The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Assimilation Breakdown

4.25.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 2)

All they're interested in is augmenting union power.
-- George C. Leef
Raleigh, North Carolina

The secret ballot is what separates a democracy from a Banana Republic, whether at the national level or the micro level of an assembly plant. There is no other way to insure that votes are cast through force of conscience, not thuggery.

We must also recognize that the right to privacy is at stake here. Neither union activists nor management have any business knowing who voted how. Such disclosure only invites abuse from all sides.
-- Doug Roll
Jacksonville, Texas

ST. GEORGE GALLOWAY?
Re: Hal G.P. Colebatch's Rebranding Saint George:

Maybe it would help the proponents of St. George if they changed their story to suit the multiculturalists who oppose them. First, point out that Richard the Lionheart was gay - that's bound to help the cause. When King Richard was returning from the crusades, he tried to take a short cut by passing through Austria in disguise. Richard had inflicted an egregious insult on the Duke of Austria during the crusades and when the Duke found him in his domains, he had him arrested and imprisoned in a suitably forbidding alpenschloss and demanded payment of a huge ransom. Richard sent a messenger to England to raise the money from the aristocracy and to ensure that the fat cats coughed up, he demanded that they send their sons to join him in Austria as hostages. The fats cats rebelled, "we will send our daughters but not our sons," was their response. Very modern indeed.

Second, point out that Richard was French and not English, it is highly unlikely he even spoke English. Richard's mother was French, he was born in France and lived there all his life, save for two short stays in England. He spent about ten days in England during his coronation and he returned for a few weeks after the Duke of Austria released him from captivity. Richard the Lionheart was as English as a string of onions and a pack of Gauloise.

Personally, I don't think these things mean anything at all, but when you are dealing with silly people, telling them silly things that might make them stop from being even sillier is not such a bad thing.
-- Christopher Holland
Canberra, Australia

For some reason after reading Mr. Colebatch's column on the absolute ridiculousness of certain Brits' reactions to St. George and the wonderful flag, my first thought was: "Stupid is what stupid does." Truly, "normal thinking" politically correct Brits are much stupider than any Forrest Gump.

If a country will no longer fight for its heritage, is embarrassed by its heritage, hates its heritage, then sadly, that country will fade from existence. The left is succeeding in tearing down the great democracies. Have we bred all fight out of our people? Is it all just a "la dee da," live for today world? Well, no wonder the birth rate is low. No sense in bringing children into this non-future.

God help us -- or is it just too politically incorrect to say that? We need a few more St. Georges to slay the politically correct dragon or we can kiss our heritages goodbye.
-- Deborah Durkee
Marietta, Georgia

Indeed, down with anything having to do with "arrogant flag-waving"! Up with humble flag-waving!

What's the next target of the British political-correctionists? Trafalgar Day? Is it time Admiral Lord Nelson gets belated comeuppance for being too much of a national hero?
-- C. Kenna Amos
Princeton, West Virginia

Thank you for the article. I am in wonder having read accounts of the Jervis Bay and the Germans whether we have the strengh, courage, and duty to fight as they did back then. I really don't know.

Thank you again,
-- Lee Phelps
Brandon, Florida

Why all the fuss over Saint George? In another generation or two the Britain like the rest of Europe will be Eurabia and praying towards Mecca. If Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Imam Obama get their way we won't be far behind.
-- Michael Tomlinson
Jacksonville, North Carolina

Does this mean that Henry's "Once more into the breach, dear friends" speech (Henry V, Act 3, scene 1) must now be redacted to end with the stirring words "Cry 'God for Harry, England and...Puff the Magic Dragon'"?
-- Gretchen L. Chellson
Alexandria, Virginia

ELVIS'S TWIN
Re: Happy Feder's Elvis and The Gipper:

Looks like Happy Jack Feder is on a "role." If ever we needed a dose of President Ronald Reagan...it's now!
-- Richard Bastian

Note at the end of the article says that Jesse Garon Presley was the "twin brother mistakenly thought to have died at birth."

Most accounts say he was stillborn. I have seen several accounts saying that he died six hours after birth and that Elvis was the older twin.

What's the real story?
-- Richard Cuculo

Happy Feder replies: Jesse was stillborn.

I recommend Peter Guralnick's excellent biography of Elvis, Last Train to Memphis. Regarding the home birth, Guralnick writes: "At about four in the morning of January 8, he [Dr. William Hunt] delivered a baby, stillborn, then thirty-five minutes later another boy. The twins were named Jesse Garon and Elvis Aron, with the rhyming middle names intended to match.....The dead twin was buried in an unmarked grave in Priceville Cemetery, and was never forgotten either in the legend that accompanied his celebrated younger brother in family memory. As a child Elvis was said to have frequently visited his brother's grave; as an adult he referred to his twin again and again, reinforced by Gladys's [Elvis's mother] belief that 'when one twin died, the one that lived got all the strength of both.'"

However, I've also read that Elvis rarely visited the cemetery. Also, that Elvis's middle name, Aron, was supposed to have been spelled with a second "a." Elvis preferred the two-a spelling and was gladdened late in his life when he discovered documents relating to his birth using that spelling. Just one of the thousand bits of Elvisiana that keep Elvisyians awake at night with excitement.

STOP FEEDING THE BEAST
Re: The letters under "Broadcasting's Broadsides" in Reader Mail's Dirty Harry:

I presume all the angst and complaining about the Media has some therapeutic purpose and many hope such will bring about change in the Media's character but I think all this is like complaining about what Venomous Snakes and Tigers do. The Nature of the Beast is what it is.

I stopped watching Network News during the First Gulf War. I didn't need to watch the enemy's propaganda. By the end of that decade I was down to two Network TV shows, then one and now none. I don't have cable or Satellite TV either but am not uninformed on those things that are important to me. I haven't taken the News Paper for over two decades and anything of value that might be in my local paper I can get out of the trash can by 9:30 AM each workday morning. The NYT recently sent me an offer to take their paper. They sent a postage paid envelope and I sent them a note saying I wasn't interested in supporting their treason and to remove my name and address from their database. End of story.

There are plenty of things on both Network TV and Cable that I would get benefit from but it would require supporting the larger evil that controls both so I've made a choice. I don't feed the Beast and then complain about what it does. If more people embraced this concept maybe the Beast would go away and be replaced by something of value. As long as you feed that Tiger or Venomous Snake it is going to keep doing what it does. That's all it knows how to do.
-- Thom Bateman
Newport News, Virginia

MASTERS OF DECONSTRUCTION
Re: Abe Grossman's letter (under "Artificial Intelligence??") in Reader Mail's Dirty Harry:

I have always believed that it is a cheap shot at liberals to say that they don't believe in good and evil. How can anyone not believe in good and evil? Now along comes Abe Grossman to write that "good and evil...are clearly human constructs". Does Mr. Grossman really exist, or is he a fictional Spectator construct?
-- Glen Hoffing
Shamong, New Jersey

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Business, Religion, Catholicism, Protestantism, Books, Constitution, Law, Alaska, Unions