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
