The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Ethanol Fires

3.4.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 2)

1) The importance of wooing Catholics to McCain requires that he more clearly and strongly disavow Rev. Hagee's anti-Catholic comments, but not necessarily Rev. Hagee himself.

2) Catholic vote? Better it should happen. If the country's 60+ million Catholic's voted as a block, Roe V. Wade would have been overturned by now, (if it ever could have been brought to the SCOTUS in the first place), the Soviet Union would have been beaten many years and lives sooner, and the doublespeak of gay marriage would have never been spoken. Catholics abort, divorce and vote Democrat at rates in line with the rest of the electorate. I suppose that point 2 renders moot point 1, but why should doublespeak be the exclusive province of homosexuals?
-- Mike McDonald
New Hartford, New York

Catholics like evangelicals are not dumb. For the 20 percent of Catholics (regular churchgoers) it's all about the judges. We know they are the ones that really run the country. Making this acceptable is the MSM. The MSM is now all but dead. It is no small feat to have four catholic judges and one (kennedy) who really is a Protestant wearing a scapular medal on the bench. He can only be counted on when Roberts out maneuvers him. One more election and then we get back to that "old time constitution" in spite of everybody.
-- Annette Cwik

NOBAMANATION
Re: Mark Hyman's The Coming Brokered Democratic Convention:

Since I never vote Democrat I cast my absentee ballot in the Texas Republican primary, but I've got my finger's crossed Hillary wins in both Texas and Ohio. I want to see how the disciples of the new age messiah handle Hillary's not surrendering and ceding the nomination to the Obamanation. As to the Michigan and Florida "delegates" with the Democrat's history of disenfranchising military and ordinary voters in places like Florida (illustrated by Al Gore's attempted coup in 2000) it is nice to see them doing it to some of their own fanatics.

America needs a fractured Democrat party to see that they offer absolutely nothing except pipe dreams of inexpensive "universal" health care (unless your sick, unborn, elderly or handicapped); massive increases in personal taxes; an education system that dispenses condoms instead learning; wasting American's tax dollars on their campaign contributors and family members; a party indebted to corrupt businessmen and foreign despots; and an unhealthy appetite to appease terrorists rather than defeat them. Despite conservative pundits prognosticating this Presidential election was shaping up to be another 1976 it is looking more like 1968 -- a bad year for Democrats. I'm just hoping all hell breaks out at the Democrat convention as the two most incompetent Presidential contenders fight for the nomination of the anti-American Democrat party.
-- Michael Tomlinson

IN DEFENSE OF GEORGE NEUMAYR
Re: Letters (under "Kevorkian Care") in Reader Mail's Sissy Slapped:

As someone who is both handicapped and over sixty, the prospect of Obama Care is positively chilling. I can't help but wonder if I, too, will face the horrible death by torture endured by Terri Schiavo at the end of my life. Even mass murderer Timothy McVeigh had a more merciful death, but then, of course, the law forbids "cruel and unusual punishment." The only "crime" poor Terri was guilty of was that of being an inconvenience to her louse of a two-timing spouse.
-- Gretchen L. Chellson
Alexandria, Virginia

With due respect for his impatience, it is David Leone who doesn't get it. The defense of human life is a transcendent issue. When it comes to the case of Terri Schiavo, the point is no one has the "right" to decide to put her to death. As a society, we have a duty to protect the weakest and most vulnerable among us. There is no more public question than who we will count as one of our own and to whom we will extend our protections. The question is one of justice -- one on which men and women of good will can disagree. Mr. Leone wants to pre-empt that discussion in order to conform public policy according to his own ideology.

As an aside, if you are going to end a person's life, denying nourishment and water is a cowardly and cruel way to do it. If you are going to put a patient to death, then face up to it and kill them. Either shoot them or use lethal injection and don't fool yourself in what you are doing. Ending someone's life in the instant is far more humane than drawing it out over days. Trust me. I know.
-- Michael Dooley
Indianapolis, Indiana

I am surprised by the critics of George Neumayr.

David Leone writes, "the case of Terri Schiavo is not about the morality of denying her feeding tubes in order to allow her to die -- but who has the right to make that decision. That right is her husband's...if Mr. Neumayr is faced with this kind of problem, he will have to decide how to proceed concerning his own wife."

Nonsense. Mr. Neumayr does not have the right to determine the manner of Mrs. Neumayr's death. Schiavo didn't have the right either. He had the power, but only because of a deluded judiciary. Terri Schiavo was not "dying" when her food and water were removed. Nor was Terri Schiavo "allowed to die." Terri Schiavo was killed.

Then Ira M. Kessel writes, "Certain rights are granted to the federal government, others to the states, and the rest to the people, so says the Constitution of the United States. If the GOP is to be philosophically pure, it must allow the states to set limits on life cycle issues not directly assigned to the purview of the federal government."

Wrong. The Constitution grants no rights to any level or branch of government. The Bill of Rights recognizes rights that God has bestowed on us, His people. The Constitution delegates, and limits, the powers to the various branches of government. Read the 10th Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

If anyone is still confused, have a look at the 9th Amendment: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

The Constitution delegates certain powers to government, so that government can safeguard our God-given rights (not all of which were enumerated). Among these is the right to life.

When Michael Vick drowns a dog, he acts more humanely to the bitch than Michael Schiavo did to his wife. At least Vick had a property interest in his dogs. Schiavo did not own his wife, despite the thinking of some of your readers.

God help us.
-- Dan Martin
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

DON'T SELL YOURSELF SHORT
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.'s William F. Buckley, RIP:

As a huge fan of William F. Buckley, Jr., I have been reading all I can about his life and times.

I truly enjoyed your Obit, and think it was one of the best paeans to him I have come across.

I found one item somewhat disturbing though.

I don't think Ann Coulter is the recipient of the "baton" you creatively wrote about.

If anyone might be said to "receive the baton," I think it would be you.

You started your journal of conservative opinion while still a student at Indiana, and have been a faithful apostle of conservatism ever since. In fact while I subscribed to both the National Review and American Spectator for decades, I now only subscribe to American Spectator. I believe you have retained your true conservative calling, but I am not sure that those at National Review have any clue what their compass heading should be.

As to WFB, there probably cannot be another "Buckley" as the confluence of circumstances that lead to his mind-set, talents and outlook would be unlikely to happen again.

Just being born into a family that was comfortable financially allowed for his horizons to be higher than most of us. I don't suspect that your dad was able to provide you $100,000 to start your publishing venture. And yet, here you are.

And, too, Ann can be not just cutting with her wit, but mean-spirited as well. I have never seen that from WFB or you.

Don't sell yourself short.
-- Bill Kamenel

Letter to the Editor

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