The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Beyond Good

4.23.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 4 of 4)

I was perturbed from the start because of the lack of evidence used to launch the raid on the polygamous "compound" and the attempts by the media and law enforcement to demonize the people there. I understand that polygamy is against the law, but shouldn't someone there be charge with that by now? And what did polygamy have to do with this raid in the first place, other than to paint these people as a weird sex cult that demanded law enforcement intervention?

What is equally disturbing is that the story that was used to smear these people and destroy their families seems to be falling apart at the seams, yet the only place I can get any real news about it is from TAS! It is always bad when law enforcement and the media get all chummy, and this situation just confirms it. The state has decided to treat these people as criminals, and worse than that as child abusers, with a willing media complicit in the smear campaign.

I guess when the story fits an agenda, the media watchdog morphs pretty quickly into a law enforcement lapdog, eh?
-- Eric Edwards
Walnut Cove, North Carolina

LIMITS TO COMMON SENSE
Re: Ty Knoy's letter (under "Limits to Limits to Growth Theory") in Reader Mail's Monday, Monday:

Mr. Knoy's letter is as good a place as any to talk about the diversion of grain into the manufacture of fuel. I have serious misgivings about the current practice; but setting that aside much of the concern about the diversion of grain away from the food supply is misplaced. A lot could have been done to ease the price shock before the sudden introduction of bio-fuels. It would have been more humane for the state to end its counterproductive policy to discourage crop production and allowed grain production to ramp up to increased demand. Still, we are not in static situation. We are in a transition period. As corn becomes more profitable, farmers will grow more corn -- as much as demand will allow. Unfortunately, the switch to farming corn will have an impact upon the growing of beans and wheat -- but that is a problem the free market will handle better than Uncle Sam trying to manage food production. Farming is one "industry" the government has most removed the free market and has stepped in and made its presence known in every phase. True to form, the government is the last to recognize that circumstances have changed. As it is said that military generals are always fighting the last war, likewise Uncle Sam's planners are always trying to solve yesterday's crisis.
-- Michael Dooley
Indianapolis, Indiana

NOT MY TYPE
Re: Florence King's A Man's Woman:

Per the article, Alice Roosevelt Longworth was, among other things, a power-hungry adulteress devotee of evolution, eugenics, and Social Darwinism who bullied her only child into having a stuttering problem, a "receding" personality, and, implicitly, death at 31 from alcohol and barbiturates.

It's not fair to men to refer to her as a "man's woman" and she's certainly isn't this man's concept of any feminine ideal. That she married a serial-adulterer is no excuse for her awful behavior; if anything it is but an example of one of her many poor choices, not a cause thereof.

I often enjoy Miss King's articles but on this one, respectfully, I think she missed the mark. Or else I misinterpreted her review. I did enjoy her earlier write-up of Mata Hari, though.
-- Richmond Trotter

TALKIN' TURKEY
Re: Bob Vogler's letter (under "Gobbler's Nod") in Reader Mail's Eagle Eyes:

I second that, Mr. Vogler. WE WANT THE TURKEY BACK!

BTW, what was it there for to begin with?
-- Mike Showalter
Austin, Texas

IS IT CONSTITUTIONAL?
Re: James M. Thunder's The Rules of the Game:

Sure, is it democratic? But now you're getting right into the question of "Is it constitutional to deny a state any right not left to the Federal Government?" :) Redo that article sometime and replace "Is it democratic?" with "Is it constitutional?" Even pick a different topic if you want, it will be an interesting article.
-- Timothy F. Ezell

Letter to the Editor

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