The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Moving On Up

3.31.06 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 5)

We need term limits for both houses of Congress. Good enough for the President should be good enough for them also. I keep asking my Senators and Congressman what they think about term limits, but so far have not gotten one to answer me.
-- Elaine Kyle

No sooner had your cyber ink dried, Dr. Tyrrell, than the fourth quarter '05 GDP final growth figure only came in at 1.7 percent, with an upwards of a $3 trillion federal budget that kind of growth rate is not even close to superlative. As to inflation rates, unemployment rates, they are always either understated, overstated and finally subject to manipulation by statisticians, and assorted wizards to confound or deceive the average citizen. The consumer confidence index is no better than a yo-yo, it's a measure of feel-goodism, a trope of our materialistic society. That sure takes a lot of reflective and disinterested thought! What's alarming is that the Chinese hold nearly $900 billion of our national debt! What's alarming is the unfunded liabilities of the spurious and specious trust funds, labeled Social Security and Medicare! Our dollar is talked down and kept down by officialdom, not otherwise. An economy must be viewed from its fundamentals, not the perpetual bullishness of Lawrence Kudlow. Other than that, I'm bullish on Boltenism or Boltonism!
-- unsigned

BREAKING FREE
Re: Mark Gauvreau Judge's Thundering Theophobes:

Excellent article. Years ago when I was involved in the civil unions fight up here in Vermont, I used the writings from First Things and Fr. Neuhaus extensively, especially the article mentioned ("Judicial Oligarchy") by Robert Bork, among other articles. Now, a former editor is attacking this very institution, condemning what they are saying, and trying to put them into the very category that this guy is in. We had lost our freedoms to a tyrannical judiciary but now that is changing, so the liberals are coming out of the woodwork to fight what they know to be their Armageddon. It is interesting to see just where these people have been hiding. Let's smoke out a few more and maybe once that is done, we can really win this battle, since we will have unmasked the enemy for good.
-- Pete Chagnon

SOX A MESS
Re: Alex J. Pollock's Time to Reform Sarbanes-Oxley:

I find it interesting that the addresses just the accounting side of the impact of this act. The effect on IT departments has been tremendous as well. The company I currently work for has doubled the amount of paperwork due to SOX to put programs into production to be used by the end user. This makes it take longer to get the tools the workers need to get their work done and means we spend less time working on solutions and more time trying to get them into place.
-- Jeff
Powell, Ohio

JUDGING SLOGANS
Re: Quin Hillyer's Judge Knot:

Here's to more "beer through the nose" humor, but with no suitable quip coming to mind, I was "bound" to make a more serious comment.

OK, stay with me on this.

Republican politicians make poor sloganeers. Democrats lay awake nights thinking up new ones for the next news cycle; "Bush lied, people died," etc. Dearth of talent? I think not. One party has a serious political philosophy, the other doesn't. One cannot reduce the sublime to an expression of speech (just look at how long it's taking me to make my point). Some try, "God is love," duh, but without knowledge of God, the statement is meaningless; and knowledge, whether of God, public policy, or how to repair your car, is more often than not, acquired slowly, patiently, sacrificially. Which, of course, is why the Democrats like their little sayings. They're convinced that if it works for some major corporation's marketing department, it will work (and has) for them.

Pope Hillary's recent reference to the Gospel according to Matthew, for instance. She was, no doubt (one strains to conjecture), referring to Matthew 25:31-46, but just appearing to challenge those mean ol' evangelicals on their own turf was all she really cared about. She, her fellow Democrats, and her minions in the MSM, rely on the public education system induced ignorance of those in the body politic who rarely take the time to think beyond this cheerleading nonsense.

What does this have to do with lighting a fire under the Republicans' ponderous collective ass to move ahead on judicial nominees? Just this... the Republicans are living in the past, still believing they must defend their conservatism, and fighting with themselves over whether they can govern. Having no sense of entitlement to power (thank God), like the Democrats, they cower before their experience as a minority party. They simply cannot get used to the fact that the people support them, some of whom are the same people who have been working the past 40-plus years to elect a majority of their sorry butts. So, let's give them a few time-honored slogans to use internally, and kick those butts into action.

"Just do it!" Thank you Nike!

"When you're in command, COMMAND!" (attributed to Chester Nimitz (Henry Fonda) by Admiral Halsey (Robert Mitchum) in the movie, Midway) Thank you Hollywood!

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!" (Not exactly my first choice, the premise is an assumption that we're extremists, but it'll do.) Thank you, Barry!

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Education, Economics, Federal Budget, Social Security, Religion, Abortion, Hollywood, Law, Israel, NATO, Conservatism, Immigration, Oil, Unions, Medicare