The American Spectator

Reader Mail

COOL STUFF
Re: Jerry Carter's The Name's the Thing:

I had to write in to say how wonderful Mr. Carter's article on Preservation Hall was. I have made many, many trips to New Orleans over the years with the primary intent of visiting the Hall. Mr. Carter got the feel of the place exactly right, and it's good to know there are folks out there who appreciate its importance. New Orleans isn't all just Hurricanes and breasts on Bourbon Street. Thank you for painting a perfect picture of this vital American institution.
-- Ralph Harrow
Oxford, MS

BRAVE SOULS
Re: Lawrence Henry's The Middle East War Nobody Knows:

Kudos on the Lawrence Henry article. It brought to light an issue rarely discussed. I too hope that someday history will reveal these resistance fighters for who they really are -- brave souls who risk their own lives to stop the cycle of insanity and brutality their culture has spiraled into.

Thank you for printing this important piece.
-- Natalie Aloyets
Newark, NJ

From the Israeli point of view, only with the help of such "collaborators" can we get info from inside, and we firmly believe that there are still some Palestinians who would like to bring back their brothers to sanity and that this is their way to get rid of their brothers the terrorists. Unfortunately it is almost certain that these Palestinians will always pay with their life for these acts of courage. We Israelis certainly owe to them a lot, but who knows what will happen to them when there will be a cease-fire? Will they still be considered heroes by the Israelis?
-- H.G.

Thank you for this article. It is encouraging to read about Arab heroes who actually help Israel. It helps me with the rage I feel for "Palestinians."
-- Judy Sinclair
Toronto

WIVES TALES
Re: Jackie Mason and Raoul Felder's A Bad Year for Jewish Wives:

How stupid! Not witty, not clever, not even original. Using stereotype is not funny. Was I supposed to find "deep down" love for the subject? Please. There's enough problems, especially now! in the Jewish community battling bigotry. If you had any love of your people, you never would have wasted your time putting this crap out to the world. What, you need more money for these slanderous jokes? Where do I get in line then?
-- Andrea

I was very offended by the article by Jackie Mason concerning Jewish wives. If he were giving his spiel in a night club at which were mostly Jewish couples, it would be one thing (I would still find it offensive, however); but to put it on the Internet where everyone can read it is another story. It maintains the stereotype of Jewish women as loudmouths only interested in fur coats. I don't know what kind of Jewish women Jackie Mason has known; but I don't know any like that. The Jewish women I know go without so their children can have -- and always done with love. I think he should visit the Jewish women of Yehuda and Shomron and see what a real "Eshet Chayil" is like.
-- Chaya Eitan
Israel

MAKING ENDS MEET
Re: Jeremy Lott's The End Is Nigh -- Again:

Dear sir. Hal Lindsey has never stated a date of the end. (Thus Hal Lindsey and company can still say that the world is going to end -- really! -- by 1975 or 1984 or 2000 or, let us say, 2005, and keep a straight face and a large audience. ) In fact if you were to listen and understand, Mr. Lindsey does not even preach the end of the world, just this world's system. Thank you sincerely,
-- Gene Sevenau

I am glad to see that people are beginning to realize that environmental extremists are a religious bunch. People do not realize that Hinduism and Buddhism are pantheistic and believe that god is in all, and is all. This includes animals and plants. Kharma, Zen, yoga, Gaia (the same earth spirit that Al Gore believes in), and even Capt. Planet are not just P.C. clichés but are actual religious tenets, and our society has become steeped in it due to multiculturalism. Remember the Pledge of Allegiance? Monotheism vs. monism, God separate from creation or part of a eternal universe, reincarnated over and over (it works for the so-called atheists that call it evolution). Even secular humanism is a religion --the state-funded religion of America. Call it the New Age faith based initiative charter model.

As for the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John it is to be understood by comparing the prophecies Jesus gave to his disciples, the book of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and the other Prophets. Watching one TV show or one commentary does not a Biblical scholar make. Enough study might make one realize that in totality the Bible is foretelling the "end-time" for the devil and his reign. The one factor overlooked for 1,868 years was the non-existence of the nation of Israel. Malthus and others wish to spiritualize what they do not understand or like. The Bible does not say the world will end, but Jesus will return before mankind completely annihilates itself.
-- Michael Steele

Ah, but if we view Environmentalism as the fundamentalist religious faith that it is, the worship of the Goddess Gaia, then government establishment and support of Environmentalism is clearly barred by the First Amendment, and the Environmentalist faith must not be taught in public schools.
-- unsigned

Jeremy Lott replies: Not all environmentalists practice a Gaia-based spirituality. In fact, those who explicitly do form a distinct minority. But the satirical point of my piece was to show that the environmentalist message is informed by an ostensibly secular strand of apocalypticism that dovetails quite nicely with more openly pious varieties.

READINESS
Re: George Neumayr's A Liberal Fantasy Camp:

The WSJ piece was a good exposé of how the UC system has gotten around the legal restrictions on affirmative action. The article did not go far enough because it failed to cite the outrageous dropout rate of these unprepared students -- even the ones who waste the taxpayers' money in Chicano Studies and other fake academic programs.

The compound tragedy is that many of these kids would do fine in the State College system.
-- Gary Lambert
Lafayette, CA

ON TARGET
Re: Mark Goldblatt's Lessons of the Daniel Pearl Video:

The message of Mr. Goldblatt's missive comes frighteningly close to the truth. The gradient of (in)humanity between the two cultures (West and Islam) is too steep to bridge in the short term. Daniel Pearl's death does nothing to dissuade me from forecasting a dark future between Western Societies and Pan-Islamism.

Demographics of Islamic countries with spiraling birthrates dooms these societies to a majority of their populations under 16 years old; where it is almost impossible for any economic, social or educational system to keep up with the crush of unemployed and unemployable male youth. Alas, the only education many of these populations get is the anti-Semitic and anti-Western garbage spewing from Saudi-sponsored religious schools -- or even worse, the government communication organs of our "friends" and "allies." These dinosaurs of societies will take many years to even know their heads have been chopped off.

How many dumb bombs will land on how many of Peter Arnett's "baby milk factories" before the Islamic people get the message? How long will the leftists in our socialist enclaves (to include our Northeast and West Coasts) "stay the course" in the face of perceived U.S. military human rights abuses? How many more Starbucks and McDonald's will be trashed before Islam has its modern spiritual awakening?

Worst of all, who of the popular media in the United States is equipped to give this bad news to the American public?

No one.

How the will the American public rally to the course of action Mr. Goldblatt has so well articulated?

By and large -- it won't.

With an educational system that teaches moral equivalency as cultural diversity, the popular will in the United States for a sustained violent confrontation is just not there at this time. With no grounding in American history, with no idea of our founders' masterpiece of a constitutional republic, our society will not tolerate a war footing against an enemy with no boundaries and $10 strategic targets. This will remain a silent war fought by Special Operators (hopefully) on the turf of the perpetrators.

Violence is the last resort of any civilized society to get other people to see things their way. In the United States, a policy of unrestrained violence against "Islam" will not fly in the current political climate. With a presidential election hovering on the 2004 horizon, Mr. Goldblatt's idea, no matter how right it might be, is a political non-starter.

Our generations' December 7th came and went on September 11th - and we're still shaking down 80-year-old ladies at the airport ...
-- Mike Horn
LTC, Military Intelligence
US Army, ret
Tracy, CA

NICE HIT
I really enjoy this site, and in particular your well-written articles. Keep up the great work!
-- Thomas Luedeke

topics:
Education, Religion, Islam, Environment, Constitution, Law, Military, Israel