The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Freedom to Threaten

10.17.06 @ 12:01AM

OVERDRIVE
Re: Christopher Orlet's A Fatwa on the Truth:

I just want to say that Mr. Christopher Orlet in his article "A Fatwa on the Truth" has really gone on overdrive to rant about the freedom of speech and writing.

In Mr. Orlet's sordid and salacious view to hit at Muslims, to hurl abuse at Muslims, to demonize Muslims is fair game. I wonder where his morality is when someone writes something critical about the JEWS then the whole media turns with allegations of anti-Semitism? These writers are not only accused of anti-Semitism they are then subjected with legal suits. They are simply hounded and there are many such examples both in USA and Canada. Your freedom has gone so far that it has become illegal to question certain historical facts and can risk going to prison. Besides USA and Canada there are several countries where the JEWS have lobbied to make it a law to question anything relating to the events in the World War II. Such is the FREEDOM that he is talking. It is classic example of "pot calling the kettle" black!. Your article certainly had a tinge of black humor about it.

In today's world where writers' noble duty is to build bridges Mr. Orlet has turned to fan the flames of hatred. To demonize all Muslims in such a fashion shows how narrow-minded Mr. Orlet is in his approach. Yesterday, it was the Jews who were demonized by the people in Europe. Instead of learning from history, Mr. Orlet seems to be taking a leaf out of the times of the Nazis and expressing his views such blatant racism. Sad to see, that there are writers who are still peddling their perverted art of writing in respected journals like Spectator, and seem to get away with it.
-- M. Z. Iqbal
Surrey, England

Christopher Orlet replies:
I did write, "offend the followers of Allah and you risk a beheading or years hiding out like a most wanted desperado," and sure enough I received a death threat via email the very same day. Was it a follower of Allah who sent the death threat? Hard to say, since the coward sent it anonymously, but if I were a betting man...

I am certain that freedom of speech and Islam can co-exist, but freedom of speech and fundamentalist Islam cannot. It is the fundamentalists and those who take them seriously who are my concern.

THE BEAUTY OF EXPERIENCE
Re: Jeffrey Lord's Reagan's 1986 Election:

Mr. Reagan had discovered the only good thing about growing older: that eventually one realizes that not only has one seen it all before, but that even the biggest rock thrown into the pond causes ripples only for a little while before it sinks out of sight and leaves the pond serene. That is, nothing much that we are hearing blabberjabbered on the air and in the papers 24/7 right now will make a bit of difference in the long run. A person who has paid attention all her life will soon realize that she has seen it all before, and that it was irrelevant the last time and still is. For only one example, the Forbes magazine prediction for the 1980s of an oil shortage and $100 per barrel oil looked silly by 1982; today I can't get excited about the screaming on the same subject because I've seen how that trick works. Today oat brand will save us; tomorrow oat bran will kill us. Today stem cell therapy will make the dead walk; tomorrow it will breed monsters. Today electric cars will cause the temperature to fall; tomorrow somebody will realize that we're living in a province where, when the temperature rises, the government starts screaming for us to unplug all our appliances and sweat in the dark, and we realize that on the Thursday before a holiday weekend these same people will be screaming for us to unplug our cars. Whatever today's screaming babies are pointing at will be gone by tomorrow as if it had never been, and so will the next crisis. We can also see the irony in one page of the newspapers shrieking that our teenagers are fat, fat, FAT, and the facing page screaming that they are anorexic because they are obsessed with Body Image.

Mr. Reagan knew what Mr. Bush knows: that whatever today's bleating about, tomorrow it will be gone. Hold the course and keep smiling. And keep your earplugs in. Whatever the babies are screaming, you've already heard it. With age and experience comes the knowledge that there is in truth nothing new under the sun.

One of Daddy's favorite sayings, especially when the kids are moaning about the increased amount of knowledge in today's world, is "There isn't more knowledge than there ever was. All that stuff is just more information."
-- Kate Shaw
Toronto, Canada

If you want to call the present administration "Conservative," you might look at a few opinions from others who have more of a claim to that title. Senator Warner and James Baker seem not to echo the same "good news" about our foreign policy. Do any of you ever consider that the Conservative element in our nation's politics and life are presently being held hostage to an administration which is considerably more lame than any duck? Why do those who think themselves Conservatives feel it imperative to be loyal to a right-wing cabal which has hijacked the White House?
-- H.J. Wilson

Contrary to Marc Anthony and his famous speech, I come to praise Mr. Lord, not to bury him. I am very afraid that we will not see another as wise and as strong as Mr. Reagan in my lifetime.

I find it so very instructive that Mr. Reagan never deviated from Conservative principles in any way in his pronouncements. He was reviled by the press and Democrats and RINOs. All he did was to get that serious look on his face and say, "There you go again." But always with the twinkle in the eyes.

Oh how I wish that the Bush clan had the constancy of Ronald Reagan. Oh how I wish that the GOP elected officials and activists had the ironclad belief in conservatism that Ronald Reagan had. How I wish that "our side" would worry more about principles and less about being PC and whether the other side loved them. Conservative principles win every time they are tried, and I am NOT referring to "Compassionate Conservatism" which is just left leaning centrism by another name.
-- Ken Shreve
A Proud Reagan Conservative

QUIET MAN
Re: George H. Wittman's Ethics, Law, and War:

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Foreign Policy, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Catholicism, Islam, Environment, Law, Military, NATO, Conservatism, Oil