The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 2 of 3)

Voinovich, Snowe, McCain, Graham-nesty are all bodies that give the Republicans some semblance of a senatorial headcount…nothing more. These guys are hogging the left-lane, blocking faster moving traffic. Like the mini-van you cannot see around when stuck in a jam, these bodies just take up space, go through some motions and call it a day. Perhaps a chance at golf with some semi-celeb will make it a week.

Disgusting.
-- P. Aaron Jones

ONCE A CHEESE-EATING SURRENDER MONKEY
Re: Joseph A. Harriss's Burger's Revenge:

Yes things were great in the "old France," chiefs doing their magic in the kitchens and serving up the foods that made France, well, France. Americans raved about the food UNTIL they visited the chiefs in the kitchens then they took one look at the hygiene (more like total lack) of the chiefs cooking the food or just a passing glance at what was under their oh-so-sophisticated food preparers finger nails and ran for their lives…
-- Craig Sarver
Seattle, Washington

POSEUR DEBATED
Re: Ira Kessel's letter (under "Member of the Machine, and Proud") in Reader Mail's Teenage Wasteland:

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I make no claims on how others should live their lives. I am not an absolutist by any measure. I live and work in the real world where compromise is the rule rather than the exception. I merely pointed out that you claim to be a libertarian while living the life of a liberal Democrat. Nothing more. I think the central tenets of modern day libertarians are grossly at odds with being a member of a collective and letting it make decisions about your well being. Karl Marx was a big fan of absolutes and thought the human condition could be perfected (through force). The root wood in Communism is essentially the same word that binds a Union today. Intimidation and extortion are never legitimate in a free society. Let’s let those harmed by strikes sue the Union and its members for damages and see how that flies with regard to "self interest." When is the last time you saw a business perform a "lockout" with regard to the number of Union strikes that occur every year?

You speak of "balance" like we still live and work in the hay days of the industrial revolution and sweat shops of the early twentieth century. Nothing could be further from the truth today. The bulk of exported manufacturing jobs were union based. The union based Big Three are going bankrupt, not the non union competitors that happened to pay the same hourly rate the union members get at the Big Three. Public sector unions all over the country, but especially in Democrat controlled states, are bankrupting their state governments, and this is your idea of "balance" to the excesses of capitalism?

You responded to Chuck in your defense of unions with a phrase that started off with "Ideally," and then how the world should work under perfect conditions. There are 6.7 billion concepts of what an "ideal" world is like on this planet but only one real world. In the real world there is action and consequence. The long term consequences of unionized labor are mediocrity and a slow and destructive decline of the businesses or functions they control. The evidence of this is heaped miles high for all to see in the states where unions rule. Those of us in the real world that have to compete on an individual basis day in and day out and meet deliverable objective standards figured this out a long time ago. That’s called Capitalism. Unions aren’t about capitalism in any sense of the word.

Ira, your choices are yours and hopefully will always be yours but please stop calling yourself a "libertarian" and living the life of a liberal Democrat. We are what we do not what we say we are.
-- Thom Bateman
Newport News, Virginia

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SLAVERY AT MSNBC

Like George Washington, Obama is a first, the first black president...at least since Bill Clinton. As taught in modern textbooks, Washington was not great because he had slaves. Obama's slaves are called the media, so maybe slaves aren't that bad. They won't, however, have to wait years to be emancipated by a Lincoln, because the man from the Land of Lincoln is already Lincolnesque. He rode a train, just like Abe. Someone get a fainting couch and a glass of Vichey for Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Putting Calvin Coolidge's economy of words to shame, Obama spends entire speeches saying nothing. This proves the superiority of a Democrat. Besides, nobody is comparing Obama to the also-rans like Silent Cal, who never hit a three pointer.

Ready to solve the Hoover/Bush Depression à la FDR, Obama is looking to do it in less than the eight years or so it took FDR, and without the exclamation point of a world war at the end. And to think this will all be done in the chic haute couture of JFK. From that stylish UN powder blue and white Office of the President Elect logo, to Michelle's red and black, uh, creation, we return to Camelot.