a flag from our house. I don’t regret putting that flag out there, but I’m glad I read this piece. I felt some of the jingoism she talks about.

By: Ruth Douillette

Ruth Douillette — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:46:20 +0000

First off, this attitude of hers bothers me no end. She says, “Definitely not, I say: The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war.”

I say speak for yourself, lady. It doesn’t represent that to me or many others. Sorry, Tim, this makes me too emotional. I just dislike flat out comments like that. I want to say, “Go find another flag to live under that you think represents something better. Oh, what? Can’t find one! Then shut up.”

Damn, she makes me mad.

By: Tim Elhajj

Tim Elhajj — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 06:20:24 +0000

We’re all free to speak our minds here, Ruth! You have nothing to apologize for. I’m glad you felt comfortable enough to post your opinion. I’m not clear what you believe Katha Pollitt has misrepresented, though. Care to elaborate?

By: Ruth Douillette

Ruth Douillette — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:49:43 +0000

Tim, I came back to say . . . maybe I reacted a bit. Sorry about my comment. But, I can’t undo it.

By: Ruth Douillette

Ruth Douillette — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:52:18 +0000

Okay she has balls. So do I, and for some of her comments I’d like to kick her in them. She misrepresents with the best of them.

By: Tim Elhajj

Tim Elhajj — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:08:12 +0000

The Fresh Air link has an excerpt from her new book which is also really good. I think it was first published in the New Yorker. You have to scroll down the page a little, but here is the link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16112223

By: sarah morgan

sarah morgan — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:35:03 +0000

Tim– I went to The Nation and read Katha Pollitt’s piece. So controversial at the time; so right on these days. I love The Nation. My parents subscribe and occasionally send us copies, which we devour from one end to the other. They are sure they are on a Bush watchdog list for reading, what they refer to as, The Commie News. Thank the freedom of speech gods that they exist so people like Pollitt can express themselves and we might read. Thanks for the link. I enjoyed reading it. And, it just goes to show that you can be ahead of your time.

Memo to self–go write something!