The American Spectator

HARVEY SIGNS OFF
Re: Christopher Orlet’s Paul Harvey, Good Night:

Like my Spanish brother in law would say in his very limited English vocabulary, Paul Harvey was “a good man.”

‘Nuff said. I’ll miss him.
— Gene Hauber
Brick, New Jersey

A fine tribute, Mr. Orlet, to the greatest of the great.  Paul Harvey, with every broadcast, restored my faith in God, in country, and in myself.  Like Ronald Reagan, he made me feel proud to be an American.  You must have been in a hurry, though, when you wrote this.  A couple of “misquotes”?  I thought it was “nattering” nabobs of negativism, and I wasn’t even a fan of Spiro Agnew.  And, isn’t it “snake OIL” salesman?  Although, “snakeskin” would be a bit more interesting, and challenging, even for Paul Harvey.  However, I enjoyed learning about Mr. Harvey’s neologisms.  He certainly had some famous “imitators.”  Now, what American President is also well known for his, uh, “neologisms”?  OK, maybe that’s being a little too complimentary.  “Strategery” doesn’t quite make the cut in neologism land.  Still, it beats understanding the meaning of the word “hope.”  Mr. Harvey certainly did, but truly now, do you really think Barack Obama actually knows the meaning of the word?

Good DAY!
— Mike Showalter
Austin, Texas

NEW SCHOOL TIES
Re: Ken Blackwell’s Not Making the Grade:

I think American universities have been aligned with the economy for quite some time now. Universities have for a long time produced smug, self-important wankers who think they are entitled to rewards without achievement or responsibility. These are exactly the same qualities as the Wall Street operators who broke the financial system and now the economy by paying themselves shameless bonuses for lending money to people who can’t pay it back and for investing in worthless securities that nobody understood. The universities certainly were producing for the market, supply was matched to demand — the trouble is, it was a market that has now spectacularly failed. Maybe now the demand for wankers and their worthless products has collapsed under the weight of its own ridiculous contradictions and inanities, the universities will also change towards producing graduates whose skills are more durable and worthy and who are more thoughtful and disciplined and less self-indulgent. I believe this is called creative destruction — let there be much such destruction. There is still hope for those who value an old=fashioned, quality education.
— Christopher Holland
Canberra, Australia

As Shakespeare wrote, “I must be cruel only to be kind.” (Hamlet Act 3, scene 4)

Rejection never feels like a kindness, but rejection can be a greater kindness than unreasonable acceptance. A college admission officer must be honest with his applicants in order to serve them well. To accept an under or unqualified candidate who will simply under achieve or fail is unethical. When colleges exclude viable tests that have a high level of accuracy in predicting success in order to bolster students’ self-esteem, they are doing a costly disservice to these students. College is expensive and time consuming. Tests, such as the ACT and SAT, serve to give valuable information to admission officers and the students themselves. To let an unqualified student make the cut is the unkindest cut of all.
— Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York

TERRIBLE MISQUOTE
Re: The Prowler’s To the Left:

Does anyone else see the irony?

Barack Obama — who is not just riding the coattails of Abraham Lincoln but has stitched himself inside them — presiding over a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” and helping it along to perish from the earth.
— A. C. Santore

THE FUTURE IS HERE, AND IT ISN’T PRETTY
Re: Max Schulz’s Bio-Fools:

“It’s just a matter of time before Associate Justices Judith Sheindlin and Joe Brown take their rightful places on the high court.”  Wasn’t that the plot of Christopher Buckley’s last novel?
— Robert Nowall
Cape Coral, Florida

Dr. Bittner is a patriotic genius, don’t you see?