The American Spectator

Reader Mail

All Power to the Palin

9.26.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 5)

4. Aim for the heart, not the head.

I learned early on in high school that some debating techniques may stymie your opponent, but will not faze a good judge who will can you for using them. Alas, these still work well in the court of Perception Management and are all too easy to employ. Cries of "Racism!" or "McCarthyism" are two of the worst and most frequently used by both Obama and the press to drum out any objective measures to counter their foolish proposals or lack of actual investigation into either the man, his background, or his mentors.

The Socialists masquerading as Democrats (oops, "Progressives") and their media allies know these four rules by heart. Too bad they want to only use them on the American people and not our opponents or (perish the though!) our actual enemies.
-- Cookie Sewell
Socialist Republic of Maryland
(New State Motto: Vote for Slots or Else)

I want to protest in the strongest terms Mr. Tyrrell's use of the phrase "an idiot comedy show" to describe Saturday Night Live. To accuse SNL of being a "comedy" is typical of the mean-spirited talk we've come to expect from conservatives. Remember, Johnny Carson once said that someday they would actually do a comedy version of SNL, so I want an apology from Mr. Tyrrell right now, or else I'll have to continue to read his essays.
-- C. V. Crisler
Gilbert, Arizona

Your Mr. R. Emmett Tyrrell lucidly explains this Taranto principle. The fact is this principle is not strong enough. One wonders how that empty blowhard Kerry got more than the lunatic vote; how that sleazy trial lawyer Edwards was ever considered by any number of votes over the lunatic fringe; how that empty suit Abu Hussein, risen from the revolutionary swamps of corrupt Chicago politics, got to win the socialist nomination; and how those bloviating socialist gasbags Biden, Frank, and Dodd get re-elected again and again ad infinitum? What should one do to reinforce this Taranto principle?
-- Marc Jeric
Las Vegas

WHAT'S FOR DESSERT?
Re: Jeffrey Lord's Dining With Evil:

I was gratified to see that the Roman Catholic Church was not listed as a participant in this sad charade. Furthermore, Pope Benedict rebuffed Ahmadinejad when he was visiting Rome and requested an audience, earlier this year.

It seems that among the Christian denominations, The Roman Catholic Church has the Islamofascists pegged, as she ought. She has fought them since the Crusades and recognizes her ancient enemy.

Perhaps Mr. Lord might consider crossing the Tiber.
-- Catalina Caesar

It is an amazing phenomenon, that Sarah Palin would be excoriated and slandered, even demonized, for her Evangelical religious affiliation, while Obama, affiliated with the UCC that Mr. Lord describes here, that abets terrorist tyrants, would receive no scrutiny at all for that UCC affiliation.

It appears to me that America has ceased to be good. In fact, it would appear that in this circumstance, America has ceased to be sane.
-- Kent J. Lyon

What does it say of Mr. Lord if he continues his association with this group? I hesitate to call it a church as that word denotes a sympathetic relationship with Christ which, it seems, the UCC can no longer claim.
-- Rose Storey

Jeffrey Lord replies:
The short answer for Ms. Storey is that the UCC has no top-down authority structure. Individual churches, as was the habit of Congregationalists right from the beginning, speak for themselves. My individual church in placid Central Pennsylvania is about as far from these kinds of antics as you can imagine. And indeed, my own recent election to a position on the Penn Central Conference Board of Directors is a direct reflection that there was a feeling the national UCC was not reflecting the diversity -- in this case the presence of lots of conservatives -- in the denomination. We are here. We will stay. And we will be heard.

TOO SENSIBLE
Re: Quin Hillyer's No Thanky to Paulson and Bernanke:

You make too much sense. It will never happen...
-- Paul

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Sarah Palin, Hank Paulson, Business, Social Security, Medicaid, Islam, Hollywood, Constitution, Law, Military, Socialism, Conservatism, Medicare