The American Spectator

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4.28.03 @ 12:01AM

FLOWER POWER
Re: Michael Craig's The Hidden Divorce Tax:

Coming from a divorced male, there are many ways to limit divorce in America today. Of course I'm not going to state the obvious one. I agree with the underlying tones that divorce is a bad thing and lawyers for the most part fall also into that category. No, seriously. (Fortunately I found it amicable to do the paperwork without a lawyer.)

I also believe that using guerrilla tactics to get your way is deceitful, dishonest, revolting, and not used enough, by the male sex (not gender). LOL. The one thing I have kept through divorce is a sense of humor, I highly recommend it. Good reading, Mr. Craig, I thoroughly enjoyed it and am passing the article along.
-- Quentin C. Holtz

If I give my wife flowers, she wants to know what the heck I screwed up. Again!
-- Greg Barnard
Franklin, TN

JEB WHEN?
Re: The Washington Prowler's The Vision Thing:

Jeb Bush in 2008? Spare me. The man will not fight. First, Ward Connerly shows up in Florida to discuss true equality some time ago, and Jeb Bush runs for the hills (TAS did a cover story on it). Second, Elian Gonzalez is kidnapped by Janet Reno in Jeb's home state, and everyone with half a brain saw it coming. Jeb Bush could have saved the boy from life in Castro's prison and endeared the Republican Party to the Florida's Cuban community forever with a courteous invitation to Elian to live as a guest in the Governor's Mansion while his fate was decided. The INS goons (yes, goons!) would not have dared to do to Jeb Bush what they did to Elian's uncle. Remember the photo? Third, during Al Gore's attempt to steal the 2000 election, since he forgot to win his "home" state of Tennessee, Jeb Bush recused himself, when no one asked him, and hid behind Katherine Harris's skirts, letting her take all the heat. I will not vote for Jeb Bush.
-- David Shoup

SMART TALK
Re: Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder's Plain Speak:

In their otherwise spot-on article "Plain Speak," New Yorkers Mason & Felder say, "If you were to say that President Bush will be recorded in history as one of America's greatest Presidents, three out of four people would either laugh, smirk, or break out in a sweat." Three out of four in NYC perhaps. And not this one. Thank goodness so very many Americans have not succumbed to the standards of the news media's talking heads and the cult of image, cool, and glamour of the entertainment industry of which the news media are a still more willing and integral part than journalists and reporters admit or recognize, even as they go on desperately seeking the next charismatic JFK and deriding the President for his plain language and his not keeping encyclopedically current on who's who in pop culture. Thank goodness Americans choose among candidates seldom on the Blazing Saddles basis of which of them uses his or her "tongue purtier than a twenty-dollar whore!"

Verbal intelligence is not the whole of intellect. "An eloquent mathematician must, from the nature of things, ever remain as rare a phenomenon as a talking fish." -- the mathematician James J. Sylvester.

Intellect is not the whole of intelligence. There are also things like imagination, the senses and intuition, and common sense and wisdom.

Intelligence is not the whole of merit. There are also things like will and character, ability and competence, and feeling and sensibility. We have a President who certainly has enough of all these things. And he has a way of putting things together that flies clean over the radar of most of the glittering, gesturing, wailing and chattering mass media.
-- ForNow
New York City

Fantastic humor by Mason/Felder. Thoroughly enjoyed the piece about "the talker" and the "doer." I like President Bush's plain talk and I resented the deceptive answers of "It matters what is IS and I can't remember. It may be the way she said- I just don't remember. " Our former president got a pass all the time for evading a direct answer. I think Mason and Felder have high intellect -- as evidenced by their humorous writing.
-- unsigned

The article "Plain Speak" was outstanding. Too bad is hasn't been picked up by the talk media. Mr. G.W. Bush suffers from the same problem as I: the inability to bull s..... people with the gift of gab and influence people. Since the United States operates on just two things: paperwork and B.S., accomplishments run in second place. I stutter and have accomplished much: raised a family, successful business with employees, educated etc. -- however still have Mr. Bush's problem.

With this article, Mr. Mason has shown that there is hope. He is a guy with a good gift of gab and has proven to be a very intelligent person.
-- Martin Schaffel

I loved your article on intelligence vs. speaking ability. It is right on. I remember many years ago when Jane Fonda was protesting Vietnam, she was a guest on the Dick Cavett late night talk show. Dick, having an above average IQ, actually tried to probe not only her opinions, but her knowledge of history which might have supported them. I would love to see this interview reprinted or re-aired. She was soooooo ignorant that Dick was hard-pressed not to laugh out loud. Anyway, good job.
-- Dede Courtine
Ashville, NY

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