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Thank you for your kind (and unkind) letters from the Canada, America, Britain , France, Greece 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
IT’S 1750 ALL OVER AGAIN
Doom and gloom, Britain's finished, eh? I'm not so sure.
In a way, I'm rather excited about where Britain's going at the moment. It has more than a whiff of the eighteenth century about it, as the dominant national consensus from Gladstone to Thatcher breaks down, and the long, grey, dull, compromise-ridden 20th century gives way to a new, almost Georgian sense of social and cultural conflict. I mean to say, here we are again, arguing about how to share the island between England and Scotland; how to deal with massive epidemics of urban drunkenness and crime; what to do with a substantial elite of incredibly wealthy financiers and merchants and an ignorant, feckless and violent underclass; trying to define and then circumscribe the role of corruption in politics (who thought that the de facto sale of titles would make a political come-back?); wondering what the monarchy is for; being sold out to foreigners by a rascally pack of radical, Utopian MPs… Throw a juicy war with France into that lot and it could easily be 1750.
But really it was these questions, these conflicts, this overwhelming sense of crisis which underpinned the very individualism and innovation which in the 18th century put the English-speaking people to the top of the pecking order of nations and has kept us there. I reckon that Britain's detachment from the innovative individualism of the rest of the Anglosphere during recent generations is largely due to the success of the late Victorians in forging a homogenous society, the sense of national and social solidarity which proved such fertile breeding-ground for collectivist ideas and which has therefore turned us into the sluggish, complacent and obeisant loosers we are today. That settlement is now falling to bits, and I look forward to a time when this naturally bolshy and traditionally virtually ungovernable people reasserts itself in the new context.
After all, what do you think of when you consider the parallels between the following old lines and our provincial city centres on a Friday night:
Gin by pailfuls, wine in rivers,
Dash the window-glass to shivers!
For three wild lads were we, brave boys,
And three wild lads were we:
Thou on the land, and I on the sand,
And Jack on the gallows-tree!
I think: Britain is Back...
Ted
London, UK
Re: Staying on offense
APPEASING THE FANATICS
The British government's reaction to the arrest of Gillian Gibbons in the Sudan reminds me how the UN deals with international incidents such as this. “If you don’t do what we demand, we’ll issue a statement condemning you! And if you still refuse, well, we’ll just have to issue you another statement.” Never in the history of mankind have such a powerful people deliberately acquiesced their power to a rival more than 21st century Westerners. We have laid down our weapons and basically surrendered to the Islamofascists. I suppose it’s due to fear of being bombed, but then that fear can easily work the other way. Sure, war sucks, but if your wife is being raped by a gang of Neanderthals, you don’t compose a nice, diplomatic letter to the rapists trying to persuade them to let her go—you jump in there and try to save her even if it means losing your life. Britain’s patronizing reaction reveals once more just how much America stands Alone in dealing with international threats. If Americans are cowboys, then Europeans are spineless jellyfish chronically terrified of their own shadows. If the world does not see the Sudanese violent reaction to something as minor as naming a Teddy bear Mohammad as a major, impending threat, then we are truly living in a delusion, fear-stricken state, and the radical Muslims know it. The Muslim radicals have us pinned like deer caught in headlights. The British press in particular is showing its fear by bending over backwards accommodating radical Sudanese, a stance it wouldn't even take with moderate Jews or Mormons, because those people do not pose a threat. Europe in particular is run by abject, yellow-bellied wimps. We’re at a tremendous crossroads, and our obsession with diplomatic maneuvering is preventing us from dealing with international issues rationally. You simply cannot appease psychotic medieval religious fanatics. The quicker we learn this, the quicker we can get the world back into some sane order.
Gino Stanzi
Baltimore, Maryland
DEEPLY DISTRESSED
You wrote on the Corner:
“….Be fair, Lisa. Had Mrs Gibbons been given the full 40 lashes, the British Foreign Secretary would have upgraded his statement to "gravely concerned".
Well, let's be honest here. The British Foreign Secretary is more likely to have been concerned had Mrs. Gibbons administered corporal punishment to a student for an actual offense, than had the Sudanese administered lashes to her for none.
Had a student in Mrs Gibbons's class misbehaved, and had she then administered corporal punishment to said student, and had the British Foreign Secretary been notified, the statement would have been "irrevocably distressed".
Or perhaps, "plunged into the depths of despair".
Jeff Dobbs
PROPHET AND LOSS
Thank God for little favors, I guess, but:
"Indeed it has been clear from the outset that Ms Gibbons did not in anyway desire to malign the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and that the choice of name for the teddy bear had come from the children themselves."
And if she had, it would be OK?
Nathan Lamm
SHAMEFUL
You might enjoy the comments from the Brits on the BBC's website story on the "conviction" of Ms. Gibbons. Short summary: she got what she deserved. Sad, shameful and predictable.
James Phillips
Folsom, California
MOB APPEAL
Why can't we have Muslim groups like that here in the US?
Toby Bianchi
WHAT A RIOT
Why does the global media including here in the U.S. portray riots in France and Europe in general as some kind of quirky fun thing? On the rare occasion there are riots in the U.S. it's shown as proof that the American capitalist system is a failure at that all Americans are violent thugs. But riots in Europe, which are plentiful, are depicted as part of the theme park's show? Seriously, why do you think this is? Can the media be that blatantly commie these days?
Franklin
Chicago
THE SWEAR BOX
From Yahoo news service. Does this mean the Sudan isn't such a bad place after all?
LONDON (Reuters) - A man has been convicted of racially aggravated harassment after calling a Welsh woman English.
Michael Forsythe was sentenced to 10 weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months, after being found guilty of racially aggravated disorderly behaviour, a court official said.
Forsythe received the sentence at Welshpool Magistrates Court on Tuesday and was also ordered to pay 200 pounds in prosecution costs.
The former lorry driver, who is originally from Northern Ireland, but lives in Powys, Mid Wales, called Lorna Steele an "English bitch" during an argument after he collided with her parked vehicle in the Welsh market town of Newport in February.
Forsythe has attacked the prosecution as a waste of time and money, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.
"I find it unbelievable that I've been prosecuted for this," he said. "I've travelled all over Europe as a lorry driver and never had any problems with anybody and now they're officially calling me a racist.
"It's political correctness gone mad."
James Murphy
London, United Kingdom
Re: Defense welfare queens
MISGUIDED GENEROSITY
I agree with your article "Defense welfare queens" completely. If you look at welfare in general, it has left a legacy of despair and feminization. A perfect example of these ill effects is right here at home with our domestic welfare programs. Aimed mostly at blacks, these liberal policies have virtually destroyed low income black families and turned black communities into crime-ridden infernos. Black men are near absent in college campuses and at home. In fact, prior to liberal meddling, black children during the slave period were more likely to grow up living with both parents than today! But does this upset the liberals who put these policies into effect? No. They merely blame society at large and claim we need more programs to help dark-skinned minorities and the poor. According to Thomas Sowell, the famous black economist with the Hoover Institute, black Americans were better off before the 1960’s civil rights era. Up until this time, blacks were actually seeing an increase in their incomes and education. Only after liberal policies came into effect did blacks see their incomes and education levels plummet, virtually destroying a vibrant ethnic community in the United States. (Only after welfare reform in the 1990s have blacks seen an increase in their incomes and education levels.) What we have done to Europe is the same thing. Our misguided generosity toward Europe has created an impotent society addicted to the public dole and riling with rage toward the benefactor. Odd that America preaches self-sufficiency, individualism and capitalism, yet we do not expect the same from the rest of the world or dark-skinned minorities living inside the United States.
Michael Luo
Seattle, Washington
SEE THE WORLD
Having lived in the northeast, I can say with absolute certainty the local economies of Plattsburgh and Rome New York were eviscerated when the military bases were closed there. Those communities have still not recovered (people owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth) and they may never recover. But that argument alone is not reason enough for the Pentagon to keep a base open.
As we both know, military bases are not created for the sole purpose of helping the local economy. There are where they are "strategically" for national defense. If there is no strategic reason for the bases in Germany or Italy anymore (with the fall of the Iron Curtain) then close the bases. Worrying about the local economy is not the Pentagon's concern.
As I see it, the only reason why we continue to deploy so many troops (and have so many bases) in Germany is for recruiting purposes. It is much easier for a recruiter to "sell" the Army or the Air Force to High School Seniors if there are bases in Europe for our GIs to be deployed. Europe is fun and interesting if you are 18 years old and want to see the world where as Hill Air Force base in Salt Lake Utah, is rather boring.
Paul A Colburn
YOU MADE MY DAY
Nothing about this post just now did not immediately make my day!
It was a pleasure - I knew I waited too long to go and get the book.
Robert Caggiano
Re: Bold as brass
SCRAP HAPPY
On the subject of metal thieves in the UK I recall being amazed when I was living there in the mid 90's the enterprise of even the legitimate scrap metal merchants.
Working in cinemas, fires in the popcorn machines are a semi-regular occurrence.
If I may digress let me say you haven't lived until you've seen a gung ho cinema manager fire a CO2 fire extinguisher into a machine full of burning corn, forgetting that there's nowhere for all the burning corn to go but straight back into their face (the more cautious of us stay well clear and make heavy use of the doors).
On one regrettable day the minimum wage staff had panicked, dumped the burning kettle into a big bank of corn and had a real smoker going. Smoke and alarm systems are not a winning combination so the extinguished 10,000 quid machine was wheeled out the fire exit until it stopped smoking.
When we went back to check on it a few hours later we discovered that a scrap metal merchant had already had it on the back of his truck.
Bit of a blow when popcorn is the main profit driver of your business, fortunately pre-popped popcorn can be trucked in when these things happen.
On the other hand for years they performed a useful role by dragging away abandoned cars in the blink of an eye.
You may recall that a few years ago when the price of steel was rock bottom the UK had a mini-crisis when the scappers suddenly stopped taking the cars away and the roads threatened to clog.
John Griffiths
COP A LOOK AT THAT!
Overhead power lines stolen
In Australia we can do even better than brass door knockers:
PM - Copper thefts halt Melbourne trains
This is the print version of story.
Scott
Melbourne
ETHICAL DISCOURSE
Words like "right" and "wrong" have virtually vanished from ethical discourse for fear of closing the back door or alienating a potential piece of ass.
Thanks for using them.
Peter O’Keefe
St. Barthelemy, French West Indies
Re: The most busted name in news
SLEAZY DEBATE
Mark said, "So it seems to me incredible on its face that for example, this gay general who’s supporting Hillary, that they couldn’t have done the minimal amount of work necessary to find out that this guy is not Mr. Undecided Voter...".
Oh, they knew, all right. The "debate" was as sleazy as it was infantile.
But even if they HADN'T known, it's disgraceful that they let that winner of the Croix de Gay ask the question he did. The question was, “why you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians.”
At that point all the candidates should have yelled in unison, "Don't tell me what I think! I know what I think!" That is, Kerr FIRST told the candidates what they thought, and THEN challenged them to explain why they thought it. He wanted to be allowed to frame the issue in terms of his own choosing -- diametrically incorrect terms, in fact. That is not proper examination.
The proper response would have been something along the lines of, "Objection -- the question assumes something not yet entered into evidence. Objection -- the man with all the fruit salad on his visor is leading the witness (and that doesn't mean dancing). Objection -- the question is tendentious and argumentative."
It's disgraceful that CNN would allow such a dishonest question into the "debate" or quiz program -- even if they hadn't known the general was a ringer.
Larry Eubank
Bloomington, Indiana
Re: Canadian beer drinkers threaten planet
THEY’RE ONLY HERE FOR THE BEER
You and your "countrymen" should be truly ashamed.
I have always suspected that Bob and Doug McKenzie, those hosers, were environmental criminals who no doubt maliciously refused to recycle their empty beer bottles.
However, being a naive American, I had no idea how evil and destructive you and your seemingly innocuous "Canadian" compatriots truly are.
On behalf of Mother Earth, it is therefore imperative that you and your fellow travelers "take off" immediately, lest you increase your carbon footprint and prolong the heat wave gripping the upper Midwest and Canada (today's temperatures, as I write: Calgary - 9 below zero; Toronto -27; Montreal - 27; Chicago - 32.)
The science is in. The verdict is guilty.
The Canadian representative to the Climate Change Conference in Bali will have to answer for this.
David Sigalow
Orlando, Florida
STAYING COOL
Why do Canadians need a fridge to keep their beer cold? What's wrong with their back porch, at least in the summer time? And they could use a basement shelf the other 11 months.
“Shawnmitch”
CHILLIN’
I don't believe it! It simply cannot be true! Everybody knows that Canadians chill their beer the natural way. For example, see my brother’s beer fridge of last winter... in Halifax.
Cheers to that!
Christopher Petrie
WASTE OF ENERGY
The silliness of that article is monumental. The beer part is completely gratuitous and thrown in to make Canadians look wasteful. That Canadians have purchased new refrigerators but have not thrown out perfectly functional older refrigerators is what seems to be what gets the goats of these sissy-marys. What difference does it make what they store in the second refrigerator? Maybe they keep the beer in the new fridge and keep their food in the other (note also the bit about whatever it is that Canadians eat). Does that still count on the sins of Canada list?
Also the premise itself makes no sense. Canadians upgraded to more efficient new fridges but kept the old ones too - where is the supposed savings from doing that? If anything, they just added the cost of operating the new fridges to their existing energy usage.
I'm an American and a fan of Fox News, but this article was not worth the energy it used to put into cyberspace.
James McDonnell
Re: Song of the Week
HEP TO THE CAT
Great column! I was singing all the way through, even though I've never heard the song before. One question, though: I have volumes 1-4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, and none of them have the Hep Cat singing "Java Jive." Do you know which episode it is?
Jeff Steadman
Ames, Iowa
SALTY SELLERS
In case your Peter Sellers collection is not complete, you may be interested to know that the song appears on the 4 disc compilation - A Celebration of Sellers. It's included in a 14 minute piece called "The All England George Formby Finals." and is available on itunes. Unfortunately it is one of a handful of songs that cannot be purchased individually, so you'll have to get the whole album. It would also make an interesting ringtone.
David Whidden
THE GRINCHES WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS
Since you are such a musical authority, I thought you should review a nice Christmastime song called "Where Are You Christmas?" sung by Faith Hill. I believe the song was featured in the film "Grinch." Part of the song goes like this:
Where are you Christmas
Why can't I find you
Why have you gone away
Where is the laughter
You used to bring me
Why can't I hear music play
I can tell you where it went. It was hijacked by political correct Left Wing bandits, including the Muslim ass-kissing crowd. I seriously doubt the song writers were thinking of that when they wrote it, but it's fitting in today's PC world nonetheless. In my world, the Grinch is Left Wing secularists who don't want any of us to have any fun anymore. Everything associated with Christmas--including the word "Christmas" itself--is now off limits. What next? Banning the sending of Christmas cards since it uses up too much paper and destroys the Amazon rain forest?
Hank Zupancic
Chicago
JINGLE KNELLS
When I read your list of Christmas songs I least want to hear this holiday season, I
threw up several times.
It was very unfair of you not to let me vote for (against) them all.
I wish you, and all of yours, well.
Colin Miles
Charlotte, North Carolina
CHRISTMAS HIPPO SONG
I am a long time reader, and enjoyed "America Alone" a great deal; I thought it made many salient and engaging (not to say witty) points, but that's not why I'm writing this fawning missive. Rather, I wish to suggest an addition to your selection for songs that listeners should
no longer be subjected to this blessed Christmas season.
I nominate "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas", as sung by Gayla Peevey. NB: Normally, I despise Wikipedia, but this seemed the best way to link to the song. It really is quite bad.
Andrew Jensen
Re: A loss to the world
and Europe doesn’t even have a pro-American right
YOU’RE NO GENIUS AND NOR IS HE
Howard was a loser who, like you, can't accept the reality of climate change. You think you know better than the world's scientists, as if you're some kind of genius. I've read your writings -- trust me, you are no f***ing genius.
Neither is Howard. I'm very, very glad he lost.
David Appell
National Association of Science Writers
Portland, Oregon
MONO-MEDIA
Of course JWH deserves to win. The idiot Rudd and the 70 faceless people behind him deserve to supp the bitter taste of failure. Whether they do or not depends on whether Australians are as stupid as the Australian media.
If Labor gets up and Howard is booted out, it will be one of the most shameful performances ever by a supposedly free press in deciding an election result.
I'm a journalist of 35 years standing, and I haven't seen anything like the media barrage against Howard. Bush, maybe, but there is an alternative viewpoint available in the US media. Here in Australia it's one way, all the way. A couple of columnists keep the debate going, but the viciousness of the press here against the conservative viewpoint is something to behold.
Anyway, today will tell.
Maree Eggleston
Australia
BBC BIAS
Long time, though drunk and depressed, reader.
Did you see the BBC coverage of John Howard's ejection? "John Howard, vulgar and craven monarchist, Iraq War supporter, and Kyoto Protocol sceptic is (thankfully) ejected from office".
Yet more evidence that the allegedly internationalist BBC is incapable of viewing foreign affairs except through the prism of its own ephemeral obsessions. My Australian friends inform me that high interest rates had something to do with it.
Paul Casey
United Kingdom
WHERE NEXT?
I was worried for a while my second home may not sell; but after the Australian elections, perhaps I will be finally getting some bids with the influx of Australian refugees into the United States. (But then again, they may want to wait until after our own election. Clinton II may send me packing for...um....well... is there any nation left that isn't left wing? Seriously, is there?)
Max Weinstock
Los Angeles
BALLOT PARROTS
Where are all the headlines about Australia's election proclaiming: "How can 6 million people be so stupid?"?
Vikram D'Souza
Memphis, Tennessee
MUSICAL CHAIRS
The leaders move is interesting
Australia moves away from America's position
Briton moves slightly away from America's position
Canada moves closer to America's position
France moves closer to America's position
Germany moves slightly closer to America's position
Italy moves slightly away from America's position.
Len Herchen
Calgary, Alberta
THE MOST DESPISED PRESIDENT EVER?
Bush is only a "survivor" of the pre-9/11 leaders because we can't have a snap election or recall election. And The Democrats don't have the balls to impeach him. Or else Bush would have been thrown out by now as well. He's the most despised President of our lifetime, lower in approval than Richard Nixon. 28% approval is Pariah Land. Bush couldn't win an election as dog-catcher right now.
Roger Davis
THREE CHEERS FOR TURN-OVER
Long time, first time, like they like to say. Who am I to disagree with you, but I did want to bring up one point: your lamenting of the post 9/11 World Leaders that were pro-Iraq war who are no longer in leadership forgets one thing: our short cycles of leaders in the West IS a strength, even when they are great leaders; otherwise, we'd be your standard banana republic, and we wouldn't be able to differentiate from Chavez & your garden variety dictator. We are democracies in which our leaders serve at the behest (and sometimes the whim) of the people. I used to hear years ago of Fidel bragging of how many US leaders he has out-lasted, and I always thought that bragging was ridiculous - it's exactly his point that he should be ashamed of: forcing upon the population a leadership too corrupt, too selfish to cease power. Thanks always for your insights, and pray to God that Rudd is more Blair than Zapatero.
Luis Segarra
Denver, nee of Miami
SECOND THOUGHTS
My wife and I just cancelled our first trip to Australia for March.
Tom Avakian
Santa Ana, California
SO, NO MORE VEGEMITE
Now that Howard has lost in Australia to a radical anti-American Leftist, I will be boycotting all things Australian - both of them!
David Tolmachev
Boston, Massachusetts
SARKOZY ALONE?
Mark, you're too clever to blind yourself deliberately to any developments not entirely accounted for in America Alone (however good that book may be) ! Where were you during Sarkozy's speech in Congress two weeks ago ?
Armand
Re: The pasture is prologue
YOU’RE A BOORISH EGOMANIAC
Mr Steyn, you are not only boorish an, but seemingly unable to organize your thoughts cohesively anymore. Perhaps your outrageous egomania is clouding your vision, but last time I checked, suggesting that we should be preserving our churches (which we probably should) INSTEAD of preserving THE PLANET renders you pretty much unworthy of the paper on which your column was printed. Stop trying to write about "Arts and Culture". It looks bad on you.
Ben Sanders
Toronto, Ontario
LET’S MAKE IT OFFICIAL THEN
If Williams really wants to compare Iraq to India, perhaps Bush should just grant Blackwater a "John Company" style monopoly?
Matt Edens
A SCHISM HERE, A SCHISM THERE
It has occurred to me that the ABC's comments regarding U.S. imperialism have less to do with Iraq than the current conflict he finds himself embroiled in. On the verge of worldwide Anglican schism he purports to despise imperialism and so that when the entire Global South breaks away he can say, "Well see? The last vestiges of British imperialism have fallen away, and bravo to them, sad to see you go but peace be with you." At the same time he throws a bone to the lefty Episcopals in America, “Hey guys, I hate Bush too! Keep sending those checks!"
Stephanie Lynch
BRITS IN INDIA
I don't know what universe you're in historically (or otherwise) speaking, but Britain's occupation of India can in no meaningful sense be called a four-century-long affair.
But then again, facts have never been your strong suit.
Ben Cronin
MARK REPLIES: Oh, yeah? What's your strong suit? Literary devices? I used "four-century" to parallel the "four-year" occupation of Iraq, just as in the adjoining sentence I contrast "six months" with "six decades" into the 22nd century. Neither sentence is meant to indicate the precise length of the British era in India: It is meant to contrast the short period of American involvement in Iraq with the long period of British involvement in India. However, given that Queen Elizabeth I granted the East India Company its Royal charter in 1600, I'll stand by "four centuries" as a broadly accurate summation of British engagement with India.
Re; "(Imperial arcana: Did you know that in the Twenties the new British Mandate of Iraq was in fact administered by the India Office?)"
Yes, I did.
PAX AMERICA
"There are few takers for that, mainly because America doesn't have an imperialist bone in its body. "
Oh Please,
I'm no America basher but this remark is just silly, it may masquerade as "expansionism" but there has been a long history in America of attempts to reach out beyond our natural and political boundaries, going back as far as Aaron Burr.
Alaska
Canada
Cuba
Hawaii
the Phillipines
Texas
These have all been places that at one time or another were deemed to be part of our "manifest destiny".
JP
WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?
First, I want to say that I greatly enjoy your columns both on politics and classic songcraft. Concerning the latter topic, I want to comment on a reference in your "Gaia is Angry" article. You quoted a lyric from the Bacharach/David song, "Alfie": "What's it all about, Alfie? Is it just for the moment that we live?", and then you commented, "Not many people want to live 'just for the moment'...." and you went on to make a another point. But I think you misread this lyric. David isn't asking if people just live "for the moment." He's referring to each of our lives being just a
moment, a flash, in the overall scheme of time. He's also implying that there may be something to our existence beyond our brief moment here on earth, which is why the song offers the question: What's it all about?
Keep up the great writing, and I especially enjoy watching you as the fill-in host on "Hannity and Colmes".
Kevin Radecker
New Orleans, Louisiana
Re: Thanksgiving
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU TOO
Thankful my ass
You would flunk most history courses, based on your latest propaganda piece praising America's "greatness." You obviously have never cracked open a history book. America is guilty of more bloodshed and crimes against humanity than the rest of the world combined since civilization. That's quite a feat for a nation as young as America. America from its beginings has been nothing but a blood bath aimed at power and money. It's track record against minorities is attrocious. I'm more thankful for Europe for showing us the light to how a true civilized society should live. But unlike Americans, Europeans are not so haughty as to boast about its greatness. We all know that the more a country boasts about its greatness the less great it really is.
Robert L.
Portland, Maine
THE MIRACLE OF AMERICA
Mark, It is difficult to explain it, perhaps it is because I grew up in the Irish-American enclave of South Boston, but the following from your article in National Review:
"What's it about?" an Irish visitor asked me a couple of years back. "Everyone sits around giving thanks all day? Thanks for what? George bloody Bush?" had me sitting in front of my PC in uncontrollable laughter.
You, my unassimilated friend, have a greater love and appreciation for the miracle of America than most native borns.
Bill Millette
Acvworth, Georgia
Re: The silence of the artistic lambs
PROPAGATING YOUR AGENDA
I must take umbrage about your piece in Maclean's, “Silence of the Artist Lambs,” for the same reasons I criticize Leftist columnists. Although I agree with the spirit of your piece whole heartedly, you are guilty of half truths. You took a real-life example and used it as far as needed to propagate your agenda. When you mentioned the investigation of hate crimes regarding the airing of “Undercover Mosque,” you failed to mention that the complaint was rejected November 19, 2007 by Ofcom, the independent regulator for Britain’s communications industries. Ofcom
ruled: "Undercover Mosque was a legitimate investigation...the broadcaster had accurately represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context." This ruling can be found easily on the Internet. Like so many left-wing columnists, you only presented half the truth British writer complaining about the "Right Wing conspiracy" in the United States is guilty of the same deliberate attempt to leave out vital information to perpetuate an ideology. He ranted and raved about Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore who displayed the Ten Commandments on the grounds of a state judiciary building as proof America is run by a Christian right wing conspiracy. But he failed to inform his readers that Justice Moore was ordered by a federal appellate court in an unanimous decision to remove the monument, and when Justice Moore refused, the monument was removed by authorities and so was Justice Roy from the bench--permanently. All this took place months before the British writer’s article was published.
I’m sure you would be appalled by such a scheming tactic, yet you are guilty of the same thing; however, I will give you some leeway since the Undercover Mosque decision occurred only a few days ago. So, in the end, just as in the Roy Moore decisions, democracy and freedom have prevailed. Hallelujah! Instead of spreading gloom, like so many left wing columnists, we should celebrate the obvious victories and take pride that our systems still work to preserve our liberties. (As a side note, Justice Roy lost handedly last year in Alabama’s Republican gubernatorial nomination.)
JK
Dallas, TexasBROTHEL RECOMMENDATION
With regard to your recent Macleans article 'The Silence of The Artistic Lambs', may I suggest The Intellectual Brothel?
John Boatswain
Missolonghi, Greece
Re: Night and day
FRED WAS TOO RACY
I took my first girlfriend to the movie, and had to explain why they were at the hotel, why the Italian was there and what a co-respondent was (she'd led a very sheltered life). She also didn't know that "The Continental" had lyrics.
Sam Dunkin
Astoria, Oregon
Re: People who don’t need people
Re: Staying together of the sake of the planet
The shellsuit soldiers
My apologies if you've already covered the matter, but I'd love to hear your verdict on Britain's impending demographic timebomb. No, not the Islamic one. I mean the home-grown one; our highly untrained army of feckless serial fathers and their benefits-bankrolled concubines. They're the only sector of our native population showing any real growth, or any real inclination to propagate themselves (as one pullulating parasite recently averred*, "I love giving birth --- it's always so quick for me. People say I should stop breeding but it's not their business."
...despite the fact that these awful, judgmental busybodies provide her with a house and more than £20,000 a year in handouts --- though neither she nor her drone has worked this century). One imagines they'll be the ones who end up dooking it out with the Mullahs. A curious scenario to be sure, but as you point out, if you want to know the shape of the future, look at who's making the running.
Having just read your "People Who Don't Need People", it strikes me as strange that those self-same socio-fascists who demand a world population reduction are usually simultaneously arguing for lavish benefits systems which incentivise prodigious breeding in a fashion which (since it is completely dependent on funding by taxpayers) is truly unsustainable in the long term. What is one to make of that? Do they have a coherent world view? Or do they simply want only
the wealth-creating section of the population to tie their tubes, and leave the world to them and their hyper-dependent client groups? Good luck with that.
...And I'd be interested to know who'll be representing France, Germany & Italy in the finals, come the big show-down. Do they have something similar to the tracksuited stormtroopers of Britain's Proletarian Guard?
Paul
Wales
NO BABY GREENS
I do so hope that this notion takes hold amoung the greens.
Stacy P Shomaker
YOU ARE A POMPOUS BABOON
Pay for my kids, please!
You are such a self righteous pompous baboon. You want every couple to have 10 kids but you don't explain how in this day and age anyone can afford it! Will you be paying for these kids with procedes from America Alone? Do you know how much it costs just to buy food today? And what about college? We're not all as brilliant as you and can't rely on scholarships. You are as guilty as the left wing when it comes to preaching what you don't practice. Easy for you to have 20 sets of triplets, but for the average earthling it's a wee bit out of their price range. At this moment in
my life I can barely pay for my own upkeep much less a wife and a kid! Get off your high horse and quit being such a hypocrite. If you want me to breed like a rabbit, how about you give me about $2 million. I guess that's how much it would cost for a mere family of four today. BTW, your war in Iraq is costing the average family of four $20,900 a year!
Frederick
Maryland
A SNIP TOO FAR
Ya notice the husband didn't volunteer for the less risky and simpler vasectomy. Maybe his heart isn't THAT much into saving the planet!!
Jim Hogue
Plano, Texas
TWO TOO MANY
In The Corner Mark Steyn writes:
"I wouldn't mind betting that voluntary, environmentally responsible, civilizational self-extinction catches on big time as the logical end-point of western progressivism."
Certainly the people I know in San Francisco are that way; 0 or 1 children, 2 at the very most. To have 3 children is to get hard looks. One can only wonder if the environmentally responsible types will take it to the logical conclusion, a copy of "Final Exit" and a warm bathtub. Meanwhile, I visit a culturally and theologically conservative Protestant church from time to time, and every fertile family there has at least 2 children, many have 3 or more. What's the oh-so-precious "youth vote" going to look like 18 years from now, I wonder?
But returning to the original point, what do you suppose the odds are of suicide-pacts becoming trendy in parts of England and North America within the next 10 years? Prior to reading this stupid article from the UK I'd have said "slim to none", but now I realize that once again I've underestimated the greenie desire for self- extinction.
“Nosy”
THE CAPON HAWKS
The notion of sterilizing oneself to save the planet is a good one that we should advocate by creating an epithet of our own for those who preach the Globo-Warmo message of doom and gloom but fail to follow through with it in their personal lifestyle choices in things like having offspring whether in or out of wedlock.
"Capon-Hawk" occurs to me as a fitting contrast to "Chicken-Hawk," but I'm sure that you can do much better.
I enjoy your work. Nay, I celebrate your every utterance whether captured on paper or in digital form without exception. As a South Carolina resident, I shall ignite fireworks of in your honor on every major Western holiday, to include Boxing Day, whatever that is. (I think it's metric, but it's on the calendar so we'll give it a mortar round or three in your honor.)
Should you ever be in the area, give me a shout and we'll have something over charcoal and then light up the night. Heck, we could even go to the range beforehand and celebrate the Second Amendment. Be advised, however, that the Palmetto State's concealed weapon's permit law (and any reciprocity granted CWP-holders from other states) limits permit-holders to three CWs at any one time. We have standards.
Mike Cakora
Columbia, South Carolina
SELF-LIQUIDATION
However, if part of the uneven distribution calculus is that environmental kooks voluntarily choose to self-liquidate, this is a good thing indeed!
Wayne Wren
Atlanta, Georgia
FOOTPRINT EROSION
Forget that she's a hypocrite for taking one long haul flight a year (no matter how much carbon she's otherwise offsetting, it's still a horrendous waste from a fuel wasting, polluting standpoint), the logical conclusion to her philosophy is a suicide pact, or at least murder/suicide. How can she and her second husband bear to pollute the Earth (tongue-in-cheek capitalization mine) a moment further with their own lives. To quote her, "Every person who is born uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of over-population." If she's convinced enough of that belief to have an abortion, isn't it the height of selfishness to continue to live? As Jonah would say at this point, Heh.
Tim Jones
Cordova, Tennessee
Re: America Alone
MORRIS-DANCING MULLAHS
I have been an avid reader of your work since your Telegraph columns, and as I have lived in London for 20 years, commute into the City most days and occasionally take my children to school, I have already witnessed a massive demographic shift which you predict is only going one way. I am trying to bring your book America Alone to a wider audience as my small part in the resistence! What I would be interested to learn, and which I don't think I have read you comment on, is the private feedback you receive from our political classes. Despite the fact that they have never really had a proper job in industry, most of the Cabinet are intelligent (Oxbridge) and they must be able to see the bigger picture and spot trends. They must also receive stacks of info from actuaries and demographers etc. Do they think you are mad and genuinely believe that there is no Islamic “problem”, do they believe that immigrants will mostly integrate and become Morris Dancers etc, or do they privately concede that there is a problem and they can't do anything about it? I appreciate you may not be able to reply but if you do my decision (or not) to emigrate to Australia might depend on it. Only joking!
Thanks for your work and swimming against the tide.
Charles Greaves
London
THE REVOLT OF ISLAM
I'm afraid I'm not a big fan of Shelley in general, or the Revolt of Islam in particular, but I do enjoy the American stanzas. They're over the top, but hey, that's how we do things around here. This bit reminded me of America Alone:
"That land is like an eagle whose young gaze
Feeds on the noontide beam, whose golden plume
Floats moveless on the storm, and in the blaze
Of sunrise gleams when earth is wrapped in gloom;
An epitaph of glory for the tomb
Of murdered Europe."
And by the way, will you start writing an additional column soon? I wouldn't ask this of any other writer, but face it: we all know the prodigious output you're capable of--with each column as brilliant as the last. You are extraordinary, Mark, absolutely without peer. So wonderfully clever, so penetrating, so knowledgeable, so persuasive, so....
Well, I won't beg. I'm sure you've got you're reasons for instituting this hideously cruel rationing regime. I just hope they're good enough to justify the suffering.
Abigail Gannaway
USA
RELIGION OF PEACE ALERT
Meanwhile, things in the Kingdom just keep getting better and better...
Christopher John
YOUTHS’ IDENTITY
Psst! The French Rioters Are Muslim
Abe Greenwald
New York City, NY
Re: When it’s no country for old men
THE MOUNTIES DISHONOURED
Mark - the tasering incident has bitten as deeply into people here in St. John's as anything since the errant Christian Brothers. It is no secret that the Mounties have gotten up to rough stuff before - it's part of why they are respected. However, they have great discretionary powers, and until recently have used them well. They are expected to sort things out - that's why we don't send in the Army in such situations after all. So there is a great feeling of lost trust.
Of course there is sympathy for the victim, all the more so as many of us have come close to losing it in an airport, and some of us actually have lost it - I am glad the RCMP thingies weren't around that day in - Toronto, was it? - when I started yelling "anyone else want to see my passport? Have a look at my passport" and waving it around over my head.
With the tasering incident there is the fact that four armed males - I certainly will not dignify them with the word "men" - confronted a single unarmed man and killed him without provocation. The four thingies dishonoured every word in the phrase "Royal Canadian Mounted Police".
I am reminded that one of my grandfathers, who grew up in Ottawa around 1900 when Ottawa was a rough tough lumbering town, told me that back then if a cop wanted to apprehend a suspect in a beer hall he'd have to go in alone and unarmed, and subdue the man, and wouldn't be interfered with. If he went in armed, or if two or three cops went in together, they wouldn't get out alive.
John K.C. Lewis
St. John's, Newfoundland
MY HOME TOWN
My home town finally makes the national news! The El Dorado Motel is out on highway 54, just past the railroad tracks and the Walnut River. If a guy had a body to get rid of, it's a matter of a few hundred yards from the motel to the river, so it makes sense to dive there. Water's muddy as can be and visibility is zero, so it would be work finding anything in the bottom of the river.
We would occasionally swim there in the summertime when we were kids, although the sheriff never liked it, because of the occasional drowning.
As you know from living in New Hampshire, there isn't really a separate culture for small-town America. The only thing you've got in the big city that you haven't got in small towns is anonymity.
Ezra Marsh
Baltimore
FRENCH HATE MAIL
Vous êtes un singe dans la robe rose. Je ris de vous. VOUS êtes stupide. Vous ne savez rien au sujet du monde. Allez à l'enfer. Mangez la merde. Soyez mort bientôt. Vont-ils comment vos enfants ? Quelle heure est-elle ? Où aimez-vous monter votre vélo ? Pourquoi les Chinois ne mangent-ils aucune laiterie ? Combien de chiens aboient après le midi ? Ha ! Au juste ce que j'ai pensé à vous ! Vous ne savez rien ! Idiot stupide ! ! Vous êtes un singe gai ......
Michael-Maria de Chambre
Grange sur le fleuve, France
Michael-MariadC@lycos.com
STANDING O
Went with my mother & father to see you speak at Har Zion Temple outside Philly this past Wednesday. You didn't disappoint. The standing O was of course well deserved. It's nice to know you'll be a fellow American pretty soon. Many thanks for all you do.
Dave Fennimore
Haddon Heights, New Jersey
BTW - Have you ever caught these youtube vids of you? They're pretty good.
MS on multiculturalism. Someone took audio of you and put it to music & screen shots from sci-fi flicks: MS on zombies
NOW YOU ARE FIVE
Dear Mark, happy 5th birthday. Now you are five, I trust you will write articles more often each day.....
I want to tell you a joke. A little boy wrote to Santa, about now end Nov, saying "dear Santa, please send me 100 Pounds for Christmas". He wrote it to Santa Claus, North Pole.
Eventually it fetched up at 10 Downing Street, having been round the GPO, the Foreign Office, the Dept of education and Skills, you name it. Gordon got handed it, and his wife Sarah took a look. "Oh the poor little chap, doooo something Gordon," she said. Gordon was prevailed on to get a tenner out of his wallet, he shoved it poutingly at an "aide", who took it away and addressed it back to the boy - "from the Office of the Prime minister".
In due course a thank-you letter arrived. "Dear Santa, thank you for the 100 pounds, it was so kind of you! Unfortunately those buggers in the government intercepted it on the way from you, and took 90 pounds away."
David Davis
Lancashire, England
STEYNONLINE STUDY
To Mark, Tiffany, Chantal...and the entire STEYNONLINE team. Wish you decades more fantastic years...( just go easy on the changes, 'cause I bet your older-timer readers don't like their routine bein' messed with. Maybe you could form a commission to vet any changes, a comm made up of meddling old "experts" who don't have much else to do...kinda like the Iraq Study Group).
John Gross
Beloeil, Quebec
LAST WORD
A grateful nation thanks you for your continued clear and humorous writing. If being a "neocon" means standing up for liberty, representative government and free-market economics, then count me in!
Your latest missive on NRO concerning the clueless Archbishop had me, as your work always does, thinking and laughing.
Bravo sir! Outstanding! Keep up the good work...please.
Sam Haldi
Atlanta, Georgia
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