The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Keep On Truckin'

4.4.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 5)

This article just reminded me once again how we got stuck with Bill Clinton and now the very real possibility of his lovely wife being Chief Executive. Bush 1 was the overwhelming favorite for a second term until he reneged on his "read my lips, no new taxes" pledge. Up until then no Democrat wanted to run against him, the field was open to this strange Arkansas governor who had a thing for women other than his wife and who somehow always had plenty of money for his and his wife's desires despite a salary of less than $30,000 a year. Of course we former Southerners knew exactly what was going on. Term limits long before they became a reality in the North were a staple of Southern politics. In our little Tennessee town the position of County Highway Commissioner was a highly sought after position despite a term limit and a low if any salary. The badly kept secret was that the winning candidate had a limited amount of time to appropriate as much of the county funds for himself and his supporters during his term as he could and everyone sort of accepted it as long as he also kept the roads in good repair, not too difficult a job in a relatively mild climate. So when Clinton entered the not crowded race for president in '92 he faced a lackluster field and plenty of money to outlast the constant scandals he knew he would face. O for the good old days but wait they are here again. Scoundrels and millionaires once again running for president.
-- Jack Wheatley

Great article, I wish more Americans knew the real score. There are few things that make my blood boil more than a politician stealing my hard-earned money to secure his/her own power. As if that weren't enough, they rationalize their theft by claiming to be doing it for the greater good. Insult to injury. AS IF private property, free market competition, freedom, and hard work DIDN'T make this country the sole super power it is today, and the envy of the world. Where are the 21st Century Sons of Liberty? This current crop is WAY WORSE than King George III.
-- Dan
Manhattan Beach, California

FRESH ACCENTS
Re: Lars Walker's Hello, Columbus:

I read the piece by Lars Walker with interest. It occurred to me that Mr. Walker's analysis can be applied to our relationship with the middle east in general and with Iraq in particular. Western values are not universal, they are exceptional, and arise from the particular social, religious and philosophical ideas of Western Europe and, later, the United States. People in the Middle East do not share our values and are proud of that. To paraphrase Mr. Walker, middle easterners are not "culturally impoverished" "little brown people" so bereft of thought that they will soak up our world view like a sponge. We in the West cannot formulate policy on the naive notion that all people, if given the choice, will ultimately chose to be like us. That was our mistake in Iraq. We assumed that freedom and democracy would naturally arise once Saddam was removed from power. Why? Did we really believe that Iraqis had put so little thought into their civilization that they would automatically see the superiority of the West and its values upon liberation?

The best policy is not to assume that, given the opportunity, others will adopt our civilization and "be just like us." Instead, we should accept that clashes of civilizations will occur and we should use our resources to ensure the survival of our way of life. We can assume that everyone is the same, but it just isn't true.
-- Rob
Los Angeles, California

I agree with Lars, though I think it's funnier with a Clouseau-type French accent.

The Founding Fathers had the correct idea: all men are CREATED equal. They understood there's nothing special about the meeting of sperm and egg, and left it there. They didn't even touch birth or events afterwards.

The multiculti crowd has thrown this idea away in favor of some perceived "equality" which is nothing of the sort. They fundamentally recognize that a child born to a rich family will have certain advantages over a poor family. The multiculti crowd then spends inordinate efforts to change that outcome, always unsuccessfully, but they do try.

The multiculti crowd does recognize that cultures are different, but they don't value their own western culture. For some reason, these folks have the capability to look at cultures that they wouldn't live under for any reason and make the dubious claim that they're as good as western culture. Whippings? Genital Mutilation? Child slavery? Hey, let it be. Even though western culture has sown time and again that it values people more than any other culture, the multiculti refuse to recognize that value. They fight even the suggestions that other cultures even think about changing.

As Lars points out, these folks hate their own culture. And why not? Most of the multiculti crowd are self-avowed leftists. These folks bought into the socialist/communist propaganda that the west is a failed system. It stands to reason that if the political-economic system is a failure, then the corresponding culture is a failure. This, of course, ignores that virtually all socialist/communist systems have failed, along with their cultures, while capitalism and Western culture have survived (at least somewhat in the USA). These failures are ignored. This is easy to do when you have already accepted the failure of your system, and your focus is on sustaining that perception of failure as much as possible.

I wish these folks had the opportunity to live under Sharia with the knowledge it wasn't going to change, and they couldn't "go home" to get away from it. If they have their way, I may get my wish. That would be a shame for all of us.
-- Karl F. Auerbach
Eden, Utah

HEAD FOR COVER
Re: Christopher Orlet's Scarf Wars:

I just read Christopher Orlet's article "Scarf Wars," and I couldn't disagree more strongly with him on many points.

He said that Muslim women's soccer teams in Jordan and Iran compete completely covered, and no one gets hurt there. But it is one thing to have a custom made uniform designed for soccer, and quite another to be out there having your vision blocked by a headscarf.

Second, he said that Muslim women are told that their religion requires them to wear a headscarf or they will be beaten. The Koran tells women that they should dress modestly, but as with most things Muslim, they took that way overboard.

Letter to the Editor

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