The American Spectator

Since when do you reprint press releases from the anti-gun lobby? This is a far cry from your wonderful tabloid of the early '80s! Or, does Hannaford, like Pres. Bush, have a Mexican domestic who cleans under the bottom drawer of his bureau? (By the way, I speak Spanish better than anyone there.)
— Grant Bratrud
Woodbury, Minnesota

GOLDEN DAYS WEREN’T SO GOLDEN
Re: Roger Scruton’s The New Humanism:

Mr. Scruton’s indictment of the new Humanism is spot on, but he’ll find no correction in the old humanism — merely the first crucial steps toward the new humanism. Mr. Scruton strikes the right note when he calls the old humanism of his parents “a rearguard action on behalf of religious values.” Indeed at least his parents’ generation of humanists knew what they had put at stake.

The struggle that remains with the Christian faithful today, however, is not just against the hedonism of the new humanism but also against the moralism of the old humanism. This struggle is central to Christ’s parable of the Prodigal Son. The hedonist Prodigal seeks a life on his own terms without the father, but eventually moves toward an understanding of ultimate happiness in the father’s (God’s) kiss. But the one who is most at risk in this story is the elder brother, who lives as an old humanist in complete obedience to the father, unaware that what motivates his commitment to proper living are the same rewards and drive for independence from the father that nearly destroyed the younger brother.

No doubt England would enjoy better living if everyone could maintain an elder brother’s commitment to decorum, but the old humanism and the new humanism are little more than way stations along the same road of where England is today.
— J. Douglas Johnson
Chicago, Illinois

THANK YOU
Re: Ben Stein’s Straight A’s for AA:

At a time when everything is on edge I appreciate you taking the time to notice what a wonderful company we really are. Again,  THANK YOU. And thank you for flying AA.
— AA agent JFK