LIP GLOSS
Re: David Hogberg’s Loose Lips
Sink Campaigns:
If Mr. Hogberg thinks America is safer with Saddam Hussein
captured, then he is delusional. The Bush Administration just
heightened the alert and made motions to tighten airline security
because of increased fears about safety. It may be true that Howard
Dean speaks what’s in his heart before he settles for generic-talk,
the stuff Mr. Hogberg undoubtedly thinks is the kind of talk we
should continue to hear from Washington. But Howard Dean’s loose
lips have said a lot that needs to be said, whether it’s that
Democrats need to win the votes of Southerners on economic issues
or that in our system of government, people, even Osama bin Laden,
need to be proven guilty by trial.
The press is not allowed to talk to Mr. Bush freely. If they
were, they would have more material than they knew what to do with,
when it comes to lies and inanities. Meanwhile, they write about
trivial stuff — no wonder the country is in such bad shape!
— Carole Glickfield
This is regarding David Hogberg’s “As the saying goes, ‘Loose lips
sink ships.’ Too many liberal pundits have forgotten that they can
also sink campaigns.” Everything Hogberg says makes sense. The
problem is, people tend to forget.
Increasingly, elections are decided by current “image.” The
important questions are: What is the composite picture of a
candidate, and how recent is it? It may have very little to do with
words spoken, unless these are (1) utterly outrageous, and/or (2)
spoken in the last few weeks or days before an election.
Most of us are afflicted with “attention deficit disorder.” I
suspect that the Iowans and South Carolinians are not even going to
have much recall of Dean’s gaffes, unless Dean himself regularly
freshens the stream.
— Jeffrey S. Erickson
Davidson, North Carolina
One point of view I have not seem regarding Dean’s loose lips is
that he actually is voicing publicly what a majority of Democrats
often think privately. That the Democrat elites want to reign him
in show that they really do know that the positions they hold
privately are untenable to about 60% of Americans. That Dean does
not obfuscate and yet has a considerable following also shows that
at a certain point, what a good percentage of the Democrats hold
inside MUST burst forth at some point. Hopefully they have been
premature in this move and it will severely damage the party for
many years to come.
— Steven Cade
Wrightsville, Pennsylvania
Dean sure suffers from “foot-in-the-mouth disease!”
By the time the primaries roll in, he may have to roll in on a
wheel-chair, as there will be no foot of his left due to his
extreme leftist views.
— M. D’Souza
GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE
Re: Jed Babbin’s Happy
Rejectionist New Year:
A great summary of exactly how I feel. How did you know?
— Rich Renken
Chesterfield, Missouri
I received Jed’s article courtesy of a friend who asked “at what
age were you and Jed separated at the hip?” I’d swear if I didn’t
know better I’d claim Jed picked my brain apart and dashed off his
fine article. It is not often enough that we can read something
written well that reflects our philosophy that gently pokes fun at
the true idiots of our world, but, also, tackles the truth and
exposes the naysayers for what they are: idiots!
Three cheers to Jed, and this New Year’s toast will be with fine
wine, Made in America!
— Mike Jones
Upland, California.
Congratulations, Jed, on a great manifesto. It certainly matches my
mood. We should be actively working to undermine the French more at
home too. For a country that cannot build an aircraft carrier that
works correctly, there seem to be opportunities in Europe. Anyone
for an EFTA (European Free Trade Association) with the U.S.? And
anyone who doesn’t join (or isn’t invited to join) we will start
requiring visas and background checks and lots of other things when
they try to visit the U.S.
Paris delenda est!
— Bryan Mullinax
Monument, Colorado
HEAR HEAR, BRAVO BRAVO! Great line about where the U.N. could find
another place to enjoy the freedom they can’t get in their own
countries. To your rejections I can only add: both senators from
Vermont and boycotts of our neighbors Canada and Mexico.
Have a great ‘04,
— Gene Hauber
Meshoppen, Pennsylvania
CHEWINGS
Re: Enemy Central’s Enemy of the
Year:
In chewing the cud provided by your Enemy of the Year award, it
occurred to me: We seem to be on the verge of Mad Howie Disease or
BSG (bloviated spongiform gasbagopathy).
The good news is we won’t have to quarantine this particular
source before he pollutes the policy discourse food chain. He has
aggressively taken that task upon himself with his nonstop,
anti-American, gloom & doom nincompoopery. There may be
something more gratifying than watching a well-heeled, fat-headed,
self-absorbed would-be adversary trivialize himself into extinction
by drinking his own bathwater with a self-satisfied
slurp!, but at the moment it eludes me….
— Thomas E. Stuart
Kapa’au, Hawaii
“…we could not recall, perhaps owing to a medical
condition…”
The condition is called “Euphoric Recall.” It’s best known to me
by my inability to remember just how bad my experiences with women
have been, forever consigning me to approaching the next one with
joy and anticipation (Euphoric Recall) ; unable to recall with
sufficient force the memory of my last debacle with them!!
— Bill Ryan
REALITY TAS
Re: Shawn Macomber’s Gassing
Poetic and Washington Prowler’s Dean Is in
the Details:
Even the best of sitcoms can’t compare with this primary. No
laff track necessary, either. I read TAS this morning and
laughed so hard, tears streamed down my cheeks. John F***ing Kerry
doing Robert Frost over a ladle of chili in New Hampshire while
Dean is contemplating a possible Elmer Gantry tour of the South is
the ultimate reality show. It’s like “The Simple Life” meets
“Survivor.”
— Kitty Myers
Painted Post, New York
Howard Dean is so transparent that I wonder why his ardent
followers can’t see through him. The thought of this country being
under his control is downright scary. This is a man who would love
to dictate, he doesn’t appear to have any compassion and seems to
be so full of hate for everything. I firmly believe that everyone
is entitled to their religious beliefs so hopefully Howard Dean can
find some comfort in his religion whatever that is. His followers
must be aware that he has hinted at changing streams if he doesn’t
get the nomination. In other words, Howard Dean would pick up his
toys and go home! Some
leader!!
— Jane
Connecticut
Dean’s purported description of Jesus (in the past tense, no less)
is so political and secular it actually well describes George W.
Bush in his own courageous and iconoclastic global campaign for
democracy and freedom for the oppressed of Third World countries
(and no doubt France too):
“[He] was someone who sought out people who were
disenfranchised, people who were left behind. He fought against
self-righteousness of people who had everything.… He was a
person who set an extraordinary example.”
— Eric in Denver
Candy Crowley, a Republican apologist posing as a CNN reporter,
understandably likes to diss Howard Dean. “Howard Dean will not win
Ms. Congeniality,” she states. “He does not like taking it but he
sure like to dish it out.”
This worries her and other Republican cheerleaders for Howard
Dean’s approach is in sharp contrast to the remainder of the
Democratic establishment which goes out of its way not to offend
Republican sensibilities even as right wing propaganda organs fire
full broadsides. Only in America has the populations been
conditioned like Pavlov’s mutt to believe that “liberal” is a dirty
word Before Dean, the strategy of Democratic nominees was to stay
as low as possible and hope for the republicans to self-destruct a
la Nixon or for the economy to circle the drain. The new boss would
be the same as the old boss, only with better manners. Political
and philosophical cowardice is the hall mark of those Democratic
nominees now attacking Dean.
They did not even begin to question or criticize Bush in any way
until Dean showed them it was OK (and the polls showed there was a
market for it).
Kerry and Gephardt are unelectable in a national general
election, which is why the Republican spin meisters and the cowed
main stream media are trying to talk them back into this race
trying to talk about how Dean is fracturing the Democratic party.
Are you kidding? Would Kerry have to mortgage his house to keep the
show going if this was a contentious race? They are being steam
rolled and they don’t understand why.
And the why is because their way of looking at the world is not
that different from the neoconservative theoreticians they want to
replace. It is the politics of old men leading an old country,
going broke and in debt trying to maintain it’s antiquated vision
of a fictitious empire.
Only Howard Dean has the integrated philosophy which views
America as a young country, just entering adulthood, and which
realizes that if it can get its act together, the United States can
truly fulfill its rightful destiny of leading the world to a better
place.
— Thomas DeChastelain
Ottawa, Ontario
TEETOTAL NATION
Re: Eric Peters’s Holiday
Roadblocks:
Thanks to Eric Peters for his fine work in the continuing
campaign to unmask the one and true goal of Mothers Against Drunk
Driving, to wit: the return of Prohibition — along with whatever
jack-booted enforcement that unnatural law would require. (Of
course sobriety checkouts are a gross assault on the Bill of
Rights. Anyone who believes people in a fee society should be
periodically braced by armed police and made to prove they haven’t
committed a crime - on threat of spending the night in lockup with
some very interesting people — was raised on the wrong side of the
Oder, and is clearly not Land of the Free and Home of the Brave
material.)
People who expend a great deal of time and energy trying to
criminalize driving with a blood alcohol level .06 are either
cynical, stupid, or just royal tight-asses. They can’t truly care
about reducing carnage on the highway. If they did they’d be
helping organize such groups as, “Mothers Against Driving While
Talking on a Cell Phone,” or “Mothers Against Putting on Makeup in
the Rear View Mirror While Driving.” People in these last two
categories are more of a threat to the motoring public than I am
after I’ve had two glasses of wine with dinner.
Whatever worthy goals MADD may have begun with, they’ve
degenerated into the worst sort of Puritan harridans on cultural
jihad. And, sadly, the only reaction testosterone-challenged
elected officials across the fruited plain seem to have to these
bitter shrews on their benighted mission is an abject, “Yes, dear,”
no matter how outrageous the next item on MADD’s pinched
agenda.
It’s enough to drive you to drink.
— Larry Thornberry
Tampa, Florida
What does one do when, after accomplishing one’s principal goal,
one discovers that an on-going need to generate cash to pay for a
Washington office, staff, retainers, and the like? Take a page from
the book of every other interest group: gin up ever more
unreasonable positions for the true believers.
— unsigned
HOLIDAY PERFECTION
Re: John Corry’s Sing Praises
to A Christmas Carol:
Yes, indeed, sing praises to A Christmas Carol! This
1950 interpretation of the Dickens story is my absolute favorite!
My Christmas is not complete without a viewing of it.
On Christmas morning, this version was broadcast on cable while
my family was opening presents and “making quite merry.” My brother
suggested trying to find a station that was playing Christmas
carols, if no one minded. After a momentary silence, I said that I
wanted to have the movie playing in the background. I must have
unconsciously shot him such a look to suggest that I was not above
bloodying his nose, as I used to do 40 years ago, if the channel
were to be changed at that moment. He immediately threw up his
hands in a defensive gesture and immediately agreed that we should
continue to watch A Christmas Carol, or more properly,
Scrooge. And this was the abominable “colorized” version! We
couldn’t figure out how to damp down the color on my parents’
television. Oh, well, we suffered through.
— Evelyn Leinbach
