The American Spectator

VERBAL STAND DOWN
Re: Brandon Crocker’s Over the Top:

It’s past time to declare these clods (Ted, Dick, Howie, Hill, JFK, Harry, Chuck, and Algore) as treasonous. They’ve taken every effort to attack this country’s leader because they didn’t see any need to abide by the election laws of Florida. We are in a war between the states (of mind) and neither side can afford to yield to the other.

No matter how loud and how much of a lie is told (from either side), all attacks will be allowed. The difference is that on the right we have fewer propaganda points of release. The battle is joined. Ted, Dick, Chuck, Howie, and Algore from the left can rant and snort and grunt and Ann, Rush, Sean and anyone else from the right can do the same (if they have the spine) but the battle is joined and there will be a loser; the United States of America.

The rhetoric from both sides must be toned back but neither side should unilaterally disarm.
— Stu Margrey
Denton, Maryland

The astonishment of conservative pundits over the perfidious Democrat leadership’s blatant anti-American rhetoric is baffling to me. These people are and have been Jane Fondas for more than 30 years. Read your history, please. Read transcripts of speeches by Frank Church, George McGovern and all the Democrats of that era save for “Scoop” Jackson. Their utterances are filled anti-American vitriol and hatred for the institutions on which the nation was founded. Like Jane Fonda, they delighted in aiding our enemies in killing of our soldiers. See e.g. John Kerry; Bill Clinton; Edward Kennedy. This hatred of the nation that enabled them to obtain positions of huge influence and power, in spite of very modest abilities, cowardice, alcoholism, is part and parcel of the Democrat orthodoxy. We all know it. Everything that is wrong with the world is America’s fault. HIV: We did it. Starvation: Yep, we’re the culprits. Muslim radicalism: absolutely America’s comeuppance.
— unsigned

So if you’re a Democrat hating everything American is essential. The goal is a Gulag on the Cuban model. They’ve already got the mainstream media: we get all the news that’s fit to print (in the minds of Democrat leadership). And no, my local newspaper will not print letters critical of Democrats or their party.
— Jay W. Molyneaux
Wellington, Florida

Mr. Crocker suggests that perhaps it is time we started questioning the “patriotism” of the Democrats, but I must disagree with him. It is pointless to attempt to question something that does not exist!
— W.B. Heffernan, Jr.

Good article from Brandon Crocker today
— Robert J. McCreavy

I thought it was fairly obvious that Al Gore suffered a nervous breakdown around the time of the 2000 election, and that the Supreme Court went ahead and ended the contest because he was not fit for office. He continues to rave in public and I think it is indecent to pay too much attention to him. Or to let others abuse him for political purposes.
— George Freeman

Let the traitors talk, they are just signing their Democrat party death certificate. I refuse to use the term Democratic Party; they are NOT democratic.
— Elaine Kyle

HIPPY RIOTS
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.’s Our Angry Left:

Those on the left that hate this president more than they love their country will inevitably learn one of life’s great lessons. Hatred is the cannibal that will consume one’s soul. With Howie Dean and the boys and girls on the left, marching in lockstep, they are providing America with the living breathing evidence of the daily demise of a political party.

Tell me this folks. Who in this country votes for anger? Who in this country thinks Al Gore’s recent trashing in Saudi Arabia, of all that we love and believe in is worthy of our voting for him or his kind on the left into the oval office? And who in America wants to see President Hillary Clinton on TV every night? A frightening thought indeed, in my opinion.

As for me, I’d rather be forced to listen to a thousand scratching fingernails being run up and down a chalk board every night than to have to listen to Hillary. Just my opinion and not necessarily those of this radio station!
— Jim L.
East Sandwich, Massachusetts

R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr. isn’t joking. Frustration of the Democrats grow each day. And since deeds follow words as surely as night follows day, violence from the Left is just around the corner. But being forewarned and ready for it, such violence will be the end of the hard left’s strangle hold on the Democratic Party.
— Peter Skurkiss
Stow, Ohio

Mr. Tyrrell’s reference to “al-Gore” al-But put tears in my eyes. But (great Dane!) has he thought through the potential consequences of such writing? Is he prepared to reimburse people for the thousands of keyboards ruined by coffee spewed out in bursts of laughter? It’s something to consider.

As for violent tantrums by the angry left we should expect that, when it occurs, it will be limited to public property. If those rabid loonies carry their jihad onto private land they will be reminded that our side has guns. Their side doesn’t know the difference between birdshot and buckshot. There may come a day, though, when they learn what rock salt is, when it’s blasted at their sorry behinds as they try to deposit their Molotov cocktails onto our melon patches, storefronts, and porches. If they arrive with less illuminating offerings they might be greeted with pepper spray, tazers, or water balloons at the very least.

The Second Amendment underwrites the first and all other amendments and, indeed, the Constitution itself. It also protects private citizens from having to endure, on private property, the insane’s logic-free screech.
— R. Trotter

When talking about America’s 21st century Quislings please don’t forget to include Chuck Hagel, Lincoln Chafee, John McCain and those who would extend civil rights to terrorists. There is enough Murthaism to spread around.
— Michael Tomlinson
Crownsville, Maryland

Let’s hope, Dean, Carter and the truly offensive Kennedy and Gore shoot their mouths off with more hatred and lies. Let’s hope their supporters take to the streets in outrage! Because then it becomes more likely Conservative Republicans win more seats in November! Final note on Vice President Cheney. I don’t recall this type of coverage when the horrible Mr. Kennedy urinated on a waitress leg or was involved in an “accident” that resulted is someone’s death! No one seemed to care about the missing ten hours in that incident!
— Bob Montrose
Fort Lee, New Jersey

I loved Mr. T’s article on the Angry Left. However, it may mask a serious point. These morons are so angry, how long can it be before a shot is taken, a building burned or a poison administered? Think that is crazy? Go to these websites and read them. It can only be a matter of time before some 22-year-old retarded geek in leftie land does something.
— Bill Margeson
Dundee, Illinois

I concede that I have been concerned about the scenario raised by Mr. Tyrrell for some time. However, upon more reflection, I don’t really think that the angry American left has the moxie to take to the streets. It might be fashionable with the left these days to reprise all things from the counter-culture '60s but street fighting in the age of New Age? I don’t think so. After all, which Democrat leader will lead them into battle? We’ve nothing to fear from the craven Carter, Clinton, Gore or Dean; they’ll not be on the front lines of any street riots. Nooo, not these guys. Oh, maybe they’ll limo up to a MoveOn war rally and utter a few hateful invectives at Bush, but getting close to the action? No way. Not even the war hero John Kerry would risk it, assuming he’s not reassigned to Cambodia for a secret mission. In addition, the ranks of the angry left might be a bit depleted with the day spa crowd refusing to emerge from their organic mud baths so as to “man” the barricades. And even if some brave lefties were willing to have it out on the streets, meeting up with some of the many fed up, pent up, conservatives would result in the permanent loss of self esteem. The footage of this carnage would cause war correspondent David Gregory to pause for the good of troop moral. A war zone image of crying and pouting boomers would break the backs of those back at the Daily Kos. No, the more I think about it, the denizens of San Francisco had it about right. If the angry left is hankering for a fight, best make it a pillow fight. The symbolism expresses just the right tone. After all, isn’t that what it’s all about?
— A. DiPentima

SOLIDARITY DAY
Re: William Tucker’s Save This Date:

Remember, it was from Denmark that the Angles and Saxons emigrated to England, making Denmark the progenitor of the Anglosphere. Could the 5th-century Danes have imagined that their descendants would rule the world? Perhaps Danglosphere is a more appropriate name.
— David Govett

You are not correct in saying “not a single TV network” has publish the cartoons. Now I don’t know if there was a dozen shown, but there were at least five or six shown on Fox News and I think it was on Brit Hume’s show. I could be wrong on the show, because I just turn Fox News on and leave it on.
— Elaine Kyle

William Tucker has a great idea. I forwarded the column to my local newspaper. Much more noble than using playground taunts like “raghead.”
— unsigned

GRASSY KNOLL THINKERS
Re: Doug Powers’s The Vice President’s Plame Is Missing:

I’ll bet, truth be known, one would find that the Vice President Cheney, conspiratorialists are avid listeners and followers of the nightly radio show, Coast to Coast.

As for me, I don’t think that the Vice President even took a shot. I think it was Elvis that did shooting, from inside one of those low flying black helicopters. Hey, my theory is about as plausible as the rest of those whack jobs out there. Don’t you think?
— Jim L.
East Sandwich, Massachusetts

A BLOW FOR TASTE
Re: David Hogberg’s Not Funny:

Finally one of our Conservative friends spoke out against the rudeness of Ann Coulter. Many things she says make me cringe on most issues — I guess that is who she is. As a female I take offense. As a conservative I take offense. As a Republican I take offense. As an American I take offense. And mostly as a Christian I take offense.

Too bad, because she doesn’t seem to be winning over many people to our side. She has much of the opposite affect. If the Republican Party can afford those votes why not let her drag us into the mud with others?

Anyway, I sure hope Mr. Hogberg’s article is seen by many.
— Tara

I think the subject of Coulter, like the subject of the cartoon, has been pretty well debated and it’s time to lay them to rest. I also stand corrected in my positions on both and acknowledge that sometimes, we might as well call our enemies just what they are. That said, I would like to say the “controversy” over the VP the media is screaming at is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen. I live in a state where deer hunting is a state holiday basically. Each year, lately, some have been killed (three last season) because of this sport, in spite of all the hunter safety courses and other precautions. It happens. One careless moment and that’s that. This media hysteria shows how utterly bonkers liberals are, plus how devoid of factual information they have become. They trot out their idiotic experts who add insult to injury to anyone who has ever hunted and endlessly blather about nothing. Is anyone actually listening to these fools (besides the other nuts)?
— Pete Chagnon
Vermont

SOUND OF MUSLIM SILENCE
Re: Ron Schoenberg’s letter (under “Our Muslim Allies”) in Reader Mail’s Stay in the Shower, David Hogberg’s Not Funny and Reader Mail’s The Great Coulter Debate and Hogberg Day:

“The vast majority of Muslims are not participants in this ‘war of terror,’ nor are they sympathetic with our adversaries.”

Just where are the majority of Muslims? I do not hear loud voices condemning the thugs and killers. Am I missing something? All I hear is the Sound of Silence.
— Elaine Kyle

When I first read Ron Schoenberg’s letter, I thought for sure it had to be a piece of Scott Ott’s satire. Sadly it was not so. But what can you say about a letter that protests stereotyping yet begins with this, “Reading ‘The Great Coulter Debate’ confirms in the mind of this liberal that most conservatives are truly racist.” Oh, he adds that he thinks that not all of us are, but that smacks of the old “some of my best friends are blacks, Jews, etc.” line. Now if we plug in some different titles in his sentence we come up with, “9-11 confirms in the mind of this American that most Muslims are truly terrorists.” Now that is worse than anything Ann Coulter ever said, yet if he says it about conservatives, that somehow makes it OK.

When or where did liberals get the idea that it is wrong to call bad people bad names? If I know someone to be a thief and say, “Smith is nothing but a low down thief,” no one assumes that I think that all Smiths are thieves. But insult some terrorists and left thinks that you have insulted the entire Muslim world. That in itself is a more than a little condescending.

Before Schoenberg, and those that share his feelings, point their fingers and cry “racist!” perhaps they should tend to their own prejudices first.
— Scotty Uhrich
Glyndon Minnesota

Um, Ron… being a Muslim is a religion, it is not a race. Sorry, your poor attempt to flip up the race card yet again is as tired as Ted Kennedy after an all night binge.
— Craig C. Sarver
Seattle, Washington

First David Hogberg and then Ron Schoenberg have tried to characterize the mocking of a religion as racism. This is what happens when you let leftists define the terms of debate. It probably is not helpful to mock somebody’s religion but if anybody deserves it, Muslims do. They give none of the courtesies they demand for themselves. They go beyond treating non-Muslims as second class citizens in places they control and murder and humiliate. In America they just fantasize about some day implementing sharia (this is the religious justification for non-Muslims being second class citizens). In many ways they behave just like American liberals except for the murder part yet.

Ron Schoenberg is a self-confessed member of the American liberal movement which regularly takes Christian symbols and defiles them. I guess that makes him a “racist” or tolerant of “racism” in his own mind. I would just call him a bigot. Rag head seems a little funnier than a crucifix in urine, or a gay Jesus or the other clever ideas that spring from liberal land. Rag head seems to me to be a little like using the term red neck or hillbilly to refer to white people you don’t’ like. Again this is not in general helpful but doesn’t deserve all the hand wringing that both Hogberg and Schoenberg gave it.
— Clifton Briner

“We are going to need to get as many Muslims on our side as possible”! As my Scottish grandmother used to say, “Are you daft, man?” If this is an example of enlightened liberal thought, then it is a good thing it wasn’t around during WWII. The U.S. would have spent most of its time and effort trying to get all those good Germans “on our side”. “Democracy and the American way of life” may indeed have a lot to offer Muslims, however Mr. Schoenberg overlooks that sad fact that world wide, they have taken a good look at that way of life and rejected it out of hand. I guess Mr. Schoenberg is confident that that ground swell of moderate Muslim sentiment which has shown itself around the world and has condemned the rioters and killers we have seen on the news will sweep the organizations like Hamas and al-Qaeda away and embrace the rest of the world. Right! We’d all be better served if we gathered around a camp fire and awaited the coming of the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

There are enough Neville Chamberlains out there already. There is a word out there for people who try to win the hearts and minds of those who have sworn to kill them, and that word is CORPSE. I am always amazed at the liberal predilection for self-delusion. They have convinced themselves that Bill Clinton was a great president; that John Kerry is a war hero; that Jimmy Carter is a towering intellect; that Al Gore is presidential; and that Teddy Kennedy is a great statesman. This is no mean feat of sleight of mind, however, none of these liberal pipe dreams is nearly so harmful to those of us who subscribe to reality as the preposterous idea that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast world wide Muslim population wants only to live in peace and harmony with Christians and Jews. Think what you want about those previously mentioned liberal icons, but I draw the line when your callow naivete endangers my loved ones and me.
— Joseph Baum
Garrettsville, Ohio

SHOT COUNT
Re: Lawrence Henry’s Elementary — and Appalling:

I am shocked, SHOCKED!!!! The same White House press corps that raised Cain about the NSA surveillance because “private citizens” conversations might be captured, were raising even more Cain because the White House did not release medical information on the private citizen who was accidentally shot by the Vice President.

Tucker Carlson reported on his show last night that Mr. Cheney’s victim was hit by 200 pellets. I seriously doubt that #6 birdshot holds that many, especially in the 20 Gauge shotgun the VP was reportedly using.

Also reported in the blogosphere (get ready to laugh): Mr. Cheney intentionally shot his victim because he was having an affair with his (the victim’s) wife.

The only thing I haven’t seen is a connection to Halliburton but I would guess one is coming.
— C.D. Lueders
Melbourne, Florida

Lawrence Henry replies:
According to the report filed on the incident with Texas Fish & Game, Mr. Cheney was using a 28 gauge shotgun loaded with #7 1/2 shot.

SHAVING GEAR
Re: Mark Gauvreau Judge’s Shaving Like a Man:

Realize I’m a bit late but if you want a clean shave use Witch Hazel before and after shaving. Used in conjugation with a wet hot towel it opens your pores and cleans out any grime and dirt. Right after the witch hazel, apply some plain old Nozema for a really close shave. Witch Hazel as an after shave, can’t be beat, leaves the skin clean. It can also be used as a rinse after shampoo.
— unsigned

TRAUMATIZED AT HOME
Re: Shawn Macomber’s The Gray Zone:

First person accounts from a reliable source, intelligently reported without bias — a welcome antidote to slanted wire service tripe. TAS does a service to our military and those of us who are indebted to them with these articles.

PTSD is certainly an expected residual of service in an action such as this. The enemy is no more identifiable than those who boarded the flights and used the as Weapons of Mass Destruction on 9/11. How much simpler this war would be, if there were a country on the map marked al-Qaedistan, and all terrorists went home for the week-end. One bombing run and they’d all be pushing up daisy-cutters. And then we could listen to his caterwauling about collateral damage for the next millennium.

Sadly, our men face the faceless who wear no uniform. They have no souls and are willing to slaughter their own and themselves to make a pointless point. Technology has made it possible to blow up a tank with a device similar to one used to propel a child’s toy car here at home. If all of this is not a recipe for PTSD, tell me what is.

My brother did three tours in Vietnam — and yes, he knew how to pronounce Bien Hoa, as he was there during the Tet dust-up. A career army man, he said he never thought much about getting killed except possibly being “fragged” (this is not friendly fire) simply because he was a “lifer” or discovering too late his barber was actually Viet Cong. He pretty much subscribed to the theory that the bullet that’s got your name on it isn’t what you’ve got to worry about — it’s the one marked “To Whom It May Concern.” Yes, he came home changed. Older, grayer and quieter for a time. Our mother was the true casualty. She “watched the war” in horror with Walter Cronkite every evening and it literally scared her out of her wits. She never fully recovered. But at least my brother and others like him spared the Bill Clinton types the horrors of war. C’est la guerre.

Probably one contributing factor to PTSD is the really shabby way our military is treated by the liberal left. The “I support the troops, but not the war” is just the biggest crock ever uttered by those sniveling cowards. Hopefully, the prayers and the praise of the rest of us drowns out a little of it. Could somebody start manufacturing ticker-tape so we can have a proper parade when it’s really over?
— Diane Smith
South San Francisco, California

STEELER FIGHTER
Re: Jackie Mason and Raoul Felder’s Insult Law:

Kudos to Mason and Felder for the appropriately outraged response to the cartoon flap.

I will note only one minor problem: “I never saw a Jew going into meaningless fights. That is why you seldom see Jewish football players.”

I can think of one notable exception. During the Pittsburgh Steelers’ glory days in the 1970s, on a team crowded with future Hall of Famers (Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Mel Blount, John Stallworth, Jack Ham, Jack Lambert, Franco Harris), there was a tight end by the name of Randy Grossman. He was called “the Rabbi” by his teammates, and even helped convert one of his fellow players to Judaism. Considered a bit of an over-achiever, and small for a tight end, Grossman had a memorable career with the Steelers, known for his sure hands. He caught the winning touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl X.

Helping win the Super Bowl is not a meaningless fight.
— Lee Dise
Virginia Beach, Virginia