The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Our Missed Brookes

7.16.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 3)

Whether Scooter Libby's sentence should have been commuted will forever be debated. However, if he had to serve time in prison, his cellmate should have been Joe Wilson, whose lies generated the Valerie Plame pseudo scandal.
-- Stan Welli
Aurora, Illinois

DEPRESSING REMINDERS
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s A Taste of Britishness:

"A Taste of Britishness" by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is a timely editorial snapshot of what I believe to be some consequences from miserably weak leadership of the British Isles since the Iron Lady was deposed. Witness the cowards that removed her from office and the electorate that allowed it to happen (and I count myself in with that motley crew). Witness the last ten years of "New Labour," overall an embarrassment to the principles of democracy. When a country has more people voting for a contestant of dubious talent in a TV program than it has for electing a government, then we create, and our enemies relish, the seeds of decline. What say onlookers of a government that procrastinates over whether or not to give its voters the opportunity of determining its future bound either by an unelected corrupt, EU bureaucracy or something altogether better closer to home. Sadly, however, there presently is no viable opposition to the present Government so suffer the people of Britain. Mr. Tyrrell's snapshot is a depressing reminder of the state of Britain and no amount of flag waving should excuse the ills and incompetence that gestate and emanate from Westminster. I admit I don't have the solutions but I'm smart enough to discern amateurs when I see them.
-- G. Constable
Sydney, Australia

I read your article on Brown and Britishness. You talk about browns call to the British people to fly our flag so we can stop the mad Muslims from blowing us all up. This is the same man who has with his partner Blair done more damage to our country than Hitler could ever have done, he has turned our nation into a cesspool with unlimited immigration, most of these turn out to hate us, he appeases the Muslim religion while our own Christian beliefs are shoved aside, some schools don't even mention Christmas anymore incase it offends the mad mullahs, as for flying the flag my family have always flown our national flag the cross of St. George because we are English not British. By the way, Brown and Blair used to stand up in the House of Commons and blame all the world's ills on America. That was before they got into power, of course. They are a pair of closet communists and are detested by nearly all of our country apart from asylum ponces, Muslim terrorists, crooks and any other low life. They have sold us out to Europe. We do not want to be in Europe but Brown and his cronies have no love of our country and history. They are a bunch of cretins who I would like to send to Iraq without security and see how brave they are.
-- Mrs. C. Taylor
Romford, Essex
England

DEMOCRAT REEDUCATION
Re: Mark Tooley's Can a Methodist Be U.S. Surgeon General?:

The answer to Tooley's closing question is: Yes, Human Rights Campaign and other homosexual groups do have practical veto power over presidential nominees. Members of Congress browbeat Dr. James Holsinger into asserting that his past views on homosexuality were mistaken and no longer operative. It was even worse than JFK going too far by saying that his religion would have no effect on his civic decisions. Or Romney saying that Americans want their candidates to have beliefs, but they aren't really concerned about what those beliefs are. Holsinger even said he no longer thought what he thought or believed what he believed.

Imposed orthodoxy is also apparent in the excitement over the outgoing Surgeon General testifying that he and others in his office were forced to suppress science in their office. The really important case was not mentioned. SG Koop was told to prepare a report on the effects of abortion. He kept resisting, but finally took steps towards obeying. His deputy drafted a report that was founded primarily on testimony by pro-abortion groups; he wouldn't take testimony from pro-life groups, but only a few pro-life individuals. When Koop thought he had slow-walked the report to death, the deputy fraudulently issued the draft as if it were Koop's report. Koop then asked Congress for money to do comprehensive research for a real report. Congress refused. Congress knew that such a report could provide evidence for legal restrictions or bans on abortion. Congress kept the scientific truth from coming out, as did Koop's deputy in his own way. Fears that such a report might undermine abortion in some way received support when Congress found that there was not medical grounds for late-term abortions in most cases, and the Supreme Court used that finding to uphold the ban on late-term abortions. It is probable that the current Congress would have suppressed such a finding or refused to consider it. So the charge of suppression of scientific and medical fact is often a matter of whose ox is being gored, or whose Gore is being axed.
-- Richard L.A. Schaefer
Dubuque, Iowa

GOVERNMENT WORK (SIC)
Re: Jeffrey Lord's Lizard Listing and Doug Bandow's Free At Last:

I am going to add my two cents (actually one cent after taxes) to these two well-written articles. They are intimately linked. If you talk about taxes you have to talk about public bureaucracies.

"Government effectively consumes 52.6 percent of national income," and I'm sure Doug Bandow includes taxes for the city, state, county, bureaucracies, and for government schools, and government universities; there are also government fees, fines and surcharges in this hydra-headed, insatiable money devouring monster called "the public sector of the economy."

"When a Liberal Secular Progressive wins the presidency and appoints thousands of SP's to run the government, the career SP's are thrilled." I'm sure Jeffrey Lord includes city, state, county officials, public school boards, and public university presidents and their SP bureaucracies in this mess.

How did we get here?

Imagine a soft-headed, good hearted, well meaning do-gooder student in college who is indoctrinated into a smattering of socialist-Marxist, feminist ideology. He or she avoids the hard sciences and majors in one of the soft sciences (psychology, anthropology, sociology etc.) With this untested socialist ideology working in this student's idealistic mind, the concept of dirtying his hands in the competitive-capitalist market place will not fly. What can you do to earn a living? Answer: Go into journalism, hire into a leftist foundation, work for the unions, become a teacher or school administrator, or find employment in a public bureaucracy...any semi-socialist means of employment will work. You will now become an embedded Secular-liberal-Democrat/Progressive in the scheme of things. It's a wonderful world, Government workers are rarely fired, they have medical insurance, accumulated sick leave, personal leave, vacations, hefty pensions and very little if any accountability. For example, Richard Clarke, Terror Czar, said his mea culpas to the world, and disappeared with his 30 year government pension (probably 70% of his base wage) and he was probably compensated for accumulated sick leave and no penalty was paid for his failures..

Bureaucrats are paid with tax money, and everyone knows that tax money is not real money. If government were a business, they'd be out of business.

"The problem is largely one of spending," Mr. Bandow writes.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Education, Economics, Business, Religion, Abortion, Environment, Global Warming, Law, Supreme Court, Iraq, Fascism, Conservatism, Immigration, Oil, Unions