The American Spectator

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6.26.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 3)

WHALE WATCHERS
Re: Elizabeth A. Terrell's Blowhards and Blowholes:

Ms. Terrell, please stop encouraging your mother to put her dogs on a vegan diet. Dogs, and cats, are carnivorous animals. It's not a choice for them. A vegan diet, even one high in protein, will make them very, very sick and eventually kill them. If you love animals as much as you profess, please recognize that only a handful of animals are omnivorous like humans, and may just require meat-based diets. And while we might be tempted to suggest a mixed diet for our cats and dogs, all it really takes is giving them some access to the outdoors, or including some potted grass and other plants inside. They need very, very little plant matter and get it through a little chewing on grass or other plants.
-- Charles Campbell
Austin, Texas

If PETA had real concerns for animals they would be lobbying for Congress to pass a "Save the Seals from Polar Bears and Orcas" resolution. Anyone who has ever witnessed the suffering of seals from the vicious and inhumane killing methods by bears and orcas would certainly support such a measure.
-- E. Patrick Mosman

Ms. Terrell is in danger of making the skeptics of environmental causes seem stupid. While there may good argument for allowing the harvesting of a few whales by indigenous groups who have traditionally hunted the whales, it is hard to justify using whales as a source of anything much in a world where a few thousand whales that would have to be divvied among six billion people. If every extant whale in the seas were to be weighed, they would amount to a fraction of the beef Americans consume in a single year. I hoped for a moment that Ms. Terrell was spoofing about the possibility of using whale oil to compensate for the shortage of petroleum -- but no luck -- she's evidently that dumb. If you could keep Ms. Terrell's thoughts away from public scrutiny you would be doing the cause of American conservatism a solid.
-- Don Carlson

Jeremy Lott replies:
I thought we'd included enough hints for readers to get this but the vegan diet line and the whales-as-alternative-fuel-source paragraph were clearly jokes. It was an over-the-top rant, folks, and clearly labeled as such.

NOWHERE MAN
Re: W. James Antle III's Biting Young:

First we get a piece on Iowa's Chuck Grassley, then comes one on Alaska's Don Young. It is no wonder at all that the "Republican" brand is tarnished (and that's being kind). There doesn't appear to be much hope that Iowa will fix things but perhaps Alaska will, at least in their own back yard, which will help all of us who want to see smaller and less expensive government. It will take time but it would be a good start. Clearly we have little hope at the top of the national ticket.
-- Roger Ross
Tomahawk, Wisconsin

It's nice to see Mr. Antle joining John McCain in decrying earmarks and those who abuse the Federal taxpayers -- well at least a Republican RINO. This is a far cry from his April article in which he said, "give them (the Democrat Congress) their pork..." in hopes of getting them to agree to cut overall spending. In light of the Reid/Pelosi Democrat Congress' penchant for more spending and pork it's good to have Antle on the anti-earmark bandwagon. As for Young he's a quintessential RINO and needs to go so we can save the seat from a Democrat who will push for more pork and spending in the do nothing Reid/Pelosi Congress.
-- Michael Tomlinson
Jacksonville, North Carolina

I truly hope Congressman Don Young goes down in flames during the August primary. Even after the 2006 congressional shellacking, he is still the poster boy for everything that is anathema to conservative principles. What a breath of fresh air Sean Parnell will be in D.C.

Mr. Young is for an increase in the federal gas tax, a laugh considering the prices we currently pay. He voted for card check, and he voted for the recent farm bill. He even inserted an earmark for a state he doesn't represent -- talk about scratching the back of a fellow congressman with the taxpayers' money.

With two ongoing federal investigations, I believe Mr. Young will soon be walking the "path to nowhere."
-- Owen H. Carneal, Jr.
Yorktown, Virginia

I work for a large corporation, and I won't say which one. We do have a PAC, of which I am member. The PAC invited my congressman and another one from Texas down for a lunch, and both congressmen are thankfully conservatively minded Republicans. Someone brought up the question to the congressmen as to why they think the Republican brand is in such disarray this year. The congressmen admitted to media bias and "Bush fatigue." I will admit that these two things are contributing, but the media bias has been around a long time. I think that Lieutenant Governor Parnell hit the nail, hard, on the head. And I said much the same thing to both congressmen. It was the abandonment of small-government and personal liberty principles that are costing the Republicans so hard. Personally, I can't wait for Young to be removed from the Congress. Let's hope that Alaskan Republicans are smart enough to do that in the primary and we can see a real conservative moved into his place.
-- Charles Campbell
Austin, Texas

Mr. Young, in regards to your outrageous statement, "My money, my money!" sir, respectfully, NO. It is the public's money. You're dismissed.
-- Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York

HOT OFF THE GRILL
Re: R. Stacy McCain's ANWR Burgers, Anyone?:

Mr. McCain mentions spotted owl that has killed off the timber industry in our Northwest. Spotted owl is a widespread pest that kills most birds by eating their eggs, among those some rare species such as wild canaries and parakeets. It lives mostly in warm regions of the continent -- Mexico and our southern states, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas. In these areas it is properly considered a pest and is treated as such -- by poison and shotgun. As you go north their numbers get smaller, and by the time you arrive in Canada they disappear. In order to kill our timber industry the environmentalists for the first time in the history of science have invented the notion that the species "spotted owl" must be split into two new species -- "southern" and "northern" -- according to where they live most of the time.

By the same logic a polar bear in the Bronx Zoo should be classified as a new species, say "Bronx Polar Bear", and be extended protection in perpetuity, including its progeny. This is "science" from the Dark Ages. Now we import timber from other, more environmentally backward countries, and our loggers are on the dole.

As for ANWR -- there is no more desolate and empty desert in the world, with exactly ZERO tourists willing to expose themselves to that swamp full of mosquitoes to see it during the two months in the year when it is unfrozen.
-- Marc Jeric
Las Vegas, Nevada

DON'T RUSH TO CONCLUSIONS
Re: Thom Bateman's letter (under "Don't Go There") in Reader Mail's All Dogs Go to Heaven:

In my original letter, I gave a few reasons why, in spite of the fact we share the same politics, I found it difficult to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Among the particular grounds, I stated that Rush's three failed marriages belie his claims to understanding women. Mr. Bateman has objected that by my standard Bill Clinton has an extraordinary understanding of women as in spite of it all he has had one wife. He then finishes his letter: " Are you sure you want to go there with that kind of shallow judgment of relationship issues?"

I assure Mr. Bateman I am well qualified to make such a judgment. I met my wife during seventh grade Sunday school class in Faith Lutheran Church in Jacksonville, Illinois. We started off as friends and then began dating in our junior year of High School. In 1975, we were married in that same Lutheran Church we met in. We did not write our own vows as many of our friends had. Instead, we bound ourselves together without the contemporary " escape clauses" under the orthodox Lutheran marriage liturgy. (" till death do us part" ) We remain devout Lutherans and attend the Divine Liturgy together every week. After all these years, I still say she is the best thing that ever happened to me.

We had the same beliefs. We wanted the same things. We both had the soul of a small town in southern Illinois in our bones. All these things continue on to this day. We had and have so much in common.

And yet, after all this time, I can't even pretend I understand my wife. By extension, I don't pretend I understand female types. Women are wonderful folk but my problem is I am a big dumb male. In my experience, it is the rare fellow who isn't a big dumb male. Experience has beaten it into me that us guy types are horribly mismatched to the task. To me, this is one of the humorous things about the human condition. Therefore, I am incredulous (to say the least) when any guy with three failed marriages claims he's got women pegged.

When it comes to Bubba Clinton, by no means to I count his marriage successful nor do I see his long procession of bimbos as evidence of special insight into the female sex. Many men are amazing first dates and one-night-stands. Some can keep the magic going for their girlfriends up to a certain point. But very few of these have a clue about long-term relationships. I think these things hardly lend themselves to a solid understanding of women.

Anyway, back to Mr. Bateman. Of all the things I said in my long letter, I thought it was my statement that I sensed Limbaugh was a jerk would have been the one that would hit a nerve. Instead, I am supposedly judgmental about Limbaugh's failures in wedded bliss. I admit to being judgmental in the sense that I am confident Rush shares our fallen nature. We all have delusions about ourselves. Thinking we know more than we actually do is one of them. So it be with Rush and women. In any event, it has to be remembered that the purpose of my letter was to defend Rush against the charge of racism. Rush may be wrong about life as it is lived here and there; but I am not going to tar and feather him on false charges to just to " prove" to a bunch of liberals I am consistent and fair.
-- Mike Dooley

HEAVEN ON EARTH
Re: G. Tracy Mehan, III's My Dog Died Today and Reader Mail's All Dogs Go to Heaven:

I read something not too long ago that said Heaven is where every dog you ever owned comes running to meet you. I hope its true, because I have two Scottish Terriers I hope are waiting for me. They died about ten years apart and I felt a terrible guilt over leaving the first one with the vet. Vowed I would never be that cruel again. Said I would never have another dog, in fact. But a litter of Scots can melt the heart in a hurry.

About four years ago we knew our second Scot had cancer. We prolonged the inevitable as long as we could. Hoping we were not making her suffer because of our cowardice.

My husband is an accomplished cabinetmaker, so I had him make her a beautiful little casket, which I lined with her blanket. Then I took her to the groomer. Put her in "show trim" for her going away party. She sat in my lap as they gave her injection, then we carried her out and put her in her elegant bird's eye maple coffin, where she could sleep forever in her own backyard.

Whenever I hear lofty praise of loyalty of dogs, I always think of a stand-up comic of the '50s. Brother Dave Gardner said "You know why a dog is man's best friend, don't you? Because he won't tell on ya." It may be as simple as that. Although I put greater reliance on the fact that mine knew who the Keeper of the Kibble was. Me.

I can never look into the soulful black eyes of another Scot. So, I am searching for a miniature Basset, if there is such a dog. I think their eyes are amber.
-- Diane Smith

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Education, John McCain, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Bill Clinton, Earmarks, Environment, Law, Military, Conservatism, Energy, Alaska, Oil