SteynOnline

Thank you for your kind (and unkind) letters from Canada, America, Britain, the Czech Republic, Iraq, 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 our roll of winners from four Continents and receive a copy of Mark Steyn From Head To Toe. It would help if you could indicate your city or town, or, at least, your state, province or country. Failing that, your continent or hemisphere would do.

Letter of the Week
THE END OF CONSERVATISM?
My, what has become of the Conservative movement?

The exit polls showed that McCain took the majority of military vote (even though he has often accused our fine military of torturing at Gitmo and is attempting to take credit for the surge which rightly belongs to wholly to Gen. Petreaus and our fine military men and women) and took the majority of pro-abortion voters.  Now how does his pro-abortion support square with the Conservative party?

If it is this easy to win elections by getting pro-abortion supported why then is the Republican Party the party of social issues?

I just returned from SC after three days getting out the vote and the majority of Republicans (other than the extreme evangelicals who have been hypnotized by the serpent's tongue and thousands of Satan's recorded poll pushers!!!) said they like Fred (even more than Romney whose had his own evangelical on the payroll for the last year in SC) however the Polls keep telling voters over and again that he can't win so they voted by what the Polls told them to vote. 

NR had better get its act together otherwise the Republican Party will dissolve and principles founded in Conservatism will be lost forever and National Review will no longer represent the Conservative movement..

If it's McCain or Huckabee Conservatives are NOT going to do the time to get out the vote (as in unpaid volunteers phoning and walking door-to-door) and the Republican Party will lose to Hillary.  There is no way on God's green earth that she will not be the Dem nomination!

Susan Nunnally
New York City, New York

Re: Down Under
THUNDER OR CHUNDER?
Your article and salute to Oz Day bemused me.  Please allow a minor correction though.  Although one line of the popular Men at Work song claimed that "women glow and men plunder", the line sung at pubs along the Southern Ocean was actually "where women glow and men chunder".  The last word is pronounced "chunda" in the local idiom and means to vomit after a heavy session of drinking, which of course, may be an entirely accurate description of strayan men at work this long holiday weekend.

Gerry Murphy
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

MARK REPLIES: Er, maybe you didn't get to the end. There's a whole section in there on the etymology of chundering.

LIKE BEER AND NUTS
Mark, great piece about the Men at Work masterpiece, but you forgot one major
attribution of the song: it was the soundtrack to Alan Bond's victory in the
America's Cup back in 1983. I can't hear the damn thing now without visualising Bond triumphantly raising the Australia II out of the water to reveal the boat's
controversial winged keel. I'm not sure if this is because it was simply the tune
the TV news used at the time or the result of some sort of formal arrangement
between Bond and the band, but that famous victory and the song complemented each other like beer and nuts.

Great piece, nonetheless. Happy Australia Day to you too.

Fred Pawle
Bondi, Australia

GET CRACKING
"Down Under" Grief! All these years I thought it was "men thunder"! Which sounded sexy, but chunder?  Lyrics after 1955, in the popular "youth market", is about the sound, I am forever being surprised when learning the actual lyrics of the songs of my youth. As in Nothing but a Hound Dog, where "The King" sang  "crying all the time", when I always thought Elvis was saying "cracking all the time", which makes no since, but hey, I was nine.

DiAnne R.
Atlanta, Georgia

ANTHEMS FOR OZ
I think you missed the target by choosing downunder as the song that speaks for OZ.

Dave Warners 'suburban boy' (1978) available on U Tube speaks more of the universal experience than Men at Work ever did.

Gavin Dean
Sydney, New South Wales

HILDEGARD’S HIT
I'll skip the fact that I enjoy your writings and appearances, but must tell you that the 1st "hit" made on my PC each Monday (well, the 2nd .first is the Washington Times) is steynonline.com. Then, it's Song of the Week before opening any of your other sections. Here's my feeling on this weeks' "I'll Be Seeing You": The best recording of this song ever made was by Hildegard. Listening to her will make you dreamy eyed.

Thanks for terrific insights on whatever you write about. 

Tom Turco

JUDY’S THE BEST
I'll Be Seeing You - best version. No question - Judy Collins. Certain songs are perfect for a particular singer (Tenderly - Rosemary Clooney, What a Difference a Day Makes -Dinah Washington)  This song is perfect for Ms Collins' voice and her interpretation.

Jo Stafford is second but a very distant second.

Cory
Wilmette, Illinois

UNFILTERED FRANK
Mark, I've been reading your stuff for a little while now and it goes without saying I think you're brilliant and so much more etc. etc. I have noticed that alongside the shrewd political observations that pour from your pen -keyboard- you from time to time interject references to singers and song from days of yore. I believe, if memory serves me, you have mentioned Frank, Dino, Sammy and those other heroes of that pre-PC era that remind us of a happier age when a man could smoke and drink without apology. It is refreshing. (Of course smoking is bad for you and several other disclaimers I somehow feel I must mention...I was born in '74 after all). Where can I find more of your writings on the Rat Pack and their hallowed contribution to freedom loving hedonists everywhere. Do they exist? if they do I'll buy 'em. Book, tablet, scroll or cocktail napkin. Whatever. Keep doing that thing that you do baby and I'll fire up a Pall Mall unfiltered in your honor. Of course in moderation. And outside far away from women and children while listening to Dino exhort me to  wrap my troubles in dreams...on my ipod I bought with the understanding that financial contributions from my purchase would be used to raise awareness of something somewhere. ring-a-ding-ding.

James Davis
Greensboro, North Carolina

Re: “Menace to the Times
COMING HOME
I enjoyed your column about the New York Times series dragging out the old canard of the "dangerous vet." In our 1998 book "Stolen Valor," B. G. Burkett and I showed how the media created the image of the crazed Vietnam vet and repeated it until it became the "reality."

We show that there is no evidence that Vietnam veterans experienced any more post traumatic stress disorder than soldiers in other wars. In fact, Vietnam vets as a cohort are more successful than those who did not serve in the war. But the truth never catches up. Journalists too lazy to check the facts, which are readily available in our book, continue to write about how Vietnam vets have high rates of homelessness, unemployment, alcoholism, PTSD and suicide. (We have numerous examples of how the most prestigious journalists and media outlets in America, whose assumptions lead them to find examples to fit their "facts," get fooled by liars. Now they are just erasing Vietnam and inserting Iraq!)

Look out for more of these "news" stories after the movie "Rambo" is released this week.

When Stallone's character John Rambo first appeared in 1982's "First Blood" he became the personification of the crazed Vietnam vet. Forced to commit atrocities, Rambo returned as a dysfunctional warrior, pushed to the brink by the civilian world in which he was no longer able to live. When he fought back, Rambo became the perfect Hero-Victim for our times, making Vietnam vets forever identified with macho-gone-berserk. (One small irony: Stallone avoided military service and spent 1965 through 1967 as the girls' athletic coach at the American College of Switzerland.)

You can read the numerous reviews of our book on Amazon.com. Check out the chapter called "PTSD Made Easy" if you get interested in seeing how these lies will affect American taxpayers for the next 50 years.

Iraq soldiers returning home will get clued in about how much money they can receive from the government for life if they exhibit extreme symptoms of PTSD. Since there's no test, this is amazingly easy to do! The dirty little secret: we show over and over that personnel at VA centers often do not obtain soldiers' complete military records or any other verification of their trauma. Most VA doctors and psychologists didn't serve in the military and can be fooled by fake stories of combat.

The jackpot: a vet can receive more than $35,000 a year (tax-free!) if given a 100 percent service-connected disability rating. The VA knows there are problems with the system but no one wants to take heat from veterans groups that would result from any serious examination of military records. Aging Vietnam vets are getting on the gravy train. Taxpayers will be shelling out billions of dollars to Iraq vets given a monetary incentive to act crazy and dysfunctional.

We can thank folks like Robert Jay Lifton!

I just wanted to express my appreciation. I enjoy reading your column!

Glenna Whitley
Dallas, Texas

NO WE’RE NOT WHACK-JOBS
Awesome Job!

Mark- thanks for being real in a time when blood sells. Having been over to Iraq and having many friends w/ multiple trips over, I can personally attest to the fact that we are not whack-jobs or ticking time bombs. I get more crazy driving home in the midst of the horrible discourteous Southern California drivers. We are just folks who took an oath to protect or country and it's those who are too scared to do the same that are always the first to throw slander. Keep the truth coming!

Danny Jones GySgt USMC
Rancho Santa Margarita, California

FEIGNED SYMPATHY
Onslaught of stories re: glut homeless vets

It appears that MSM has moved on toward its next logical step in dissing returning vets. First, NYT published the reeky story of veteran murder propensities, which you, Hindraker, JPod have cleverly debunked. Now, the story of all those poor vets who are homeless, addicted, suffering PTSD.

This is yet another throwback to the Viet Nam era that is feigned sympathy. "Why, of course we support the troops, but we hate the war. And those magnificent, but mistaken bastards, are more victims of a wrong-headed war forced upon us by that idiot George Bush."

MSM picked up on Edwards' little speech, and by little I mean peevish, and seem to believe it's a winning strategy to defeat those deranged Republicans at the ballot box in November. Gives you the idea that there is a paradigm shift in the country's attitude toward our already approved policies vis a vis the war.

I suspect it may not work, but the Marine murderer that fled south may be useful to them.

There will doubtless be more stories about murder rates, homelessness, drug abuse, desperate attempts by MSM to gain anti-conservative traction. If we are wise we will work diligently to refute them.

MSM has actually made progress re: the economy, a crisis made by PR and housing, giving the pols an excellent sop (the rebates) with which to gain favor from the plebes, and astonishingly, right before the elections. Imagine my surprise.

This meaningless exercise is merely a demonstration as to the impotency of government and leadership. It is a vote buy by the incumbency to remain the incumbency.

All this is to say that there is a power vacuum in national leadership, and that "leadership" is trying to attain to power by "sucking up" even more of the vacuum, compounding the void.

Jeez, I don't know where I went with that, but I'm sending it anyway.

Lee W. Dodson
Los Angeles, California

NOT STALKING, JUST REPORTING
I'm a big fan, and love your work. Just wanted to point out that the "Denver newspaper columnist arrested for stalking" case is a bit more complicated than that wordbite suggests. I went looking for the story, and it appears that the "stalker" was writing a story which included material on someone who he claims raped him when he was a child, and the alleged rapist made the stalking claim.

Sounds like a lot more to that case than meets the eye (thought I'd send this to you, given that your article was about fact checking...or lack thereof!)

John Ashton
Dunedin, New Zealand

NO PLACE LIKE HOMELESSNESS
Great article on the "horrors of war" and the so-called violent vets.  Another "horror" the press is starting to promote is the "homeless Iraqi / Afghan War Vet".  The quagmire argument didn't work and the press was quickly criticized with its methodology of the murder rate by vets, so now it is starting to rely on the emotional pull of the homeless problem.  They will never understand the purpose of this war.

LTC John M. Kanaley
Baghdad, Iraq

THE BEST OF BRITISH
A gentle reminder: the Great War did, indeed, reach into “every English hamlet.”  It also reached into every Scottish, Welsh and Irish hamlet , as my  Edinburgh ancestors could have attested. As a Canadian, why perpetuate the American (and English!) insult of conflating "England" and "Britain?" Otherwise, a very perceptive column, as usual.

George Kerr
Victoria, British Columbia

“Human rights” for me but not for thee 

Matt Rees
Brno, Czech Republic

MARK REPLIES: Yes. "Hillary Rodham Clinton" is clearly an advanced animatronic version of a "Human Rights Commission".

24-HOUR PROTECTION
The HRC should be disbanded at once given the fact that half of all human rights
violations in Canada have been perpetrated against a single person, and an
ex-commission employee at that. Better (and cheaper) to just give Richard Warman 24-hour police and lawyer protection.

Gordon Stewart
Charlottesville, Virginia

HISTORY IS NOT PLEASANT
As always, enjoy your stuff.

I didn't get sued, but I did have a student (subsequent president of the Muslim Student Association) here at CSU cry in class and complain to the student paper when I showed the Muhammad Cartoons in my Islamic history course a few years back.

As I told the class at the time, "My job is not to bring people together. My job is to teach history. History is not pleasant in many cases, and I made it very clear in class that this is America and you all have the right to offend but you do not have the right to not be offended."

Keep up the good work.

James E. Lindsay
Associate Professor of Middle East History
Department of History
Colorado State University

WHERE WERE YOU THEN?
Mark,  where were you when the hate crimes legislation in Canada was being passed?  You and the rest of the press let down the public in banging the drums to alert the crowds that this restriction on freedom of expression was being contemplated.  Perhaps you and the rest of the neocons thought you were immune from the effects of this law, and the commission empowered to enforce it.  Surprise!  Now you get to experience a little of what the "little people" have been going through.  You're lucky...you're not losing your job like some Canadian  teachers have.  This legislation has poisoned public comment in many ways.

So where do you stand on Bill S-210 sponsored by Senator Grafstein?  The legislation appears to not only criminalize the act of suicide bombing, but also certain discussion.  It appears to attack freedom of speech. It appears to criminalize comment on suicide bombing. 

You, Mark, might one day be charged for writing: "I am not surprised  the people of XXXXX, are sending people into buses to avenge the attacks on their people by YYYYY country's tanks and jets."

Get the idea?  Ready to stand up and challenge this one before it is too late?

(sorry...the current Canadian hate crimes legislation prevents me from entering any references to existing peoples or countries) 

Here is a link to help you out with reading the Hansard. 

Please don't tell me you signed CASB's petition!!!  

Rick

MARK REPLIES: "Where was I when the hate crimes legislation in Canada was being passed?" Er, in short pants in school. Since then, I've opposed it consistently, including as applied to Canadian teachers. See here -  and here and here.

I've written about all the "little people" - the BC teacher, the Toronto printer, the Star-Phoenix letter writer. And so have George Jonas and David Warren and Barbara Amiel. It's not me and "the rest of the press". It's the fact that a broad mass of Canadians are very comfortable with the regulation of speech. The minute you start talking about "striking a balance" and "drawing a line" you frame the issue in terms that make it very appealing and self-flattering to Canada's sense of moderation.

FLOOD THE COURT
An easy way to solve the Canadian inquisition. Mark, this is very easy.. just encourage all of your Canadian readers to file a complaint every single time a liberal or a muslim says anything.  Flood the court with cases that go the other direction and it will shut down quickly.

Gordon Haave
Oklahoma City, OklahomaTIRELESS EFFORTS
"It is really a transference of the anti-Semitic hatred against Jews, from Jews to Moslems. Basically, this is the attempt that's being done by people like Mark Steyn, Ezra Levant, and others."

KHALED LOUTFI MOUAMMAR
The Canadian Arab Federation
January 18th 2008

You know, when he puts it that way, one almost feels grateful for the tireless efforts of chaps like Khaled working in the background to ensure that anti-Semitic hatreds maintain their time-honored, traditional character!

Ezra Marsh
Baltimore

RECENT CONVERT?
Hi, Mark. In your MacLeans article about the Canadian Inquisition you refer to
Mohammed as "The Prophet Muhammad." Are you a recent convert to Islam? I had always assumed you were either Christian or Jewish. I hope you can clear this mystery up for us.

Chuck

MARK REPLIES: No I'm just covering myself. Can't be too careful these days. PBUH and all that.

Re: No laughing matter
ONE MAN AND HIS LEGAL BATTLE
I don't know what was more disturbing.  The fact that he was actually arrested for asking for the same rights as a "black, vegetarian muslim" or that it seemed to matter to the authorities whether he was joking or not.  I want the same rights as a black, vegetarian muslim (BVM), and I hope he or she wants the same rights as me.  The fact that the speaker is white, and he may believe that the BVM has more rights than he does not mean that it is somehow 'hate speech' to want the same rights.  The United States needs to pay attention to this nonsense from the UK and Canada, because it is a matter of time before it comes here.  As for my BVM friends, you should support this fellow's claim to equal rights, and his right to ask for those rights whether he is joking or not.  You never know when fashion will change, and these idiots will want to throw you in jail for asking for equal rights.

Bill
North Carolina

Re: Granite State of Mind
NEW HAMPSHIRE, ISRAEL, WHO CARES?
I find it ironic that the New York Times editorial page editor would describe datelines as "kind of an anachronism" and "an affectation", since inaccurate datelines are included in The Times article ("Witnesses and Documents Unveil Deceptions in a Reporter's Work") that summarizes Jayson Blair's fabrications.

To quote the New York Times quoting The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, "Because believable firsthand news gathering is The Times's hallmark, datelines must scrupulously specify when and where the reporting took place."

Perhaps there exists a New York Times Manual of Style and Usage (Revised Edition to Remove Anachronisms and Affectations) of which I am unaware.

Here's a link to the aforementioned Times article.

Peter Moorhouse
San Francisco

VERY DOWD-FUL
Around the time the New York Times fired Jayson Blair, the paper forced out Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Rick Bragg for using other reporters to write his stories and using deceptive datelines, called "dateline toe-touching":
 
At that time the paper certainly didn't take the position that datelines were "anachronism" or "affectation."  Similarly, the paper took a dim view of using stringers or assistants to gather information for stories.
 
Why wouldn't the paper apply the same standard to Maureen Dowd?
 
Eric
THE NYT HAS NO SHAME
In the 1930s, the New York Times (NYT) Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty 
tried to cover up Stalin's 1933-35 killing of 8-12 million  Ukrainians.  The
NYT has no shame.  Many Americans do not know Stalin  killed more people than
Hitler. 20-25 million in total.  Would the NYT tell  us?  Hah.
 
George WeinbaumMARK REPLIES: It's not about fact checking. As Iowahawk understood in that ingenious parody, it's about inventing a trend out of isolated and unrepresentative incidents. That's a common habit of journalism.  And, as Iowahawk emonstrated, that's easy to do. Likewise, the Times takes a domestic shooting in Des Moines and a fatal traffic collision in Omaha, and suddenly it's a "quiet phenomenon".

Re: Up is Down
THE TRUTH POLICE
Too bad Orwell isn't around to write about this.....

Tom Bonetto
Arizona

INTERPRETING ISLAM
Wow, that's double plus ungood stuff from the Ministry of Truth.

JPW

UNLIKELY
So I guess the next time an Eric Rudolph blows up an abortion clinic they will call it "anti-Christian" activity?

John Stanmeyer

TOPSY TURVY
So, I guess the Crusades can now be called, "Rather Un-Christian Behavior".
 
And the Inquisition, "Really Un-Christian Behavior".
 
And Christianity (and Judaism), "Anti-Islamic Activity".
 
Actually, what's the over/under on the future Thesaurus entry for "Anti-Islamic Activity". 100 pages?

Frank Bennett
Pennsylvania

STUNNED
Oh wait, I get it....the Twin Towers had minarets atop them and the Glasgow Airport was hosting an Islamic Revival session at the time of the "Anti-Islamic" vehicular fire bombing "Activity."  Nearly the whole of Europe routinely leaves my jaw gaping in stunned disbelief, my friend.  It's one thing to point out the many Muslim victims whose faith al-Qaeda and others each claim to be defending.  It's quite another to apply such an encompassing label.

Just goes to show you, one man's terrorist is another man's electorate. Almost inspires a hearty round of 'Democracy is dead.  Long live Democracy.'

But who is an American to point the boney political finger at?  We here do not have a Socialist Party with any measure of broad support to speak of, yet we have arguably five Socialists running among the current two-party lot.

So maybe I should can the political criticism from the "Left" side of the pond.

Steve Schippert
ThreatsWatch.org/
tank.nationalreview.com/

Re: United We Fall
HALF A RIDGELY
Can't be that bad of a gig; doesn't it mean that you're entitled to half a Keren
Woodward?

Leif Olson

NA NA HEY HEY
Don’t feel bad. Andy Ridgely now lives with the sexy brunette from Bananarama, Keren Woodward, while George Michael is hanging around public toilets.

Clay Waters

STUNG
Not sure if Ms. Lopez, likes the Police, but they might provide a better analogy, being a trio and all.  I'd cast you as Stuart Copeland, and Mr. Long as Andy Summers. 

Michael L. Yaeger, Esq.
New York, New YorkTHE JACKSON TWO
Are you saying that without Jonah, you are the Jackson Five without Michael?
 
If such is the case, I wonder how Mr. Goldberg cares for being considered to be Michael Jackson!
 
A Fan
Dallas, Texas

SILENT STUDY
Shame on you, sir. I was reading your pithy remark concerning you and and Rob as a modern-day pieces of Ridgley to Jonah's flaming personality of Michael made me burst out laughing. This is usually a good  thing. But I am doing research in a special collections section of a library and disturbed the nice secretary/gopher and the curmudgeon doing research on birds.

Thanks for the fine laugh and then looks of disgust from my neighbors,

Jason Chrystal

JONAH AND YOKO
Watch Jonah.  Sure he wants to get the band back together.  You guys  will be on the bus drinking Jack Daniels out of the bottle, and then  in will walk Jonah with a big smile on his face asking if anyone minds if Yoko tags along for "just this next gig."

Douglas Johnson
Chicago

P.S. Now that I mention the Jack Daniels, I've come up with an idea. You guys should record a session and cut an album--not a CD but a double album where you open it up to reveal a grainy black and white photo of the three of you back stage with groupies and the Jack Daniels, ala Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.  I think I would pay $100 for this album.

STANCE POLICE
"The only consolation is that any moment now Goldberg will decide he's a serious artist, self-destruct and be arrested in a Los Angeles men's room. Probably by lunchtime."

Hey Mark,

In this situation, do you think that the ACLU will come to Jonah's  defence?

Ryan
Canadian in Scotland

LOS ANGELES MEN’S ROOM
How utterly wicked.  LMFAO.

Len Price

WHATEVER
Yup, but Jonah’s in New York

Sean Murphy

SIMPLE MINDS
You quote Jonah: "One of the most fascistic things that kids on college campuses say is that, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."

Can you not see the irony? Is this any different from GWB's war on terror threat:
"If you're not with us, you're against us?" Simple minds exist in every camp, and on every campus.

Raj Chaudhry

USEFUL FORMULA
Now it's "fascistic" to say that "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem"?!

Talk about trying to use vicious name-calling to avoid a simple argumentative proposition.  Are you that afraid of debate about the issues?

The "if you're not part of the solution" formulation can be used by anyone for their argument, liberal (classical, present-day, etc.) or conservative (classical, modern, paleo, etc.). 

The present-day liberal might argue that if you're not advocating that government provide a proper safety net, you're going to hurt the nation's long-term economic and social prospects.  You're not helping, and so you're part of the problem.

The counter-argument from the conservative would be that you're part of the problem for advocating a government solution (or too much of one), because in the long term that hurts the economy and the social fabric.

See how easy that is?  If you're not part of the solution in terms of making our political discourse more civil, respectful, and productive, you're part of the problem.  ["Oh, look!" say Goldberg/Steyn/fellow travelers.  "Another fascist!"] 

Mike Monaco

GEEK SPEAK
“Part of the solution” on campus

Actually, if you're a geek, you say:

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

No, we don't date much.  Why do you ask?

Doug

Re: Weak End Update
APT ADJECTIVES
 Your concluding sentence reminded me of the following:

From The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce

 oleaginous  adj.

 Oily, smooth, sleek.

 Disraeli once described the manner of Bishop Wilberforce as "unctuous, oleaginous, saponaceous." And the good prelate was ever afterward known as Soapy Sam. For every man there is something in the vocabulary that would stick to him like a second skin. His enemies have only to find it.

Ernie Gudath

Re: Blowing Smoke
HUMAN FIRE ALARMS
 With regards to your blowing smoke post at the corner on nationalreview.com, we must also remember, as my First Amendment professor pointed out, there is no protection for FALSELY shouting fire in a crowded theater. Truthfully shouting fire, as should be the case, is a different matter.

Kathryn Wendel
Washington University Law
Class of 2008

FIRING LINE
The thing is, people always get the line wrong.  They always forget the "falsely" part of the quote.  Just to be a pain, when people say that you can't yell fire in a crowded theater, I always say, "Yes I  can, if there's a fire."

Jorge A. del Rio

Re: America Alone
STUMP-TOOTH BOOM
The AP reports: Against the Trend, U.S. Births Way Up By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

And why would that be so?  Well, because a bunch of stump-toothed hillbillies don’t know any better:

“Experts believe there is a mix of reasons: a decline in contraceptive use, a drop
in access to abortion, poor education and poverty.”

Americans: A bunch of ignorant yokels out to destroy the world.

Love your work,

Kirk W. Kelsen
Vallejo, California

NEOCON SPAWN
A new CDC study is out about the U.S. "mini baby boom." As you have already stated, this study shows that America, white, black, or otherwise, has a higher birthrate than other wealthy, industrialized countries.  Of course, the media interprets this data as meaning that Americans have less access to birth control and "limited access to abortion." The AP infers that this indicates an evil right wing conspiracy is sweeping the land.
May I ask, why is a high birth rate an indication of a right wing conspiracy?

Heather Rhyn
Provo, Utah

DOING MY PART
I came home from the hospital with my newborn son (Iain Robert) this past weekend and sat down to watch a film called "Children of Men." (Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, directed by Alfonso Curran)

It struck me that the UK of 2027 portrayed in the film is very much like how I
imagined the UK of 2027 after reading "America Alone".

The twist to the story is that mankind, for some unknown reason has lost the ability to reproduce.

Also, this film reinforced for me that demographics is everything and that I am glad we decided to have a second child.

Doing our part to keep America at or above 2.1....

Scott Peacock
Houston, Texas

A HAVEN OF PEACE? HOW NICE
I loved this part:

"Even though cutting off the hands and feet, or flogging the drunkard and fornicator, seem to be very abhorrent, once they are implemented, they become a deterrent for the whole society. "This is why in Saudi Arabia, for example, where these measures are implemented, the crime rate is very, very, low," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

In a documentary to be screened on Channel 4 next month, entitled Divorce: Sharia Style, Dr Hasan goes further, advocating a sharia system for Britain. "If sharia law is implemented, then you can turn this country into a haven of peace because once a thief's hand is cut off nobody is going to steal," he says. "Once, just only once, if an adulterer is stoned nobody is going to commit this crime at all.

"We want to offer it to the British society. If they accept it, it is for their good
and if they don't accept it they'll need more and more prisons."

Uhhh, sure. And what's the sharia punishment for offending Mohammed?

Michael Pierce
Virginia

Re: Springtime for Bushitler  

THE LEFT WON THE WAR

Now that you have put the idea out into the ether, I am sure that some one in New York or Hollywood is now working on a treatment for Bushitler - The Musical! And they will think that they are as naughty and subversive and "transgressive" as Barbara Garson was when she unveiled MacBird in 1966. According to the Wikipedia entry for that show it helped launch the careers of Stacy Keach, Rue McClanahan and director Joel Zwick. Somehow they have all escaped the Gestapo dragnet that must have been initiated by the Johnson administration after the play premiered.

That's really the worst isn't it? All this mighty chest-thumping and posturing about their "courage" and "artistic bravery." Even I was flabbergasted by the self-adulation that met Good Night and Good Luck. "Yeah - Let's put the ziggy into Joe McCarthy. We'll show all those old HUAC bastards what's what!" Why do they always act as if the descendants of Martin Dies and Karl Mundt had access to nuclear weapons and were ready to use them? 

I think that the reason that the Stones, the Clooneys and the DePalmas and all the others in the "creative community" are still stuck in Vietnam gear vis-à-vis our present enemies is that they won that war. The Left always quoting the line "History is written by the winners" and it is certainly true in this case. The Left won the war in Vietnam or at least their side did politically and culturally. It enabled them to conduct their Gramscian march through most of our cultural institutions and capture them.

It's also true that "People always fight the last war." When liberal writers and artists talk about Vietnam today they do so with the same tone, inflection and even body language as WWII vets did when they described their wartime experiences to punks like me in the late 1960's. Now Brian DePalma is the grizzled veteran telling us how to fight this new and unprecedented war the way we did it "in his day." It's the same recipe for disaster that the French experienced when they built their massively improved versions of World War I entrenchments in the interwar years. Those really worked out didn't they?

Sad and depressing. There isn't even a John Wayne anymore to put his neck on the line (financially and critically) to make rather touching flops like The Alamo and The Green Berets. NO wonder I always avoid the "new releases" section at Blockbuster like the plague.

Just one more thing. Have you ever considered or been asked to write a biography of (Mr.) George Abbott? After reading your theater reviews and Broadway Babies Say Goodnight I am hooked. I assume that someone must have written a full-length bio of such a fascinating man but haven't found one.

Jack Shuba
Toledo, Ohio

Re: Sir Edmund Hillary
ADVENTURERS OF YORE
You mentioned in your comments about Sir Edmund Hilary's passing that it used to be that this type of adventurer-for-the-love-of-the-adventure was quite common, and most likely from Great Britain or countries in its lineage. You recollected that after the explorer's accomplishment, they would totter into the local school, tell the kids about it, and no sooner was the last question answered, then the explorer had to get going on to his next semi-obscure Herculean undertaking.
  
 Confirming this as fact is none other than a great Gilligan's Island episode from 1966, where one Lord Beasley Waterford comes to the island in search of that rarest of all butterflies, the Pussycat Swallowtail. Starring in the role was alas, not Tom Jones, nor Roger Moore, but rather John McGiver. After much grueling effort (he climbed the side of a volcano, snorkled under water, etc.)  on this island in the remote South Pacific in search of it, he captures the butterfly. Time to pop the Champagne? No, he's off to the Antarctic in search of an even
rarer butterfly.
  
 Ron Johnson
 New York City

Re: Ukrainian chicks like a man in uniform
ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS
A friend of mine went with his wife and her family to do some missionary work in Ukraine a couple of years ago and he said even his wife had to comment on just how many absolutely gorgeous women there were there. So there are plenty there to swoon apparently.

Thanks from your Socialist Paradise Neighbor to the South,

Zach Barbera
Boston, Massachusetts

THE MOST EXOTIC WOMEN ON THE PLANET
As someone who has visited Ukraine several times over the last 14 years, let me assure you there are still thousands upon thousands of beautiful women in that wonderful country.  With the mix of "asian" blood modifying their facial bone structure and eyes, they are some of the most exotic women on the planet.  I have fallen hopelessly in love at least 500 times during my travels there and walked into approximately the same number of light poles because of craning my neck.  One thing that has improved is the hair coloring.  When the wall fell, the women in eastern Europe and Ukraine were using industrial bleach to blonde their hair. Now, even that is European, if not American quality. As for their profession in Paris and other cities, it probably is true.  Certainly it was their best way of procuring usable currency early on.  Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess.

Thanks for giving me the chance to fondly remember that wonderful country and their beautiful women. 

Randy Mashburn

RECRUITMENT VIDEOS
Even better than the Ukrainian Army is the Japanese Maritime Defense Force:
I guess the Village People weren't available.

And Russian Army contract soldiers don't just get a glass of water from some chicks in a village somewhere, they get to dance with hot chicks at the disco on their off time:

Chester Tapley

Re: Passing Parade
DEAD ON
Just finish the obit book.  Laugh out loud funny in spots and poignant in others.  Thanks.

Thank you for being unconventional.

Mary Lou McManus-Richter

FLAG STUDIES
Love your blog. I have just discovered you (via your many interviews on You-Tube actually)

I came across this article in the New Zealand herald newspaper today and thought it may be of interest. It seems that the Australian National University (ANU) is now awarding PhD's for rating (yes, you read that right - and it's an A+ for Albania evidently) countries' flags.

Western taxpayers dollars hard at work it seems!

Here is the newspaper article: The "academic" in question, one Dr Josh Parsons of the (once thought venerable) Otago University seems to have a real problem with the Union Jack in the corner of the flag of many countries.... Here is his (moronic) website.

Perhaps he needs to be held up as an object of ridicule (a little lesson in history included perhaps) via your fine blog??

P.S. Great interview on Radio New Zealand recently.

Fred Gunter
Stillwater, Oklahoma

A JUG OF WINE, A STARVING POLAR BEAR, AND THOU
Are you sure the wine and climate conference is this year? The date on the webpage is 2008, but the Al Gore picture on the webpage is circa 1993.

Brian Gates

WHINE AND CHEESE
Normally the climate change folks use the other spelling of whine.

Andrew C Welch

CURIOUS ABOUT GEORGE
At first I was going to write you a rant criticizing the UN’s decision to appoint an
actor as its peace envoy. I was going to write how outrageous it is to appoint an
actor who I mostly remember from an old Golden Girls episode. But then I remembered one of my favorite political heroes is Ronald Reagan, a man who once acted along side a monkey. So instead of bashing actors, instead I’ll just bash the man, George Clooney. I would like to know what credentials this man has other than being famous and “caring.” I care, too. But I also speak three foreign languages. Can Clooney? For an envoy of the UN, I’d expect someone with more sophisticated qualifications. I also have a fundamental understanding the role plutocracies play in destabilizing world peace. Clooney, a plutocrat himself from his aerie in Hollywood, seems to advocate for the very same systems which plunder places like Darfur into a maelstrom to begin with. What good can this man possibly do, other than exacerbate the problem? Why not appoint Bono ( I bet he’s fuming he wasn’t)? Bono seems to think
throwing money at Third World despots will somehow lift people from poverty and end war. These plutocrats with their puerile thinking will most definitely lead us all
into the abyss. Clooney is a poor choice by a body politic that is supposed to
represent the interests of the entire world. Can it get any more ridiculous?….

Mark Spinelli
Chicago

COOL IT ON THE ICE STORM
Mark, while I am generally supportive of your anti-bureautratic line - in this case you're off  the page.

I live through the ice storm and have to support the serious efforts both our provincial government and Hydro Quebec made to recover from the ice storm.

Of course most mureaucracies are inefficent and our's is more so than any other one - but please stay off the ice storm.

Peter Staniek
Montreal

IMAGINATIVE EDITING
The same thing happened when Pat Robertson was interviewed by Tom Brokaw on NBC.  It was a remote interview and Pat was in the CBN studios, so he recorded the whole thing.  Then he replayed the same interview on his show; first the way it was broadcasted on NBC, then again the way they'd recorded it...without editing.  It is amazing what the NBC editors did to make Pat, as Rush would say, "fit their template."

Pat Robertson isn't high on my list, but NBC did him dirty.

Rachel Davin  
Colonial Heights, Virginia

SWIFT RECOVERY
You have shared very distressing news about Tim Blair and I hope his recovery is swift and complete. I became aware of him through your website. Tim's humor is as dry and droll as it gets. In a vast internet, his voice is unique. My favorite line from him in 2007 was the panicked realization he made after months of urging his readers to rev up their engines in defiance of global warmongering (also a concept I believe he added to the lexicon). Upon discovering that that Al Gore had a carbon footprint that dwarfed that of his vast audience, he wailed, "We've been
out-carboned by Big Environmentalism!"

Ezra Marsh
Baltimore

SPLEENVILLE
That was a very nice post you wrote today about Tim; he really is a great guy.

One of his funniest head tilt posts was here.

He's promised to come back to NJ and sing with me after he beats this.

Mr. Bingley

AUSTRALIAN TERMINOLOGY
In the last sentence, you mean "John Malkovich and many other Americans will be cheering for him."  "Rooting" is Australian slang for "screwing." 

On the other hand, Tim might enjoy the irony of your wording.

Eric Schubert
Austin, Texas

P.S.  I enjoy his blog, too.

LAST WORD
You are one ignorant cocksucker.  Is your mother part of a sheiks harem?

Jean-Paul Reveyoso
jprev40@verizon.net

MARK REPLIES: Why, yes, she is. However did you guess? By the way, are  you the Jean-Paul Reveyoso who worked for the General Accounting Office in Washington. It always turns me on to hear government officials use words like "cocksucker".