The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Crying Foul

5.29.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 4 of 4)

Failing that, maybe if a Democrat congress gets hard-nosed about confirming nominees, maybe it'd be better to let the seat fall vacant for awhile. The United States has gotten a pretty good amount of grief from the extra-constitutional process of judicial review. The Supreme Court doesn't actually try anything itself, just conducts hearings and reviews; maybe concentrating on getting the right kind of judges to preside over the lower courts, without review above them, might be a better investment for the future.
-- Robert Nowall
Cape Coral, Florida

QUICK WORD, GOOD DOCTOR
Re: Andrew Macfadyen's letter (under "My Two Left Feet") in Reader Mail's Indecent Appeasement:

Doctor: I understand your explanation and enumeration of the liberal axioms and postulates required by liberals for achieving "chicken hawk" status, however, I am still just a little bit confused. If you are saying that a "chicken hawk" must NOT think of the Iraq war as "the most egregious violation of human rights in the history of the world," would that not then cancel his/her right to sue George Bush for engaging us in that war? After all "Bush lied, people died" and "no blood for oil" can't do it all by themselves.
-- Joseph Baum
Garrettsville, Ohio

STRENGTH TALKS
Re: The letter under "Concession Stand" in Reader Mail's More Fumbles:

There are times it's good to have a second language. Since the Wall fell in 1989 and took the Soviet Union down with it in 1991, Russian reporters and historians have published a wealth of items based on their state archives and some of their less shining moments in history.

What the Soviets dubbed "Operation Anadyr'" -- the stationing of intermediate range missiles in Cuba -- was not one of their better moves. As was noted this was in response to Thor and Jupiter missiles based in Turkey and involved about 24 SS-4 and SS-5 missiles, WITH THEIR NUCLEAR WARHEADS, as well as shorter range nuclear missiles and SA-2 SAM units to protect them.

This appears from what their historians said was Khrushchev's idea, not that of the Council of Ministers of the USSR or Central Committee of the CPSU. Ergo, when they were exposed by the U-2 imagery they were not happy that Nikita Sergeyevich put them straight into the middle of a bull's-eye.

Khrushchev's breaking point occurred when Fidel Castro, enraged by US reconnaissance overflights of Cuba and the blockade, demanded the Soviets nuke Washington. Khrushchev, realizing that Castro was just dumb enough to actually carry this out if he got control of the missiles, began looking for a way out of this disaster. When the famous off the record meeting indicated that Kennedy was willing to deal, Khrushchev jumped at it. But having pushed the Soviets to the brink -- when they were ill prepared to deal with it -- eventually cost Khrushchev his job less than four years later.

The point is that if you want to negotiate you better negotiate from strength and you better hope that your opponent realizes he is in over his head. With many of the primary villains in the world today, that's no longer the case.
-- Cookie Sewell
Socialist Republic of Maryland

STRAWMAN
Re: Philip Klein's Will the Real Libertarian Please Stand Up?:

The issue of Libertarians supporting kiddie porn was not mentioned by a single candidate other than to say it is wrong, so why say, "No doubt to the disappointment of some libertarians, all three candidates took a stand against kiddie porn"? The issue only came up in an attempt to poison one candidate who [not included in the interview] has never supported kiddie porn. The fact that it would be damaging to that candidate is proof that most libertarians would not approve.
-- Gail Lightfoot
California

GRAHAM CRACKUP
Re: Quin Hillyer's The Worst Republican Senator:

You think he's bad now, just wait until this former Navy JAG becomes the AG of the United States, that is, if John McCain becomes our next president.
-- Scottie Kania
Wasilla, Alaska

Letter to the Editor

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