Here We Go Again - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Here We Go Again
by

WHOSE SIDE?
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.’s Dealing With the Corpus Delicti:

I was flabbergasted to read Mr. Tyrrell’s column expressing puzzlement over the U.S. reluctance to link munitions found in Iraq with various countries that opposed the war.

Could it be that such reluctance stems in part from American reluctance to have the spotlight of culpability shine on those American officials and companies that were also heavily involved in arming Iraq?

And while raising the specter of an environmental disaster from the so-far undiscovered WMDs, perhaps a word could be said about all those depleted uranium shells that our side rained down upon the Iraqi countryside.
Jonathan E. Schiff

ROCKIN’ ROBBINS
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.’s Looney Clooneys:

Has anyone verified the claims Tim Robbins made in his speech at the National Press Club? He claims he breathed lethal air while working at Ground Zero. He claims that his nieces and nephews have been persecuted because they are related to him, with one claiming that Tim and Susan weren’t welcome at their school play. He claims another relative told him that a school board refused to have a moment of silence for those who died in the war if the students included dead Iraqi civilians in the prayer. He claims that he criticized President Clinton when Clinton bombed Kosovo. Finally, has anyone scrutinized what Tim Robbins says to question his truthfulness in all the claims he makes? It sounds like the premise for a really good column.
Ron Curtis
Terre Haute, IN

WHILE MOST PEOPLE SLEPT
Re: Lawrence Henry’s Most People Have Lives:

Lawrence Henry’s article about the split between media elites and regular Americans reveals why Middle America is so weak politically.

If we don’t take time out from our mundane concerns — our kids, jobs, sports, neighbors — to speak out, walk our precincts, demonstrate, run for office, and hold our elected representatives’ feet to the fire, the liberal establishment will continue to drag this country into the quicksand.

Being smug about living a “normal life” might be a way of feeling superior to our political adversaries. But it also allows them to remain in charge of our society. As much as anything, this complacent, lazy attitude explains why we remain mostly powerless, whatever we might tell ourselves about the left’s “irrelevance.”
David Frisk
Claremont, CA

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?
Re: John R. Dunlap’s Identity Crisis:

Thanks for the update on the state of Catholic universities. As for your final question from Jake Holman, like most deep questions, it contains its own answer– HELL HAPPENED! Moral relativism met the baby boomers, and away we went!
Jamed Crystal

What did happen? At seventy years of age I am lost. Having been raised a very strict Catholic. I feel that the Church has left me, and I can not find it. The teachings and singing at the Mass are unfamiliar. The old Catholic Doctrine that gave me comfort has been replaced with “feel good” kind of thinking. Heaven help us.
— unsigned

Timely article for me personally, a Catholic trying to dig deeper into her faith, mother of a son about to go to college (not a Catholic University but already he’s saying he’d like to transfer to Georgetown) and continually being haunted by St. Augustine — food for thought. Thank you (and all read on Good Friday).
— unsigned

SCARED CELEBRITIES
Re: David Hogberg’s ‘Friady Madonna:

I’ve been amused lately by the countless celebrities who’ve been screaming censorship over diminished record sales, canceled speeches and other losses of revenue. They seem to have forgotten that censorship is what governments do, and no one in the government is organizing the boycotts. These are totally the actions of private citizens loosely coordinated by private individuals via the Internet. That’s what freedom is all about: you’re free to act like a moron and I’m free to ignore you and spend my money elsewhere. Actions have consequences for most of us, and celebrities are just the latest to be taught that lesson.
Mary Yonts

STAR POWER
Re: The Washington Prowler’s A One-Term Wonder:

Yes, Peter Fitzgerald is “not a team player.” When the team lines up for yet another pork-barrel raid on the public purse, he’s not in line.

The corruption and incapacity of the Illinois Republican party is so blatant that last year they lost the governorship to a Chicago alderman’s son-in-law and the attorney general’s office to a state legislator’s remarkably underqualified stepdaughter.

Fitzgerald is not to blame for this. He fought like the dickens to get a Federal prosecutor for southern Illinois who would actually prosecute crooked politicians.

As for his decision to return to private life after one term — would that we had more such modest solons, rather than careerists who “grow in office.”
Rich Rostrom

WEASEL OUT OF THIS ONE
Re: The Washington Prowler’s Clinton and the Weasels:

Thank you for the information. I have been saying for weeks that there was more behind the three-country stiff resistance than their being against our actions in Iraq. I said that Clinton had been talking to Mandela just before Mandela made his comment that President Bush was a racist. Those words sounded as though they came out of Clinton’s mouth. So did the statements of Chirac, Schroeder, and Putin on the war in Iraq. They do not have that much collective courage without help!!!

Thanks for the confirmation!
Caroline R. McCarty

Your note on the behavior of former president Clinton is spot on and I am glad to see someone speaking out on his behavior. He seems to spend a great deal of his time berating President Bush and people should be telling the world how tactless and childish it is. Perhaps someone should speak up and tell him he is no longer the president. He seems to have not accepted this truth, but then when was the truth important to him?

The Democrats just do not get it. The more Clinton talks against President Bush the more they look like children who cannot let daddy go, even when daddy is becoming a liability to the entire group. To finally stop leaning on daddy would show they have minds of their own and can think for themselves. They are becoming a rather sad looking group of people who have no control over themselves or their political party. There plan is to “get Bush” no matter what it takes, and it shows quite clearly they have no real ideas, just an anger and hate for the president to keep them going. They do not learn. People would respect them if they actually presented some ideas or plans for the country, minus Mr. Clinton. Somewhere within them is an adult crying out to be heard, but they refuse to hear it.
Carole

SLAPPING THE OTHER CHEEK
Re: Teresa Welby’s letter in Reader Mail’s Postwar Fever:

Nice to know that Teresa is a Christian. Unfortunately she is also a coward and lame. While I don’t think any one of the 9-11 punk/murderers were Iraqi, I am also aware that the man responsible for Mr. Klinghoffer being shot in his wheelchair and dumped overboard, and various other under-reported atrocities, was hiding out in Iraq. Maybe we should just let him go, with directions to Teresa’s house and see how she enjoys seeing a real madman go to work.
Brian Barfield

Can I politely point out to Ms. Welby that 100% of those planes were occupied by terrorists determined to destroy every civilian and military life of the great satan infidel?

I know it’s a handicap for some like Ms. Welby to use the ears God gave them to listen to what that near insane Mr. Bush said. He said this is a war on terrorism. Those host nations that harbor, finance, supply, and train terrorist are, by definition, terrorist. Saddam Hussein and his thuggish Soprano regime did exactly that.

Nice try, Ms. Welby. I love the “I am a Christian” line you learned at DNC seminars on how to write to websites. I’m just shocked you didn’t throw in “and I voted for Bush” also. Check item #5 and don’t make that mistake again.

Any decent Christian doesn’t need to tell people they are Christian to make a moral point.
Greg Barnard
Franklin, TN

SORTING OUT THE PIECES
Re: Dennis Sevakis’ letter in Reader Mail’s Museum Pieces:

Re: Dennis Sevakis’ response to Francis X. Rocca’s article “Pillage People,” I too am a Vietnam Veteran, former career Marine Corps fighter/helicopter pilot with some background in Special Ops, whose graduate work was in Anthropology, for what it is worth. The point being that I also have an interest in the looting of the treasures and take offense at the continual unfounded bashing of our troops.

The problem I have with this issue is the presumption that safeguarding museum and the subsequent pillaging was a U. S. problem. Recently, it was noted by the museum staff that they were trained and prepared to evacuate all the treasures to a safe and secret location within 24 hours of notification of an emergency, such as war. It is significant to note that coalition troops did not reach Baghdad, and Baghdad remained in Saddam’s control, for approximately two weeks after the beginning of hostilities. That being the case, the question is why weren’t the treasures moved to a safe location? Or then again, were they?

This leads to the questions of who actually did the looting and when was it done. Recall that Saddam and his cronies considered the wealth and treasures of Iraq to be their personal property and have a history of “appropriating” treasures along with other forms of Iraq’s wealth. It is not unreasonable to question whether Saddam, his family, or others in his regime are the real culprits who looted the treasures of the National Museum of Antiquities, etc., prior to the onset of hostilities in Baghdad.

With the above in mind, one wonders why there is such a “knee-jerk” effort to place the blame on the U.S. for the looting in Baghdad.
J. D. Bible

MIGHTY MINSTREL POWER
Re: James Bowman’s review of A Mighty Wind:

Wasn’t there a parody group named the New Minty Crystals?
Mike Fieschko

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