The American Spectator

br> — Gary D. Hoffmann br> Dept. of Earth Sciences br> University of California, Santa Cruz br> Santa Cruz, California, /p> p> TRAINING PARROTS br> Re: Abe Grossman’s letter (under “Thank Bush: Why Not?) in Reader Mail’s Tributes and Thanks : /p>

Mr. Grossman seems to gather most of his (mis)(dis)information from the MSM and the many ultra-liberal websites (e.g., MoveOn.org) which spew their predictable anti-Bush venom with mind-numbing regularity. The myrmidons who parrot such tripe are pathetic.

To rebut a few of his comments: It seems to me that this country, the beginnings of which were spawned by The Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution in 1776, was constituted as a Representative Republic, not a democracy. In addition, after winning the Revolutionary War with Great Britain, the American Constitution was not adopted until 1787 nor ratified by the several states until March 3, 1788. Therefore, to my knowledge there was not a democracy in any form anywhere in the world before that time!

Since your screed is totally devoid of any basis in fact, I would deem your “consider[ing] Mr. Lord’s column an un-American sacrilege” to be moot. As to the Bushes not having much of a handle on “the vision thing” they are not alone. I’m not sure that most people even know what a “vision thing” is.

p>Please bear in mind Mr. Grossman, that words have meaning. You would be much better served if in fact your words really meant something since they seem to have little basis in fact. If you must play the parrot, please take the time to verify what you espouse. br> — C.D. Lueders br> Melbourne, Florida /p> p> REMEMBERING JIM br> Re: Hal G.P. Colebatch’s James Patrick Baen, 1943-2006 : /p> p>Hal G.P. Colebatch’s memoriam for my late friend Jim Baen was eloquent, informative, and moving. Jim would have liked it a great deal. Thanks to Mr. Colebatch for writing it and to you for running it. We are all poorer for Jim’s loss than we can know. But our grandchildren will. br> — Spider Robinson /p>