The American Spectator

p> FUN STUFF br> Re: Judd Magilnick’s Somewhere Over the Penumbra : /p>

Ok, I’ve dusted myself off from rolling on the floor in painful laughter. May I live long enough to see it. The Tancredo v. Bush idea of letters of marque has been suggested in Reader Mail sometime in the past. (I am willing to split the percentage with the Spectator.) But paying bounty is really not that farfetched or old-fashioned. It is similar to the writ of arrest that a bounty hunter uses against someone who has jumped bail.

p>But I have to say, this is one of the funniest pieces I have read in quite a while. Thanks. br> — John McGinnis br> Arlington, Texas /p>

Mr. Magilnick in his “Somewhere Over the Penumbra” essay makes some good points, but starts out by saying that there are no longer any repressed opinions in today’s society.

I have to disagree. Every society I ever heard of has its taboos and shibboleths, including ours. Sometimes it is called political correctness, but it’s really more than just politics. For example, in today’s society, the racists are always white. Officially, at least, there is no such thing as a black racist. The sexists, of course, are always male. Religion can have filth poured all over it, but only if it’s Christianity. All other religions — Islam most of all — must be handled with hushed reverence. When talking of the frontier wars, it is all about Indian violence against whites, never Indian violence against whites, or even against other Indians.

Of course, it involves more than just general or specific political taboos. There are many others. For example, our ancestors had no trouble talking about age, loneliness, and death, and often did so. We don’t — except briefly at times like Hurricane Katrina.