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Thank you for your kind (and unkind) letters from the Canada, America, Britain, Finland and Australia. Mark reads all the letters, but especially enjoys the vicious ones. Drop a line to Mark's Mailbox and if you're chosen to be the one and only Letter of the Week you'll join our roll of winners from four Continents and receive a copy of Mark Steyn "From Head To Toe". It would help if you could indicate your city or town, or, at least, your state, province or country. Failing that, your continent or hemisphere would do.
Letter of the Week
THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL
Obama's "We are the change we've been waiting for" reminds me of the Seinfeld episode in which Jerry falls for a woman who bears him an uncanny resemblance:
Jerry: "No, no this woman is different, she's incredible. She's just like me. She talks like me, she acts like me. She even ordered cereal at a restaurant. We even have the same initials. Wait a minute, I just realized what's going on."
Kramer: "What?"
Jerry: "Now I know what I've been looking for all these years...myself! I've been waiting for me to come along and now I've swept myself off my feet!"
The Obamaniacs have swept themselves off their feet, and it's not a pretty sight. I think
Kramer sums it up pretty well for the rest of us:
Kramer: "You stop it man.. you're FREAKING ME OUT!!!"
Phil Brown
Re: Boy meets girl meets Mann
PROSTITUTION BILL
Aide: "Governor, what should we do about the Prostitution Bill?"
Gov. Spitzer: "Pay it!"
Harry Koza
Richmond Hill, Ontario
NOW WHO'S OBSESSED WITH SEX?
What I don't get is that conservatives (and not just conservatives) have been saying
for years that Spitzer was out of control and abused his powers and the law, so why is this prostitution lark what sinks him? Liberals always go on and on about conservatives being "obsessed" with sex. And yet, they sit by and watch as he violates campaign finance laws with abandon (the "loans" from his dad back in the 1990's),repeatedly abuses his prosecutorial powers as AG of New York, misuses the state police against the majority leader of the state house – and only when "sex" is involved do they start to complain.
Conservatives have been consistent in their complaints about him - it was only the Left that changed it's tune when "sex" was involved. Could it be because getting jiggy with a prosititute is more fun than merely violating campaign finance laws, and the scolds on the Left mostly want to stamp out all fun? Hmmmm....
Eric Schumann,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
STAND BY YOUR MANN
I like Charles Krauthammer's comment on FoxNews today that it's terrible to
have the wife stand by you while you're confessing to such an act. One day,
I'd like to see a wife bring her handbag with her, and as hubby is beginning his
press conference she gives him a whack on the head! Wouldn't that stop the
practice of using wives in these circumstances?
Lucille McClure
San Jose, California
SQUISHY
"Yeah, but this guy never left anyone alone and contributed mightily to one
of the worst trends in American justice: the mestasization of narrowly
drawn federal laws into all-purpose blunt instruments. My friend Conrad
Black, charged with "racketeering", and convicted of "obstruction of
justice" by a law hitherto only used extra-territorially for witness-tampering,
is merely one of the more prominent victims of the Spitzerization of
federal prosecution."
You’re a little squishy on the facts. Spitzer was the attorney general of the
state of NY and applied state, not federal law, in particular the Martin
Act, which was not narrowly drawn, but very broadly drawn.
Jerry Isenberg
SPITZED AGAIN
Mark said, "Conrad Black . . . is merely one of the more prominent victims of the Spitzerization of federal prosecution."
Amen, in spades. I hope they boil Spitzer in his own pudding.
Larry Eubank
Bloomington, Indiana
STATE-ING THE FACTS
You say that Spitzer "contributed mightily to one of the worst trends in American justice: the metastasization of narrowly drawn federal laws into all-purpose blunt instruments." Keep in mind that Spitzer enforced only state laws. There are plenty of offenders in the overexpansion of federal law enforcement, but it's hard to lay this one at Spitzer's door.
Eric Columbus
INCIDENTAL CHARGES
The problem with prosecutors like Spitzer and Fitzgerald is they feed off the legacy of what others had to do to get Al Capone -- tax evasion to get a mobster. They are using that same tactic to get guys (like Blake, Libby, etc.) who otherwise did nothing wrong.
Sean Brearcliffe
FRESH LAUNDERING
Your post today:
"Almost every white-collar federal offense - wire fraud, mail fraud - boils down to "paying for the train ticket,"'
may be more right than you know. In California [and, I presume, under NY and Federal law], "money laundering" is a felony committed when one EITHER obtains money for use in any crime, or deposits/transacts money which is the product of any crime. So, getting $50 from the ATM to pay a hooker is a crime.
I used to be a deputy DA in California, and often saw money laundering as an added charge in many cases, because it was easy to prove even when the underlying crime was complex and there were concerns that the jury might hang on the underlying crime.
Jeffrey E Jackson
COLD OFF THE PRESS
Just an observation. As of yet, I have had no spasm of Spitzer- embarrassing email alerts from the Washington Post or the New York Times. I'm under the impression that if Rudy, say, or maybe Haley Barbour had held such a press conference in similar circumstances, I'd have had at least fifteen "breaking news" alerts in my mailbox before the press-conference had
reached the three-minute mark. The MSM is strangely cautious. And no, I don't see the "Gov. Elliot Spitzer, (D. NY)" tag on any of the websites, either. Odd...
Michael Talcott
Boston, Massachusetts
RIVER CROSSING
Chuck Berry was convicted of violating the Mann Act when he took an underage girl
from the nightclub in East St Louis, IL where he was performing ( I was in
attendance) across the Mississippi River bridge to St Louis MO for the purpose of
having sex. I think he spent a little time in the hoosegow for doing it. This was
before he was really famous - in about 1959-1960 ish, if I remember correctly.
Julia
Belleville, Illinois
POETRY IN MOTIONS
The phrase "poetic justice" was created for this very event. I think the title for the
movie needs to be "Client 9 From In Your Face". The world awaits your script.
John Primmer
South Ryegate, Vermont
Re: Non-citizen Kane
CITIZEN REPORTERS
If you can't tell from my e-mail address and signature block I'm a member of
the Air National Guard. One of the titles we're proud to bear is that of
Citizen Airman. Funny that the people who consistently advocate that we -
the National Guard - are the only "citizens" who can be trusted with
military firearms can't conceive of "citizens" being trusted with reporting
the news. Guess the pen, if not mightier, is at least more perilous than the
sword.
And I mean funny in an ironic way even though it's also very, very amusing.
John S Bryan, MSgt, Ohio ANG
179LRS/LGRMA, APS/FSC Supvr
COM419-520-6235/DSN696-6235
Re: Hello Faddah, Hello Mama, Here I am at Camp Obama
PAY CUT
Woe be to the person assigned to inform Ms. Obama that the president's job only pays $400K a year and that the first lady makes zilch. Can the Obamas afford the pay cut?
David Guenthner
DEMOTED TO PRESIDENT
I remember the Steve Allen version of that song…
Has anyone told Michelle what the president's salary is? And that the First Lady does NOT get one?
Does she know what private school costs in DC? Or will the Obama kids go to
one of the experimental Charter Schools?
The Obamas surely cannot afford to win.
Lori B.
CHANGE
500 grand a year.... that's the kind of change I could believe in!
Joe
LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS
Michelle certainly deserves mockery on this. But there is something else that bothers me. Aren't parent supposed to teach their kids to live within their means and that life involves making choices? Her attitude seems to be you can have it all. I wonder about kids raised with this philosophy. Won't they grow up looking down on those who didn't have the "in" soccer coach? If a kid never has to make a choice, will they ever learn to respect the choices of others? Or will they go through life judging people on their clothing labels, alma maters, and guest list ratings? I bet, though, that they will work real hard to save the poor.
Vickie Koogle
THE COST OF CAMP
I was once an associate at a large law firm; when the firm announced it was not paying bonuses one year because of a slowdown in business, one of the partners defended the decision by noting that the partners need to send their kids to summer camp.
Two points: One, I think more people with solid six-figure incomes feel financially
pressured and insecure than you might think. Two, you have to have a truly tin ear
to publicly lament spending on summer camp what the average American family spends on its mortgage. Keep talking, Michelle!
Matthew Tanner
Chicago, Illinois
CHANGE FOR THE WORSE
You wrote on the Corner:
There are, as it turns out, three Americas: one where John Edwards is livin' it up on a gazillion dollars a year; one where you're rubbing along on much less; and one where downtrodden hardworking folks are struggling to make ends meet on half-a-million a year.
"Yes, we can!" says Obama. But not on a mere 500 grand a year.
Well, have you seen Michelle's new book?
Jeff Dobbs
Re: Song of the Week
WHEN BROADWAY LEARNED TO TALK
Loewe's music for Higgins is rather similar to late German operetta ditties, written for comedians, "A Hymn to Him" most specifically to "Was kann der Sigismund dafur dass er so schön ist?" from Im weissen Rössl (White Horse Inn), much more so than Sullivan or Coward - a connection that has always been overlooked. However Lerner's lyrics are expert in defining the theatrical situation in the Broadway manner, see Mr Steyn's book Broadway Babies. How to write for a singer who can't produce any held notes? You end his first song like this: "Why can't the English learn to speak?" On the word "speak" there can be no expecting a bravura high note. It's equivalent to stating "Why can't Broadway singers learn to speak?" And Broadway heeded, and brought Vivien Leigh, José Ferrer, and Vincent Price there to speak-sing. But Rex Harrison was the only one who could tame that creature, the Broadway song, with his spoken inflections.
Johan Franzon
Finland
CLOSETED WITH REX
Rex Harrison was heterosexual?? I never would've guessed. But then again it's
difficult to tell with British men. (I still think you're a closet case, but I still love you.)
W. Tolmachev
Ohio
ODE TO LEW
Thank you for your amazing piece on my friend Lew Spence. I'm now putting together my own ode to Lew for www.everything2.com; it's a writers' website but we call it a "collaboratively filtered database.
I think it a pity you only got to meet him once. He was one of the kindest men I've
come across; even in the presence of a musician or singer who sounded like nails on a blackboard; he'd remain silent rather than use a critical word.
Again, thank you. The article about Lew; cached by Google, was the first I'd seen of
your writings. I guarantee you it won't be the last.
Paul Lewis
West Hartford, Connecticut
Re: Crimestoppers ubiquitous
and Showboating rabbi
HITLER WAS OFFENDED TOO
Dow Marmur, rabbi emeritus at Toronto's Holy Blossom Temple, might want to consider that the message that Moses brought to Pharoah was offensive to the Egyptians. In fact, Judaism's disrespect on the "faith traditions" of other nations (which it lumps together in one big bag as "idolatry") was nothing if not offensive and hurtful. Isaiah and Jeremiah offended just about everyone without earshot. The Maccabees at the time of Hanukka offended just about everybody. And it's well-known that Jewish practices were offensive and hurtful to the Crusaders, the Cossacks and the Tartars. In our own era, Hitler's delicate passion for science was wounded by Jewish physics (aka "relativity") and the Palestinians today are offended by the fact that Jews even exist.
So I'm not sure where he thinks he’s going with this. Truth is offensive to some people. Lies offend others. I for one, am offended by so many easily offended people who believe that that my right to swing my opinion ends at the nose of their prejudices. But a Jew of all people ought to recognize that if offending others is inherently wrong under all circumstances, then Jews have no place on this planet. Which is what a lot of people have been telling us for millennia: I'm just sorry that the folks at Holy Blossom Temple have internalized the message.
Ezra Marsh
Baltimore
OFFSIDE STORY
I don't like West Side Story's portrayal of Hispanics.
Ban it NOW.
Bill Dooley
Pine, Colorado
(It would be fun to see a list of plays that give "offense". I suspect PETA would
object to "Cats")
TIT FOR TAT
I see their racist “Showboat” and raise them one *Roots*. It feels a bit racist to me.
I'm sure by the time we tit-for-tat our way through the visual arts we'll be left with a
few Harold Lloyd shorts, Griffith's “Intolerance” and “To Sir With Love 2”.
Troy Hinrichs
Riverside, California
WHAT'S IT GOT TO DO WITH CANADA?
Presumably the blacks Rabbi Marmur mentioned were Canadian blacks - and, from what Canadians have kept lecturing Americans about race relations, blacks in Canada did not experience the racism of those in the US. So of course they might characterize an American musical about race in former times as racist - but what has that got to do with Canada? The musical is very plainly set in the American South, not Ontario. Does this logic mean that Canadians of Japanese ancestry might feel that "The Mikado" is racist?
John Williamson
IN THE NAME OF NICENESS
It isn't "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" It's "Fahrenheit 451". As everyone knows it is a story about censorship, a world without books. But what almost always gets lost in the discussion is the reason for the censorship. The book explains that way back certain books offended a certain group and that group got those books banned. Then another group of books was banned by another offended group. Pretty soon all books were banned so as not to offend anyone. It became exactly as you wrote "a PC-sedated populace in the name of 'niceness'."
Ari Fischbein
PC PREDICTION
I recently had a very proud moment when my 18 year old son came to be about a book he had read (found and enjoyed on his own I might add)
After years of hearing Dad (me) pound the dinner table about the absurdity of the
self-proclaimed "PC" culture, he came across the book Fahreneit 451. He was dumbfounded that while written in 1953, it told of a world that he finds very similiar to the one in which he himself lives. He just could not believe that this "science fiction" book written so long ago about a yet to exist future has so well captured the popular culture in which he now finds himself.
On an aside, a fellow classmate came up to him while reading it in study hall and asked "you are reading a book .... for fun?"
Stuff like this makes a dad proud, and yet sad that so few even notice this cultural slide into the absurd.
Keep up the good fight!
Doug Larson
Minnesota (USA?)
HOT STUFF
Ray Bradbury added this Coda to later printings of “Fahrenheit 451”. It's a very satisfying rant - almost a manifesto against political correctness.
"There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches."
Andy Stevenson
YOU CAN’T READ THAT
Look at this.
The Affirmative Action Office of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis acts like the Canadian HRC in response to an insane complaint.
Edward
Los Angeles, California
JACKET RACKET
I do not know if you were aware of Kathleen Parker' column of March 7 or the underlying story, which is available on jewishworldreview.com, my second favorite website, after Steynonline of course.
It is the story of a university janitor/student who was under investigation for 'harassment' on the basis of a cover of a book he was reading (concerning the defeat of the KKK by the Notre Dame student body in 1924) being seen by someone who decided that they were offended by it. The cover included hooded Klansmen, germane to the subject matter.
So, the mere reading of a historical recounting of an incident with a positive outcome for a minority (Catholics in this case, perhaps not an approved oppressed minority), somehow offended someone to the point of a reprimand and investigation etc.
I am sure you would have some interesting and humorous thoughts on this.
Art Lebowski
San Diego, California
THE HAPPINESS POLICE
There is a Doctor Who episode that perfectly fits your comments about "enforc[ing]
niceness" It's called "The Happiness Patrol."
The Doctor lands on a planet where to be unhappy is a crime, punishable by death.
Of course, it's enforced by a very rigorous, totalitarian regime.
If you get a chance to see it, it teaches a lot of interesting lessons.
David Fernau
UNJUST
Susan Swan has offered to defend Mark Steyn if he feels he is being "unjustly" persecuted. I was not aware that there are two kinds of persecution - fair and unjust. I guess Mr. Steyn has so far been fairly persecuted, and so cannot take her up on the offer.
Katha Chalotorn
Burlington, Ontario
Re: Never mind the international Jewish conspiracy
COMRADE FRUM
"Frum was hardly alone in his racking up of frequent flyer points in the cause of North American conservatism."
Frum's a conservative? WOW! That's defining the word ever downwards. By the end of Comrades’ McCain-Clinton first term (Watch and see if the winner doesn't make the loser his/her VP) Lenin will have been a Liberal while Trotsky was conservative. We're all Democrats now!
Emery Nelson
Sonora, California
CANADIAN CLUB
"Morton, who has served as an advisor to many conservative politicians, has consistently worked to make the Canadian right imitate their successful brothers to the south in marrying populism on social issues (including opposition to gay rights and abortion) with free-market economic policies."
Opposition to gay rights and abortion is successful populism, who knew? The U. S. media, Congress and courts certainly don't.
Hope the cabal meeting is profitable.
Michael
THE CABAL GAME
I'm not Jewish but I've been to Canada and I can find it on a map. Can I join the Cabal? Do we have cool jackets?
Andy
Re: Shouting “Go back to sleep” in a blazing theatre
FREE SPEECH
Schenck v United States (1919)
Holmes, writing for a unanimous majority, ruled that it was illegal to distribute fliers
opposing the draft during World War I. Holmes argued this abridgment of free speech was permissible because it presented a "clear and present danger" to the government's recruitment efforts for the war. Imagine this used against anti Iraq war demonstrators!
Not to worry,Schenck was later overturned by Brandenburg v. Ohio, which ruled that speech could only be banned when it was directed to and likely to incite imminent lawless action (e.g. a riot), the test which remains until this day.
This "limits on free speech" argument falls down in many areas. Some people still argue publications or other media showing naked women result in rapists becoming aroused and going out to commit rape. This is
1. not demonstrated in fact and
2. not supported by the law.
The rapist analogy is the same as the argument that a letter to the editor stating that homosexual acts were sinful will lead to another person physically attacking a homosexual.
Bob Herron
Australia
Re: The nanny state as padded cell
HIGHLY TEXED
I, for one, am absolutely appalled at the how the 'Safe Text' concept discriminates
against the readers of books. When I was around 10 years old in the late 70s, several days a week I traipsed across the breadth of downtown Wimbledon, with my nose stuck in either a Commando, Warlord or some other similar magazine. Never once did the government (even when run by "old" Labour) think to protect me by providing a 'Safe Reading' street.
If only there were a Human Rights Commission in the UK where I could file suit.......
Christopher Love
COCKNEY KARACHI
I recall Brick Lane in London's East End as a cockney stronghold back in the 60's. Today it's festooned in Islamic green. Still, it makes a nice change from the touchingly sincere "Kill Rushdie" graphitos that were sprayed over every empty wall in the aftermath of the Ayatollah's homicidal fatwa in the 80s.
I walked down Brick Lane last September and from the hostile glares of the residents for just being in their presence, knew that to snap a picture of the street, which so poignantly reminds me of the more upscale districts of Karachi, would have resulted in a rock being thrown through my head.
Glad to see that the British nanny state would go to such ridiculous lengths to protect immigrants from the hazards of first world technology. When might we expect it to protect Us from the hazards of third world pathology??
Bill Reid
Ottawa, Ontario
Re: Not swimming but drowning
COLOR-CODED CABS
I think that the separate, clearly-marked cabs idea has some interesting possibilities. Since Muslim men think that all non-Muslim females are prostitutes,I would prefer to be driven by a non-Muslim. Color-coded cabs would allow Christian women to avoid Muslim cab drivers. Lots of Christian/Jewish men might also decide to "keep the money in the family" by choosing a cab driven by their own demographic.
Let's not trash this idea before we give it a fair trial.
No names please.
CHOOSING ACCORDING TO CONSCIENCE
I'm all for guarding against "sharia creep," but I think we need to be careful to guard
against less-offensive requests merely because they come from Muslims. I think there is a wide gulf between the request from the women at Harvard, and the request of the Minnesota cab drivers. If a nameless group of cab drivers demanded that they not be required to transport passengers carrying alcohol, or traveling with a seeing-eye dog, we would still take offense with the request, so exceptions shouldn't be made simply for Muslims. But if a generic group of women asked for female-only gym hours, nobody would bat an eyelash. Indeed, nobody seems offended by the notion of female-only gyms.
Religious-based conscience exceptions are not themselves absurd. After all, many Catholic doctors and pharmacists are fighting for their right to refuse to perform/issue treatment they see as immoral (abortion and birth control). It's certainly fair to critique a culture that would berate those Catholic consciencious objectors while accepting Muslims who won't sell alcohol. But I think we should avoid the temptation to attack all requests for religious accommodation from Muslims, lest all legitimate criticism be lost amid the noise.
Stephen Feher
People's Republic of Ann Arbor, Michigan
THE TYRANNY OF THE BUFF
I lived in Adams House at Harvard at a time when for a few hours a day swimsuits were required, in contrast to the default "clothing optional" policy, so that resident tutors could bring their young children swimming. (The default policy fostered something like a Tyranny of the Buff.)
Alas, I understand that the Adams House pool (in which classmate Peter Sellars staged a production of Antony and Cleopatra complete with floating barge -- and full costumes) started leaking some years ago and is now closed.
We have come a long way from "The Harvard Experiment".
Dick Coburn
ANTI-CHRISTIAN SECULARISM
Ireland is dealing with the headscarf issue now.
One slippery slope is the one you cite -- sliding into sharia. The other slippery slope is handing a hammer to secularists to smash crosses, and crucifixes, etc. and other symbols of Christianity if the headscarf or Sikh turban, etc. is banned.
The poster child for militant anti-Christian secularism with an accommodation of both Judaism and Islam is the New York public school system which considers the both the Menorah and the Crescent and Star to be non-religious while the Nativity scene to be religious.
Patrick Sweeney
Re: Unreadable conservative tomes
TOME SWEET TOME
I would hardly describe your book as a "tome." I read it through quite rapidly and I'm
a slow reader.
I can't say the same for Coulter's books, because she seems more interested in wisecracks and put-downs than coherent essays. I find them tiring, but I wouldn't describe them as tomes either.
To me a tome, is a book like “Witness” by Whittaker Chambers, which I've been reading for months. It's slow going and 800 pages long, but it's not unreadable. It's beautifully written, erudite and deeply spiritual, which is more than I can say for most of the drivel in newspapers like The Guardian.
Apparently, Ian Williams is unable to read anything that doesn't support his prejudices. Or maybe he's just out of ideas for columns. His comments strike me as lazy and pecksniffian.
Allen S. Thorpe
Orangeville, Utah
THE LAND OF THE FREE
"The sites explain the high circulation of many an unreadable conservative tome such as Mark Steyn's America Alone, or Ann Coulter's If Liberals Had Brains They'd Be Republicans. They are given away free with each subscription."
Hey Mark,
Apparently, this gent slept through his freshman philosophy course.
1) Cum Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc: People might very well be signing up at those sites to get the free copies of your book (true conservatism, after all, tends to be cautious about wasting money)
2) Ignoring the Antecedent: High circulation of these books, if we allow the contingency (free with each subscription), requires – high subscription rates at those conservative sites. Which implies an energetic conservative community in the US, which leads us back to 1)
If the left in the UK really is this intellectually deracinated, it'll be a caliphate in
10 years. They've no foundation to resist, and their conservatives are fleeing for greener (US) shores.
John Muraro
Re: Sign of the times
SUITS UNDER CARTER
Your NRO post "Sign of the Times" reminds me of my dad. He was a career military officer and worked as a liaison officer in the White House towards the end of the Ford Administration. He was still at that post when the Carter crew came to town. I vividly remember the day when my dad came down to breakfast wearing a pinstripe suit. I was in high school at the time, and I never remembered seeing him in a civilian suit before. He even wore his dress blues to weddings and funerals. I started ribbing him ("hey, where's your violin case. you need some spats") and he started cussing about the "damn liberals in the Carter administration" and how they cost him hundreds of dollars in suits he had to buy at the Pentagon Mall because he couldn't wear his uniform to work anymore. Suits became known as "Carter-wear" in our house.
Leta Hix
UNIFORMS UNDER REAGAN
Your post reminded me of my military service in the D.C. area from 1980 to 1983. Until January 1981, military personnel assigned to my organization wore civilian clothes four days a week - it was like being in ROTC all over again, with "uniform day" one day a week. This seemed to be the norm throughout D.C., at least for staff organizations. The practice came to a screeching halt after President Reagan was sworn in. The rumor we heard - can't vouch for its accuracy - was that some general had gone to brief the president-elect during the transition, in civvies. He was introduced as "General So-and-so," whereupon The Gipper
supposedly asked him, "How do I know you're a general?"
Keep up the good work!
Bob Boyd
Canton, Ohio
PROUD TO BE A TARGET
Interesting item. During Gulf War I, I was stationed at Bethesda Naval Hospital. We were cautioned by the higher ups not to wear our uniforms to or from work because of the possibility that we might be targets. I knew of no one who followed that suggestion. In fact, at the time, I was trying to find a way to get a bumper sticker made that said something along the lines of "Possible target of a terrorist attack...and proud of it. Go Navy!" Such were the days when I was young and invincible.
Andrew J. Macfadyen, M.D.
Omaha, Nebraska
LOCKER CLUBS
One of the reasons that we wore civilian clothes is that we workers were not allowed to wear our working uniforms off base. You were allowed to wear your civilian clothes or a dress Uniform off base. So instead of changing from a working uniform to a dress uniform to go home and then back into civilian clothes, one just changed into civilian clothes at the end of the work day. Now at least as much as I have read, one is allowed to wear the working uniform home.
Almost every old military base town used to have Locker clubs. These were used to store your civilian clothes. The Locker clubs were in use before WW-2 and some stayed open as far as I know into the 70's.
J-H.S.
ENC USNR Ret.
USN 72/76
USNR 76/96
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Prior to WWII officers didn't wear uniforms in D.C. American prejudice against the military is nothing new.
Jonathan
Re: It’s the epigoni, stupid
THREE QUESTIONS
Jewish tradition has it that when a soul appears before God's throne, three questions will be asked:
Did you marry?
Did you buy and sell in good faith?
Did you have a time set aside for study?
Bill Buckley will be able to answer "yes" to all three.
E. David Litvak
THE OTHER REX
I listened to the program [Rex Murphy’s Cross-Country Check-Up], wanted to call in, but I was in the middle of bottling 10 gallons of Cabernet Merlot (and of course sampling the while, as one does!),so no go... but actually, given the fact that it was the CBC, it wasn't bad... yes, most of the callers had lefty viewpoints, and the business of the "arts" money for porno or whatever, should never have been lumped together with the HRC thing, but that said... it was worth it to hear Naseem Mithoowani sound like a disgruntled child, and essentially have Rex imply that she was out to lunch.. and to hear Rex in general, bringing people up short when they repeated "osgoodeisms" about your book.. "that certainly wasn't my take on the book", he said several times..
Nice to hear a really bright guy, and on the CBC, of all things, defend your stuff and your right to say it.
Peter Entz
Washington, Ontario
UNJUSTLY PERSECUTED
Susan Swan has offered to defend Mark Steyn if he feels he is being "unjustly" persecuted. I was not aware that there are two kinds of persecution - fair and unjust. I guess Mr. Steyn has so far been fairly persecuted, and so cannot take her up on the offer.
Katha Chalotorn
Burlington, Ontario
THEY ONLY SEE UGLINESS
I consider myself to be a classical liberal, or what would probably be referred to today as a libertarian. I don't like labels, however. I don't follow prescribed dogmas. I simply believe that liberty is a two-way street. If you don't like homosexuality, fine, don't have gay sex. If you want to be a communist, fine, move to a commune in Arizona. If you want to own a gun, groovy, just don't shoot me. This is what I always thought was exceptional about the United States. It's also what has kept the peace here for some 200-plus years, unlike in other nations. “Liberal” Europe still has ethnic clashes and religious wars. Even Britain deals with religious conflicts in Northern Ireland. This is utterly unheard of in the United States.
Why don't we celebrate this more, Mark? I have always had a bit of a nationalistic view, only because it's difficult not to in a nation comprised of immigrants. There's a reason why the United States attracts millions of foreigners, mostly minorities, from around the world each year. also have a keen sense of history, and how much individual Americans have influenced some of our most basic rights around the world. Even the modern gay rights movement derived from within the United States, but this fact is adamantly argued against by many in the gay community. They insist Europe is behind it all. I’m sure even you, Mark, have heard of the Stonewall Inn rebellion in New York City in 1969. It’s what started the annual Gay Pride celebrations around the world. Snobs in coffee houses in Berlin and San Francisco thumb their noses at this. Why, Mark, do people try so hard to see only ugliness in the United States, even when they owe so much to it?
The other day I was watching cable with a friend. We were channel surfing through the some 500 channels, everything from porn to religion. After viewing one of the religious programs for two minutes, my friend declared that the United States is land of religious tyranny. I took the remote from him, merely clicked once and we came to one of the six porn stations he suscribes to. I said, "Does a nation living under religious tyranny usually have porn stations?" He did not understand. His mind could not comprehend that he lives in a nation that allows pretty much everything, which is what liberty is supposed to be. I run into this with alarming regularity. It saddens me people don't seem to comprehend this, much less appreciate it. Do you think I'm an anomaly, Mark?? Is this kind of lack of appreciation and ignorance something we can survive as a human race? I fear that if we fail to appreciate what we have, then we will lose it.
Baffled in Baltimore
JUST HOW BAD IS IT REALLY?
When I read about the US economy being in the downturn it's hard to take it seriously. I mean they've been telling us the US economy has been in a tailspin since 1968. And the media really harps on this whenever a Republican is in office. It will be interesting to see how horrible the economy will be interpreted when/if a Democrat climbs into the Oval Office. Just how bad is it really? Bad in US terms or bad in every other countries' terms? I still think that even when bad our economy is the envy of the world. I just read how Novia Scotia's unemployment rate is at 16%. Michigan has the worst unemployment rate in the US at 9.4%. Personally I just received a job offer making more money than I ever earned for a newly created position at a marketing firm. Yea for me! Sorry, Nova Scotia....
K.V.
Naperville, Illinois
HOME-SCHOOLERS ARE NEXT
Things people say
"Heimov said her organization's chief concern was not the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety.""
This is a quote from the San Francisco Chronicle about the banning of homeschooling recently in a court decision. And they call us fascists?
Robert Church
Newton, Kansas
A WOMAN NEEDS A BICYCLE
An odd angle on Canada's "civil rights"
In case you didn't know, the Canadian downhill mountain bike champion in the
"women's division," Michelle Dumaresq is a transsexual. Not only is she allowed to compete as a woman, but competitors who complain about the obvious unfairness have been threatened with penalties. Those who would otherwise be contenders have simply stopped showing up for national events.
You obviously have a smörgåsbord of craziness up there to choose from as you
describe the weirdness spreading across the great white north, just thought I'd pass on one more morsel.
Keep up the great work and keep fighting the fools.
Ron Bales
Sunny Tampa, Florida
GLORIA AND GYNOCIDE
After I stopped laughing at the fabulous hotness of the 112 year old Gloria Steinem,
I was puzzled by her complaint on behalf of her 200-year-old candidate Hillary in The New York Observer that way too many Americans want "redemption for racism" but not enough want "redemption for the gynocide."
Now what gynocide would that be? The female half of the millions of North American fetuses aborted at the behest of feminists such as Steinem on the grounds of inconvenience? Or only the sex selection abortions which alas skew female? But anyone wanting to prevent these gynocides certainly wouldn't be voting Clinton.
Anne Koresaar
SEX WITH ANIMALS
Idyllic Scandinavia: animal bordellos
More news to know: Four times more crime in Oslo than New York
John Galvin
SPARKLING COMPANY
I quite frankly had never heard of you until your interview on C-Span 2 today.
My only comment (why waste my breath arguing with your points of view).
When the revolution starts between your happy followers and the rest of us and
you come down the streets with your AK-47s we will be behind the barricades waving sparklers.
Maryann Pike
Wilmington, Delaware
SELECT FEW
Nice touch publishing "selected" email addresses. Remind me to always stay on your good side. Keep up the good work.
Reg McAuley
Windsor, Ontario
DARK SIDE OF THE LIGHT
I believe your funniest line ever was: "Is it just me, or does Ramadan seem to come
earlier each year?". I notice that Daylight Saving Time (or is it Daylight Savings Time?) now comes earlier each year.
Coincidence - or conspiracy?
Mark Lake
Redding, Connecticut
ALL THINGS NOT CONSIDERED
I think you would be a perfect replacement for Dan (I was on Nixon's blacklist) Schor. It's time for a little re-adjustment on NPR. Would you consider it?
F.X. Pampush
Atlanta, Georgia
MARK REPLIES: I'd be delighted to consider it but I've got more chance of being designated Kim Jong-Il's successor than Daniel Schorr's.
LAST WORD
Steyn's coming to Hillsdale!
I hope you have plenty of water bottles on hand to revive your shrieking, swooning fans!
Erica Wood
Saline, Michigan
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