The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Dog Day Mix

8.15.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 3)

How much clearer must the Constitution be written in order for the linguine-spined politicians to take it seriously enough to uphold its directives as a matter of their day-to-day jobs? Duh!
-- Owen H. Carneal, Jr.
Yorktown, Virginia

AN UNSTABLE ALLY
Re: George H. Wittman's A Musharraf Surprise:

Mr. Wittman has written a very cogent article. It always amuses me, however, when I read that George Bush, or Condi Rice, or some other American government official is or has pressured Musharraf or some other American ally in that Moslem-dominated part of the world. Musharraf and rulers like him have a decided wish to remain alive. They do not have quite the freedom of political movement as an American politician.

I fail to see what good it does America for Musharraf to go beyond the line of what is possible and get himself killed. Who would take his place? Would his replacement be as good an ally to us? What would happen to his countries nuclear weapons? There are many more questions if Musharraf were to be assassinated or deposed. Perhaps it would be good for Bush or Rice to recognize that they can only get so much out of our individual allies in that part of the world.

The cities and small towns of Pakistan and Afghanistan ain't exactly Crawford, Texas.
-- Ken Shreve
New Hampshire

RUSSELLMANIA
Re: The "Seitzmograph" letters in Reader Mail's Grace Under Pressure:

Regarding letters of reply to mine on Paul Chesser's Newsweek: Alarmed by Deniers:

According to Mr. Briner, "Mr. Chesser claimed that Sharon Begley cited the 4th report by the Panel on Climate Change and Russell Seitz made it clear that there is no way she should be citing it if she can't even look at it yet. Somehow this ends up being a criticism of Mr. Chesser which I don't understand ..."

I wrote nothing suggesting that Sharon Begley failed to read the IPCC report, and assume she followed its progress as thousands, many critical, have, by reading it online. We owe thanks to the American delegation for securing the transparency of the IPCC process, just as Mike Crichton's CalTech speech suggested in 2003, by insisting that the work in progress be made accessible on the web.

Mr. Briner adds: "Mr. Seitz says that apparently non-scientists should say nothing while the scientific community gets this all straightened out."

This is utter bilge. Before charging that a piece of scientific work has been politicized, Mr. Briner, like any other citizen, has a duty to familiarize himself with it the old fashioned way -- by reading it. Regurgitating talk radio is no substitute.
As to Mr. Briner's assertion that "when Al Gore makes some ridiculous claim, it never seems that science community gives him much of a hard time, " it's time he read my blog, Vide Infra. It seldom gives Al joy -- nor have my Wall Street Journal op-eds.

Not having cable TV, I am utterly mystified as to why Karl F. Auerbach should direct his displeasure with The Weather Channel in the general direction of my reply to Mr. Chesser.

I see the performance artist known as "frost'" has also responded: "Here we go again. Mr. Seitz's artful manipulation of some words might lead the unwashed to believe that there is, indeed, chaos in our immediate future, of a nasty warming with sea-levels rising 'n all that stuff...."

For Frost's information, in the Summer 1990 issue of the National Interest I wrote :

Politically, I counsel constant vigilance. The salvation of the world affords an enchanting pretext for those predisposed to societal intervention. They have already raised the abolitionist banner, pointing to the prospect of Bangladesh awash and waterskiing down the Mall to the Capitol -- a prospect no more likely in my lifetime than nothing happening. My personal expectation -- and I reserve the right to change my mind if the evidence does -- runs more to centimeter-per-year rises in sea level and a lot more climatic variability than actual temperature rise.

The entire text of this essay, A War Against Fire, may be read here.
-- Russell Seitz
Cambridge, Massachusetts

WHY MORE ILLEGITIMACY POST-ROE?
Re: Bill Margeson's letter (under "Permissiveness Breeds Depravity") in Reader Mail's Building Bridges:

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Abortion, Constitution, Pakistan, Nuclear Weapons