We're Really Offensive; How Dare We Ever Fire Any Cartoonist?; Tips for Curtis White; Taki's Right On; Up/Down with MUGGER; More
On page 27 of your 6/13 newspaper is an extremely offensive ad. It's offensive to me as a Roman Catholic and in many ways an attack on the Catholic Church. I don't know what your newspaper's philosophy is but I don't believe it is to offend the religious sensibilities of its readership.
Peter Lener, Bronx
You Don't Have to Love Him...
Armond White, you are a hypocrite and a fraud, and your reviews of Sexy Beast and The Sopranos ("Film," 6/13) prove it. After making a snobbish comment about anyone who is or has ever been in therapy?"analysands nationwide (posing as journalists)"?or who "fell for it?as if all therapy were evil and you were above it?you accuse The Sopranos of being full of "high-tone name- and phrase-dropping [that is] not a democratic gesture, [but] elitist."
Never mind that you never explain why all art must be "democratic"?you also never stop to think that you are exactly the sort of elitist you accuse David Chase of being. Have you possibly deluded yourself into thinking that because Saturday Night Live and Key Largo are "hits" that your references to them (or The Osterman Weekend or The Homecoming or whatever other works you discuss in your critique) are not "a cue to the informed audience"? Or that you aren't appealing to "middle-class and middle-brow establishment" "by emphasizing cultural savvy"? Gimme a break, Armond. You're so elitist I'm surprised you can spell "democratic."
Matthew E. Goldenberg, Manhattan
He'd Let You
I'd just like to point out that Neil Swaab's comic strip "Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles" is boring and stupid?highly inferior to even the indecipherable "Tokyo, New York." Swaab's humor is that of a precocious junior high school student. He could use a few tips from genius Tony Millionaire, whom I could eat whole with mustard and a fork.
Katie Poppin, Brooklyn
Hate Mail
I just saw the article in the latest Comics Journal regarding your unceremoniously dumping Kaz's strip. Unless I'm missing something, you two otherwise intelligent fellows [Smith and Strausbaugh] have undergone a lobotomy overnight. "Underworld" is the best comic strip in existence for the last eight years, and up until now you had bragging rights for presenting it to the world.
And what's all this about "Henry"?!? Why don't you just shoot Kaz's mother in the head while you're at it? I mean, Jeezus!
Peter Bagge, via Internet
Can You Lend Us That Issue?
Apparently Curtis White is unaware that anyone who wanted to see Marilyn's breasts in the full had only to look at the first edition of Playboy magazine ("Jezebel Shall Be Like Dung in the Field," 6/13). Hugh Hefner began his empire with the inspired idea of publishing nude pictures of Marilyn. It also didn't hurt Marilyn's future prospects as the sex-goddess of the 20th century. Take a look (or two), Curtis, and become fulfilled.
Dr. Tom Riedl, Manhattan
Truth and Fiction
Thank you, Curtis White, for telling the truth about the manner in which Marilyn Monroe died. Just as her acting ability was getting praise (e.g., The Misfits), she reportedly got sooooo depressed she took an overdose of sleeping pills and "committed suicide." It never read true to me. Then one day I bought what can best be described as a "tabloid" and there, complete with photographs, was the truth: A suppository had been forced in her anus and her body absorbed the poison it released resulting in her death.
And yes, how cruel can you be to do that?
Even in her delusional First Lady of the Land state of mind, what could she have threatened that was that bad? What didn't we already at least guess at? Kennedy didn't like Castro? Old news. Whatever the threat, real or imagined, it cost her her life. Your portrayal of her womanliness makes the manner of her death all the more sad.
Helena Batts, Manhattan
We Know What Side Our Bread Is Buttered On
Who selects for publication in your pages MUGGER's fan mail from our nation's heartland? Is it the odious man himself or some poor ink-stained wretch assigned to flatter his master?
Rex Nichols, Manhattan
No
I used to marvel at the erudition of your writers as, from week to week, they applied their brilliant minds to one important world event after another. Now, thanks to George Szamuely's "America's Pearl" ("Taki's Top Drawer," 5/30) I know how they do it: shameless plagiarism. Szamuely's ridiculous rant about U.S. control of Japan is lifted, argument by argument, and in places word for word, from Chalmers Johnson's recent ridiculous pseudo-scholarly rant about U.S. control of Japan and other Asian countries, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire. Szamuely closes his article with an ominous warning about our grooming Japan to be "...our junior partner in the coming conflict with China," which I assume he is planning to enlighten us about in a future article. For more direct enlightenment on that subject, you might want to read the recent The Coming Conflict with China by Richard Bernstein and Ross Munro, which I assume Szamuely is currently reading. Now that I know how your writers work, and I read a lot of books, do you think I could have a weekly column in "Taki's Top Drawer"?
Eric J. Francke, Manhattan
George Szamuely replies: According to the dictionary, the verb "plagiarize" means "To use and pass off as one's own (the ideas or writings of another)." I certainly did not try to pass off as my own Chalmers Johnson's "ideas or writings"?a somewhat hopeless undertaking in any case. Chalmers Johnson is the author of innumerable books and one of the world's most renowned experts on the Far East. I cited him in my column. I've been a fan of his for years. I'm not ashamed to admit that I've made frequent use of his ideas. That's not plagiarism; that's learning.
Here's another word from the dictionary: "disingenuous." This refers to someone "Not straightforward or candid; crafty: 'an ambitious, disingenuous, philistine, and hypocritical operator, who...exemplified...the most disagreeable traits of his time.'" An example: When someone strongly disagrees with your politics but tries to pretend that what he is really upset by is some supposed moral failing?in this case "plagiarism." Luckily, Francke is too much the prisoner of his ideological obsessions to pull off this scam. The vehemence of his attacks on Chalmers Johnson reveals that my real crime is that I agree with critics of the American Empire.
Taking One for the Team
Andrey Slivka, you should forget about Pasquale's or Minetta's or Antonioni's or whatever and go back to graduate school ("Food," 6/13). Then you could call your bigotry ethnology or anthropology or sociology or whatever and get tenure someplace. And then only other educated racists would ever have to read or hear you again. I must say, though, you've accomplished something significant: you've become one of the few people in this world who makes Lionel Tiger's babblings seem important (if only by comparison).
Justine Nicholas, Brooklyn
With Our Good Looks
MUGGER: Most always you're right on the button. However, I think you missed the largest factor in this travesty (6/13). For the last three years or so, using public moneys, the state of California has inundated the airwaves with the most egregious antitobacco ads you could imagine. Virtually every one of the ads demonizes tobacco company managers as the most villainous, vile, murderous, baby-eating monsters ever let loose on mankind. Small wonder, then, that a jury would find these same individuals responsible for this ultimate loser's illness. I expect to see many more of these suits in California due to the entire jury pool being tainted in this way.
Mr. Chad Nagle's commentary regarding the plight of the peoples of the old Soviet empire ("Taki's Top Drawer," 6/13) was right on. Coincidence or not, it was curious to read it the same day I read Daniel McAdams' commentary on Belarus, posted 6/12, at the American Spectator online. Among the other foreign policy disasters inherited from Madeleine and the Clintonistas, this is one of the ones I hope Bush and Powell take an early and corrective position on. On a closing note, how can a giveaway paper get so many talented writers, representing so many viewpoints?
Mike Daley, San Andreas, CA
MUGGER Predigests It All for You
MUGGER: I have been reading your column for a while now, and I greatly appreciate your survey of the liberal media?which spares me having to look at it. Also, on political analysis and predictions, I almost always find you to be very astute. But I am continually brought up short by what I think is your blind spot on the issue of the GOP's position on abortion.
I think you are consistently in error on the decisive role of opposition to abortion in the GOP electoral coalition, specifically among churchgoing Catholics. I will not address what evangelical Protestants do or think because I do not know or understand what they are up to or about. I will tell you that I am an orthodox Catholic who is as anti-abortion as you can get, though I am a realist about the limits of politics. That disclosure made, I am a devoted student of politics, and believe I can comprehend the lay of the land as it is, without regard to what I would like it to be.
In contrast to what you have repeatedly stated in your columns, I perceive the situation to be as follows: The people whose primary interest in politics is the anti-abortion position actually do have somewhere else to go: they won't vote, or they'll vote for some third-party candidate as a gesture. I speak from frustrated experience. I cannot tell you how much handwringing went on among my many conservative Catholic friends, all of whom were irate about the presence of Andy Card in Bush's entourage and nagged by a general sense that George W. wasn't pro-life enough. This sliver of the electorate may amount to tens of thousands of votes in several important states, e.g., Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Missouri. Bush can lose these people. He barely had them last year.
A second major issue is this: Most Catholic Republican voters are ethno-culturally hardwired to be Democrats. Many of them do not like being Republicans. They hold their noses to vote for a Republican. I have seen this with my own eyes here in Chicago on countless occasions. I know large Irish families, all Democrats, who are more conservative than I am. But being a Democrat is in their DNA, so to speak. Many traditional Democrats who are conservative on abortion and related issues are starting to get in the habit of voting for the Elephant, at least in presidential elections. If these people thought that there was no real difference between the parties on the moral/cultural issues, abortion being the major one, they would revert very quickly to the Democratic Party, their traditional home.
I am a little stumped by your ongoing miscue on this. However, I think it may have to do with your New York focus, which may keep you out of touch with certain mindsets and developments here in the middle of the country. Less charitably, it may be that you would personally like this change in direction for the GOP, so you hope without sufficient dispassionate analysis that it would also be a politically successful change. Bush is wise to stay on the course he is on. If Bush can keep the 48 percent he has, and add to it the few percentage points of churchgoing Catholics who might otherwise reflexively vote Democratic, he will have made a very big stride toward locking down the next election. On everything else I think you are virtually always on the money.
Michael Lotus, Chicago
Stiff Drink
MUGGER: My, all these GWB relatives?Mrs. and Misses?who are being stalked so as to take the pressure off of "the President," the biggest W of all. Personally I prefer they stalk "the President" and find out if he and his "old" Cabinet are on Viagra cocktails or the same one MUGGER recommends for Mo Dowd (6/13).
P.S. I love it when you New York Press guys talk about food, it makes me hungry.
Helen Weber, Oklahoma City
Screwball
MUGGER: Jeff Bagwell to the Yankees (6/13)? That's wacko-bango, dude.
James Simmon, Bryan, TX
Sour in Sunnyvale
"Californians are worried about the blackouts and the price of gas?personally I'm delighted, let them sit in the dark for a while contemplating life without a car..." ("Top Drawer," 6/13).
Taki, I'm dying off as fast as I can, so get your dancing shoes ready: Laid off over a month ago in a block of 5000; 1985 pickup truck needs work; utility bills about 250 percent of what they were this time last year; housing in Silicon Valley, my place of birth and the only home I've ever known or wanted, as expensive as beachfront homes in Hawaii; my normally exuberant spirits have soured, turning me reclusive and moody. I've seen this happen to weeds when a defoliant is sprayed on them. So never fear, Taki, this humble weed will soon be pulled and cast off. But to have you dancing on my grave before I'm even finished off hurts a bit. And by the way, I voted Republican.
Alison Denu, Sunnyvale, CA
Taki Likes Those Odds
I love Taki. I hate Taki. He makes me want to find out which it is on a given day. I don't always agree with his position, but either way he flat out puts it in your face?pure New Yorker style, "Take it or leave it, and if you're leaving it, on the way out you can kiss my 'arse.'" The "Redford's Gas" article ("Top Drawer," 6/13) hits some recent favorite targets of mine as well: Redford?who needs to just shut his mouth and pretend he's still cute; Clinton (always a laugh there); Gov. "I hope they don't wake up and realize it's my fault" Davis; doe-eyed media-types; and Robert "yes I am a" Kennedy. Give it to 'em Taki?I'm behind you 75 percent.
Lisa Hale, Xenia, OH
Sucker-Fish Redford
The story about Redford was right on the mark. Redford is a movie has-been who now thinks he can be in the political world. The only thing is, he has no brain and his ideas are just not of importance. I hope everyone will read this. We in Washington state are paying for the idiots like Redford and it beats me why anyone listens to his type. California will have to pay for doing nothing and listening to these folks, too. The sucker fish is enjoying water in the Columbia River where I live while the wheat fields around here are going dry?another Redford-type good idea.
J. McCallister, Washougal, WA
Sophomore Wit
Re the letter on frogs and krauts ("The Mail," 6/13). I got full credit in Mr. Klausner's 10th-grade English class with this definition of "oxymoron": "French resistance."
Ray Martin, Ridgefield, CT
Joe Does Love His Jazz Albs
Congratulations to Joe Harrington on his 100th review, which?if I'm correct?was on one of his (and my) favorite topics: saxophonist David S. Ware ("Music Reviews," 6/6, nypress.com). You guys are keeping it real?especially with the online edition.
Sean Dillman, Sudbury, MA
Okay, You're Not an Asshole, And We'll See About Ames
MUGGER: I'd just like to apologize about a letter I sent to you re Dylan's "Something There Is About You," which I mistakenly called "The Man in Me." ("The Mail," 6/6). I'm truly embarrassed about this, realizing that you're correct (I confused "strikes a match in me" with lyrics from "The Man in Me"). I agree with you that "Something There Is About You" is one of the great Dylan songs. Again, please excuse my angry response to your article?I was surely out of my mind?and keep up the great work with New York Press. If you have the chance, please bring back Jonathan Ames for more guest appearances.
Jonathan Flinker, Manhattan
Wanna Buy a Flower?
MUGGER: I can't help but comment on your comment to a letter writer in "The Mail" of June 13. He had the audacity to suggest you'd been taking "weekly" pokes at Chelsea Clinton.
Maybe he exaggerates, but it doesn't make any difference. Your hysterical denial and challenge to the letter writer says it all. If you didn't attack Chelsea's character it was surely an anomaly because you've spent the last few years viciously putting down the Clintons and condemning everything to the left of Bush-Lott-Armey and other right-wing hypocrites. Maybe as a father you have some compassion for poor Chelsea, who for some strange reason turns out to be a very classy young woman. Can't be because of her sleazy parents! Or, maybe, sleazy parents like the Clintons can produce a normal child as well as policies that are for the most part sane, popular and respected. Maybe a great, wonderful father like George W. Bush can only produce policies that are ill-informed, dangerous and laughed at, not to mention children who might be having problems. My, isn't life complicated outside the pages of your publication.
By now, most of your New York readers regard your anti-everything-progressive policy as pathological and/or simply self-serving. Pathological because you can't really believe Bush has much at all positive to offer this country and the world, and self-serving in that you must know better and are doing it for the money. Whatever the reason, one can't help but wonder what keeps New York Press going, not to mention your family's very expensive and elitist lifestyle, since you are constantly telling us what a great family man you are and the extraordinary things you're doing for your kids and wife. All those very expensive restaurants, private schools, many extended vacations, gifts, etc. There certainly doesn't seem to be any great growth in terms of advertising and promotion in New York Press. Are you being financed by Messrs. Moon, Scaife, Murdoch or some secret millionaire? Whatever?it's all a shame because when you started your publication here, your media coverage and creative journalistic approach were a breath of fresh air that has since gone sour, weighed down by some very cynical, angry, immature posturing.
Three positive notes?your letters column is the best part of your publication because you usually print very critical letters; you still promote some great writing; and New York Press has helped make the Village Voice a somewhat better publication.
Alan Leventhal, Manhattan
Russ Smith replies: Yes, Mr. Leventhal, New York Press is financed by the Murdoch/Scaife/Moon cabal. Please continue to speak out on behalf of our readers.
Or It May Have Been an Innocent Mistake
I am not quite sure if your art critic, Christian Viveros-Fauné, is a real person. Are you pulling the legs of your readers? I know the playful spirit of your paper, so I wouldn't put it past you to make up this person and to see how long you can get away with the hoax.
I am suspicious for three reasons. First: in Christian's latest article ("Art," 6/6) he talks about John Singer Sargent's Civil War paintings. I can't claim to be the biggest expert on that artist, but I could swear that Sargent never did Civil War paintings. Christian is making them up. Which suggests that someone is making him up.
Second: I know that you recently fired your drama critic on the grounds that drama is boring. Well, surely the subject of Christian's writing is every bit as boring as drama. Modern art is a big hoax: everyone knows that. So a critic of modern art must be a hoax as well.
Third: his name is just too, well, far out to be real.
Best wishes with your splendid publication. And my apologies to Christian if he exists.
Elliot Banfield, Manhattan
Christian Viveros-Fauné replies: Elliot, you ignorant slut. I did make an uncharacteristic mistake in the Leon Golub piece: John Singer Sargent's war paintings were just soppy, sentimental paintings of World War I. But that's no excuse to poke fun at my name. My ma could have, after all, come up with something very Wonder Bread: Elliot, for example. As for modern art being a big hoax, that is in fact what I spend half of my time writing about. The rest of the time I'm trying to reach an audience interested in art without cant or jargon?and avoiding the knucklehead erudition of boneheads.
You're a Huge Pisser, Forr
You are so ignorant. Tito Puente is no writer ("Tito Perdue: America's Lost Literary Genius," 6/6). He's a famous spic band leader who wrote all that salsa shit the spics listen to. You should put Jimmy Tits back on the crime beat. At least he knows how to write about crimes. He sucks writing about books. You guys should watch The Simpsons.
Forrest Sylvester, Manhattan
Minor Offenses
Christopher Caldwell's French acquaintance Maurice was right ("Hill of Beans," 6/6). In most jurisdictions within the U.S., it is legal for an adult to share liquor with a minor member of the same household. So the scenario described by Maurice's brother, wherein a father is served a drink and shares it with his son, is legal in most places I've checked, provided the father lives with the son. (Indiana is a known exception that came up during discussion on alt.fan.cecil-adams.)
Only recently have some states been passing laws against minor visitors to a household being furnished with liquor by members of that household. Even those jurisdictions make exceptions for religious observances, so one who wants to serve liquor to visiting minors need only establish a church in the home and make drinking a big part of the religion. Other ways for minors to obtain liquor legally are for them to make it themselves, find some that has been discarded or be given it according to a doctor's prescription. Recently some jurisdictions (I don't know how many) have made underage possession (again, outside the household) of liquor an offense. Note that that applies only to products intended as beverages, not to other alcohol products, drinkable or not.
Robert Goodman, Bronx
The Feds & Their Big Stick
Christopher Caldwell's article "Pour, Little Rich Girl" ("Hill of Beans," 6/6) was right on target, especially when he wrote that "The horrid irony here is that Jenna's own father not only signed that law but actually agitated for it."
The federal government also carried a big stick in the drunk-driving arena. According to the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, "failure to pass the law could have cost Texas $77 million in federal highway construction funds in 1998." The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration later held out a carrot to Texas, which received a $9.4 million federal grant in 1999 immediately after lowering the threshold for drunk driving from 0.10 to 0.08 blood alcohol. Of course, if Texas didn't do so by 2004 they would have lost 2 percent of their federal highway money, with the penalty increasing to 8 percent by 2007.
At the forefront of the increasing involvement of the federal government in this area was another "Draconian enforcer"?President Clinton, who in 1995, as White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart reported, "fought for and signed legislation requiring states to have 'zero alcohol tolerance' laws for underage drinking and driving by October 1, 1998, on penalty of losing highway funds."
Benigno Muniz Jr., Simi Valley, CA
In Wisconsin, of Course
In Wisconsin, at least, Americans can still take their kids into a bar and order them a beer.
Paul Smith, via Internet
Teed Off
Alexander Cockburn: Notwithstanding controversies of whether FDR knew about the Japanese attack beforehand ("Wild Justice," 6/6), Admiral Kimmel was plenty to blame. More than an hour prior to the attack, a U.S.Navy destroyer sank a Japanese submarine in the entrance to Pearl Harbor and a U.S. Navy patrol plane sank another one nearby about 45 minutes prior. Rather than order the fleet to general quarters, he prepared for his golf game.
He did not have long-range patrol airplanes in the air. He did not have picket ships posted. Kimmel's excuses amounted to a complaint that he did not receive an urgent message from Washington telling him to do his job.
Michael Zak, Alexandria, VA
Whiz Kid
"FDR Knew It Was Coming" ("Wild Justice," 6/6) is suitable for freshmen, as an example of begging the question. Alexander Cockburn collects his minutiae, and soberly tests each piece against what he knows to be true, "that there is no construction too bad or too outrageous but that it cannot be placed upon the actions of powers great or small, though usually great."
Cockburn's hypothesis: President Franklin Roosevelt knew in detail the Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor, and hid it from his own military officers. But he did tell high Red Cross officials to get ready to clean up a lot of blood in Hawaii, and they got ready, well before Dec. 7, without letting on to the Navy that something was up. After the war, the pilloried Admiral tried to blow the whistle on FDR, but even a congressional investigation failed to produce evidence?this proves the existence of a conspiracy and cover-up. The conspiracy included outright perjury by the Admiral's superiors, who were evidently not part of the military from whom FDR hid his foreknowledge, but some other military.
Here's another hypothesis: Japanese technical capability and strategic audacity astonished FDR and our military professionals alike. Had they known, they might have put the fleet to sea before the attack, and tried to counter. The conspiracy theories were hatched in the minds of the officers who were sacked. The safety and readiness of Pearl Harbor comprised their entire duty; as they slept at their posts, Japan surprised and ruined America's mightiest concentration of military capital, and slaughtered thousands. The naked humiliation was unbearable.
What attracts Cockburn to peeing on the great man's grave?
Alan Larson, Livingston, NJ
Alex and the Axis
Alex Cockburn seems to think that FDR was the Bad Guy and the fascist militarists of Germany, Japan and Italy were the Good Guys in World War II ("Wild Justice," 6/6). Apparently he's never heard of the invasions of China, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indochina, Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Greece, Norway, Africa, Russia and so on. He's never heard of the numberless massacres of civilians, the sex slaves used by the Japanese, the Nazi concentration camps, the Holocaust. He's not aware of Hitler's plan for the ultimate fate of the Slavs?to murder three-quarters of them and use the remainder as slave labor on giant German plantations in the former Soviet Union. Why does Cockburn think hard feelings persist to this day in China, Korea, the Philippines and elsewhere over the Japanese refusal to acknowledge history and their responsibility?
Cockburn portrays FDR as treacherous and the instigator of war. Perhaps he's channeling Axis propaganda from 55 years ago. FDR didn't force the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor. They made that decision of their own free wills. The U.S. was under no obligation to provide oil to the Japanese war machine. Certainly, the U.S. should have cut off oil sooner. Is that Roosevelt's fault, or is it possible that American oil companies, not to mention the reactionary American class of rich people, and the isolationists, had something to do with American policy? The President of the U.S. didn't have dictatorial powers (unlike the rulers of the nations Cockburn thinks were victimized by the U.S.). Likewise, FDR didn't make Hitler declare war on America.
It's a good thing, not a bad thing, that Pearl Harbor forced the American people to face the fact that fascism had to be fought. FDR's crime, in Cockburn's eyes, is that FDR understood this sooner than most of the public did. Having been duped by Woodrow Wilson into fighting World War I, the public made the opposite mistake in the 1930s, instead of evaluating the new situation on its own merits.
The motives of reactionaries today who try to blame World War II on Roosevelt are obvious: they're pro-fascist. What's Cockburn's motive?
Jason Zenith, Manhattan
Go, Go, VDB!
William Bryk's article "Pennies" ("Old Smoke," 5/9) was fascinating. I especially enjoyed the comprehensive biography of Wheat Cent designer Victor (Avigdor) David Brenner (1871-1924). Although I often read coin magazines and catalogs, which steadfastly profile the always popular art-deco-fonted Wheat Stalk-Eared Cent, I have never found personal information regarding "VDB" as comprehensive as in this article.
It is remarkable when an engraver's submitted designs are accepted for both a single coin's obverse and reverse. Not surprisingly, VDB had that rare distinction. Those introductory 1909 pennies bearing VDB's oversized initials remain among the most sought-after set. Additionally, the Wheat Cent was the only coin to undergo numerous dramatically different incarnations, notably its dark gray color (1943) induced by the war effort and its revamped Memorial reverse to mark the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth (1959). Furthermore, Lincoln's original portrait was inexplicably given an unwarranted facelift in 1969 by being "rounded off" and redefined. After 92 years, the penny remains the oldest coin continuously being minted. Just before the Bicentennial, I remember there was ongoing talk about getting rid of this "obsolete" American icon, variously because of copper shortages, too many already in circulation or its decreasing face value.
I take admittedly provincial pride in learning that VDB was a Lithuanian Jew and that his father was a headstone engraver. This appeals to my joint Judaic studies and genealogical background. I began collecting Wheat Cents in 1973, when I was seven years old. Quite fittingly, I keep them in a glass Log Cabin Syrup piggy bank. Regardless of their valuable metallic content, the lookalike, oversized and cumbersome cookie-cutter silver dollars just never piqued my historical interest or curiosity as did the simple penny.
Irwin Gordon, Putnam Lake, NY
A Katha Pollitt Story
Once upon a time when I lived in Vermont, I was driving from Burlington to my place in the Champlain Islands, tuned in to NPR's All Things Considered. I heard Katha Pollitt having a big-time whine about how despite all her p.c. protocols her four-year-old wanted a Barbie doll. Her arguments against the doll had to do with the length of Barbie's legs. When my daughter begged for a Barbie, I just said no. Subsequently, the little minx won a money prize for her art work and announced that she would buy her own Barbie. It's your money, I told her, do what you want with it. Did the five-year-old spend her windfall on a Barbie doll? No. She bought a soft toy for her little brother, more craft material for herself and a plant for her parents. Katha is a pain in the neck no matter how one evaluates her and I feel truly sorry for that daughter who did get the Barbie doll because she just said no to Katha's flimsy arguments.
Mildred Woods, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada
All's Fair
MUGGER: You don't like Arafat (6/6), and Barry Schechter ("The Mail," 6/13) doesn't either. In the West, we share a moral code, embodied in our law, with fixed standards of right and wrong. We know the standards must be fixed, and we understand them to be universal, because without a shared moral perspective civilization can't exist. So terrorism against Israeli civilians is wrong because terrorism against any civilians is wrong, and legitimate governments have the moral right and duty to try to end it, even by force.
But ethnic cleansing and armed conquest are also wrong. Which is why Israel must be compelled, even by force, to allow all Palestinian refugees to return to their land and to get back their property. Israel was created when armed Zionists seized assets, forced the owners to leave and refused to allow their return when hostilities ended. When the Germans and the Japanese did things like that, they were "evil" and we had to fight them. The only reason the Palestinians are the "implacable enemies of Israel," as Mr. Schechter calls them, is because Israel chased them off their land and took their stuff.
The best possible way to end terrorism? How about Israel just returning what it stole? "But letting 1.5 million refugees come back would destroy the character of the state!" We made it damned clear to the fascists we don't tolerate that crap. When the Serbs and Kosovars tried it, we crushed them. Israel, we fund. I guess fascism and apartheid are only wrong when practiced by people we don't like. I'd love to see one of your columnists, or readers, explain the ethics that justify Israel as the "Jewish state" and the Palestinians as people the world should allow to get screwed. What kind of hypocrites demand the return of stolen (World War II) goods as they sleep in stolen houses, and build on stolen land?
If Israel can create and defend itself by any means, then Palestine's no different and there's been no "terrorism." If we admit that all nations and all persons are bound by the same set of rules, then America is compelled to end Palestinian terrorism, yes, but also to force Israel to restore or make reparations for what it stole, just as Germany was.
John T. Foster, Brooklyn
No Real People in CA
MUGGER: Great job. The trouble with California ("Daily Billboard," 5/22) is that its public policies seem to be set by mobs of hysterical students who see the world only through the eyes of Chairman Mao and Mr. Rogers. It is a wonder to me that inhabitants of a state that can't even keep the lights burning, where half the people can't speak English, just assume that whatever idiocy they advocate as public policy must naturally be copied by the rest of us who reside in Tobacco Road and Dogpatch.
Well, I've been all over west Tennessee, Mississippi and most of Arkansas. Guess what? We have electricity that works and we can understand each other. I guess we just don't get it.
As far as that pompous, leftist jerk Robert Redford is concerned ("Taki's Top Drawer," 6/13): Only other pompous leftist jerks really listen to him. Real people have him pegged for the phony he and his ilk really are.
James Huggins, Memphis
Bush Isn't a Crook Either
MUGGER: It is interesting to see and hear Republicans whining about news concerning the peccadilloes of the Bush daughters and even W himself, after they have spent eight years damning every breath taken by Bill and Hillary Clinton (6/6). Don't they know the pigeons always come home to roost? Just brace yourself for more and worse. It will come, because ineptitude and lack of quality always prevail. We have a new "Nixon" in the White House whose shortcomings will do him in one way or the other.
Now that the Republicans have gotten a taste of their own medicine?all of the fornicators and hypocrites: Burton, Gingrich, Hyde, and all the others?we are learning that they can do the proverbial dishing-out, but they can't take the truth about themselves. I predicted Nixon's downfall and now I predict a fall for Bush. Today in Europe, he mispronounced the name of the man he had gone to visit. He will be suffering these kinds of embarrassments for the duration, for he does not have the education or the intellect to mingle with world leaders. The embarrassment will continue until he is gone. I would love to have a president who won fairly and was qualified for the job, and who has heart and compassion for all peoples?not just rich Republicans.
On another note, Taki is unnecessarily vituperative, vulgar and socially inept in his attack on Robert Redford ("Top Drawer," 6/13). One can disagree with someone without resorting to such repulsive diatribes. Manners are important and I think it would be good if Taki would explain to us what Robert Redford has done to elicit such a vile assault on his personal qualities. I have heard it said that people with bad breath are the last to know, so I am wondering if Taki has a friend who will divulge to him his own unattractive characteristics. I can tell him one. It is the art of using acid vitriol to put down people he doesn't like. He should get the mote out of his own eye before he takes on someone else. I am wondering what makes him an expert on the motivations and sincerity of Robert Redford. I am wondering, too, if Taki has ever heard of the Golden Rule. If he has heard of it, he has forgotten it. I don't think he serves anyone with his present modus operandi.
Mildred Perry Miller, Chattanooga
MUGGER Has No Opinion on Conason
You tell 'em, MUGGER! Frank Rich is an asshole. Mo Dowd is loopy. Anthony Lewis is the worst kind of condescending Euro-liberal. I'm surprised that they still keep Safire around. I guess they think a token conservative is necessary. I'm curious: When is somebody going do something about Joe Conason? He really needs to be put in his place. I'd like to hear your opinion.
Bill Head, Austin, TX
Put a Lid on It
MUGGER: For Christ's sake, take to wearing a cap to the ballpark (6/13). I'm sure you've got a Red Sox lid, so wear it. For that matter, wear it to work everyday. "Baseball is life, all the rest is details."
Tracy Meadows, Brenham, TX
Big in Texas
Hey MUGGER, an excellent piece this week! Outstanding, as usual.
John Arcari, Plano, TX
You Use One to Wash the Exdishes
If I remember correctly, Bush's DUI arrest was expunged?I get so frustrated when some reporters get all worked up over Bush the candidate not mentioning the arrest. Do any of them know what expunged means? According to my dictionary, it means erased, deleted, wiped out. I have been bugged by this since the news came out last year and I wonder why, apparently, those who make their livings with words don't understand what they mean.
Penny Isaacs, Olney, MD
Open Borders
Buchananista foot soldier Scott McConnell hopes to seal the borders against those darn Hispanic Democrats ("Taki's Top Drawer," 6/13). He fears a future America "with no common language or culture." Ridiculous. Our country has retained and enriched its character through numerous waves of immigration. Your ancestors, and mine, arrived here and became Americans. They learned English. They assimilated. McConnell probably pines for an homogenous white Christian nation that lives according to conservative GOP "values." Fortunately the xenophobic views of Patrick J. Buchanan appeal to only a small minority of Americans.
John Cantilli, Cranford, NJ
None as Dreamy as He Is
Taki: Strange thing about performing artists like the rather dull and stupid Redford ("Top Drawer," 6/13): they're almost always liberal and almost always have an extremely high opinion of their own intellect. "Hey, I'm making all this money, I must be smart!"
Strangely, professional athletes, from race-car drivers to baseball players, are usually politically conservative. Maybe it's the purely objective standards to which they're held. Michael Schumacher couldn't schmooze his way into the seat of his Ferrari F-1 car any more than Roger Clemens could romance his way into the starting rotation. Actors, novelists and musicians and their levels of success are largely a matter of random selection, with a good measure of who you "meet and eat, know and blow" thrown in. Let's face it, for every Robert Redford there are thousands of equally proficient actors out there who'll never make it big, and thousands of more potential ones who never even try their hands at it. The jocks are realists, the artists live in a world of subjectivity, like all liberals. They're desperately concerned with appearances, most particularly their appearance of concern.
John T. Morzenti, Devon, PA
Taki and Royalty
Taki, you only get better and better. I have been reading you since the American Spectator days and I appreciate your style and humor more and more. I am an expatriate American who left the U.S. when Bubba Clinton came to power. I now live in Prague and have clients all over Central Europe and the Balkans. I have traveled to your lovely country of Greece many times. I would be curious to know your reaction to the return to power of King Simeon of Bulgaria. The recent election returns in Bulgaria seem to indicate that his movement has won the election. Could this presage a return of His Majesty King Constantine of Greece?
You have hinted in passing many times that you believe that the plebiscite abolishing the Greek monarchy was rigged. Perhaps you could devote an article to that issue or to the issue of monarchy in general. Keep up the great writing. Many of us would love to tell the Hollywood snobs to shove it where the moon doesn't shine, but few of us get the chance.
Rick Jones, Prague