ACLU MATED
Re: Doug Bandow’s Dear Nadine
…:
The ACLU invites me to become a supporter at least twice a year.
I have told them that I will not join as long as their politics
advocate more power to the state rather than to the individual.
They continue to write me. I received the latest request last
week.
This summer I attended the State Libertarian Convention for
Texas. A representative of the Texas ACLU spoke. I told her that I
could not support them because of their advocacy of government
power, while the Libertarians advocate individual rights. She told
me I should not judge the ACLU on one issue.
One issue?
— Raymundo Aleman
If the ACLU is so concerned about rights, how about our right to
walk our streets free from fear of crime? How about letting our
children play outside without our having to worry about pedophiles
and creeps preying on them?
Also, while the rights of the minority are supposed to be
protected in a democracy, isn’t it still the basic precept of
democracy that the majority rules?
— Frank Mauran
I was one of those receiving a request to join. It was accompanied
by a questionnaire re my stands on motherhood and apple pie. After
answering their questions, all accompanied by a lot of “buts,” I
returned their form in the prepaid envelope with my contribution. A
whole penny taped onto the form. Obviously, I wouldn’t give two
cents to that bunch.
— Donald A. Holloway
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
KERRY DRIVEN
Re: Brandon Crocker’s Kerry Jumps
Off the Deep End:
This article has articulated exactly what many Americans think.
It’s so good to know that others out there in the country share the
same views and care for the country. Kerry is so obviously a liar,
and not slick and oily like the slickmeister. Keep up the good work
and God Bless…
— Henry Gooch
Gulf Shores, Alabama
I’ve never heard anyone say “John Kerry is one sharp politician” or
even “John Kerry has one sharp mind” or John Kerry anything except
comments about the wealth of his wife. When you really think about
it he is a non-player outside of his home state.
— Richard Ledford
Brandon Crocker asserts Howard Dean has finally driven John Kerry
insane. If so, it looks to have been a short drive. Those who
lament the length of the quadrennial presidential wrist wrestling
contest between wannabes in the run up to the first set of
primaries ought to re-think their complaint. One of the great
advantages of this extended gauntlet — through millions of other
peoples’ dollars, hundreds of thousands of trudged miles and often
through the very limits of exhaustion — is the chance for voters
to see how the wannabes control themselves in high stress
situations.
Of course, the process ain’t perfect. We did, after all, give
JFK a squeaker victory over his pressure-tested opponent. There
must be something about these New England politicians lusting for
high office that seems to make them crumple under pressure — John
F. Kennedy flinching at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, Teddy making those
endless telephone calls from his motel room to cover his sorry butt
while one of his boiler room bunnies breathed the last of the air
trapped in the back seat of his submerged automobile at
Chappaquiddick in 1969, Ed Muskie crying in the snow in 1972, John
Kerry imploding in an interview with Rolling Stone.
And now we’re being asked to believe that Howard Dean is New
England politician cut from different bolt of material. Tough sell,
even if the inventor of the Internet — the guy who needed a female
consultant to teach him how to be an alfa male and the guy who
booted away what should have been a peace/prosperity/budget surplus
shoo-in of an election — has endorsed him. It may be an especially
tough sell because Al Gore had to stick the knife of
betrayal into the back of his ultra-loyal 2000 running mate in
order to endorse Dean.
— Thomas E. Stuart
Kapa’au, Hawaii
MISSING O’BRIAN
Re: James Bowman’s review of Master
and Commander: The Far Side of the World:
The nautical photography and effects are the most gorgeous stuff
I’ve ever seen. The design work is awesome, as is the
cinematography. The lighting beautifully evokes a time when
illumination came from whale oil and beeswax, before Mr. Edison
gave us our bright, indiscreet century.
Unfortunately, Peter Weir, the screenwriter and director,
completely misses the flavor of O’Brian’s dialogue, and, as a
result, distorts the conduct of the two main characters rather
severely.
Aubrey and Maturin address each other in an egalitarian,
confrontational manner that no two gentlemen of their class ever
would have done, no matter how close their friendship, without
coming to swords or pistols. This is an inexcusable error, since
O’Brian’s own dialogue exists to provide, if the screenwriter is
ambitious, a wonderful template, or, if he is merely an honest
craftsman, to cherry-pick from as needed. Indeed, Weir had to be
aware of the dialogue, because what he has done instead,
particularly in Maturin’s case, is liberate the characters’ private
monologues from the civilized confines of their minds and render it
as speech. It leads to conversations that might have played out as
high drama between Picard and Riker on Star Trek but have
no place in the great cabin of a British Man of War at the start of
the 19th century.
In addition, where he has elected to wax creative, he lays down
some whoppers: one conversation stopper had Aubrey describing how
the villainous Frenchman had “cut across their tail,” suggesting
that the writer was confusing topsails with Top Gun.
The relationship between Aubrey and Maturin, excepting the
anachronistic treatment of the dialogue, is faithfully presented.
Russell Crowe does a solid job of presenting Aubrey the Lion at
sea, though the script gives him no opportunity to explore the
character as ass ashore.
Paul Bettany gives an effective sense of Maturin as an outsider,
albeit something of a cherished naif, to the ship’s community, but
the dialogue problem shows especially in his character, as
Maturin’s internal monologue is explored far more in the novels
than Aubrey’s and gives the screenwriter more chances to go wrong.
Also, again, the script offers no opportunity to go into Maturin’s
series-long love story with the fiery Diana Villiers, a love story
that makes Pasternak look temperate.
Also, and this is purely subjective on my part, Mr. Bettany is
just too young and purty to be the Stephen Maturin O’Brian
describes when I read the novels, a man who has walked a very long
and hard road and has both the emotional and physical scars to show
for it.
The script itself draws its substance from neither of the novels
alluded to in the title, but picks and chooses incidents and
supporting characters from all over the series to adorn its
manufactured plot (and inexplicably neglects others: to send the
Surprise to Brazil while leaving out the story of the
debauched sloth is an act of criminal non-levity). This could be a
problem if the franchise generates further adaptations.
Still, it’s a rousing swashbuckler, a great sea story, even if
it isn’t quite a Patrick O’Brian sea story. Just on a visual and
entertainment level, it rewards seeing on the big screen.
— Richard McEnroe
WITHOUT BLINDERS
Re: Jed Babbin’s Cordon and
Search:
Jed Babbin is right. Trying to win hearts and minds in the
Middle East is a Wilsonian wet dream — a fool’s errand only
liberals and compassionate conservatives would go to the wall for.
Hearts in that region are as fickle as the desert wind, and most of
their minds are rats’ nests, no more orderly than a teenager’s
bedroom and as shallow as an Episcopal bishop. These folks almost
always align themselves not with the most compassionate kid on the
block, but the toughest. (To win in the Middle Eat you have to
pitch inside.) Best we should return to the philosophy of the
early, lapsed Chuck Colson, to wit: When you have them by the
balls, their hearts and minds will follow. So lets just be sure
that Saddam is belly up, then turn the country and the oil wells
back over to the locals and go home, leaving behind the unambiguous
message that the next time Iraq, or any of its ratbag neighbors,
gets crosswise to American security interests we’ll be back to bust
some chops again. If we follow this course, we likely would have to
UPS a carload of smelling salts to the State Department, and Barbra
Streisand might pass on from acute vapors, but I’m willing to take
the chance.
— Larry Thornberry
Tampa, Florida
You and General Downing are voices crying in the Wilderness. By
now, you know I agree with damn near everything you write. And I
don’t disagree with this article. But… I am becoming increasingly
worried about the situation in Iraq. Two examples, one anecdotal,
the other from the Dallas Morning News:
1. I was talking to a client of the firm. He is an American
citizen, but originally from Lebanon. Somehow the conversation
turned to Iraq. Immediately, he began a discourse about how we were
“occupation” forces and not liberating forces. He began to recite
to me how many of the Arabs in this country believe that we
sympathize too much with Israel. Then he began to explain to me
that Israel wants Iraq, and even stated as fact that the “Zionists”
are in Iraq now doing business and trying to control what goes on
over there. If Arabs in this country believe that nonsense, what
are the Iraqi people thinking?
2. Even more significant, the article on the front page of the
Dallas Morning News today was about the Muslim clerics in
Iraq, in particular Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani,
criticizing a U.S. plan to transfer governing power to Iraqis over
the next eight months. His complaint: too slow, and did not include
popular elections. Al-Sistani is Iranian-born, which is enough to
cause the hackles to rise. The article claimed that this guy can
cause huge uprisings and popular unrest if he begins to take an
active opposition role to the U.S. And I believe that is a real
possibility. The article also claimed that clerics like al-Sistani
could cause a civil war, and could use their clout to install an
Islamic government.
While I have been around enough to not believe everything I
read, I do have serious fears about this kind of thinking by
Iraqis. I am not sure that we can do what needs to be done in Iraq.
Maybe the worst mistake Bush made was in assuming that the Iraqi
people really want freedom. At least, the same freedom we enjoy in
our country.
— Mike Webster
Dallas, Texas
MESSAGE RECEIVED
Re: Patrick Hynes’ Don’t Tell
Us What to Do:
Loved the article by Pat Hynes!!! I think he’s captured the
essence of New Hampshire voting patterns. This state does have a
strong libertarian streak in it. In all of the bunk I’ve read about
our first in the nation primary lately, this is the first article
that makes sense!
— unsigned
BRAVO
Re: Paul Beston’s The NFL’s
Lonely Hero:
Bravo to the Tillman brothers. Assuming that they were at their
home base (Fort Lewis), then they are assigned to 2nd Battalion
75th Ranger Infantry.
Having served in 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Infantry in the
1970s, I salute their efforts and wish them both good luck and god
speed.
— LTC Jim Gierlach
