The American Spectator

Reader Mail

At the Foot of the Master

3.29.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 5)

"There is a latent sense of dread in the Democratic base that Hillary has no political soul or imagination." Latent? They've all just been chronically denying what the rest of us have seen, heard and known overtly for a long time about the junior senator from New York.

Come to think of it, though, the past few rounds of Democrat-presidential-candidate wannabes or Democrat presidential candidates haven't had any political soul or imagination, either. They -- as Hillary, Barack and John Edwards are doing now -- have tried and continue to try to be all things to all people on all issues, all the time. That's not "moderate." That's cowardly and manipulative.
-- C. Kenna Amos
Princeton, West Virginia

NOT THE BEE'S KNEES
Re: Reid Collins's The Flight of the Bumblebee:

This is no mystery. There is plenty of evidence that it is linked to the use of Imidacloprid, and maybe Fipronil if it is improperly used. Anyway, Europe had this same problem several years ago. Bees basically lose their navigational ability. Countries that banned Imidacloprid had the hive collapse problem go away. Even with this strong evidence that Bayer knew about the problem, because they were admonished in court, for their total disregard for honey bees. Our Department of Agriculture should have known about it, and is still disregarding the evidence from Europe and Canada. Anyway, between Bayer and our Dept. of Agriculture, they decided to allow the chemical use, and take a chance on putting beekeepers out of business.

Thirty percent of our food we eat directly or indirectly comes from honey bee pollination. I believe that the main problem is when Imidacloprid is used as a seed treatment, it has enough of a residual effect to contaminate the blossoms, thus it then becomes a honey bee problem, and probably a people problem from crops loss, and who knows how much it ends up contaminating the food we eat. If you want further information go to Answers.com, and type in Imidacloprid, and then tell me somebody besides me should have been able to figure this out. There is a ton of evidence on this site. I have sent this memo to several newspapers, but it appears that nobody has the balls to take on both Bayer, and the Feds. Imidacloprid's main use was as a wood preserver, but the problem appeared to start when it was used as a seed preserver. How come a poor dumb beekeeper like myself can dig up this info, but highly paid feds cannot.
-- Jim Marshall
C&J Apiaries

PAR FOR THE COURSE
Re: Lawrence Henry's The Color of Golf:

I always look forward to Lawrence Henry's columns each week. This week's column "The Color of Golf" was especially good. Lawrence made an excellent comparison of the similarities between what it takes to successfully master golf and playing a musical instrument, namely systematic practice (something I unfortunately don't do enough of in either golf or music). The comparison Lawrence made regarding practice/success in both endeavors reminded me of a description of golf made by a writer in a fitness magazine. He called golf "the violin of sports." Lawrence, here's to making beautiful music on the course.
-- Michael Palmer

BOND DISQUALIFIED
Re: Amy K. Mitchell's Double Trouble:

Didn't Daniel Craig suggest that Bond should have a homosexual tryst in a future movie, and that Craig was willing to perform it? It's my guess that Kiefer Sutherland won't be suggesting that for Jack Bauer any time soon. Bauer wins.
-- Richard LaViolette

AN OPEN DOOR POLICY
Re: W. James Antle III's Comprehensive Confusion:

You could see it coming: earlier this week, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell spoke of the need "for comprehensive immigration reform." That phrase is understood, except by the terminally ignorant, as the code words for presidential and congressional "amnesty." Then, slowly, parts of a new House bill were leaked to friendly media outlets, again trumpeting "comprehensive immigration reform," although the contents were still not released. One cannot be certain, but it would not surprise me if embattled White House officials took the time to offer their "nihil obstat" to the upcoming House bill, now ceremoniously baptized HB1645.

James Antle's description of the HB1645, jointly sponsored by the Republican Congressman from Arizona with the eponymous name of Flake, and the combative "open-border" advocate, the Democrat, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, is limited -- the bill is, after all, nearly 700 pages -- but Antle does point to some of the destructive aspects present in the bill. Wisely, he ends by saying that our best course would be for the congress to do nothing. I second that motion, because what Antle has not described are the parts of the bill which will permanently change these United States: we have now drawn a new security perimeter which now includes Mexico as our southern boundary! A few mere details first about this "non-amnesty" amnesty.

There are seven sections of the bill that are nothing more than amnesty provisions, including for "forestry workers," a group not even included in the 1986 amnesty. Further, the idea that one needs "evidence" to determine that these law breakers were present before 2006 so that they may put on "the path to citizenship" is totally unenforceable, which is why it was so written - anyone could, using any kind of document, including forged papers, be included as legally present. It is, to quote another critic, a "fraud magnet," and I have no doubt that immigration lawyers were busily engaged in helping to write this treasonous bill. Antle does make mention of the additional 400,000 new (legal) workers from the Third World that will be allowed to enter each year, and further depress the wages of the American worker; what he does not say is that this "arrangement" is open-ended.

We're told that after 6 years these "guest workers" will have to leave the U.S. before they can return to pick up their green card. But the law enforcement divisions of the Department of Homeland Security openly admit that they haven't a clue who, and how many, aliens are in the country illegally; how then will they be able to keep track of who is here if they are structurally incapable of doing so? The Washington Times (March 27) reported that there are nearly 700,000 criminal aliens who are at large in the U.S. Under the monstrosity known as Flake-Gutierrez, if their fingerprints were not on file, and "documentation" was provided, these "future Americans" would also be on the "path to citizenship." With these defects incorporated into the bill, how could anyone, including Antle, call Flake, the one of the bill's sponsors, a conservative! What flapdoodle! But it is the bill's national security provisions that are a legitimate concern for every American, conservative or otherwise.

Under Section 121, the US is now committed to "Improving the Security of Mexico's Southern Border." For the terminally unenlightened, that means we have now become responsible to defend Mexico's borders! (my emphasis) But the idiocy doesn't end there: as a result of this displacement of our southern border, we will encourage Central American governments to control alien smuggling and trafficking, and curtail the use of false documents. Apparently, Mexico and its "coyotes" no longer seem to be a problem, something that should make all those folks on this side of the Rio Grande and in California breathe a lot easier. And it gets worse, but you have an idea of why Flake-Gutierrez must be stopped.

Letter to the Editor

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Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Business, Satire, Sports, Islam, Hollywood, Law, Military, Iraq, NATO, Immigration