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Thank you for your kind and unkind letters from Canada, America, Britain, Denmark, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. 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 a roll call of winners from four Continents and receive a copy of Mark Steyn "From Head to Toe". It would be helpful if you could indicate your city or town, state, province or country. Failing that, your continent or hemisphere would do.
Letter of the Week
HEAVY COST OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION
If I heard Rudy and McCain right last night that all the 12 million illegal have to do is pay a five thousand dollar fee and it's not called amnesty and then get to stay in this country?
I work in the Payroll/Human Resource field and work with H1B & Green Card employees (mostly from India but some from Mexico, South America and China). They are paying thousands of dollars personally (or the companies are paying a portion to sponsor their right to stay in this country) when according to McCain and Rudy all they needed to do was cross the border,
break our laws and you get a discounted rate to stay in this country. Unbelievable.
There is something very fundamentally wrong with this logic but I'm not a pundit and I'm a Mitt girl so I might be not thinking straight on this but their answers last night did sit well with me. Or I don't think it will sit well with the employees and employers who are following the law.
Sheryl
Re: Secular left vs Christian left
LESS IS MORE
We won’t have to be more respectful of Huck, we’ll have to be less respectful of Iowa Republicans.
Brian Gates
ISN’T ANYONE READING THE EXIT POLLS?
Huckabee took 14% of the vote and came in fourth in the Iowa caucus among non-evangelicals according to the NBC Republican exit poll [other polls come out about the same].
His big voting block came among born-again Christian Republican females living in non-urban rural areas with a population below 10,000. When Huckabee moves out of the corn fields and into America, he's going to get killed.
Greg Ransom
THE NEW REPUBLICANS
Apparently Huckabee is annoying the Republican establishment to no end, but he's hitting a demographic sweet spot. I believe he's the only one that can attract enough independents to win.
I don't know if this guy is any good or not, I do know however, that he represents the next republican movement, the rest represent the old. The conservative grassroots has had enough of the globalist elite. Believe me.
Joe Mahoney PREACHER HUCKLEBERRY
You write:
"It would be truer to say that for a proportion of Huck's followers there is no aisle: he's their kind of Christian, and all the rest - foreign policy, health care, mass transit, whatever - is details. This is identity politics of a type you don't often see on the Republican side."
Are you really just now discovering this, pardon me, but, fundamental aspect of the religious right's involvement with the GOP? Preacher Huckleberry is exactly the candidate that the Religious Right has been fervently praying for - one of them- their kind of Christian. And, no, they do not really care much about the rest of the conservative agenda. What they care about is getting one of their own into the White House to advance their religious agenda which is not the main thing, it's the only thing from their point of view. Maybe they thought that George W. Bush was their guy, but he seems not to have been. Huck might just be The One. So they were out in force tonight.
Many of us on what passes for the center-right in America have worried about, or attempted to point out this glaring flaw in the "coalition" with the religious right for years. Usually with the result that we are branded RINOs and derided as less than ideologically pure conservatives. However, if Huckleberry wins the nomination (doubtful, but remotely possible) it will prove that the religious right, once the "useful idiots" of the conservative coalition, have reversed things to the point that they are now the masters of the GOP. Nice.
John Richards
IOWANS OUT OF IT
I am so frustrated and beyond belief that Iowans chose "the Huck-ster" over Mitt Romney, or Fred...they must be as bombed and completely out of touch as "the Britney Bombshell!"
I am a lifelong Republican, Catholic and pro-life person but...the last thing this country needs is another idealistic, naive, Evangelical in the White House, who bows down to Mexico and makes the federal government even bigger...ie No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part-D, for starters. All Iowa just did was basically push the DEMS closer to the White House.
I think Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson should get together and present a united front for Pres and VP right now...John McCain is not a conservative and is too "old school", elitist Washington insider, to ever beat any Democratic candidate. I heard you speaking on Hugh Hewitt the other night (and I am a dedicated Laura Ingraham listener and subscriber to Laura 365), and you said exactly what I was thinking about "the Huck-ster."
I'll say what no one on TV or radio can say: They are IDIOTS in Iowa!
Thanks for reading.
Joan Tompkins
Twinsburg, Ohio
PASTOR LA VISTA
There are 7 blogs with the word pastor, 1 Blog with Jesus, 3 blogs with the word "pray", and 14 blogs with the word "Christ" in the official name of blogs on Mike Huckabee's (someone running for political office) official blogs. Mike Huckabee is running for pastor in chief.
Mike Laub
GOOFBALL IN CHIEF
Jaw-dropping is right. I just returned from my caucus in Windsor Heights, a suburb on the west edge of Des Moines. If Huckabee's lead holds up, I am going to be sick. I like most of the Republican field, and could easily cast my vote for Romney, Thompson or McCain. But to see a goofball like Mike Huckabee draw almost 1/3 of the vote is nuts. This guy is no conservative, and the fact that a bunch of so-called evangelicals are too ignorant to see that is simply unbelievable.
Sean Moore
MERITS OF MORMONISM
Agreed on all points.
I'm a devout Catholic who finds Huckabee's unthoughtful, populist religiosity much more disquieting than Romney's Mormonism. I wish Thompson had gotten in gear sooner.
I'll take McCain over Guliani (or Huckabee), but would really rather that were not the choice.
I was depressed to find during the last week how many of my NH neighbors have been swept up in the McCain wave. Above all that, I WISH I were to be in NH this weekend for the shindig at STM with three of the wittiest people on earth. We were there for the snowy New Year, but are now back in Philly, and going to hear David Frum at AEI in DC on Monday.
Blessed 2008 to you and yours.
Katie van Schaijik
WHY I GAVE UP CHRISTIANITY
Mr. Huckabee is a set-piece example of why I abandoned Christianity when I was eleven (as a prod; I came back -- across the Tiber -- when I was thirty-two) and why I left the Republican Party when I was thirty one (now a Conservative Libertarian Constitutional Monarchist; "drunkard" for short).
Clayton Barnett
PS. Have always loved your work. Looking forward to the show-trial in Ottawa.
POOR CHOICE
The missus and I are pretty bummed about the Iowegians' choice. And Steyn is never wrong. Mr. Nannystate or Mr. Crazy-Old-Guy? Really?
Kyrie eleison. . .
Pr. H. R. Curtis
Worden and Carpenter, Illinois
SECULARISTS WILL FREAK
Yankee secularist will freak at the news of Huck winning...don't be surprised if they FLOCK to Mit.
I am a southerner, religious conservative that has spent a lot of time up there...and they love me as a person, but detest all I stand for...
Curt Loftis
South Carolina
A PASTOR’S PLACE IS IN THE PULPIT
If the same things (policy issues and BAD decisions) keep coming out about Huckabee, he won't be winning South Carolina. Sure we love our Baptist ministers, but they are our preachers, not our mayors or councilmen.
Sarah Frederick
Greenwood, South Carolina
HO-HUM HISTORY
Many people tonight are saying Obama "made history."
Most of them - perhaps not you - mean Obama is the first black to win a presidential
primary.
Wrong.
In 1984 Jesse Jackson won Michigan, Washington D.C., and I believe three more
primaries.
Steve
Bellevue, WashingtonSAVE IT FOR THE NOMINATION
Can you explain to me why everyone is going on about Obama making history tonight? Is it just because he won Iowa? Or, as Rick Brookhiser says, is it because he's the first black man to emerge as a player? If it's the former, honestly, big deal. We can start talking about making history in 3-4 weeks or so. If it's the latter, Jesse Jackson came in second behind Dukakis in 1988, with fully 1/3 of the party's votes - a much better 2nd place finish to Dukakis than Dole's second place finish to Bush. Sure, Obama is not as much of a huckster as Jackson, but if we're talking about a black man competing seriously, and finishing strong, for his party's nomination, it's been done. Let's save the history talk for when/if he gets the nomination, or at least for when/if he starts racking up the primaries.
Dan
DIVISIVE ISSUE
You ask what needing less division and more addition means. It means Obama needs to take Jr. High math again. Multiplication, not addition is the inverse operation to division. What the implications of this are for public policy I couldn't say, but maybe it's his way of saying "Make love, not war." Heck, maybe he read your book.
Everett Vandagriff
AGAINST THE GRAIN
I don't think identity politics is quite the factor you think it is. These are white voters supporting Obama, and young voters going for both Obama and Huckabee. And Christian voters not very happy with their policy choices, but much more comfortable with a man whose character and manner, and core convictions they trust more than they trust those who share this or that policy, but whose wider outlook isn't theirs.
James Paternoster
Ann Arbor, Michigan
WINE AND CHEESE PARTY
I appreciate your analysis. As a lefty, though, the Rive age has been heavily steeped in ID politics. Usually negative: Kerry likes cheese, wine, windsurfing... not NASCAR, etc.
Sullivan seems right on this... the right's ID politics is the way the machine has been built for young republicans. Now the left is trying to run on qualities like character and optimism.
Maybe we'll finally win.
Eli Brennan
Minneapolis
YOU’RE LAME, FAT AND UGLY
I am not a supporter of Obama but to say the speech was totally lame is totally sad.
Are you such a hack that you can't acknowledge that it was a moving speech.
25 years from now Americans will look on that speech as amazing. It was history making and you are a tool for calling it totally lame. Your totally lame...and fat...and ugly.
Must be nice to write for a publication that has historically been on the wrong side of an important issue like civil rights in the 60's.
That is something to be proud of or is it totally lame?
Steve
DR FEELGOOD
Re your comments on Obama speech - I thought the same thing and reflected on what Dick Morris was saying before the caucuses - Morris noted that Obama would win Iowa and then NH and then he'd get more scrutiny and that would help Hillary - but in thinking what you were, that things really don't matter for a candidate that has the good feel momentum thing going (Clinton 92) - it may be too late for Hillary for Obama to get scrutiny - the compressed campaign schedule makes that less likely than in other years. It might happen in general, then, if Obama is nominated, then the question is does that same question (good feel candidacy) still apply in general election ... where some people will take the question seriously but numerous others will get caught up in the momentum ...
Love your stuff ... would love to see your blog timestamped and so we could include in preciseBlogs :)
Happy New Year!
Steve
OBAMA THE APOSTATE
Hi, Mark: I was at the NRO gathering in Manchester last night. Great fun. You were kind enough to sign my copy of America Alone. (I asked the question about what the Republicans could do in light of a possible Obama/Webb ticket after which despair seemed to descend upon the room. LOL)
There's a question that I don't believe I've yet seen addressed anywhere and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on it: The Dems are running around telling us how all the world is just waiting to love us again as soon as that nasty old fascist hick, Bush is run out of town (i.e.his term expires) and they take over but since Barak Obama was raised as a Muslim and converted, he is an apostate. Now while Bush is an infidel and this, of course, gets any self-respecting Islamofascist to sharpening his scimitar, infidels are a dime a dozen. Apostates, however really drive them over the edge. Wouldn't this make our relationship with the Muslim world even more problematic than it is now? I mean would the head of any Muslim country even be able to meet with him without causing him untold grief back in the cave?
While the typical Westerner would probably dismiss this idea out of hand, the typical Westerner didn't think cartoons would cause a fair number of Muslims to break out the Zippos and go into bonfire mode, either.
What do you think? Thanks.
Ed Smith
THE IMPORTANCE OF MICHIGAN
You wrote,
The only potentially good news on the immediate horizon for Hillary is the (so to speak) restricted Michigan ballot: She'll be able to prove she's stillcompetitive, if only in competitions where her competitors aren't competing.
The importance of Michigan should be in direct proportion to the number of delegates it sends to the convention relative to Iowa and New Hampshire. Michigan is FAR more important than Iowa or New Hampshire combined - it doesn't matter how many are running. Delegate totals determine nominations.
Reporters are so often attacked for reporting elections as horse races - I wish they did. Reporters at the track don't say the race is determined in the first furlong and force many of the horses out of the race. I just don't understand the phenomenon.
Why not allow the race to be run? Why is there such an assassin aspect to reporting - I heard one reporter tonight ask if Romney could stay in the race. Well, if he can't after finishing second and with millions to spend, why should the #3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 candidates - all of whom failed to capture those critical delegates from Iowa - stay in the race? why not jsut say it's over?
By the way, thank you so much for having written America Alone. I bought six extra copies I gave to friends and relatives, and asked for it repeatedly at bookstores in midtown Manhattan ("it's a New York Times best-seller, you know" in Grand Central Station's bookstore, and the then existing Coliseum Books on 42nd St.) and surreptitiously kept placing the book in a more prominentplace beneath the cash register at the Port Authority's second story bookstore).
Thank you also for your coverage of the Conrad Black trial (read in the NY Sun) – my sympathies were yours - and yet you reported so unsparingly (and critically of his advocates) that I was not surprised by the outcome. It was wonderful reporting.
Thomas Dean
ROMNEY ON THE RUN?
We can only hope that the Romney voters go to Thompson and not McCain.
Michael Tolocka
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
WRONG ON RON
I wonder what you think of this theory. I have had the opportunity to query a few of the folks sporting Ron Paul bumper stickers, found in parking lots notoriously frequented by liberals. When asked about Mr. Paul's platform, they universally come up with anti-war rhetoric, and
they are quite surprised to know that Ron Paul, if he had his way, would do away with such things as the Departments of Education, Health & Human Services, Social Security, and the progressive income tax, as well as a number of other federal social programs.
Either these people are blissfully ignorant one-issue partisans, or there is a concerted effort, in the civil cold war, to push Ron Paul to run as an independent when he doesn't get the Republican nomination. I suspect the latter. You?
Thomas Bryan
Austin, Texas
THIS SEASON’S PEROT
Paul a “principled isolationist”? Donnez moi un break. The guy is determined loony who'll say anything to please his nut-cake fringe support base. The guy is this cycle's Perot at best...just effective enough to apply a monkey wrench to whatever seriousness might be strained through the folly of the entire process. As a GOP supporter, I am saddened that so many of my conservative "cousins" consider Huck and Paul to be attractive candidates. Hell, - and it would be! - I'd prefer Hillary over either of those two. Bet you would as well....and NOT just for the ready column feed over the next few yrs.
John Gross
Beloeil, Quebec
DEATH COMES TO THE NEO-CONS
must upset you that pro-war Guiliani and Thompson won't finish ahead of anti-war,non-interventionist Ron Paul, they will never recover from this position, of that you can be in doubt. Ron Paul will then sweep New Hampshire where his message of Freedom, Peace and Prosperity resonates sharply and will put pro-war McCain firmly in his place. There is change in the air, the neocons, war proponents and big government conservatives will be fatally wounded.
Philip
OH RUDY, CAN’T TAKE YOUR LOVE TO TOWN
I could have told you a long time ago that the GOP base in not going to vote for a pro abortion, gun grabber like Rudy. I like Fred, but will vote for whomever the party nominates, with the exception of Rudy; he just does not represent our values.
John Richardson,
Albertville, Minnesota
POLITICAL PIN PRICKS
Love your work! Perhaps this is all over the Internet and I just haven't seen it, but I think the air has been let out of the Rudy balloon by two pin pricks:
We're doing better in Iraq, giving voters a false sense of hope that we may not need a tough SOB as President after all.
Hillary is looking vulnerable, so a more conservative candidate who is not as much of a proven fighter can win the presidency.
Steve Boriss
Washington University in St. Louis
THE WILL TO LOSE
Here is my pre-New Hampshire analysis, which I base on the theory - never disproven or even mildly at odds with the data - that the election is decided by the party that works hardest to lose the election. So who succeeded best yesterday at losing the election?
Right now, I have to give credit where credit is due: the Republicans did the worst they could with a winning hand. The Democrats have nothing but bad choices, so losing the election should be fairly effortless for them. But Obama stinks slightly less than the others and he has Bill
Clinton's intellectual shamelessness - the yap yap yap that wins Elections - so the Democrats didn't try as hard as they could have to lose. Edwards would have been perfect. He would make the perfect losing candidate. I yearn to see him win the nomination, just for the insufferable joy of watching him in action. But you're right, he's got his work cut out for him.
The Republicans, on the other hand, did a stand-up job in snatching defeat from victory yesterday, showing that it doesn't take huge funding or a polished organization to lose an election. Huckabee is perfect, implosion-wise. Intellectually shallow, pompous enough to grate on the
nerves of people who hate fundamentalism, but wobbly enough in his genuine convictions to provide a perfect punching bag for any Democrat who takes him on so that he can alienate everyone who believed in him initially. Ignorant, misinformed and totally uncomfortable with himself. I like him!
If there is a significant number of Republicans who have reservations about Romney's religion, then the Republicans should succeed at losing this by March (and deservedly so!). McCain is like Huckabee in the important capacity for losing - totally lacking in true conviction, and when his convictions randomly coalesce, you wish they hadn't. He'd make a great loser, because the press would drive him right over the cliff on the Straight Talk Express, and McCain would chat them up all the way down to the bottom of the gulch, even as one by one they jumped off before hitting the bottom. But Huckabee gets my nod as a truly disgraceful choice. Go Iowa!
On the other hand, I wouldn't count the Democrats out completely in the self-immolation department. What will Hills do if things really go south for her campaign? Both of my crystal balls got smashed at the mere mention of the possibility! Before the glass shattered I heard Wagnerian
sopranos and shrieks about Gotterdobermanerung...chilling stuff. I can't really imagine the Clintons losing gracefully, so there's still a chance that Hills could personally destroy the Democrats chances this time around, which sort of offsets the solid "I won't vote for a Mormon"
advantage the Republicans currently hold.
Ezra Marsh
Baltimore
THOMPSON FANS’ LOYALTY
Sorry, Mr. Steyn, it ain't going to happen tonight, tomorrow and probably never. Thompson's supporters are staunch conservatives who like their leader care more about their principles than winning. They could not switch toothpaste that quickly even if their brand was removed from the store shelf. They will stick with Fred until after the last flicker of hope has faded, the same way Reagan's supporters stuck with him year after year until he finally won, but the fact of the matter is hope is not fading for Thompson supporters in Iowa or any other primary state. Did you listen to Rush today? Why would Fred give up when his star is just arising? Wishful thinking on the part of some perhaps, but wrong thinking nevertheless. I could be wrong, of course, but I would not be sending this letter if I thought I might be. Just a few more hours before the crow is served to those suffering from too much fire in the belly.
Having said this, you should know I'm a great fan of yours. Keep up the great work,but perhaps you should stick to analyzing the bigger picture and not diminish your reputation by trying to understand local politics.
Happy New Year from an Idaho fan and Republican.
Carmen Perrine
IT’S OVER
I don't see how the Thompson campaign survives Iowa. it would seem that if you want to be President, you would understand that you have to run for President. Even Hillary's agreed to the "personality implant" to try and hit it off with the voters. But with Fred, we're just left with the impression that he doesn't want to try that hard.
Richard Ben Cramer wrote a very long book about the 1988 campaign, ending up with the idea that the President of the United States is the best politician in the country, having emerged from the toughest competition against the toughest competitors. I just don't see Fred Thompson as being that guy.
Dave Taggart
Calhoun, Georgia
YOU LIKE EDWARDS?
Saw you on H&C the other day, when you filled in for Sean. Was surprised to hear you say, at the program's end, that you LIKED John Edwards. This seemed unbelievable; so much so, in fact, that I watched again on the Western feeds at 9 p.m. just to check if I had heard rightly; alas, I had. He is the antithesis of all I thought you stood for. I feel somewhat betrayed, and like my idol had feet of clay. Do you mind saying WHY you like him...?
A. Wiseman
Vancouver, Canada
A BIT CONFUSED?
You write the following:
"...and the first preening metrosexual president"
You are weirdly obsessed with this (real or imagined) aspect of Mr. Edwards' personality.
You seem more than a bit insecure, on masculinity, to me. Issues?
William Sanford
MARK REPLIES: You're right. Because of my own confusion about my sexuality, I think everybody's gay. Especially you. Are you coming on to me? And, if not, would you if I asked nicely?
MILT’S SHOW
Am enjoying listening to you wrap up Iowa w/Milt on WGN. You're the best!
Loyal fan from Chicago
Re: Over the Hill
EXECUTIVE POWER GRABS WE HAVE KNOWN
You call Bill Clinton "neo-monarchical" during the unprecedented executive power grab of Bush/Cheney?
Check your blinders.Truly hilarious.
Chris Leeder
MARK REPLIES: What exactly is "unprecedented"? Or would that ruin your joke?
PARTY POOPERS
"The Clintons' leadership of the Democratic Party was great for the Clintons, terrible for the Democratic Party" you could also make the case that the Bush/Rove leadership of the Republican party was great for the them and terrible for their party. The permanent Republican majority envisioned is definitely not going to happen.
Reggie Newton
BIG GREEN
And you didn't even mention the combined $20,000,000 or so they received in book deals.
Blake Krass
Pflugerville, Texas
THE DYNASTY THING
Speaking as a committed Dem, every word of of that post was dead right. Thank you for articulating my feelings about Sen. Clinton for me. I would gladly vote for a woman, but not this one even if I thought she was the best Dem in the race because I hate the whole dynasty thing. Obama helped neutralize the "historic vote" card, but I think you're right when you say many Dems would prefer not to cast that vote under these circumstances, even without Obama as another alternative to the usual gang of white males.
I fear a Clinton victory will validate and entrench the strategy the GOP used to elect Bush in 2000: With conditions favoring Gore as they did the first Bush in 1988, the party could not afford a divisive primary. The way to shut that down was to find someone who already had the mailing list ready to go and push him hard. It's appalling (though extremely common) at the congressional level, but that strategy is poisonous at the presidential level. Not to start a fight in an email praising the enemy, but I think you'd have to agree that your party would never have nominated a fuckup like George W. Bush if he hadn't had his father's network to scare off the A
team.
But as you said, this system rewards those who see their opportunities and grab them. Dead right. You should post that on Colin Powell's wikipedia page...
Shane Ham
Re: Auld Lang Syne
HAPPY WHO YEAR
Great column, but there is another New's Year song worth mentioning. You left out the Who's "You Didn't Hear It" from Tommy, which sets the scene at midnight on New Year’s Eve 1951.
Lyrics:
Got a feeling 51 is gonna be a good year/
especially if you and me see it in together/
I have no reason to be over-optimistic/
but somehow when you smile I can brave bad weather
Neil Minkoff
Sudbury, Massachusetts
THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC (TIP)
Regarding your short list of New Year's ditties Mr. Steyn, you have forgotten the New Year's contribution of Sweden's pop colossi, ABBA. "Happy New Year".
Short, to the point, easy to remember, filled with pathos that seems remarkably prescient regarding the end of the disco era. What's not to like?
Greg Rose
Ottawa, Ontario
Re: This decade’s training camp
A RUM BUSINESS
"chocolate rum balls from Harrod's."
That just jumped out at me...
Lincoln Lowery
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
P.S. Best Wishes on the awful Canadian thought crime issue.
NO CHECHENS IN PAKISTAN
I always read your columns with great respect and pleasure, not least your often very right conclusions in a variety of themes.
But when I saw your latest column about the scores of problems rising in Pakistan, after the cowardly murder of Ms. Bhutto, you regrettably and without reservation pass on a rumor, worst kind, that seems to be nearly impossible to kill once and for all:
That so-called "Chechens" are among the Taliban mercenaries in Waziristan/Afghanistan. This is sheer nonsense, as it has been all along since the invasion in 2001. Not one single ethnic Chechen have ever been positive ID'ed there, captured there, whether dead or alive. Not just one single time! Please check. Not even Mr. Putin’s Soviet-style controlled mass-medias have ever mentioned or paraded any captured or killed "Chechens" in Afghanistan.
Well, it takes a whole Pulitzer-price research as to how on earth this very
strange, and persistent rumour - without any hard proof presented whatsoever – first started as 5 feathers, ending up in 5 chickens... It's indeed a mystery. The battered Chechens back home are too busy just to survive, and have no time left to stand up against such general stigmatizations.
Thomas B. Larsen
Copenhagen, Denmark
WHY SO POPULAR?
I've been reading your excellent commentary on the situation in Pakistan and was wondering if you could attempt to straighten out an apparent contradiction. Given that Osama bin Laden and his extremist ideology is quite popular among Pakistanis, how is it that Mrs. Bhutto was so
popular when she was setting out an even harder line than Musharraf by, for example, proposing to open up the tribal areas to the US military to carry out searches for Osama as well as allowing an international interrogation of A.Q. Khan? Appreciate your views.
Mathew Heinle
ALLAH’S WILL?
I have to agree with you that there was a tragic and depressing inevitability about Bhutto's death. The best strategy to defeat terrorists is to outsmart them, not play directly into their hands, as Bhutto seems to have done. She seemed to be expressing a bit of a martyr complex when she
publicly proclaimed that she was the terrorists worst nightmare. (It reminded me of the crime drama when the soon-to-be victim tells the criminal that she is going straight to the police with all the evidence.) It's one thing to be George W. Bush, and say, "Bring It On," when you have the full
weight of the US military and secret service to protect you, but quite another when there has already been a near successful attempt to take your life. I think she had a typically fatalistic Islamic mentality that everything was Allah's will.
Susan Reeve
Tabernacle, New Jersey
BACK AFTER THE BREAK
Hey, I'm just a graduate of elementary school, reform school, and parachute school. But when former PM Bhutto showed back up on the scene, my uneducated little inner voice said, "Huh, what??!!! She don't fit no more at all. How long will she last? There so many directions the dagger could come from!!!"
And correspondingly, given that so many of our diplomatic challenges are in the male dominated Islamic world, really now, how can our current Secretary of State be taken seriously? Seems to me the times call for "real" men; but, alas, there seems to be a thirst in the land for even beyond "girlie men". Just give us the girls. They know better how to promote and achieve real peace, the mother thing don't you know.
But who am I to say? I'm just a retired jump school graduate.
Dan Ward, Lt. Col (Ret) US Army
(Airborne, Ranger, & Special Forces)
NUTTY
As always I appreciate what you write. When I first that she was going back to Pakistan I thought it was a nutty thing to do. I was pretty sure it wouldn't do her or Pakistan any good.
Patricia Anderson
Hanley Falls, Minnesota
INDIA CALLING
I am a long time admirer of your "literary outpourings". As an Asian Indian however I am somewhat surprised by your relative lack of attention to India in your overall thesis post 9/11 and now post Bhutto assassination. Even a lib like Thomas Friedman noted that very few high level Al Qaeda lads originated from India. Doesn’t this have even more resonance now vis a
vis Pakistan? Would love to see you write this in a column in the future Cheers old chap
Vikram
Winchester,Virginia
NEIGHBOR IN WAITING
Where do you think India fits in with all this. Will they stay on the sidelines if Pakistan starts to fall apart, or will they go in? And if they do, what then?
I would appreciate your ideas on this.
Love your site. Also have enjoyed your articles in the Oz (although I don't See that paper or any others often these days).
Laurie Martinelli
Melbourne, Australia
BHUTTO’S DISMAL DESTINY
On this sorrowful day of B. Bhutto's murder, you wrote an excellent eulogy, thank you. I spent a week on business earlier this year in Pakistan, and I concur, you were absolutely right, Pakistan today simply cannot accept any woman as Prime Minister. The Al Qaeda and Taliban types were/are everywhere, and the westerner cannot even walk safely across the street without armed security. We need Pakistan on our side in the terror war, but Pakistan being on our side hangs by a thread. There are the additional realities of corruption in Pakistan of which Americans understand (sadly) nothing, to which much is ascribed to the Bhutto family.
Ms. Bhutto knew she'd be killed. I saw her on a TV interview this past year, before she returned to Pakistan; and she spoke candidly about the dangers and the probability that she'd be assassinated. She said it was her lot in life, her fate, her destiny. She said she couldn't live with herself if she didn't return to Pakistan to give to Pakistan the leadership and benefits she had to offer. And that she had to return, even if it meant being assassinated.
Sadly, it was so predictable.
On this sad day, best regards to you,
John P Christy
West Seattle, Washington
CRIKEY HOW DEPRESSING
Mark I always enjoy your columns. I felt dread on reading this article. I know you approach a subject with camouflaged seriousness. But reading your article depressed me. Crikey things can't be that bad can they? Usually I laugh along with your comments and takes on life. I was surprised by my own feeling in reaction to this article.
Keep writing. Your site is an inspiration of hope and sanity to me.
Roger Stoutjesdijk
Christchurch, New Zealand
Re: Oklahoma?
AMERICAN OPTIMISM
I read your reposted 2002 article on Oklahoma! for the first time this morning. Wow. The sincere optimism I feel about life and the dynamism I witness in my countrymen is part of the American character. When conversing with foreigners, I often get the same probing questions. Those questions that reveal a skeptic's notion of life that they're sure must, inevitably, underlie our outward optimism. Thank you for so wonderful an expression of the genuineness and (in some ways) uniqueness of the American perspective.
Isaac
Norman, Oklahoma
Re: America Alone
HOME FROM HOME
A "see I told you so" for you.
Iran: Europe will become a Muslim continent, says Khamenei's spokesman
Loved America Alone. Gave it as a Christmas gift.
Ray Bochman
Colorado Springs, Colorado
PROOF OF THE PUDDING
Afer reading "America Alone" I continue to see once or twice a week supporting evidence of the continuing trends he details in the book, especially concerning the difference between the declining native European birth rates vs. America's healthy rate (and even the nay-sayers regarding THAT). An article today in the Washington Post is a good example of the kind of article I'm talking about.
Geoff Hazel
Bellevue, Washingon
THE PAIN IN SPAIN
Hello! During my visit to Hawaii I bought your book 'America Alone' which I had seen reviewed in a Spanish magazine called Chesterton (in the section 'Books which should be translated into Spanish'). I got to say that I agree with you and also that I felt a little bit embarrassed when you mentioned any issue related to Spain (because it was true!).
Keep up the good work and pray that next year we'll have a different president from a different party and not the one we have right now.
Alfonso Garcia Cuartero
Madrid, Spain
PLUS ONE
Let me first say I love your irreverence. America Alone is one of the better books I've read the past couple years. And that's saying a lot, coming from someone that typically has 2-3 books going at any one time, which is continually.
Regarding my subject line.....You speak alarmingly of the current demographic trends, i.e. Muslim fertility versus Western infertility. Well, my dear wife and I, after a long struggle with our own fertility issues, decided to proceed down the path toward adoption. We were matched with a birthmom 20 days ago, our daughter was born 12 days ago, and we came home with her 6 days ago, just in time to celebrate Christmas with our extended family.
The small benefit of this adoption to the continuance of Western Civilization, you ask.....well, our daughter was born to a practicing Muslim, whose father just happens to be an imam in one of America's mosques. Since my wife and I are both Christians, our daughter shall be raised that way too, which means a plus 1 for our side, and a minus 1 for their's, for a net gain of 2 for the good guys. Hey if you can't out populate them, try and adopt them all.
Bill
PRESENT AND CORRECT
Got your book for Christmas and I can't put it down. Well done.
Smyth
Re: Hugh Montgomery Massingberd
OLD SOLDIERS
Mr Steyn: I'm a huge fan of yours, and of every mention you've made of the Telegraph military obits; 'compelling' is far too tame a term, but about the best word I can apply to them.
Can you cite me a title for me to pursue [See The Daily Telegraph Book of Military Obituaries, Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, available here among other places].
Mark
Re: Ring in the Old
GOO-GOO GA-GA
You are unparalleled in the style and insight with which you clue us into The-End-Of-The-World-As-We-Know-It, and I'm all about that, but I write today with an even greater sense of awe and fellowship.
I was moved to tears when I saw Mister Magoo at last recognized for his brilliant performance in Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol. The lonely ache of "Where are two shoes that click to my clack?", the foreboding "Ringle, Ringle, Coins as they Jingle!", as well as the human need and hope so artfully interwoven in Tiny Tim's poignant yearning. "and razzleberry dressing."
My view is, at last, validated at the highest level.
Kathy Coffelt
Cincinnati, Ohio
STALAG STUFF
Dead on re the best Scrooge. Mr. Magoo nailed it.
But even though you give best office party to the Apartment, another "office party" was just as good - how about the Christmas gathering in Wilder's Stalag 17? Those guys knew how to put a Christmas party together.
Wilder knows how to incorporate the holidays into his films.
Cory Franklin
PS: good luck on the Macleans stuff.
A LITTLE UNDERSTANDING
The "White Christmas" essay capped a perfectly wonderful collection of insightful commentary on the current state of "holiday" affairs. Of course, we can never return to where we're from, but we can still try to pass on to our charges a little understanding of how we got here. Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
Robert Brandon
Pensacola Beach, Florida
PARTY HARD, DIE HARD
Two more possible entries
For Christmas movies, does Die Hard count as a candidate for Best Bank Heist?
Also, where was Poseidon Adventure on the New Year's list?
Thanks, and Happy New Year,
Gary
Baltimore, Maryland
Re: Big Brother is watching you
NANNY TYRANNY
Last time I was in England, I kept noticing - out of the corner of my eye - flashes in my rearview mirror. It was only after the fact that I realized I was being photographed exceeding the speed limit.
Here in Atlanta, Georgia, speed limits are benchmarks of opportunity; not, well, actual limits. So, 85 mph heading north on GA 400 (limit: 65 mph) is pretty normal. You can imagine what I was like heading down the A-4 from Reading to Avebury. I don't think I should go back to the UK until the bench warrants run.
Poor Brits, living under such nanny tyranny.
Patrick Carroll
Atlanta, Georgia
RIPE FOR REVOLUTION
I'm currently reading Michael Barone's book on the English revolution of 1688. After reading that and your Corner post and the responses of some British citizens to the explosion of cameras included in that post, it seems as if England is ripe for a revolution. Is that possible any more in your opinion or are Brits too welfare-state fed to give a rip? If it were to occur would it be merely political (like the Gingrich revolution in our Congress in 1994) or would there be pitchforksand fire? I assume all the guns have been seized. Can you have a revolution with fowling pieces?
Troy Hinrichs
Riverside, California
HEALTH SERVICE DAY
I see from your post at The Corner that the Fabian Society is recommending that Britain make the anniversary of the establishment of the National Health Service the national holiday of Great Britain, similar to the US Independence Day and the French anniversary of the jailbreak that freed the Marquis de Sade from prison. I would recommend to them instead the anniversary of the Glorious Revolution. Unfortunately, the contemporary British political elite (left and right) is single-mindedly acting to reverse that event and its gains in liberty for the subjects of the Crown.
"Bill of Rights? We don't need no steenking Bill of Rights in the EUtopia to come."
Of course, when Britain is carved up into a few small provinces in the Glorious European Union there will be no need for a British National Day, now will there?
Michael Lonie
PACIFIST NATION
I'm reading Paul Johnson's Modern Times at the moment. From what I recently read (the run-up to WWII in the 30s), it seems to me that the knuckling under to fascists of any sort is part of an English tradition going back at least 70, 80 years.
From the Rev, Donald Sopor who argued that "Pacifism contains a spiritual force strong enough to repel an invader" to the Labour Party leader George Lansbury who said "I would close every recruiting station, disband the army and disarm the air force. I would abolish the whole dreadful equipment of war and say to the world, 'do your worst'." - in December, 1933.
Jim Muchow
GATSO GUERILLAS
I enjoy your posts at The Corner as well as your weekly columns.
In relation to your comments about the cameras in the UK, I thought you might enjoy this site
tracking the installation, destruction, and fake GATSOS in the UK. Definitely an anti-big brother feeling in the country-side.
Shari Carnahan
Maple Valley, Washington
LAW BORES
If the goal of a totalitarian government is to arrange matters so that you break at least one "law" during the course of your daily life, Merry Olde is well on its way. Next up, super-sensitive microphones to pick up swearing at the cameras.
Mary McLemore
Pike Road, Alberta
TEMPUS FUGIT
Hello, may take a moment of your time and ask your opinion of Israel and the Palestinians? Thank you.
Sam
MARK REPLIES: Not really. The situation doesn't change. If it was a land issue, it would have been settled long ago. I write about it at length in The Face Of The Tiger.
TIMES CHANGE
You wrote on The Corner that, My wish for the New Year is to see the headline "Our Boys Blitz Taliban Bash" in The New York Times.
Maybe the last time the Times used "our" to refer to American GIs was in WWI, see this:
Article Preview
OUR BOYS OVER THERE WANT FOR NOTHING; Camp Worker's Description of How Everything Possible Is Done for Their Comfort and Happiness
Aug 11, 1918, Sunday Section: Fashions, Drama, Page 31, 3420 words
Extract from the Letter of a Y.M.C.A. Secretary in France. IN FRANCE, July 1, 1918. IT has been my fortune to be placed at one of the best camps in France and in one of the best huts. I hope, however, that this assignment is only temporary and that later on I will have my chance at the front.
also, in the Pentagon, there is an ANZUS Corridor and there is an old NY TImes with a banner headline that reads something like (I can't find it on NY Times archives online),
"Crying 'Louisitania", our boys storm shore”
too bad it was nearly 90 years ago Today, I guess, the Times is credentialed as a UN national and wouldn't think to demean itself by using the term "our" for anything related to American GIs.
Patrick Swan
Iraq War Vet
Alexandria, Virginia
FREAKING MAD
To tell the truth, a lot of us would be in a better mood for the war on terror if we felt that the administration itself hadn't gone completely freaking mad. Unprotected borders, higher levels of Muslim immigration, and a military scarcely larger than it was on 9/11 give us no reason to believe that Bush himself is very serious about the whole thing. Bush may not think secure borders and reduced immigration are necessary to fend off terrorists. Perhaps he even, somehow, knows they're not. But when fighting a war, it isn't enough to be right. You have to be perceived as being right, also.
Craig B Russell
AND THE OSCAR GOES TO...
Regarding your comparison of Redacted and Rendition:
"They're probably different categories - Best Original Waterboarding vs. Best Rape of a Foreign-Language Actress"
I partially lost a finely made Gin and Tonic on a classic spit-take with that one. I've been reading your stuff on the Corner and NR for a while now and that is your all-time best line among many. Thank you, sir.
Dan Dearborn
ANTI-DHIMMI AWARDS
Corner, Jihad Watch Anti-Dhimmi (Domestic. Congratulations!
I did not vote for you. Not that you were a bad choice, but there were much better ones, at least during the nominating process, such as John Bolton, David Petraeus, Steve Emerson, and Robert Spencer himself. Nonetheless, you have my sincere congratulations. I am one of those "humorless" members of the VRWC who enjoys your writing immensely.
Roy Barker
Kansas City, Missouri
CONSERVATIVES CAN BE TREE HUGGERS TOO
I agree with your most of your posits regarding the tree hugging left. I resent the liberals who stole the green movement from the normal conscientious protectors of our natural resources. Can we not be pro-American and pro-environment? I do what I can to protect the Chesapeake Bay for future generations but I can not get behind the leaders who profess to tie anti-bush sentiment together with being pro-environment. I went to a rally to support a petition to prevent building on some local wetlands and it turned into a liberal schmooze fest. The Greenies who put down Bush do nothing to raise awareness or funds for their cause. The best thing we can do for the environment is to fast track more nuke plants and reduce our dependence on foreign oil which also fills the coffers of our enemies. When your house is on fire you do not check the clarity of the water, you put out the fire.
Mark Feeney
Annapolis, Maryland
p.s. Thanks for writing America Alone
HE’S A FRIEND OF ELTON
If you are Lord Blacks friend and former employee then why are you going on and on about his friendship with Elton John? Here your "friend" is about embark on 6yrs in the slammer and you're announcing to the world that he is best buds with the world's most famous homosexual. That ought to make interesting conversation in the
showers. The good Lord should get a warm reception and not be as bored as he hoped thanks to you.
Scott Borthwick
Canaan, New Hampshire
BEST BASEBALL SONG
Jack Norworth was my godfather and he explained several points about the old song [“Take me out to the ball game”]. It was written because he found himself needing some income and he decided that "there hadn't been a good baseball song written in some time." The story that he had never seen a baseball game, according to him, was quite true. His favorite version
of the song was the Frank Sinatra/Gene Kelly rendition from "Take Me Out the Ball Game."
John Hathaway
Portland, Oregon
FAN’S A LOT
Informative and entertaining - I always learn something from your articles.
Thanks for doing a fantastic job. One of your big fans out there in cyberspace,
Jon
Los Angeles, California
THE GHOSTS OF COLUMNS PAST
A Merry Christmas to to you and your family. Your writing is a big part of my life. I check your website every day and read everything you write. You are the funniest writer and at the same time the most shrewd thinker of the current age. Stay safe from the loonie left and the insane Islamofascists, and keep socking it to them. In Canada, the best place for your influential columns would be the Globe and Mail.
Please consider it!
Suggestion: there must be hundreds of thousands of people like me who first
encountered your writings in the National Post and then on your website. Why not publish an anthology of your pre-2000 columns that we have never had the chance to read?
John Francis
Victoria, British Columbia
LAST WORD
...I attended the New Criterion event in New York City to mark its anniversary, and you, Mr. Steyn, were brilliant. How would I be able to find out in advance if you were to speak in New York City in the future?
Is there a schedule of free or admission $$$ appearances available? I enjoyed your talk very much.
Thank you and Merry Christmas.
Virginia Randall
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