The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Honor Bound

4.15.02 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 4)

A FEW GOOD CPA'S ...
Re: Michael Craig's The Stench of a Snitch:

A re-creation of a scene from the movie "A Few Good Men"...

Tom Cruise: "Did you order the shredding?"

Jack Nicholson: "You want answers?"

Tom Cruise: "I think I'm entitled."

David Duncan (played by Jack Nicholson): "You want answers!!"

Tom Cruise: "I want the truth!"

David Duncan: "You can't handle the truth!

David Duncan: "Son, we live in a world that has financial statements. And those financial statements have to be audited by men with calculators. Who's gonna do it? You? The SEC? The Dept. of Justice? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Enron and you curse Andersen. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Enron's death, while tragic, probably saved investors. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves investors. You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that audit. You need me on that audit! We use words like materiality, risk-based, special purpose entity... we use these words as the backbone to a life spent auditing something. You use 'em as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very assurance I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it. I'd prefer you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a pencil and start ticking. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!!"

Tom Cruise: "Did you order the shredding???"

David Duncan: "You're damn right I did!"
-- Blaise Rhodes

Michael Craig replies: Bravo to Mr. Rhodes. Unfortunately, you won't see Jack Nicholson portraying an auditor in a movie any time soon.

SUN SHINE
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s Here Comes Seth Lipsky's 'Sun':

On the upcoming right-of-center NYC broadsheet The New York Sun: This is really good news, particularly in terms of editorials. The application of conservative ideas to NYC problems sheds special light on both. NYC problems tend to be both highly tangled and buried beneath liberal understanding of them, which tends to consist in the latest of successive strata of failed ideas. When a conservative voice on NYC problems gets heard (and even heeded once in a while!) in NYC, then, because of NYC's influence, it's ultimately a little better for the whole country. That's why some of us in NYC (where I lived until recently) were so happy with Eric Breindel writing editorials for the NY Post: the right man for a job more important than many realized. And many in NYC who've ignored the NY Post as a racy tabloid will not so easily ignore a broadsheet Sun edited by Seth Lipsky. Yes, let us wish the Sun every success.
-- Benjamin Udell

FATALE RATE
Re: Jeff G. Dufour's and Reader Mail's What Women Don't Want:

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Bill Clinton, Business, Abortion, Conservatism