The American Spectator

Reader Mail

SHELVED
Re: Lawrence Henry's Red Rabbit Is Rich:

Mr. Lawrence Henry's comments on Red Rabbit were right on. I just finished reading Red Rabbit last night. I stored it at the back of the Clancy section with the thought that I would not be rereading it soon. I took up The Cardinal of the Kremlin to follow up the threads Red Rabbit foreshadowed, such as the capture of Cassius.
-- Mary Barre-Van Buren

POPPINS THE BIG QUESTION
Re: Judd Magilnick's A Spoonful of Self-Delusion:

I think Mary Poppins was a very conservative figure, not the harbinger of any modern nanny ethos. The mother of the family was involved in the suffragette movement to the neglect of the children, which was clearly portrayed in the movie as a dereliction of duty. Mary leaves the family when the mother agrees to stay at home more and the father understands he must take more of an interest in the children's activities. The movie was clearly "anti-nanny" in our modern sense. Perhaps that is why I don't seem to see the movie on cable much anymore.
-- Mike Collins

CAVALIER STAKES
Re: Dave Shiflett's Holy Rollers:

Dave Shiflett should not be so quick to claim the John and Ho at St. Patrick's as Virginians. Were they born there? Were their families? Current residency in the one of the more notoriously-transient Northern Virginia communities (such as Quantico and Alexandria) does not make one a Virginian. As an FFV in exile for over thirty years, I am rather sensitive about who can claim the Old Dominion as home. Neither of these two-legged goats demonstrate any Cavalier State qualities.
-- Christopher J. Kelleher

Shiflett's column is crude and pathetic. If he's an example of where this page is headed, please close shop.
-- Dennis Losness

I'm sure it's just a typo, but I have to ask: "Adultery, which is on the Top Ten list of prescribed (!) activities." Where do I get this top 10 list? Thanks
-- Rick Slee

"This is the religion [Catholicism], we should remember, whose Founder held that simply thinking about sex outside of marriage constituted Adultery, which is on the Top Ten list of prescribed activities."

Kind of funny, actually. Just leave it as is?
-- Ted Angell

HOW ABOUT ITALIAN CUISINE?
Re: Francis X. Rocca's Contempt Providers:

In November 1999 my husband and I moved to England for about 6 months for his job assignment.

Until then I had been an Anglophile, and wistfully longed for my fantasy of Europe. But those long months of dreary weather, anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, post-Christian socialism and terrible customer service cured me.

Formerly I complained of the pox of McDonald's restaurants; when confronted with English cuisine, we depended on the home of the Big Mac, and judging by the ever-present line at the counter, so did the English.

If Wal-Mart takes over the market, it will only be because people are sick of high prices, inconvenience and surly non-service.

All the charming old stone buildings, cobbled streets and wonderful museums can't compensate.

How on earth can Mr. Rocca abide Europe?

Sincerely,
-- C.H.

EMPIRICAL JULIAN
Re: George Neumayr's Bias Busting:

I agree that Ms. Coulter seems to get picked upon. She stands up well (unlike some of the Republican leadership). I am halfway through her book and it reads like one of Mark Steyn's columns. That's a compliment, by the way, Anne.

Anyway, Julian Epstein seems to throw the term empirical evidence around quite a bit on CNN. One almost gets the impression that it is a new phrase he has just picked up and is quite proud that he knows what it means. What Mr. Epstein fails to realize is that most of his audience and certainly his co-panelists, don't.

As for his sleeping arrangements at CNN, are you sure it's not a crib?
-- Nick C.
Moose Creek, Ontario

BACK TO SCHOOL
Re: Editorial Note, That Time of Year:

It would seem then, that nearly one year since Lady Ann Coulter started her Nexis-Lexis searches for liberals calling conservatives "stupid" the pattern continues unabated. In one chapter, of Slander, Lady Ann takes to task a liberal shibboleth that President Reagan was both senile and dumb. In her inimitable style, she locks and loads, "When Reagan began his second term...a majority of the justices on the Supreme Court were older than he was....yet there was no media hysteria over the senile old guys deciding life and death issues from the Supreme Court, no campaign to get those old coots to hang up their stirrups." It would also be nearly incontestable that Gresham's Law is in full bloom with the public school teaching corps, to wit; the current value of teaching, is determined by the worse type of teaching in circulation! Sorry, gentlemen, veritas.
-- Edward Del Colle

DANCES WITH WOLVES
Re: "Gore Voter Cries Wolf" in Reader Mail's All Is Not Bliss:

I just read the letter to the editor from a Cary Collins, RN CDE in
which he hopes that wolves would kill humans. Quite a comment coming from someone who claims to be in the healing profession, is it not?

Do you want to know more about Cary Collins, RN CDE? Here's how you can: Search for him (or her) on Google:

There he is, an author of an article in Healthy Living Newsletter, via a
PDF file. Scroll down to page 2 and his contact information is readily available....

So. Let see what we have here. A so-called "health professional" living in New Jersey who writes on the issue of wolves in the wilderness, curses in those writings and states that he hopes that wolves will kill humans!...
-- Chuck Herrick

FAMOUS LAST WORDS
Re: Kevin McGehee's letter "Nazis in Coats and Ties" in Reader Mail's All Is Not Bliss:

Thanks so much for putting up with -- and publishing -- the exchange between myself and Paul Kellogg. I had a ball with it, and I'm sure Paul did as well. I hope your other readers did as well.

It is, after all, August, when "man bites dog" is news, so Kevin McGehee will have to wait until Congress comes back to Washington for more "worthwhile editorial correspondence."
-- Bob Johnson
Bedford, TX

ON SECOND THOUGHT
Re: Paul Kellogg's Letter "A Hundred Years' War of Words" in Reader's Mail's Foes and Allies:

After sending my prior email thanking you for putting up with this exchange, I got around to reading the above missive from Paul Kellogg -- whom I still refer to by his full name although he prefers to distance himself by calling me "Mr. Johnson."

I quit! I concede! Not that I admit error, but sometimes the candle isn't worth the race. As my sainted father often said: "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." Sic transit gloria mundi!

All those who are truly interested in the facts have only to follow the links back through your excellent site and can draw their own conclusions.
-- Bob Johnson
Bedford, TX

AND IN THIS CORNER ...
Re: "Nazis in Coats and Ties" in Reader Mail's All Is Not Bliss:

It's unfortunate that the simple act of observation, in particular, noting that one quote bears a resemblance to another, should become an excuse for a battle royal.

Sincerely,
-- Paul Kellogg
New York

topics:
Religion, Catholicism, Law, Supreme Court, Socialism