RANGE WARS
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.’s introduction to Drug
Fix:
I don’t care what Chuck Fowler said. I wouldn’t dispute that a
.30 Weatherby can shoot, and kill effectively at 1200 yards. It’s
just that a mediocre (or person of modest ability) shooter
couldn’t hit the proverbial broad side of a barn at 1200 yards no
matter what kind of scope or rifle he/she was using (except perhaps
if the rifle were bench rested on a no wind day). If they could,
they wouldn’t be mediocre!
Military snipers usually don’t feel comfortable past 800 yards
and only the best can get a 2 inch group at a 1000 yards. Twelve
hundred yards is a challenge for the top marksmen in the world
(with a .30 caliber). We’re talking about hitting a target that is
almost 3/4 of a mile away! A small amount of variable cross wind at
that range is going to totally prevent a person of “modest ability”
from hitting a human-sized target.
I recommend you retract your implied definition of
“mediocre/modest ability.” I think those are the words that have so
many shooters’ pantyhose in a bunch.
— LCDR Paul H. Doolittle, USNR
LOCKED OUT McCLINTOCK
Re: George Neumayr’s The
Invigorator:
Mr. Neumayr, unsurprisingly, speaks truth when he questions why
“rank and file Republicans” should support a party that exists
“only to raise a white flag.” I trust Mr. Neumayr implicitly to
enlighten and inform me as a California conservative — that’s why
I’d like some further analysis.
Arnold didn’t “do” it to the GOP. No, he’s not conservative.
But, as Ann Coulter points out this week, he’s not Gray Davis,
either.
In my last letter to the Prowler months ago I bemoaned
the rise of “Kindergarten Cop” and his new after-school
entitlement. I want McClintock — I just don’t know why no one in
the party speaks for him, donates to him, promotes him. He has an
articulately expressed, common sense plan.
After all, McClintock voted against the budget Senate Minority
leader Brulte “negotiated,” raising my car tax in a very
un-Republican way; that, after threatening each and every
Republican in the legislature with censure and active
anti-campaigning should they vote for a budget that — well -
raised the car tax. And increased spending last year by more than
$2 billion.
My question, then, Mr. Neumayr — how did we get this way, and
how do we fix it? Do we shun Arnold, support the 4%-ers in the
polls, then lose to Mr. Bustamante, a genuine leftist with $8
billion in new taxes he’ll admit to? While my boss packs the plant
for Arizona?
— Lee A. Tichenor
So what if Schwarzenegger reaches out to Tinsel Town? Are we to
wait for the grassroots populists to figure out who to champion?
Don’t hold your breath.
McClintock has better credentials than anybody — but where’s
the support?
Ronald Reagan was the people’s candidate. But he damn well
didn’t turn down the money and influence of the Hollywood
machine.
Sometimes action has to precede motivation.
Quit quibbling. Let’s win for a change!
— Stephen Fuchs
Chatsworth, CA
P.S. By the way: Barbecues are a lovely thought, but there are
less than 50 days until the election.
George Neumayr said it right when he said, “A party that abandons
its agenda ‘to win’ will have no agenda to promote once it
does.”
California Conservatives have a great candidate, Tom McClintock.
(TomMcClintock.com). If
only the media would include his name along with
Schwarzenegger!!
— Richard Davenport
Mr. Neumayr is right. Absolutely right. I cannot believe some of
the people I see on television who are supposed to be
conservatives, or neoconservatives, or whatever we call ourselves
now. Arnold is the only person running in California we can claim
to? You have to be kidding me! That guy is about as much a
Republican as he is faithful to his wife. the only thing that is
satisfying about the whole bunch of nonsense is that Ahnold and the
Democrats in California deserve each other. What is most sad about
it is there are a lot of good people in California that don’t
deserve either.
— Mike Webster
Dallas, TX
GOOD JOB
Re: Reader Mail’s Not
Buying:
I have to agree with Richard McEnroe and think Darlene Lager is
shooting the messenger. Fortunately for President Bush the DemoRATS
are beholden to the same interests who are exporting the jobs
overseas and thus can’t use that stick. Erskine Bowles tried using
that stick against Elizabeth Dole and was promptly reminded that
his wife exported thousands of textile jobs overseas. But the jobs
issue could gain critical mass in future elections. The jobs issue
isn’t just ordinary BS!
— Diamon Sforza
Fayetteville, GA
THEM THERE PILLS
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.’s Drug
Fix:
When you compare federal employee health costs to Medicare, you
need to consider the age of the insured. Older people need and get
much more care. People (including Tommy Thompson) think preventive
medicine saves money, when it actually only defers costs.
Organizations paying for the insurance of employees do save money
if they can avoid expenses until the employee is eligible for
Medicare. Eventually these people will get sick and die at even
higher prices than today. Because of the idiotic attacks on all
HMO’s, they will become obsolete even for the young employees. I
think market-based insurance can save some money, but not the vast
amounts implied in arguments such as yours.
— Robert Jones
Burlington, NC
Unfortunately, the only thing Mr. Tyrrell and Teddy Kennedy have in
common appears to be Wild Turkey. I would be willing to bet that
Kennedy’s medicine cabinets are filled with it. Bush has yet to
learn the hard lesson that when you attempt to find middle ground
with liberal Democrats, you wind up with the ground being owned by
the government. And turned into a park. Owned by the U.N. Liberals
will never rest until socialized medicine is here. A pill for
everyone and a doctor for no one.
— Mike Webster
Dallas, TX
THE GREAT ONE
Re: Mabel Rockwell’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” letter in
Reader Mail’s Not
Buying:
In regards to the reader mail on James Bowman’s review of
Open Range, I’m sure Mabel Rockwell and her husband in
Huntington Beach, CA are wonderful people. They at least read
The American Prowler.
But I always have to take someone’s definition of a movie as
“great” with a grain of salt. This term is overused by so many
movie lovers. Where does this leave truly great films like Gone
With the Wind or Citizen Kane or The
Godfather? Stupendous? Fantastic? Absolute nirvana?
— Greg Barnard
Franklin, TN
POINT OF PRIVILEGE
Re: Bob Johnson’s “Stateless” letter in Reader Mail’s Not
Buying:
Mr. Johnson writes from Texas that he suspects Larry Eubank of
being a fellow transplanted Californian, “doomed to live in another
state” (Indiana, not incidentally, my home state) because of
California politics. I am forcibly reminded by his choice of words
of those hyphenated Americans (African-Americans, Muslim-Americans,
Mexican-Americans, etc.) who are “doomed to live in another
country” (the United States, not incidentally, my homeland) because
of the inhospitable conditions in their country of preference. Or
should I just give Mr. Johnson the benefit of the doubt and assume
he really meant to say “privileged to live in another state”?
— Jenny Woodward
Bloomington, IN
