The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Matters of Life

2.3.05 @ 12:01AM

SMARTER THAN YOU THINK
Re: The Prowler's Innocents Abroad:

I have a different take on the event. Though I may be giving him way too much credit, perhaps old Joe was being crazy like a fox. It's not Biden who will be remembered for offending the Iranians. It will be the Americans. And of course everyone knows that George Bush sets the tone for America's relationships.
-- Mark Bidwell

I am shocked, SHOCKED, to hear that Joe Biden was NOT a class act at the Davos summit. If he cannot remember his personal academic record on the campaign trail, then he probably has trouble with protocol as well. Unfortunately, from time to time people like him end up in charge of American foreign policy, e.g. Madeleine Albright. A foreign officer once said that the problem with helping the Americans was that one never knew when they were going to stab themselves in the back.
-- David Shoup
Dublin, Georgia

ROCKIN' THE CHOIR LOFT
Re: Christopher Orlet's Where Would Jesus Advertise?:

So sad Mr. Brownridge knows not of the roots of Rock 'n' Roll that a Bible advertisement is rejected. Considering that the likes of Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Little Richard, among others, owe much of their talent to participation in church related activities the Rolling Stone would have little to cover. Nor does he seem to see the opportunity to expand his audience reach by letting the ad run.

I guess Mr. Brownridge would find little to move him from lyrics like "In the Ghetto' (Presley, 1969, #3 on Billboard). The religious/social backdrop of which is fairly powerful even 35 years later. But such oversight is the media's loss.
-- John McGinnis
Arlington, Texas

Hypocrisy aside, it is quite curious that Rolling Stone would refuse a paid-for ad from anyone. I think that this is more of an image driven rejection than it is an ideological one. Rolling Stone still likes to think of itself as ultra-hip, even though the sun has long ago set on its mystique. The magazine has taken to substituting glitz for content, and toeing the liberal line for independent thought. Ah, but there was a time, a heady celebratory time when one could find a multiplicity of viewpoints and ideas between its covers. But who can blame the magazine for prostituting itself when virtually every other media organ in the mainstream has done the same. Whenever I see one of those 60-year-old hippies, bald dome shining in the sun, gray disheveled pony tail flowing down his shoulders, I think of Rolling Stone and the glory it used to represent. Now it has to make do with articles in which John Kerry uses the F-word to show what a cool guy he is. Sad!
-- Joseph Baum
Newton Falls, Ohio

PERPENDICULAR PARALLELS
Re: Andrew Cline's The Lessons of Reconstruction:

This is a tortured attempt to show something that really was not the case. Iraq was oppression by a very small minority. Even many of the Sunnis were part of the oppressed. The South was oppression by an overwhelming majority and reconstruction of the South was in great part removing minority oppressions. In essence, reconstruction in Iraq should by all rights be much easier than reconstruction in the post Civil War South as now the majority will have the opportunity to govern hopefully without too much abridgment of minority rights.
-- Roger Peele

The parallels of Iraq as the Reconstruction South is an astute observation. There are differences, of course, but the point is well made and well taken. The Confederate cap of this Yankee born Civil War reenactor is off in salute to Mr. Cline. A bright future to the decent people of Iraq. Honor to the Americans who paid in blood for it. No place is as solemn as a military cemetery.
-- David Shoup
Dublin, Georgia

Additional point about the lessons of Reconstruction: neither liberals nor conservatives mention in defending laws against posse comitatus that the laws were part of a crooked settling of a national election and that they made resegregation possible by keeping the federal troops out of needed domestic law enforcement. Why would anyone defend such laws given their history? Why not at least mention why they were passed?
-- R.L.A. Schaefer
Dubuque, Iowa

LEFT COAST ETHICS
Re: George Neumayr's Hollywood Homicide:

I have bookmarked spectator.org for about a year now. Hardly a day goes by that I do not read at least one article from the site. I greatly appreciate the conservative voice in the midst of liberal media. This is the first time that I have responded to any of the articles. I enjoyed your article on the new Eastwood movie. I especially appreciated the way you presented the sanctity of all human life. I have not seen Million Dollar Baby, and after reading your review I am not sure that I will. I agree totally with your position, as presented, on the value of all human life, including the handicap. Truly we are all "human beings made by God." On the other hand, I have seen The Passion of the Christ. I understand what the point to all the violence was in that movie. You made several references to Christ or his claims and I was wondering what your spiritual beliefs are (i.e. Are you a Protestant/Catholic? Do you consider yourself to be a Christian/ Deist? To you, who is Jesus Christ?). From your article, you seem to have a good understanding of why Jesus came to earth. Why do you think that the Hollywood crowd cannot accept the approval that the American people gave to this movie?
-- Woody Chipman
Greenville, South Carolina

George Neumayr's "Million Dollar Murder" ought to be raised to the level of "must reading" by all high school and college students! It tells it like it is.
-- Allen O'Donnell
Wayne, Nebraska

Personal matters such as the quality in which one chooses to live their life, can not be tidily packaged in the set of rules your article conveys. Struggling for every breath would be difficult for anyone. It's obvious from your article that you would chose to endure that pain and suffering for decades, it's also obvious that you yourself have never been (nor have had a loved one) in that predicament.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Foreign Policy, Joe Biden, Abortion, Hollywood, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran, NATO, Oil