HILL’S FAN CLUB
Re: Lisa Fabrizio’s Can Hillary Walk the Line?:

Ms. Fabrizio is once again “bang on,” as our British cousins say. Mrs. Clinton is a woman of many parts and has to be. She must, of course, favor mandatory membership in unions for each and every American (to get the millions unions give to radical leftists) while not fending the millions of Americans who see unions as rackets and rife with corruption. She must appear as a child advocate while exhorting women to have them ripped from their wombs. She must persuade Americans that she is a rational, likeable person even in the face of vicious, personal, attacks on everyone who dares disagree with her. She must also convince the masses in New York that she will stay their senator for six years and not run for President in 2008.

This will be the easiest thing she has to do because folks from New York are crazy. (If they weren’t they’d move somewhere like California or Massachusetts where taxes are lower and services better.)

And yes, she must appear a strong, confident and capable, liberated woman who stands firmly in her own two feet to become President. And she has to do this while her husband figuratively slaps her in the face with his serial philandering. Providentially, Ms. Fabrizio also provides a link to the Clinton Foundation’s advertisement for interns. It advertises that interns will have a “hands on” experience. Does anybody doubt the truth of that?
— Jay W. Molyneaux
Wellington, Florida

I realize that crazy Cindy Sheehan has criticized Hillary but that shouldn’t make us think that the crazy left will abandon her. The whole Democrat enterprise is largely a fraud all the time. When they say they want to make abortions safe and rare, the whole party knows that the rare part is not sincere. When John Kerry supported the definition of marriage that had a man and a woman in it, even the phony Andrew Sullivan knew he was just kidding. When Congress gave President Clinton their approval to invade Iraq, the liberals knew that the only thing invaded would be an intern or two. When Bill used to carry that massive Bible into church, nobody in the party worried that he had gone to the dark side. Nobody in the party was even remotely concerned about Al Gore’s mangled Bible quotes. When John Kerry was photographed carrying a bird that somebody else shot, the party didn’t believe for a second that somehow a gun nut was leading the ticket. The examples of their total insincerity about practically all issues are legion. Not only are they used to hiding what they really believe from the country, they don’t even think to deeply about it themselves. That thinking would destroy their phony progressive ideology.
— Clifton Briner

The Hillary could cry me a river and I still would not vote for her. All her policies are socialist, bigger government, higher taxes.
— Elaine Kyle

MONEY CHANGERS IN ST. PAUL’S
Re: Hal G.P. Colebatch’s Anglican Shame:

As an American Episcopalian I am disgusted by the bent of the Anglican Communion. Nothing more graphically illustrated the spiritual depravity of the Church’s leadership then a recent visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The crypt of St. Paul’s has been converted to a combination gift shop and cafe! The most glorious building in the Anglican Communion has been whored out to commerce by the church leadership. One can only hope for someone to come along and drive these money-changers out!
— Erik Tifft
Mount Laurel, New Jersey

Maybe the Church Synod, after divesting itself of Caterpillar stocks can use those funds to invest in Suicide Belts and IEDs. But please, make certain the timers and computer chips used to set them off don’t contain any “Made in Israel” parts! You know how it is with those sneaky Jews: their “cleverness” will cause their manufacture to show up in the most unexpected places. And don’t buy any drugs that may contain medications pioneered by Israelis, either. We wouldn’t want you to get well.
— Wolf Terner
Fair Lawn, New Jersey

You guys are just too funny and your little comedy show is one of the highlights on the web. Yes, after all, the survival of the U.S. is absolutely depending on a strong Israel, ha. Sorry guys, two wrongs will not make one right. Occupation, just as the U.S. and Israel have noticed — will and does create blowback. Two nations united in blowback — sounds more like the alliance of the desperate. The rats are already leaving the sinking right-wing ship and you are still going strong forging a non-existent evangelical-zionistic alliance — how deep did you stick your head in the sand? In Europe and most parts of the world they are having a great time watching the U.S. right wing decompose in front of their eyes — not much different like when the single party Soviet system bankrupted ideologically and financially. So if you stand for the American way of live you killed it off, be prepared to lay it to rest.
— Ollie

I have just returned from Ash Wednesday service at an Anglican church which I’d been staying away from since God’s Holy Mountain got confused with Brokeback Mountain… because this is Ash Wednesday and some things, I thought, transcend others.

But then I opened up the The American Spectator and saw this abomination of desolation.

I can do no more than quote from the Old Testament Reading for today:

Joel, Chapter 2: 1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all who dwell in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming;

2 Yes, it is near, a day of darkness and of gloom, a day of clouds and somberness! Like dawn spreading over the mountains, a people numerous and mighty! Their like has not been from of old, nor will it be after them, even to the years of distant generations.

3 Before them a fire devours, and after them a flame enkindles; Like the garden of Eden is the land before them, and after them a desert waste; from them there is no escape.

4 Their appearance is that of horses; like steeds they run.

5 As with the rumble of chariots they leap on the mountaintops; As with the crackling of a fiery flame devouring stubble; Like a mighty people arrayed for battle.

6 Before them peoples are in torment, every face blanches.

7 Like warriors they run, like soldiers they scale the wall; They advance, each in his own lane, without swerving from their paths.

8 No one crowds another, each advances in his own track; Though they fall into the ditches, they are not checked.

9 They assault the city, they run upon the wall, they climb into the houses; In at the windows they come like thieves.

10 Before them the earth trembles, the heavens shake; The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withhold their brightness.

11 The LORD raises his voice at the head of his army; For immense indeed is his camp, yes, mighty, and it does his bidding. For great is the day of the LORD, and exceedingly terrible; who can bear it?

Either these are the Last Days, or the Church has gone stark, staring mad. In any event, I’m finished with the Anglican Church.
— Kate Shaw
Toronto, Ontario

DELIVERY STRATEGIES
Re: Paul Chesser’s Working the Wrong Side of the Road:

Back in a more innocent time, 1980, as a 13-year-old I delivered the Richmond Times-Dispatch. I still can’t believe I did it or that it was acceptable back then for children to do so. Consider: the only people out and about at 5 a.m. in a city are a few joggers, a few police, paperboys (we still called them that back in that innocent time), winos, weirdoes, and criminals.

It was not without incident. Several times I had my Sunday editions stolen for sale at impromptu downtown newsstands. Once while collecting money I ran into neighborhood ruffians who harassed me more for sport than money. Another time I was bitten by a dog. However, the most memorable day was when I arrived at the drop-off spot to find, instead of the newspapers to be delivered, a smoldering ash heap along with the smell of gasoline. Apparently deranged nuts of some sort had decided, for whatever reason, to light a bonfire. And this was in a “good” neighborhood!

Also, let it not go without mentioning that while the postal carrier glamour boys get to claim that neither snow, nor rain, nor blah, blah, blah keep them from their appointed rounds, the paper carriers really mean it. Nothing stops their delivery, not even weekends or federal holidays. Which, of course, is yet another example of the private sector outperforming the public sector — even if they have to wait for their employees, excuse me, independent contractors, to turn twelve before awarding them the work.
— R. Trotter
Arlington, Virginia

None of the rural postal carriers in my area have steering wheels on the right, but they sit on the right and drive across the car. Of course since they stop at almost all boxes they drive on the shoulder most of the time and it is daylight.
— Elaine Kyle

Mr. Chesser makes many important points regarding both safe driving and newspaper business hypocracy [sic]; but I’m not writing about that.

I was surprised to see that he is an “editor” (as well as obviously a columnist), since by the end of the article where I saw his “bio” line I was still not quite through cringing at his use of “could care less.”

Since 99.9 percent of people seem to carelessly use this illogical/incorrect phrase, let me point out that he is actually concerned that the newspaper companies could NOT care less (about road safety, their contractors, etc.). The colloquial form of the phrase should be “couldn’t care less.”

If they “COULD care less” then there are other (unstated) issues of even lower priority than the one under discussion. So the priority of the issue under discussion becomes ambiguous. Is it “high enough,” since it is clearly higher than at least some other (unstated) issues?

The construction also leaves open the possibility that the issue is the HIGHEST priority of all, the exact opposite of the author’s intention!

I hope my speaking out on this pet peeve does NOT trivialize the important safety (and media hypocracy [sic]) concerns raised in the column.
— Kevin Amaro
Hayward, California

BELABORED FAILURE
Re: The Prowler’s Reality Strikes:

Residing in the basket case of Union engineering that is Michigan. One observes the UAW and their organized brethren go after every business that attempts to locate here. Regardless of the state’s offering these candidate companies; tax abatements (tax cuts do work!), the land deals, and all the wining and dining. These companies respectfully “consider” Michigan’s proposal’s because a better and less cumbersome deal probably lurks elsewhere.

Another reason for “Big Labor’s” decline: The past placards and protestations of organized labor have resulted in, EEOC legislation, anti-discrimination, anti-exploitation laws, overtime rules, and the numerous workplace protections mandated by the state(s) and the FEDS. As well as competition from well paying employers and labor’s overnight flight from state to state as employees themselves through their education and the progress of mobility has empowered the worker. These same workers today forsake the onerous and costly Union dues and their strong-arm leftist philosophies of political pressure to adhere to their way.

The unions have a few hosts left: The “big” three, and state and federal workplaces. The rest of the country has moved on.
— P. Aaron Jones
Huntington Woods, Michigan

The unions are what is wrong with this country. They price themselves out of jobs and cause companies to go belly up or send jobs overseas. Unions should not be able to use union dues, without consent, and give to political parties. In fact having to join a union to get a job should be outlawed. All states should be RIGHT TO WORK.
— Elaine Kyle

Labor and management have a common foe and it is the cheap foreign labor resource because keeping factories and jobs in the U.S. is good for companies and the country if it can be done and bad for both if it cannot. Labor and management therefore need each other as never before.

They need to work together to find ways to make the American labor resource more competitive. This will take reducing health care costs and the costs of litigation, both of which inflate wages and other costs of manufacturing products. There are ways to do both and labor can lead the way to its own salvation. These issues happen to be Republican issues.

Labor and the Republican Party therefore need each other as never before.
— Allen Hurt

JED’S DISSENTERS
Re: Jed Babbin’s Have We Lost in Iraq?:

I generally find myself in agreement with Jed Babbin, but I must disagree with his assessment of Iraq. What we are seeing is America’s lack of will to sustain a conflict for more than four years. Aside from our revolution (a win) and Vietnam (a loss) the United States just doesn’t have the stomach to sustain a war for more than four years. That is a reality of who we are as a people. This war began on 9/12/2001 (despite the left’s attempt to uncouple 9/11 from Operation Iraqi Freedom) and the country is well past the four-year mark and beginning to exhibit its historic inability to maintain the “sacrifices” (a joke regarding the vast majority of Americans outside the family’s of the military) to win. We’re ready to throw in the towel and move on with our mundane lives. We have grown tired of the war. President Bush’s failure, as with those who actually support the Global War on Terror as opposed to the couch potato patriots, is a failure to understand this about the American psyche — a problem exacerbated by the “Lewinsky wars” of the 1990s.

Had Jefferson Davis realized this historical reality and not placed John Bell Hood in command of the Army of Tennessee, Atlanta may have held out till after the 1864 election and Lincoln’s sure defeat at the hands of a war weary Union electorate. The Democrats would have come to power and the possibility of a negotiated peace (despite McClellan’s words) was a real possibility. In 1944 before Germany was defeated, President Roosevelt, sensing his party and the nation’s war weariness, ordered the “arsenal of democracy” to return to a peacetime footing. The result was troops inadequately prepared to meet the onslaught of the Germans in the Ardennes and 29,000 dead Americans in the month long Battle of the Bulge. Of course, despite the inadequacies the American Soldier prevailed. Never ever underestimate the courage or strength of the American fighting man/woman only the public’s will.

Unfortunately for President Bush he lives in far different times than his illustrious predecessors. President Lincoln ignored the Constitution and locked up or muzzled his enemies (particularly the press) and the Republicans despite loathing the arrogant Roosevelt were committed to U.S. victory. The same cannot be said for today’s media, ACLU or the majority of Democrat politicians and activists. For them winning is not defeating our enemies, but regaining political power and returning America to its pre 9/11 delusion of security. That is until major American city’s glow.

As a member of the active duty military (deployed for both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom) it pains me to say this about my country, but sometimes the truth hurts.

Immediately after 9/11, based on my study of U.S. military history, I predicted we had four years to deal with our enemies. If President Bush “failed” it was then. As unrealistic as it may sound we should have immediately bombed in the Bekka valley into dust (something Reagan should have done after the murder of our Marines), deposed the Taliban (as we did), and then turned out attentions on Iraq (a military success), Iran and Syria before the end of 2002 while America’s bloodlust was up and the Democrats with their hacks in the media were still afraid to show the yellow stripe running down their backs.

The war in Iraq is not lost — far from it, but video America needs to grow up and realize quick solutions for real problems are only solved instantaneously in movies and not real life. Personally, Buckley and the armchair strategist’s defeatism is proof of my theory. The danger is if they are “prophetic” we not only lose in Iraq, but the entire Global War on Terror. Our enemy understands Giap was right, despite our tough guy rhetoric; Home Simpson America lacks resolve and staying power when it comes to a fight. They don’t.

President Eisenhower was right, “History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.” I pray we are not the generation who ushers in the fall of not only the U.S., but Western democracy.
— Michael Tomlinson
Crownsville, Maryland

Usually love your columns but the latest has me scratching my head. Particularly this exchange in Reader Mail.

“President doesn’t understand the information war”? Why are we not racially profiling Arabs if he doesn’t understand the information war? Why are we bending over backward to make friends of all kind of persons and factions in the Middle East? Seems to me that the President and his administration are pretty nimbly exploiting all the divisions of our enemies in Iraq and elsewhere. Sure they had a rocky beginning, but I don’t think it was as rocky as our first efforts in WWII. I’m sure you’re well aware of what happened in Morocco, and why we invaded there after we were attacked by the Japanese.

Lastly, I think the President is trying to get the message out, I’ve heard it a number of times: Long difficult conflict, dedicated and patient adversaries, will be won when their societies offer hope, freedom and equality to all. Might take a while since we’re on that path ourselves. But I can’t think of a worthier fight, can you?
— Rick Lockwood
Gainesville, Florida

Jed Babbin replies:
Dear Mr. Tomlinson: Exceptionally well said. But I think we credit Americans too little. They can sustain a war effort if their leaders can. It saddens me greatly to say this, but the problems we have now are much exaggerated by the President’s lack of attention.

Dear Mr. Lockwood: You, like the President, are confusing diplomacy with the ideological war. We won the Cold War in part because people such as Reagan and Thatcher were constantly holding the oppressions and failures of communism up to the light for all to see. We need to be doing the same for radical Islamists to see how their ideology brings only failure, poverty, oppression and death to its adherents. That’s the fight we’re not in, yet.

YOU AND YOUR “GOD”
Re: Mark Gauvreau Judge’s The Literary Counter-Reformation:

I think it’s irrational to hate Jesus. It just doesn’t make sense to hate a fictional character. And your strong feelings for a traditional Catholicism reveals only your dedication to a current version of a religion which has evolved considerably over the years. Have you ever stopped to consider whether there really is a god? And if you think there is one, have you considered how much evidence there is on what he is like and what he wants and how you know this? And how can you take the Bible as authoritative when it was written and rewritten by so many anonymous people and contains so many contradictions and errors? What did these writers know that you and I don’t know?

If the Christian religion is true, then why does the theory of evolution neatly account for the development of species without the slightest assistance from the supernatural? And why can’t scientists find evidence of the existence of a soul? And why does Christianity seem to borrow all of its beliefs from other religions?

It seems to me that you are being ridiculous in getting all huffy about other people’s religious beliefs — unless you can rationally explain why yours are better than theirs.

I’ll bet you can’t do it.
— Steve Beck

SHOOT FIRST
Re: Brandon Crocker’s Self-Appointed Clowns:

This has always been a problem with Americans, a knee jerk reaction to something before they know anything about it. This plays into the hands of politicians who are poised to take personal advantage no matter the damage that is done to the friendly relationships we have in the Middle East.
— unsigned