The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Remaining Supreme

4.2.04 @ 12:01AM

VDARE DEVIL
Re: Reader Mail's Peter Brimelow on the Sierra War:

It's nice to see that my old colleague, Peter Brimelow, has ventured into a forum other than Vdare. Love to pat him on the back for getting out and about, except that he hasn't come bearing any facts.

Brimelow mentions the high series projection of 518 million cited by the Census Bureau. Well, he seems to have forgotten the low projection of 283 million -- which would mean that the U.S. population would remain virtually unchanged. Since neither the low or high estimates are ever achieved by either businesses or governments (Brimelow should remember his Forbes training), the middle is the one that will most likely occur.

As for this argument that population growth will lead to sprawl and a lack of "amenity": This assertion entails that development will continue unabated without some sort of government interference. Obviously Brimelow haven't been paying attention to the ordinances passed by Atlanta and other metro areas to restrict residential development, either through subsidy programs to encourage urban infill development or by levying "environmental impact" fees on projects.

This also assumes that there won't be any sort of market approach that will ultimately accommodate both growth and the desire for green space. I don't know if he can prove it. After all, look at history: Over the last century, this country has grown from 76 million to 280 million, yet there are still vast stretches of open country. The average person in 1900 would have breathed in fumes from factories that weren't equipped with scrubbers used to reduce toxic fumes; chances are they wouldn't have had running water. Today, sensible environmental regulations have led to cleaner air; technology and markets have equipped all but the most antiquated homes with running water. I would say those factors, along with our strong population growth -- which has fueled the growth of our consumer-oriented economy -- we live in a more amenable period of time than in any point in history.

None of this has apparently factored into either the arguments made by lefty anti-immigrationists or those on the Right such as Brimelow. But then, I wouldn't especially expect the Right-leaners to do so because the environment is not an issue of real concern.

Like other strange bedfellows, the alliance Brimelow and his fellow-travelers have formed with the Tanton-Lamm anti-immigrationists is based on the desire to banish all but European-born Caucasians -- such as himself -- from entering the country. To take it further, with the exception of Brimelow, who has shown me nothing but kindness, I would suspect that most of the Right-leaning anti-immigrationists would also want to ship native Hispanics (which are considered Caucasian) and non-Caucasians out of the country as well. Why? Because the arguments made by Right immmigrationists are based on an irrational fear that if European-born Caucasians become a minority, the nation will sink into an abyss.
-- RiShawn Biddle

DRIVING MR. KERRY
Re: George Neumayr's Kerry Gasses:

George Neumayr brings up a fantastic new area to press John Kerry on with respect to developing renewable resources. Here in Massachusetts, there's a project called Cape Wind on the table that would place 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound and take 3/4 of Cape Cod off the electric grid with the exact cheap, clean, renewable energy that Kerry is so much in favor of. What a great opportunity for Kerry to put his money where his mouth is and talk up his support for what would be the first offshore wind farm in America. A lay-up, right? Well, not exactly.

Because of a preponderance of the same "beautiful people" that typically support the Democratic Party are also the wealthy oceanfront property owners, this is turned into a classic "nimby" issue. And considering that one of the largest property owners is also the senior senator here in Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy, you can see that this issue would be better off swept under the rug.

A deliciously classic example of Kerry talking up a storm, and when opportunity knocks doing nothing in the name of furthering his political career. I think getting Kerry in a corner on this one would be a candidate for the flip-flop hall of fame.
-- William H. Stewart
Boston, Massachusetts

Wanted to let you know that last week there was a film clip on one of the news shows of John Kerry getting into a Chevy Suburban or GMC Yukon. I guess that he wants all of us to give up our big SUV's and drive electric cars. Maybe he wants to have the whole road to himself in his Suburban.
-- R.J. Cook

What Kerry and Hillary and their ilk (elitists who have the solutions to all our problems, yet won't be obligated to experience the solution) want is for us to pay $5.00 per gallon of gas. It doesn't affect them, they'll still be able to fill-up their limos, or jet off to the Alaska tundra and snap photos to send back to us plebeians who no longer can afford vacations/travel. They'll be so smug in their justifications of how they saved the wilderness for us, yet we will never be able to travel to see those sites because we can no longer afford the price of gas.

Liberal/socialist solutions are never imposed on the elite who think them up. The Russian-Chinese-North Korean-Cuban Communist elite never had to wait in lines at government clinics, or use ration cards , or be restricted in their freedom of indulgence. Kerry and Hillary want us to go to government schools, have health care at government clinics, and pension checks from government pensions, and on-and-on, yet they are immune from all this. I doubt if either one of them knows (or cares) what the price of a gallon of milk is or the price of a can of tuna.....
-- Fred Edwards

Now isn't it just great that Kerry can suggest that the rest of us "peons" can cut our gas mileage, take public transportation, buy smaller cars, all of those big ideas of what the general population should do. But not the Kerrys, he who can get on the phone and order his DRIVER to pick him up at any time of the day or night . And in a limo, but they no doubt , are the only form of transportation that someone of his importance should use.

Letter to the Editor

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