The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Scrooge McDemocrat

1.26.06 @ 12:01AM

SKIN DEEP
Re: Lisa Fabrizio's The West Fling:

As I read Ms. Fabrizio's ever-insightful article, I paused a moment to wonder -- if Ray Nagin, got away with his "chocolate" New Orleans remark, would I be forgiven for pointing out this was uttered by a "cafe au lait" official, surrounded by butterscotch supporters? I guess not. In fact, it's skating on pretty thin ice to even suggest. But if Nagin is going to characterize the New Orleans population, he will have to employ licorice, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, caramel and so on, to French Vanilla. No sillier or more insulting than "chocolate."

Years ago I had a Chinese neighbor (once called Oriental, now Asian) who repeatedly referred to me as "you co-casions." I asked him if I had ever categorized him as to his race (since re-labeled "ethnicity"). He said, "No." I then said, "Well if you will stop call me "you co-casions," I promise never to call you a Chink." He laughed and that ended that. Today it might cause a Tong War.

As you may have guessed, I find all this color-charting a bit tedious.
-- Diane Smith
South San Francisco, California

Ms. Fabrizio's witty and humorous analysis of the delusions that plague the American Left, leaves unsaid a deeper and more serious psychosis that we need to acknowledge. For the longest time, Conservatives have been troubled by the Left's seemingly unfazed attitude towards the oft expressed goals of radical Islam. We have been told in the most chilling of terms that the difference between Western Culture and radical Islam is the fact that we cherish life, whereas they cherish death. It is this raw expression of nihilism that makes radical Islam so dangerous. Nothing is out of bounds and no act of terror, no matter how despicable or cowardly is not deserving of approbation by its followers. Thousands dead are the cherished goal to obtain the fruits of paradise.

So while I enjoyed Ms. Fabrizio's humorous chiding of the fantasy world constructed by the American Left in order to avoid the harsh reality that they are no longer in control, I perceive there exists a despair in their delusions that eerily dovetails with the tenants of radical Islam. The more bellicose and unhinged the American Left gets, the more they slide towards the nihilism of radical Islam. If the proponents of radical Islam cannot achieve their Islamic Paradise on Earth, they damn well will try and make sure that the rest of us will not live to fulfill ours.

As the American Left observes the systematic remaking of the cherished institutions they once claimed complete ownership of, the more appealing the zero sum equation of radical Islam becomes. I don't think I overstate the case, not when the New York Times gives not a whit about disclosing the most sensitive of national security secrets and indeed delights in the harm this disclosure has caused the war effort. These are not the actions of rational people. We can only hope that until the madness passes from their fevered brows, that the American Left will be content to play act episodes of "West Wing" rather than an episode of 24.
-- A. DiPentima

BURNING IS GOOD NEWS
Re: Patrick Hynes's Black Hat Democrats:

The good news about Patrick Hynes's account of leftists trashing conservative books and authors (ditto the rest of their fulminations in political discourses today) is that this sort of thing merely proves the end times of liberalism as a serious political philosophy are here. Ranting and vandalism is typical of bitter-enders, not of an ascendant political culture.

Our conservative books were almost all reviewed, respectfully, usually with disagreement, by Publishers Weekly, Kirks Reviews, Library Journal and the rest of these reviewers for reviewers and the book trade until the early 1980s, at which point blacklisting became the norm (for any conservative author not a brand name). While not good for business, I at least took satisfaction in knowing our side had to be winning when this sort of thuggery by purported liberals was felt to be necessary to preserve their perceived "on top" status.

Fortunately, the internet, the rise of scores of new conservative niche magazines, hundreds of conservative bloggers and thousands of talk radio programs, and the ability to sell direct to those interested in our books have made the traditional book pre-review media (and their clients running book review pages of newspapers and mass magazines) unnecessary.

In another five to ten years, I surmise, the owners of traditional book review media will wise up, and replace the ideological thugs they currently employ, or they will go out of business, to be replaced by new publications. Time is on our side.
-- Jameson Campaigne
Jameson Books, Inc.
Ottawa, Illinois

Mr. Hynes's article is just plain wrong. It has to be. Democrats care nothing of fame and fortune or power. They only care about "the people," don't they? Isn't that why the senior senator from Massachusetts left Miss Kopechne alive and well in the back seat of a submerged car? Because he cared so much about serving the people that he was willing to make her a small and unimportant sacrifice, so his career of "serving the people" could continue?

What about the Clintons? Surely they didn't become President just to become rich, did they? I mean, sure, the money comes very easy and in truckloads now, but didn't they really just want to serve people and give young woman a chance to fondle and use the presidential equipment? We all should embrace such egalitarianism.

So Mr. Hynes, go peddle your falsehoods elsewhere. America is too smart to fall for your thesis that democrats are just about power, privilege, money, and sex. We know that there's more. Why, insanity is also a big part of their value system -- just look at Al Gore and Howard Dean! See... they do hire the handicapped.
-- Jay W. Molyneaux
Wellington, Florida

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