The American Spectator

Reader Mail

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I really enjoyed Mr. Feder's suggestions for politically correct state mottos to be placed on personalized license plates. I have long agreed that to defeat a stupid idea, such as politically correctness, humor is the best weapon. Humor really highlights just how stupid a stupid idea truly is. This is why tyrants cannot abide satire and sarcasm sent their way. Can anyone imagine a Castro, Hitler, Stalin, Mao or a Clinton laughing at a joke about himself (or herself)?

I note that Mr. Feder resides in Ashland, Oregon -- my home state. Ashland is a lovely little community but I cannot stand the hot summers. My wife and I attended the Oregon Shakespearean Festival there and roasted in the twilight heat during a performance in the outdoor Elizabethan Theater.

p>I look forward to more from Mr. Feder. br> -- Al Martin br> Depoe Bay, OR /p>

Happy Feder replies: Thank you Mr. Martin, and you will appreciate the following anecdote. Stalin attended a circus performance one evening and perceived anti-Stalinist ideas in a particular clown's skit. He had the clown shot on site, surprising no one but the clown. But Stalin was able to rise above the average, petty, spiteful tyrant---he had the audience members who had laughed at the clown skit executed beneath the big top, too. Were he still alive, I'm sure the clown would have found a certain dark Russian humor in that action.

p> FULL DISCLOSURE br> Re: Paul Beston's Give That Man a Cigar! : /p>

topics:
Taxes, Satire, Constitution, Law, Founding Fathers, Russia