The American Spectator

Reader Mail

DASCHLE DITTOHEADS
The winners of 2002 are starting to lose it.

Your articles are as wacko as they come. You are arrogant and antagonistic towards noble ideals. In short, you are nothing more than a shrill tome of shallow thoughts.

Consider me an offended American citizen who has every right to tell you just what I think. But in that regard, thanks for giving readers the ability to react to your readings. Got to hand it to you for that. Most right-wing slander machines require you to sign up and pay for that (like Rush Limbaugh).
-- unsigned

Alternative to what? You guys scream so loudly that nobody else can get a word in. Face it, the Limbaugh/Hannity/TAP/Fox News d---heads have won. You've succeeded in creating a single-party nation whose stated goal is global domination and unannounced goal is the complete shredding of any Constitutional right having to do with privacy or individualism. Welcome to the USSA. Love it; you made it.
-- Jerry Bowles

THE REAL JFK
Re: The Washington Prowler's Kerry Nation:

As you can see from yesterday's article on JFK -- John F. Kerry -- he is 100-times more determined than Albert S. Gore II to capture the White House.

JFK can out-wit Bush at will. Please the gun-lock story in 2000.

JFK VP choices include Gary Locke (WA), Tom Vilsack (IA), John Lewis (GA), and Bill Richardson (NM). JFK will use minority/geography status to break Bush.

You better start preparing: President JFK.

Cheers,
-- AAM

P.S. Bush will not run. He has baggage: Cheney, Lott, DeLay (three right-wing clowns who will act like Gingrich every day starting Jan. 2003).

CANADIAN CARE
Re: Jeremy Lott's Brain Drain:

Hi: In your health care story, the part regarding Canada's system is full of holes. The average Canadian has way better coverage than the average American. We also have some of the best Cancer Treatment Centers in the world. I don't have any love for Gore, or Clinton, but your story is misleading. I should know, I was born in the U.S., live in Canada, I hold dual citizenship, and may even return to the U.S. someday.
-- Ed

P.S. I believe that President Bush is so far the best President that the U.S. has had during my lifetime, and he also has made mention that the American Health Care system needs to be reformed.

Great article.

Doctors, similar to water and money, will seek the lowest level.

Returning from Oceania in 1993, shortly after takeoff, the flag-carrier airline made an appeal. All the doctors had left the country (and moved to America, they said) due to its government's policy of equal pay for all (under socialized medicine, doctors are just another government employee and paid and treated as such). They
asked for all of our pocket change to hire them back.

Meanwhile, back in the USA, Hillarycare was explaining how doctors would be sent to jail for receiving payment from non-Hillarycare patients ...

If the USA adopts Medigore, where will the socialized medicine countries' citizens go for health care?
-- James Tyler

The answer to the following is easy....

"As things stand now, Canadians can crow about their egalitarian system while counting on U.S. health care to bail them out in a pinch. But one wonders where they would go if Al Gore ever became president."

The Canadians and Americans both will find that Castro's Cuba may well be the answer. It would not surprise me to see several "For Profit" health care facilities built there to accommodate those who do not wish to avail themselves of their country's socialized medicine. This would provide substantial employment prospects for Cubans and also a good source of revenue for the Cuban government. I just wonder how much venture capital could be raised in a hurry if an ultra-socialist Democrat were elected and a single payer system were being implemented?
-- Tom Pendleton

Jeremy Lott refers to the Canadian system as "jury-rigged." I believe the phrase actually is "Jerry rigged".

It developed during the desert campaigns of WWll by Brit soldiers who marveled at the German capacity to repair virtually anything using whatever was at hand. It has now become a derisive phrase but, I think, the Brits meant it as a compliment to German ingenuity.
-- Bruce Karlson
Navarre, FL

Jeremy Lott replies:
I can see how Bruce Karlson would think that I accidentally substituted one phrase for another, but when I called the Canadian pharmaceutical industry jury-rigged, I meant that the prices are fixed in advance, by government fiat, and are not determined by anything approaching a free market. If a similar system was adopted in the U.S., it would likely crowd out spending on research for new miracle drugs.

I could get into a statistical argument with Mr. "Ed" but since the letter writer proffers no evidence for his claim that the "average Canadian" has better health care than his American counterpart, an anecdote should do. The late Robert Bourassa, long-time premier of Quebec, went not to Canadian hospitals for his cancer treatment but to the United States. Apparently he didn't trust "some of the best Cancer Treatment Centers in the world" when it was his life on the line.

As I tried to explain in the piece, the theoretical basket of medical goods and services available to Canadians is substantial. But since it is the same basket that they all draw from, access is rationed and what happens is based more on the whims of bureaucrats and medical professionals than on the desires of those whose lives the decisions affect: the patients.

NOT ENOUGH ALREADY
Re: Jed Babbin's What Do You Mean 'We,' Kemo Sabe?":

For a "Loose Cannon" Mr. Babbin hits the bull's-eye more often than not. If this country were really serious about airline security -- we would already have guns in the cockpits -- have airline baggage handlers who are already security screened and would have already borrowed some safety equipment from
our friends at El Al.

The SA-7 Russian heat-seeking surface-to-air missile has been in the Communist Bloc inventory for quite a number of years. Other MANPADS (man portable air defense systems) such as the U.S. made Stinger have also found their way into Arab/Muslim government and terrorist hands. U.S. Navy has found Stingers in Boghammer/Zodiac paramilitary small (fast) boats used by both Iran and Iraq in attempts to engage U.S. Navy ships -- Vincennes incident (Iran) and the Gulf War (Iraq). These missiles are probably orphans the CIA lost track of in Afghanistan in the late 80's (but nobody's talking).

If you can ever get close enough to an El Al airliner (good luck) you'll notice under-wing pods between the jet engines on each wing. Only Norm Mineta would think these are extra fuel tanks. In reality, these are (in all probability) chaff and flare dispensers (in English language terms = radar and heat seeking missile counter-measures) to ensure all El Al flights make it to their intended destinations.

Rather than a BOHICA (bend over -- here it comes again) incident with our jet passenger fleet -- these counter-measure pods would go a long way in getting those of us who know back on airplanes for fun and profit. In the meanwhile -- the airline industry continues to be the deer in Norm Mineta's bureaucratic headlights and Chapter 11 is now an option in the business plan of most of our airline companies.
-- Mike Horn
LTC, Military Intelligence
U.S. Army Reserve, retired

Jed Babbin replies:: Col. Horn is right on the money. And even without chaff/flares, we can protect civilian aircraft quickly with a system called TAD/IRCM -- tactical air defense, infrared countermeasures. It would cost about $2 million per aircraft. Necessary? Absolutely. Available? Right bloody now. On the way? Not hardly. Isn't it time to fire Norm Mineta before the current SNAFU becomes a BOHICA? Best, Jed.

OUTFOXED
Re: George Neumayr's What Ailes the Times:

Thank You, George! Loved your article. What is literally driving folks like me to Fox, your site and many other online outlets is precisely the arrogance of the New York Times and all the rest of the driveling liberalcasts. These people do not, cannot and will not ever see themselves for what they are -- insipid, self-serving snobs who truly believe their wisdom exceeds God Almighty. The Pharisees of the modern world, they are angry with the rest of us who understand our soul's final destination. It's my daily pleasure to seek out truthful venues of "news and culture," aware there are many such as you, who defend this precious American commodity called freedom and liberty. Bring on the leftist propaganda and we will continue to shine the light of truth on their lies and distortions. God bless America and pass the ammunition! And, may Roger Ailes live many long years sockin' it to 'em..... :-)
-- Barbara Haugen
Cedar City, UT

I'm getting sick of listening to the left-wing liberals whine and complain that Fox News is "conservatively biased." This sentiment is even espoused by other conservatives such as Andrew Sullivan.

Why is reporting the news without editorializing it considered "conservative bias"? Is it "conservative bias" when the discussion panel has more than one conservative on it (à la Brit Hume's Special Report)? The New York Times and CNN think objectivity is having five bleeding heart liberal panelist to one moderate Republican like David Gergen.

And if all of Fox News watchers are religious, gun-owning, white males, then explain the tons of e-mail Bill O'Reilly gets from people that think he's too conservative or too liberal? Obviously, Fox News has a broader audience.

As usual with liberals, they are again acting like children. No one comes to their parties anymore because no one likes them. But being spoiled children they blame it on the fact the new cool kid has a pool. So would somebody build them a pool so they can then swim and cry alone? Because even with a pool, we don't like them!

Oh -- not treating its readers and viewers like total morons helps Fox News too!
-- Greg Barnard
Franklin, TN

I have thought (for a good number of years) the N.Y. Times should have changed their slogan to: "all the news (we see as) fit to print."

Unfortunately, the new leader seems to be dragging it further to the left. Aren't the lefties into any part of truth anymore?
-- G. Manuchia

MEDS SCHOOL
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s Jack and the Black Cats:

You muse, "Precisely what this Black Cat News Story is supposed to achieve seems vague," and in the next thought, suggest the answer. All such black cat news stories must be viewed with a Clintonian perspective. The prime objective is diversion.

Don't you remember the Clinton testimony tape? The Clinton menials in the media announced, as they had been instructed, that Clinton had lost his temper during secret testimony. When the tape was actually played, it allowed the media to focus not on what Clinton had said, but on the fact that he didn't really lose his temper.

Here, my bet is, that we are being set up for some news about Kennedy (or Jackie-O or Teddy) that will allow the leftist media and Kennedyites to shrug off the core issue with, "So, we already knew there were lots of meds around."
-- unsigned

Loved your piece on Kennedy and his health. The thugs of the left are often feint with historic concern over the state of government antics charged to the dolt, Reagan. What about a narco-addlebrain? Hmm?
-- R. Hattner

PETTING PARK
Re: Reid Collins's Follow the Yellowstone Road:

If 4 of the 5 entrances to Yellowstone Park are closed in winter it would seem that almost no one goes there in the winter -- except snowmobilers. What's the problem?

Having visited Yellowstone this past summer I can definitively state that the animals I saw were not bothered by vehicular traffic of a much larger volume -- bison petting anyone?. I would think environmentalists might consider what effect the miles and miles of burned trees would have on that potentially lovely place instead of assuming to know the mental workings of rabbits.
-- Bob Holmgren

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Re: Francis X. Rocca's Jesus at the Wheel:

What would Jesus drive?

Why, He would drive the largest SUV he could find, so He could load all 12 apostles in and spread the word.

Cheers,
-- Dave Marciniak

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