The American Spectator

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Larger Than Life

6.24.08 @ 12:01AM

BEING FUNNY
Re: Jay D. Homnick's A Matter of Life and Birth:

I liked Mr. Homnick's essay "A Matter of Life and Birth," but I found his puns cloying. They just kept on a-coming! The first four or five paragraphs almost made me stop reading. Only because I am staunchly pro-life did I find the motivation to keep on a-reading.

I know it's a matter of style; de gustibus and all that. It may be Mr. Homnick's nature to write that way, but it is not my nature to read that way.

A little less would have been a lot better.
-- James F. Csank
Seven Hills, Ohio

Jay Homnick opines that the lesson Hollywood is teaching the world is that "life, even when the titles and subtitles are out of synch, is always beautiful." Baloney. What Hollywood is teaching the world is that the narcissism of stardom allows one to ignore "conventions," aka marriage and a two-parent household, whenever it suits one to do so. That may work for celebrity, multi-millionaires. For most others, it's the surest route to a life of poverty, misery, crime and/or lowered expectations.

And that isn't "beautiful," Mr. Homnick.
-- Arnold Ahlert
Boca Raton, Florida

Mr. Homnick seems to believe that simply because we don't hear about Hollywood starlets having abortions that it must not be happening. For some reason I just don't think that is the case because there is a lot of stuff that goes on in Tinseltown that we in the American hinterlands don't hear about. There are plenty of instances of extramarital affairs in Hollywood that go on that we never hear about, but does that mean it doesn't go on? For years people thought that Rock Hudson was just the quintessential hetero heartthrob, when he was in fact a closeted homosexual; we didn't hear about his sex life, but that didn't mean he didn't have one!

As for "giving Hollywood credit" for their treatment of the abortion issue, movies like Juno are more the exception than the rule. For every movie or television show that doesn't promote abortion, there are a score of them that do. According to most Hollywood scripts abortion is the noble way out when people are too young, too poor, or unprepared to be parents; a script like Juno stands out because it is so utterly different from the usual fare.

It is fine to give credit when it is due, but don't give too much credit to those who don't deserve it. Juno and Jamie Lynn Spears notwithstanding, Hollywood is still not all that adverse to the notion of abortion. Just look at all the celebrities who turn out for the big pro-abortion rallies and then tell me that Hollywood has "taken over the cause of teaching the world that life, even when the titles and subtitles are out of synch, is always beautiful."
-- Eric Edwards
Walnut Cove, North Carolina

Mr. Homnick's declaration that Hollywood starlets don't have abortions is rather absurd. I don't think that the myriad of press agents and publicity handlers that serve them would release monthly squibs to Cindy Adams on their clients' latest abortion details.

However, there are quite a few Hollywood tarts that have been hospitalized for "exhaustion" (cough, cough) and several of them have had more than one "appendectomy." (wink, wink).
-- Susie Q
Graceland East

Mr. Homnick is spot on. There's much to criticize in Hollywood but fair is fair: surely it's befitting and proper to recognize celebrities when they make correct choices.

Congratulations to Jamie Lynn Spears and props to Mr. Homnick for recognizing her. Likewise, congratulations to the other celebrities who have chosen life and props again to Mr. Homnick for acknowledging them.
-- Richmond Trotter

SOMETHING TO HIDE
Re: The Prowler's Dodd's Diversion:

Democrat Congressmen and Senators appear overly attentive to the FISA bill. Could it be they are sending signals to snoopers and telephone companies that they should never, never, ever look at or divulge their own calls and emails? The public might find out, for instance, that many, many elected officials and staff got mortgage deals over the years as well as the free lunches, trips, transportation, gifts and sweetheart business deals.
-- Howard Lohmuller
Seabrook, Texas

Letter to the Editor

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Taxes, Transportation, Trade, John McCain, Barack Obama, Television, Business, Satire, Abortion, Hollywood, Movies, Law, Iraq, Israel, NATO, Africa