The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Count Hillary

3.2.06 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 4)

Since 99.9 percent of people seem to carelessly use this illogical/incorrect phrase, let me point out that he is actually concerned that the newspaper companies could NOT care less (about road safety, their contractors, etc.). The colloquial form of the phrase should be "couldn't care less."

If they "COULD care less" then there are other (unstated) issues of even lower priority than the one under discussion. So the priority of the issue under discussion becomes ambiguous. Is it "high enough," since it is clearly higher than at least some other (unstated) issues?

The construction also leaves open the possibility that the issue is the HIGHEST priority of all, the exact opposite of the author's intention!

I hope my speaking out on this pet peeve does NOT trivialize the important safety (and media hypocracy [sic]) concerns raised in the column.
-- Kevin Amaro
Hayward, California

BELABORED FAILURE
Re: The Prowler's Reality Strikes:

Residing in the basket case of Union engineering that is Michigan. One observes the UAW and their organized brethren go after every business that attempts to locate here. Regardless of the state's offering these candidate companies; tax abatements (tax cuts do work!), the land deals, and all the wining and dining. These companies respectfully "consider" Michigan's proposal's because a better and less cumbersome deal probably lurks elsewhere.

Another reason for "Big Labor's" decline: The past placards and protestations of organized labor have resulted in, EEOC legislation, anti-discrimination, anti-exploitation laws, overtime rules, and the numerous workplace protections mandated by the state(s) and the FEDS. As well as competition from well paying employers and labor's overnight flight from state to state as employees themselves through their education and the progress of mobility has empowered the worker. These same workers today forsake the onerous and costly Union dues and their strong-arm leftist philosophies of political pressure to adhere to their way.

The unions have a few hosts left: The "big" three, and state and federal workplaces. The rest of the country has moved on.
-- P. Aaron Jones
Huntington Woods, Michigan

The unions are what is wrong with this country. They price themselves out of jobs and cause companies to go belly up or send jobs overseas. Unions should not be able to use union dues, without consent, and give to political parties. In fact having to join a union to get a job should be outlawed. All states should be RIGHT TO WORK.
-- Elaine Kyle

Labor and management have a common foe and it is the cheap foreign labor resource because keeping factories and jobs in the U.S. is good for companies and the country if it can be done and bad for both if it cannot. Labor and management therefore need each other as never before.

They need to work together to find ways to make the American labor resource more competitive. This will take reducing health care costs and the costs of litigation, both of which inflate wages and other costs of manufacturing products. There are ways to do both and labor can lead the way to its own salvation. These issues happen to be Republican issues.

Labor and the Republican Party therefore need each other as never before.
-- Allen Hurt

JED'S DISSENTERS
Re: Jed Babbin's Have We Lost in Iraq?:

I generally find myself in agreement with Jed Babbin, but I must disagree with his assessment of Iraq. What we are seeing is America's lack of will to sustain a conflict for more than four years. Aside from our revolution (a win) and Vietnam (a loss) the United States just doesn't have the stomach to sustain a war for more than four years. That is a reality of who we are as a people. This war began on 9/12/2001 (despite the left's attempt to uncouple 9/11 from Operation Iraqi Freedom) and the country is well past the four-year mark and beginning to exhibit its historic inability to maintain the "sacrifices" (a joke regarding the vast majority of Americans outside the family's of the military) to win. We're ready to throw in the towel and move on with our mundane lives. We have grown tired of the war. President Bush's failure, as with those who actually support the Global War on Terror as opposed to the couch potato patriots, is a failure to understand this about the American psyche -- a problem exacerbated by the "Lewinsky wars" of the 1990s.

Had Jefferson Davis realized this historical reality and not placed John Bell Hood in command of the Army of Tennessee, Atlanta may have held out till after the 1864 election and Lincoln's sure defeat at the hands of a war weary Union electorate. The Democrats would have come to power and the possibility of a negotiated peace (despite McClellan's words) was a real possibility. In 1944 before Germany was defeated, President Roosevelt, sensing his party and the nation's war weariness, ordered the "arsenal of democracy" to return to a peacetime footing. The result was troops inadequately prepared to meet the onslaught of the Germans in the Ardennes and 29,000 dead Americans in the month long Battle of the Bulge. Of course, despite the inadequacies the American Soldier prevailed. Never ever underestimate the courage or strength of the American fighting man/woman only the public's will.

Letter to the Editor

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