PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE
Re: Lawrence Henry’s The
Middle East War Nobody Knows:
Just read your article on Palestinian Resistance. I’ve been
posting and commenting on it every time I come across a story on
it. The estimates, by Palestinian Human Rights Groups, is that over
800 (or was it 1,800?) deaths in the First Intifada were
collaborators killed by Palestinians. Of course the UN, EU and
every other Israel-hating group with a soap-box to stand on include
those in the numbers of Palestinians dead by the Israelis.
— Zach Barbera
http://zbarbera.blogspot.com
THE ART OF LYING
Re: Bill Croke’s Why
Do ‘Liberals’ Lie? and Reader Mail’s Misery
and Missoula:
I have found it useful to adopt the perspective of the political
scientist Hans Morgenthau, who in Politics Among Nations,
stated that people could be categorized as realists, or idealists.
He then explained that, whilst both types wish to improve our lot
in this vale of tears, the realist accepts the reality that exists,
and understands that, given human nature, which has never changed,
and never will, improvements, changes, can be accomplished
incrementally, and require both persuasion and compromise. The
idealist, on the other hand, believes that man is “perfectible,”
that “education” is the answer to all problems, that we can attain
“paradise” here on earth, and, most important, having envisioned
the world as he thinks it should be, proceeds to act as if it
already conformed to that vision.
“Liberals,” and I place that term in quotation marks, because my
experience is that those who style themselves “liberal” are
virulently narrow-minded and intolerant of any dissent from their
viewpoints, lie, Sir, because they are compelled to lie. These are
people who attempt to deal with the world as if it were the way
that they believe it should be, rather than the way that it is.
Every time they are faced with what is to them an unpleasant fact,
they deny the reality of that fact, which means that they lie. They
lie, they quibble, they fantasize, and they condemn any and all of
us who try to deal with the world as it actually is. They lie,
because reality simply does not suit them.
— W. B. Heffernan, Jr.
In reference to Mr. Croke’s comment that “[a memoir] is not Art,
therefore it should tell the truth,” I would refer him to Florence
King’s Lump It Or Leave It, and her response to critics of
Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady. To summarize, a
memoir is an art form (though whether deserving of capitalization
is another question), and therefore strict attention to factual
matters can be a hindrance.
— W. Picou
BACK, BACK, BACK
Re: Peter Hannaford’s Strike
Out:
Mr. Hannaford’s column re baseball takes me way back to 1947. I
remember a baseball reporter’s column about Joe DiMaggio in which
he told how he came upon Joe sitting at his locker after a hard
fought game. He asked Joe why he looked “down” and the Clipper said
he was thinking about his failure to help win the game. The
reporter pointed to some younger players who appeared contented as
they avidly read the stock reports of the Wall Street
Journal and remarked that they did not show his concern. And
Joe ruefully noted their activity with a sad concern for baseball’s
future if the players forgot what the game was about. — at least
the game Joe so proudly played. I remember sitting in the $1.25
center field bleachers of Yankee Stadium and watching a hurting Joe
DiMaggio wincing from pain as he played his position. He felt that
if he could throw one powerful ball back to the infield at the
beginning of the game, he could fake out the opposition from trying
to run on him during the rest of the game.
In my 72nd year, I have come to the sad conclusion that
baseball has forgotten the game it once was.
— Ken Wyman
Huntsville, AL
U.C. IS WHAT YOU GET
Re: George Neumayr’s A
Liberal Fantasy Camp:
I am an alumnus of UC Berkeley. I got in in 1970, when the hot
campus to attend was UC Santa Cruz. My how times have changed.
Unless the situation has dramatically changed, if it is so
important to have “Berkeley” on the diploma, then I suggest that
one can go to Santa Cruz, Riverside, Davis, or Irvine for a year,
get good grades and then transfer to Berkeley or UCLA, after the
“life challenged” have flunked out, or otherwise left.
— Roger Thompson
Hilliard, OH
(born and raised in the SF Bay Area).
In reporting about California admissions into the state’s
university system, Mr. Neumayr writes:
“Meanwhile, Susana Pena is UCLA-bound with an anemic 940 on the
SAT. ‘Once in a while, they should give us a little break so we can
catch up to them,’ she said to the Journal. “
Maybe Ms. Pena should have spent the last 12 years keeping up
with the other students. I doubt 4 or 5 more years of “higher
education”, that these days spend almost the first 2 years in
remedial courses because of the horrible quality of high schools,
will be enough time for Ms. Pena to catch up to anything beyond
“see spot run.”
And I would sure like to know how being “poor” automatically
means you can’t learn. Are school libraries closed to the poor? Are
these people so “poor” they can’t afford electricity to read by at
home? Are “poor” students denied the use of school materials? Are
the “poor” taught in separate classrooms with teachers worse than
the average (inner cities notwithstanding)?
My wife and I are proud “white trash” from Arkansas. We may have
not been “poor,” but we sure weren’t as near well off as most
families. That didn’t stop either of us from learning, achieving
and moving into the good paying careers. Besides, our parents would
have whooped us if we didn’t!!!
— Greg Barnard
Franklin, TN
I am Hispanic, so it cannot be said that I am a racist. The blatant
favoritism on the merit of race by UCLA and Berkeley, is an
outrage. We are all Americans and we should be rewarded for our
accomplishments and not for ethnicity or color of our skins. I find
this trend a dangerous practice since it is designed to drive a
wedge between Americans. The politicians gleefully pander to
Hispanics now. It seems it is popular to be a Hispanic because
illegal immigration from Mexico brings slave-cheap labor. I find
this demeaning and terribly embarrassing to the rest of us
Americans of Spanish descent. Because of the socialist Hispanic
“leaders,” politicians are under the impression that all American
Hispanics are for illegal immigration. Not all American Hispanics
are for special treatment either.
— Haydee Pavia
Laguna Woods, CA
Same here in Texas, thanks to former Governor George Bush. This is
why the state of Texas has to spend millions of dollars a year on
remedial classes in the university system:
“List
of Admissions Factors: requires institutions to consider ‘all,
any, or some combination of the following factors’:
“1. the applicant’s academic record;
“2. the applicant’s socioeconomic background;
“3. whether the applicant would be the first generation of the
applicant’s family to graduate from an institution of higher
education;
“4. the applicant’s bilingual proficiency;
“5. the financial status of the applicant’s school district;
“6. the performance level of the applicant’s school as
determined by the school accountability criteria used by the Texas
Education Agency;
“7. the applicant’s responsibilities while attending school,
including whether the applicant has been employed, has helped to
raise children, or other similar factors;
“8. the applicant’s region of residence;
“9. whether the applicant is a resident of a rural or urban area
or a resident of a central city or suburban area in the state;
“10. the applicant’s performance on standardized tests;
“11. the applicant’s performance on standardized tests in
comparison with that of other students from similar socioeconomic
backgrounds;
“12. whether the applicant attended any school while the school
was under a court-ordered desegregation plan;
“13. the applicant’s involvement in community activities;
“14. the applicant’s extracurricular activities;
“15. the applicant’s commitment to a particular field of
study;
“16. the applicant’s personal interview;
“17. the applicant’s admission to a comparable accredited out-of
state institution; and
“18. any other consideration the institution considers necessary
to accomplish the institution’s stated mission.”
— Roger Chaillet
Dallas, Texas
LOOKING BACK AHEAD
Re: The Prowler’s Secretive
Clintonites: Crossfire Jitters:
Last week the news report on the American Family Voices ad buy
said that some — If not all — of the $100,000 came from a
software executive. When Joe Lockhart’s name popped up, Larry
Ellison, CEO of Oracle, came to mind. Lockhart left the Clinton
Administration to go to work for Ellison. WJC himself joined the
Oracle Board and, in fact, his first speaking gig was to the Oracle
annual meeting in New Orleans.
Now, this connection isn’t all that exciting…unless…I
started thinking about the Microsoft breakup and the taxpayer
dollars spent on leveling the software playing field. Oracle was
acknowledged as the heads-on competitor to Microsoft. Wonder how
much journalistic investigating it would take to connect the dots.
Just a thought…
— Marsha Tucker
Houston, TX
LOOK WHAT I’VE FOUND
Man, am I glad to find you all out there. I was wondering what
happened to some of the people from the the old TAS, and I am
really glad to find your website. I’ll be checking in regularly.
Thanks for keeping up the good work.
— Terrie in Dayton, Ohio
