The American Spectator

HONEYMOON IS OVER
Re: Mark Tooley’s Going Beyond Same-Sex Marriage:

Thanks to Mark Tooley for pointing out that the real agenda for the gender-bending crowd is the deconstruction of traditional marriage. And what do they plan to replace it with? Their list seems to be ever more expansive; however, noticeably missing are some other “sexual identities” that are not easily embraced by this “diverse group.” Where is their compassion for the consensual minor child and adult relationships? Why no love for NAMBLA and other Internet predators? I didn’t see any call by this cabal of fruitcakes to seek lowering age of consent laws. Why not? On what basis can they claim to exclude these “non-conventional partnerships”? Did they suddenly have an epiphany and develop a moral conscience? Having rejected the traditional understanding of marriage and morality, how did they acquire the right to arbitrarily pick and choose the parameters for appropriate and “diverse kinds of partnerships, households, kinship relationships and families”? Or is it, as I suspect, they do identify with these proclivities but are too cowardly to acknowledge it for fear that public outrage would be too great?
— Rick Arand
Lee’s Summit, Missouri

Thank you, Mark Tooley, for your terrific job of exposing the true nature of the homosexual agenda. You have revealed something that many of us have long suspected: their real goal is not “marriage” for two men or two women; rather, it is the abolishment of the institution altogether.

With such a pernicious agenda, one would think that the media would be all over this. But as we saw this past weekend, the MSM is far more interested in doing puff pieces on Hitler’s next of kin (i.e., the president of Iran).
— Greg Hoadley
Deerfield Beach, Florida

“LGBT (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender) and queer”. AND queer? Is there some aberrant behavior not covered by the abbreviation that I don’t know about or is this just legalese to throw in sex with the kitchen sink if you like?
— Laurey Boyd

CAFECITO COUNTY
Re: Ivan Osorio’s Miami Vice:

As a long time and former resident of Dade County and the City of Miami, I read the two articles recently printed with a grin and considerable interest. Miami-Dade is really a schizophrenic place. You have South Beach where totally self-absorbed rich children take off their clothes and do drugs. You have a two lane Calle Ocho where Hispanic truck drivers routinely stop, completely blocking traffic, leave their vehicles to get a cafecito and converse for half an hour in rapid fire Cuban Spanish at an outdoor window. There is Coconut Grove, the formerly chi-chi place to live, now overtaken by newer and ever larger castles — Star Island and its environs — where, if you go a block off Main Street, you are likely to be killed and eaten.

I see it as an episode of Emeril Live! A polyglot of people, lightly basted in tanning oil, broiled in the tropic sun; scrambled by hurricanes and — take it up a notch —BAM! — by spicing with drugs, wealth, poverty and violence. All topped off by a sauce of buffoonish corruption. It is a HOOT!
— Jay W. Molyneaux
Wellington, Florida

KETAMINE CONCERNS
Re: Michael Fumento’s Ketamine and Depression:

After reading Michael Fumento’s article several points need to be made. In the first place, after clicking the link and reading the study itself, it bears emphasizing that the sample size (18 patients) is extremely small. This by definition makes it difficult to say much with certainty about the validity of the outcomes the authors are trying to measure. In addition, since all of these people failed 6 conventional antidepressants, making them an unusual subset of patients, one can say nothing at all about whether this treatment would be superior to, inferior to, or even work on the vast majority of patients who DO respond to conventional antidepressants.

Secondly, ketamine is far from a benign drug. There are several reasons why it is used primarily in veterinary practice, and only sparingly, if at all, by most anesthesiologists (including myself) in this country. It significantly raises blood pressure and cardiac oxygen demand, making it an increased risk for, if not outright inappropriate to use for those with heart disease. It also causes unpleasant, and often extremely unpleasant, visual, auditory, or proprioceptive hallucinations in the immediate post-dose period and subsequent nightmares in as many as 30% of patients. The resource Mr. Fumento cites somewhat glosses over this difficulty, claiming that the delirium and dreams go away in 24 hours; however, this need not be the case, and there is much anecdotal evidence which indicates that harrowing nightmares may persist for weeks or even months after a single dose.

Thirdly, one of the circumscribed areas of anesthetic practice where ketamine is popular is in severe burn cases, which often have to be seen to surgically multiple times over a period of weeks. Anyone who has done this notes that a marked tolerance develops, requiring continuously increased doses to achieve the same therapeutic effects. While there is nothing in the study to suggest this would be the case in treating depression, since the patients did not receive long-term treatment, there is nothing to rule it out. The test subjects received half of the dose required to induce the low end of general anesthesia, meaning there is not a lot of wiggle room to increase the dose if tolerance is indeed an issue.

Having said all of that, it IS an interesting avenue for further research. However, the tone of the piece suggests that a possible cure for depression is just around the corner. This somewhat akin to saying “Hey, some guys just figured out how to make a wheel out of wood, let’s start building an interstate system.”
— B.J.M., M.D.

Editor’s note: Michael Fumento replies in Thursday’s Reader Mail.

IN HUSTON’S CORNER
Re: Bill Croke’s John Huston at 100:

Great article, but there’s no mention of Huston’s 1972 boxing gem, Fat City. That film was well regarded by critics, and it holds up well today.
— Robert Ellis

I was just reading your very interesting article on John Huston. It’s great to read about all the pearls of his career drawn up on one string, so to speak. Thanks.

Incidentally, Wise Blood, a favorite of mine, starred Brad Dourif in the role of Hazel Motes, and not Ned Beatty, as it says in the article. Just thought I’d mention it.
— K. Harber

TAKE THE MONEY AND HATE
Re: Joseph Shattan’s Mossad Man:

Very interesting book! Shattan quotes Halevy, “Whereas at the senior and top levels of government in the Arab world there has been a steadily growing acceptance of Israel as a reality — and, by some, even as a vital partner in the fight against violence and hate — these very same regimes have nurtured and in some cases even encouraged popular activities that have run contrary to their so-called strategic policies and interests.”

Anyone familiar with just the English language versions of Arabic websites, not to mention the Arabic versions, knows that Arab governments use their state-owned media to stir up hatred of the U.S. and Israel. Egypt, the country we bribe with $2 billion each year to play nice with Israel, is the worst and has made its population the most virulently anti-American and anti-Semitic in the region. They do this, according to one Arab journalist, in order to blunt efforts by the U.S. at forcing democracy on them. Arabs have completely fooled the State Department, which still considers many Arab nations to be pro-U.S., while at the same time being utterly confounded as to why their citizens hate us so much. For weekly examples of incitement of its citizens to hate the U.S., just visit the website of the English version of Al Ahram.

Our first step toward making Arabs stop playing this game would be to end Egypt’s $2 billion/year bribe. At the least, we should expect a Republican president to hire a few adults to work in the State Department.
— Roger D. McKinney
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

PM LABELS
Re: David Govett’s letter in Reader Mail’s Olmert in Trouble:

Hey David Govett…For the record, Ehud Olmert is a conservative Israeli politician. A Mayor of Jerusalem, staunch ally of Ariel Sharon, and an Israeli patriot. The world is getting sick of the scorched-earth politics of personal destruction that is so far the overwhelming sign of extreme right-wing politics. And just for all those others that get their history from Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell…That appeaser of Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, was also a conservative! There is no doubt that the hard left and right share loony musings, but don’t drag down the centrists and moderates with your simplified world-view that has nothing to do with reality and everything to do with “I’m better than you!”…”Moral clarity has a duality, one for each side of the tracks.”
— Nathan Maskiell
Melbourne, Australia

JUST SO
Re: Jed Babbin’s Nasrallah Rules:

Jed nailed it — it was this diplomatic appeasement that created the hesitation on Israel’s part that created the scenes we see today of terrorists dancing amongst the rubble. Defeated people do not dance in piles of rubble. This seems to be the American way for as long as I can remember. Almost every time in Vietnam when U.S. forces won a major strategic battle up would pop Kissinger to snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory. This was also nothing but appeasement of liberals. I really hate to say it but Bush is becoming like Nixon. Nixon spent almost his entire Presidency trying to placate and appease the leftists of the world — why is that?

I did not vote for Bush to see him go out of his way trying to appease critics nor to make the “international community” happy. His political opponents on the left will never support him no matter what he does. I voted for him a second time to defeat Islamic fanaticism around the globe and not try to build democracy in third world armpits. The democracy and freedom part doesn’t come until after the enemy is defeated utterly. And then we should not ask them to “stand up while we stand down” or to vote for a democratic government. We should tell them how to run their government the way we want them to — OR ELSE! We should not ask our allies to fight a fight unless we offer as much help as possible — that is what a Democrat does. Democrats war monger for a decade and then tuck their tail — all the while claiming someone else made them war monger.

Did we help our ally Israel? No, we did not. We should have fired up our massively unused high altitude bombers to assist the only true democracy in that whole crappy place on the earth to defend themselves against our common enemy. Instead we got Nixon trying to appease his critics and Bill Clinton trying to “triangulate” for the upcoming elections. It is sickening and will only make our “roadmap to peace” a “roadmap to ruin.” It used to be when the terrorists got their cease fire they would wave their pistols in the air while their children threw rocks at tanks in “resistance” and celebrations. Now we have repeatedly cease fired our ally Israel to the point where you see heavily armed, entrenched crack troops on their border who launch 3,500 rockets while they build their nuclear weapons unabated and wave their RPG’s around in celebration.
— Brian
Jackson, Michigan

On several visits to Israel I heard the following phrase and it seems prophetic especially by recent events. “When the Arabs lay down their guns there will be no more killing, but when the Israelis lay down their weapons there will be no more Israel.” If the “loyal opposition” wins the Congress and the presidency will they begin the “defanging” of our military forces while they try to make “nice” with Islamo-Fascist killers? Perhaps one day we’ll be saying the same thing when the scenes we see in Baghdad, Kabul, Madrid, London, Bali, Bombay etc. become routine news events in the United States. 9/11 was our final wake-up call. Either we learn from it or suffer the eventual consequences.
— P. Stanfield USA (Ret.)
North Carolina

APPEASEMENT?

Has appeasement ever worked? I can’t recall.
It seems to always proceed the fall
Of each good intention, every kindly thought
Of all the hand-ringing apologists fraught
With knee knocking neuroses
And hand trembling psychoses.
That it leads to war is an historical fact
But don’t let that from the peace process distract.
Put down your arms, roll back your cannon
Let’s turn the world over to Kofi Annan.
— Mimi Evans Winship

MILITARY MOM
Re: Michael Fumento’s The Band of Brothers (and Their Mothers) :

I was reading your article and am thankful also of you being brave and inbedding yourself with our soldiers in Ramadi, I have a son who is in Ramadi with 101 and is a sniper. I am so proud of him and all of the service men and women there. As he says, Ramadi is hell on earth here and by far the worst place in Iraq.

Thank you again for bringing light to this terrible place that no news media wants to go into.

They are getting the job done and proud of them for it.

Thanks again,
— 101 Mom in Kansas

FAN MAIL FROM THE DNC
Dear American Spectator,

Well. I am surprised. I saw this magazine in my very own household, haphazardly thrown on the floor, and I decided to look through it. I had no idea what your message was. If I had known, I wouldn’t have read it in the first place. As I was so eloquently flipping through the pages, I noticed that you are quite the conservative people. Which I don’t care for, but whatever fits your fancy.

As you might be able to tell already, I am a “liberal hootenanny.” Go ahead, close this e-mail right now, if you don’t want to hear a 15-year-old girl’s opinion.

Numero uno: Marriage should be man/woman and THAT’S ALL.
That is horrible. Why would you separate two people who love each other very much just to keep “traditional marriage” together? It’s a changing world. Try and change with it, please.

Numero dos: Abortion is wrong and should not be a choice for women.
I am insulted by that because of the fact that I am a woman. I should have the choice. Why should a man get to choose the options I have for MYSELF? That isn’t fair. And I’m not saying I would ever have an abortion, but I think the people that want to make that decision should have the choice.

Numero tres: The Da Vinci Code was embarrassingly inaccurate.
Oh, please. IT WAS A WORK OF FICTION. Sure, Dan Brown composed most of his ideas from works of The Bible. That doesn’t mean everything he wrote is true. Most of his ideas were EVIDINCE from The Bible that could or could not be true. Do you know for sure? No. Plus, he’s making millions while you’re…not.

Numero quatro: Global Warming is a joke and should not be taken seriously.
Excuse me, I’m going to get a glass of water from the river in my backyard that just happens to be THE POLAR ICE CAP’S MELTING. Look at the evidence. Read a few books. Educate yourself on something that’s bound to happen sooner or later while you choose to ignore it. We have to save our environment now, OR THERE WILL BE NOTHING LEFT TO SAVE.

For better thinking in the future,
— Haylie Renae, A concerned 15-year-old.