Choi and Cabal Get Spanked; How Fake Is Springsteen?; Tiger and Fatness
Brilliant 8/9 edition! Makes me think you print shit like your 7/19 "Baseball Issue" merely for contrast.
Taki, however, assumes ("Top Drawer") too generously that "dishonorable" and "politicians" were ever anything but the same thing.
Mladen Puljic, Manhattan
"Alan Cabal" Exposed as Elizabeth Kolbert!
Your rag has no credibility. In the 8/2 issue, your front-page story ("Cheese Steaks & Crank: Prelude To a Coronation") has writer Alan Cabal go to the Philadelphia Republican Convention to get the dirt. He's compromised within the first paragraph when we find out he registers in a fleabag motel as Randall Flagg, a Stephen King character. Then he brags about often doing it.
Cute, but every normal human being has questions. Does he do it to run without paying the bill? Does he have phony credit cards? Is this kind of apparent phony typical of your stable of writers? Why should I trust his story? He's not in the Manhattan phone book, either.
J. Frickauss, Manhattan
Alan Cabal replies: I am in the Manhattan phone book. It's up to semiliterate goofballs like Frickauss to figure out what name I'm listed under before they can call me up to breathe into the mouthpiece, though.
Goya, Oh Boya
Excellent 8/2 piece by Alan Cabal, in which he talked about Dominicans. Many years ago an Hispanic friend warned me about Dominicans. We have them in Union City. They ruin everything they touch. Arrogant, loud, lazy?I do what I can to make their lives harder. I am working on closing down a stairwell where they hang out drinking, and so on. The easy thing would be to move?that's no fun.
Immigration attorneys should be tried for treason.
Name Withheld, Union City, NJ
Dave Schultz Boned Her
MUGGER: The Kate Smith thing (8/9) at the Republican convention has so much more relevance when you understand her connection with hockey's Philadelphia Flyers.
I won't bother explaining it to you. If you didn't have the sense to give up on the Red Sox in 1986, then you have no (sports) sense at all.
Ray Martin, Ridgefield, CT
Neither Is Mladen Puljic
MUGGER: I only recently came across your column, but have enjoyed reading it immensely. I'm not a baseball fan (it's not so well known here in Australia; we prefer cricket), but you've entertained me with descriptions of the fans, fields and general atmosphere. I also enjoy your descriptions of U.S. domestic politics. Your recent comments about the rivalry between Boston and New York City made me chuckle, as we have precisely the same problem with our Melbourne/Sydney rivalry.
Notwithstanding the Olympics next month in my hometown, most Sydneysiders think of Melbourne only once a year, when the Melbourne Cup comes around. Then it's generally thought of as, "Hmmm, the Melbourne Cup?I must get down there one year to check it and Melbourne out." Melburnians generally define themselves against Sydney. It appears to me to be a big brother/little brother thing. Nice to see that city rivalries are an international phenomenon.
Again, thank you for a wonderful column, and I look forward to many more.
Kevin Marshall, Sydney
CBS=Tass; Rather=Stalin
MUGGER: I always enjoy your column, but last week (8/9) you were right on the money! It would be a different country if the networks were forced to offer the truth along with the propaganda they spew to the masses daily. We are told what tyrants the Tass News Agency is, but there is no way they are worse than the networks here.
May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America!
Gary Cannon, Charleston, WV
Red Sock
MUGGER: In what way was George W. Bush not "'raised' for the job" as much as Al Gore was (8/9)? Maybe you just meant to say he was "given the job" even more obviously than Gore was. I may be too biased to see how he in any way shed his "lightweight" image during the convention, but in making such a fabricated statement you've gone beyond the partisan and well into the disingenuous.
Then again, it's probably such flights of fancy that allow you to continue being a Red Sox fan, so I shouldn't complain too bitterly.
Sean Dillman, Sudbury, MA
Dialectical Materialism
MUGGER: After spending countless hours trying to talk reasonably with black men at work about politics, you make me want to keep trying. I gave up (again), and said I wouldn't even try anymore. No matter what I ask or say, they always come back with something like "George W. Bush will round up all the brothers and give us the electric chair."
The men I work with actually believe this. Fred actually said this. And he has a brother in Texas, who works for a living, and has never been in trouble with the law. Is it possible to pierce the blinders these people have on? I don't know. I said to him once, "When George W. Bush is elected, and your taxes go down and your paycheck goes up, you'll see," and he didn't even hear me.
Oh well. Keep on telling the truth.
Hal McCombs, Jasper, AL
See Neil Swaab, P. 55
Your alleged paper has totally crossed the line. You now print very little other than pornography. An example is the moronic crap "Pulling His Poesy" ("The Mail," 8/2), by your favorite poet, "Name Withheld." Then you have nearly two pages of outright lying/chauvinistic garbage by Alexander Cockburn ("Wild Justice"), a person who has turned into a vomiting garbage can in order to thank you for his salary.
Then MUGGER complains that Al Gore speaks to him as if he is stupid. MUGGER, you are stupid. If you don't believe Al, believe me. Like the rest of your New York Press colleagues, you are a moronic Bush-head.
Adele Smith, Brooklyn
Lucky You, Candice
Congrats to Candice Choi for a swell article ("First Person," 8/9). If I want my cockles warmed, and I often do, I want a woman who giggles at fart jokes as Choi claims she does, a woman of guts and generosity. Patience would be a plus. Looks don't matter unless I'm awake. Choi is a winner.
Vesuvio Trentino, Manhattan
They Proliferate
Please, you have to ask Candice Choi to contact me. I am the founder and chief executive troll of TrollConcept. We are annoyed and annoying young ladies who share Ms. Choi's sensibilities and wish to communicate with her.
If she hates us, all the better!
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Norah Pierson, Manhattan
At Least She's Not Polish
Consider: Someone in the vast world of your readership experiences a stroke every 45 seconds.
Imagine toppling to the floor and suddenly having the dual realization that the End is upon you and that the last words you will have read are those extruded by Candice Choi's vacuous asshole. Oh, the waste! The regret!
In the future, you might weigh the advantages of preceding each (comparable) piece with a warning similar to the Surgeon General's.
And while we're on the topic of sudden death, if your number was called at the exact moment in which you began reading this letter, approximately 22 seconds remain in your life. Use those seconds well. Don't waste them reading Choi's natterings.
Bob Rutkowski, Chicago
Do You Do Foot Rubs?
I have been an admirer of your publication for some time and want to commend you for avoiding predictability. The Village Voice seems to merely reinforce the opinions of its readership, never having the balls to challenge the opinions of the typical Manhattanite.
I visited your website recently and thought you may be interested in visiting freewilliamsburg.com. We are also running an article on your contributing writer J.T. (Terminator) Leroy (a rather candid interview, in fact).
We are a website based in Williamsburg that provides writing, arts, listings and much more for the Williamsburg community and beyond.
Regardless, I thought we would introduce ourselves. Feel free to contact us if we can assist you in any way.
We'll take another half-pound of Crispin Sartwell, please ("Opinion," 8/9). Also, we hear he's a pretty good harmonica player, so if you'd include a flexi-disc in the next issue, we'd appreciate it.
Crispin Sartwell: Your 8/9 "Opinion" article on anarchism was right on the money.
A few thoughts on measurement. You are right that the metric system was invented in 1790 or thereabouts and imposed on revolutionary France.
However, so-called Imperial measurement is not as arbitrary as you might suppose. The "English" foot actually dates to the Temple of the Great Pyramid in Egypt several thousand years ago. It turns out that it is not only an incredibly useful unit of measure (and one that the decimeter will never replace), but is actually based on an astronomically measured arc second of the Earth's circumference at the equator, something the Egyptians understood how to measure and divide very accurately.
Peter Tompkins detailed these facts along with some of the other intriguing facts about early measuring systems in Secrets of the Great Pyramid, published in 1971.
Jim Davidson, Houston
Sounds Good to Us
Christopher Caldwell: So Lynne Cheney's crime was to "hiss" the words "excuse me" at E.J. Dionne ("Hill of Beans," 8/2). Off with her head!
Steve Salmore, Morristown, NJ
Mighty Bosstone
While I agree with many of John McMillian's thoughts on the fairly obvious choreography of Bruce Springsteen's most recent tour ("Music," 8/9), of which I saw seven shows, I feel he failed to mention some important things.
First, the Springsteen that McMillian observed dancing in circles, jumping on the piano and throwing his guitar in the air was a 50-year-old man. Few 25-year-old rock stars could display the amount of energy and athletic ability that Springsteen does at age 51. Better "fake sweat" than the flashy light shows and shallow music of most arena shows these days.
Second, Springsteen's new song "American Skin (41 Shots)," performed all 10 nights at the Garden, is conspicuously absent from McMillian's column. The song, indirectly about the Amadou Diallo incident, arguably reestablished not only Springsteen's social relevance as an artist but also the social relevance of rock 'n' roll as a musical genre. Springsteen made one of his clearest political statements ever by letting the song stand alone without any further commentary, which would probably have seemed trite in comparison.
Brian Altman, Brooklyn
And Johnny Thunders Sucked Anyway
John McMillian: You can believe in somewhat tired, good, but maybe unimpressive musicians whose emotional involvement in their own performances varies wildly. I'm not kidding. No one sings emotionally searing lyrics while flailing and collapsing onstage and means it every time. No way?because by the 30th time you've done that you just don't feel that way anymore. So you can't use riveting emotional performances as your stock in trade unless you're an actor. That's what actors do, and we recognize the art in that.
But let's not demand real blood from these people, because the only performers who can give you real blood every time are bleeding to death.
Aaron Shapiro, Boston
We Pride Ourselves On Our Objectivity
It seems Dr. Mark McMahon's run against Hillary Clinton was meant more as a statement than as a real political challenge ("Hillary Killer?" 7/26). In the process, he appears to have achieved at least one goal: he's angered those individuals who believe Hillary should be crowned queen and that everyone else, regardless of their citizenship or education (of which Dr. McMahon has both), has the rights of an ant, and therefore should be nothing more than Hillary's subjects.
I agree with Dr. McMahon?an honest surgeon bound to fix things, not to butcher things?that the Democratic Party was not being too democratic when they decided to impose Hillary on New York without even consulting its members.
By the way, I congratulate your newspaper on its delightful articles. They're by far more objective than those in the rest of the New York media, including The New York Times and the Village Voice.
G.S. Chavez, Queens
Pontiff with a Gat
Pardon my chronological delay. I often get a month's worth of New York Press in one day. Time to go to the Web!
Michelangelo Signorile, in his 6/21 "Opinion" piece, speaks to the cowardice of the gay activist movement when he revels in their being about to disrupt the Vatican, but concedes that they are not ready to protest the Taliban's position on homosexuals. Hell, yeah! The people at the Vatican won't shoot at you! Debra Saunders recently wrote in a San Francisco Chronicle article how the guy who sponsors the StopDrLaura.com website lists many phone numbers for use by people who want to call corporations and ask them to pull their advertising, but won't list his own number, because he won't take the heat of those who disagree with him! Gay "tolerance" seems to be a one-way street.
Please tell me George Tabb's 7/19 article ("The Parkway Pirates") about baseball was fiction! That was the one of the saddest stories I've ever read. I was one of those kids who teased people like him in my Little League days, because I was a kid and didn't understand. We had a kid who wore his uniform (provided by the league) on a daily basis, and often came to games wearing a beat-up, dirty uniform. Being a snotty 12-year-old, I asked him why he didn't wash his uniform. I'll never forget the look of shame on his face. If you're out there, Alfred Hunnewell, I apologize. And, George Tabb, even though at times I find you extremely vulgar, you seem to be doing all right for yourself, and I hope your brothers are doing okay, too.
Loved the entire 7/19 "Baseball Issue." I, too, am a suffering Red Sox fan. I think John Ellis' article ("The Curse of Bad Management") may have hit the nail on the head for us.
Gordon Smith, Pleasanton, CA
Soup Bones
Allow me to defend the metric system from Crispin Sartwell's silly attack ("Opinion," 8/9).
Culture is a wonderful thing, but the English system of weights and measures is a mess, and especially in this uneducated day I bet there are few out there who can recall that there are four quarts to a gallon. Not only that, but regional differences in measurement, which are part of the charm of culture for Mr. Sartwell, quickly become a real pain in the ass when you have to use them.
Most of all, different units in the metric system are actually related in some intuitive way instead of having a totally arbitrary relationship to one another, as in the English system. For example, a liter is the volume of a cube 10 centimeters on a side, and a gram is the mass of a cubic centimeter of water at maximum density. Multiples and submultiples of basic units use standardized Latin or Greek prefixes.
The benefit of this, though it bores Mr. Sartwell, is that you can remember all those units, or more properly I should say you don't have to remember them, because you can derive them on the fly. That is impossible with the English system. In practice, you have to have standards imposed on everybody; the question is whether you choose good standards or bad ones. The metric system is definitely a good set of standards because it's as simple as possible.
As for the case of Mr. Fletcher, the British butcher who deals in pounds and ounces, who really cares what he does? He's off in a little shop somewhere. But the big fish, who trade internationally, are a different story. In the big picture people have to cooperate, and part of that is adhering to standards occasionally.
Which is one reason why I hate Microsoft, besides the fact that they are incompetent?because they deliberately ignore standards, and unilaterally try to change existing standards to suit themselves. Now that is tyranny.
Joe Rodrigue, New Haven
Dorkness on the Edge of Town
John McMillian: Just read your disillusioned discovery ("Music," 8/9) that some (or maybe even most) of Bruce Springsteen's sweat is fake?and that somehow this discovery is "a clear form of betrayal, far beneath his dignity."
Maybe your biggest problem is that you read a hack like Eric Alterman and let him get away with canonizing a pop music icon; maybe it's that you let your free ticket upgrades (both the first, as a fan, and the last, as an insider) go to your head. But in both cases, you are getting worked up about nothing.
Bruce Springsteen's sweat is fake? You mean, like, staged? I don't mean to burst your bubble, but Sylvester Stallone really didn't get his ass kicked in the Rocky movies, either. William Shatner wears a rug. Lars Ulrich of Metallica is not an angry adolescent with nihilist tendencies, but shrewd to a fault regarding the business of making his money (see the Napster controversy). WWF wrestlers The Rock and Triple H are more acrobats than warriors or brawlers?and, apparently, they are also politically conservative. Pam Anderson had her assets surgically augmented. In short, that's entertainment. You paid for a show, and you got a show.
John Strausbaugh got all bent out of shape that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame didn't have a methadone clinic or even a decent bar back in an essay in June ("Music," 6/28). I'm going to tell you what I told him: you may hate it, but you have a much more tainted view of rock than those you criticized in your essay. It may be charming to you that, as an example, Johnny Rotten really is a complete social stain even when he's not onstage (see Christopher Caldwell's 8/9 "Hill of Beans"). But if he lived next door to you or you had to see him every day on the bus, you'd get sick of his stupid sociopathic pose by the second meeting?probably before the end of the first.
Here's my take: Springsteen gives 'em their money's worth every show. You should stick to your statement that "a certain measure of foolishness and showmanship?is to be anticipated"?and go one better. Admit that Springsteen, like Harrison Ford or Jackie Chan, has the audacity to give the people exactly what they want?"Jungleland," "Darlington County," whatever?exactly the way they want it. And that's what makes him great.
And to wrap this up, will you people at New York Press please get off the kick that rock is something more noble or esoteric than any other form of popular entertainment? Leapin' lizards, folks, how old are you? Were you scandalized when Kiss stopped wearing makeup for a while? How about when you found out that the Monkees didn't write their own music? You would think that, with all the common sense in the air at your offices, common sense that's used all the time in the realm of social and political matters, you could fan a little of it into the staff room when somebody's writing about how disappointed they are that there really isn't that much difference between today's top boy band and Iggy Pop.
John Strausbaugh's "Let the Outsiders Into the Debates" ("Editorial," 8/9) was somewhat amusing. I don't think anybody in their right mind thinks either the Reform candidate or the interminable (or do I mean "indefatigable"? Does it matter?) Ralph Nader will actually have a chance to take a single state in this election. Seriously?even if Nader gets a shot during prime time against Gore and Bush, can he really take Oregon, Washington or California (or even New York) out of play? Can he put a Perotesque whammy on Gore to shoo Bush into a plurality in these states? Probably not.
If we give these grudge-vote candidates a piece of the platform this fall (as Strausbaugh points out), why stop there? If we really want a chance to boost ratings, why not go after a real Gong Show of presidential candidates? At last reckoning, there were about 100 candidates for the Leader of the Free World on record. I say give Sam Donaldson and the other pet questioners of the Commission on Presidential Debates a crack at all of these civic-minded Johnsons. Run the debates for five days straight during prime time, and make the questioners earn their places on the stage. Sure, they get to grill G.W. on his role as governor in a state that (they feel) is death-penalty crazy, and they get to softball Al on his stupid historical revisions, which place him at every significant social and political event since the Scopes trial. But then they also have to sit through the ribaldry, tomfoolery and humiliation of having to seriously ask Jake the Hobo, who just fouled his britches on national television, how, exactly, he would deal with Palestinian-Israeli relations and the ongoing economic rise of the European Union.
And this would be the ultimate reality television: Make smug bastards like Peter Jennings and Dan Rather face off against folks who aren't quite so prepared to give a canned answer?10,000 times more likely to tell them, in all honesty, that they can put their question all the way up their anchor chair. If decorum and pomp are out the door, I say let the town meeting begin, and bring a lunch.
Frank Turk, Pittsburgh
Chow Yum Fat
Lionel Tiger has written a messy, unfocused article ("Human Follies," 8/9) that never concludes with any discernible point. He starts by letting us know Americans are obese ("The Gross National Grossness" is the way he so nicely puts it), then goes on to tell us the dangers of being overweight (e.g., it "clearly limits the ability to move about" and "appears to cause feelings of depression" and "a host of concrete medical glitches"). Tiger then points out that Americans drink more soda than water, moves on to say that weight is associated with the beginning of sexual maturity and wrings his hands over anorexic females. He concludes with the claim that "the best diet is of straightforward information."
Lionel reminds me of my older brother, who regularly consumes in excess of 3500 calories a day and has never seen a day of fat in his life. I was a chubby kid who lost the weight through seven years of bulimia after being needled endlessly by my family. I have read every diet book ever published, and that never stopped me from eating a gallon of ice cream and bending my head over a toilet. My brother didn't know a fuckin' thing about what it's like to be compelled to eat, a lot, in a society that condemns fat, and this was in the 1970s. It's worse now.
Tell me if I'm wrong, Lionel: You're one of those guys who is disgusted and disturbed by others' fat. You prefer to sleep with a thin person. You live in New York, so you probably don't know any really fat people, like those upward of, say, 250 or 350 pounds, or you know one who's fucked up in the head. You probably didn't talk to any fat people before writing your article, but you figure you're a smart guy and so can make judgments based on what you see and read. You exercise five to six days a week for 30 to 45 minutes, you walk in a straight line with your arms swinging exactly the same distance with each step, and your crap is regular and well-shaped.
As a veteran of the addiction war, which I'm proud to say I've won (alcohol, eating disorder), I can set you straight about one thing: information means dick. The world is full of alcoholics who have read the AA Big Book 100 times over, yet are right now lying in a pool of their own urine or driving their cars into trees. I don't know what the answer is to the explosion of obesity in America, but I do know that any writer who boils what he thinks the solution is down to a single sentence is a simpleton.
You want to write an article? Go hang out with members of National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance for a few days. Talk to people; talk to 25 people. Ask them questions about their health and their level of depression. You'll find it varies from person to person. Fancy that! Just like anybody else.
J. Max, Brooklyn
No Forwarding Address
Hello, dear folks! I was residing in your fine town during 1998 and became a regular reader of your fine publication. My friends and I were particularly enamored of that column written by the Jewish chick about her psychosexual, uh, problems. You know the one? Her name was Amy something.
Anyway, back home in Sydney, Australia, I've just discovered your website. Joy! Is Amy still writing (for you guys)? Could you let me know? That'd be ace! Thank you!
Uri Auerbach, Sydney
Mighty White of You
Maybe Alan Cabal ("Elephant Walk: Triumph of The W," 8/9) should try some of that ibogaine. It might cure him of being another stoned asshole with no real stand on anything.
Alan, I can sympathize with your distaste of everything that is p.c., but using it as an excuse to dis the entire Shadow Convention and No More Prisons movement is pretty lame. Get your head out of the sand. Many "People of Color"?blacks, Hispanics, Asians, whatever?are still enslaved. Not in such literal terms, as many of their cousins on this planet still are, but in a more devious, Y2K kind of way. Slavery in America never ended; we've just made it more palatable and profitable.
It's called the prison-industrial complex and it's big business. Prisons are a great source of cheap labor. Thanks to the so-called Drug War, the work force grows every day. In fact, it's growing so fast that our so-called government can't keep up with the demand! So now anyone with some dough can get a government contract to put up a prison/factory and it will be filled. The best thing is that anyone?you, me and all those fine people you were hobnobbing with in Philly?can invest money in this booming industry. Is it any wonder why most politicians won't touch this issue? Drug Policy Reform? You gotta be kidding; we need to protect our investments, our shareholders. Sure, no one forced those kids, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters to do what they did and end up as slave labor.
In case you haven't heard, the ghetto is kind of a rough place. People do what they feel is necessary for their survival, their families' survival. In case you haven't heard, the decks are more than slightly stacked against minorities when it comes to prison sentence lengths. They comprise the majority of the souls in America's prisons put there for nonviolent drug-related "crimes." Of course, whites like you and me are the ones buying most of the shit.
I know you've been in more than a few encounters with the law where your ass would have been grass had you not been white. I bet your buddy DJ Spooky could explain the whole cop/black man dichotomy to you in an erudite manner. Then again, I'm sure most of his brothers scare the shit out of him as much as they do the rest of polite society.
Yep, only a white man could get away with smoking weed at the Republican National Convention. It probably would have been more appropriate to be busting lines, given the Bush family atmosphere, but hey, I'm right there with you, bro. Membership does have its privileges, as I'm sure Mr. Falwell and most everyone there could attest, but it also has its responsibilities. Yah, yah. White man's burden and all that. Whatever. It's a real tragedy that these days, so many of our best and brightest are so drunk on money, power, and yes, hydro that, like you, they blow off any discussion of this massive conspiracy against the people of America (and indeed the whole world) as more loony p.c. bullshit. Colin Powell's words on cynicism crushing the youth of America rings true to me and the truth sure hurts, especially when you're stoned.
Then again, Alan, you're a Satanist. What the fuck do you care? Your side's winning, right?
Eric Knuble, Brooklyn
Alan Cabal replies: It should be rather obvious to anyone who can read beyond a sixth-grade level that I do, in fact, take a number of stands on a number of issues. I'm a pretty opinionated stoned asshole. Maybe you just don't like my opinions?like my notion that Arianna's World is less an expression of authentic dissent than an attempt to co-opt and ghettoize it. Read Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle or Zbigniew Brzezinski's Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technotronic Era for a clearer picture of what is going on there.
Don't give me the oppressed black man bullshit. Yes, the prisons are abominable, a genuine disgrace, and something should be done about it. That said, prison can be avoided by any number of means. If I seem blase about ghetto conditions, it may be because I grew up in a ghetto, a rather famous one: Camden, NJ. If you don't think black people are every bit the vicious and pig-ignorant racists that their white counterparts are, try walking the streets of that town sometime. Racism can't be dealt with unilaterally. Ask any new immigrant if blacks aren't capable of extreme racism. Ask a Korean grocer, or a Pakistani cabdriver.
Anybody with the sense God gave a chicken can smoke a joint almost anywhere without getting caught. As far as my religious beliefs are concerned, you are dead right, and I'd like to add that you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Yes, He Sure Is a Dick
MUGGER: My favorite piece of soaring rhetoric from Al Gore's speech to the firefighters was, "No slogan ever put out a raging fire." Well, duh.
Kenny Alwes, Brentwood, TN
Tea Party
MUGGER: The latest flap over the Playboy mansion is yet another reason why I, as a Bronx Democrat, have reached the end of the line and will vote for the GOP.
To say that Al Gore did not know about this fundraiser is ridiculous. Was he out getting some iced tea when the plans were announced?
I am tired of this administration passing the buck and not taking responsibility for its actions. I will cast my vote for Bush, Cheney and Lazio, because voting for Al Gore is "too risky."
Donald Iarussi, Bronx
Has Exes, Lives in Texas
MUGGER: I'm just a middle-aged white guy in Texas who enjoys your column immensely. I appreciate your honesty and lack of pretense when commenting on the state of affairs, whether it be in your backyard of New York, or on the national stage. You bring a refreshing point of view to the table that is hard to find in the media, period. Liberal and conservative pundits alike tend to distort facts to fit their views to a certain agenda. When I read your column I don't detect that distortion.
I appreciate your references to your family from time to time, and believe that talking about your family in the context of your comments is not only appropriate but relevant. After all, how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. Framing how we live and how we think in the context of what is in the best interest of one's children is a noble and worthwhile purpose. While this may not be a conscious primary factor in how and what you choose to write, I do think and believe that complimenting you for it is within the bounds of propriety.
The public is quick to criticize when offended or challenged, and slow to offer praise when presented with sensible thoughts. Let me offer my efforts to reverse that trend. I look forward to reading your column in the future and to enjoying your clever presentation of ideas.
For the record, I am married and have five children by combined marriages (his and hers). We all love baseball. My oldest son is a college catcher (at Louisiana Tech) and my youngest son is a high school senior third baseman/shortstop. My loving wife is an avid statistician.
"Baseball is life; all the rest is details."
Tracy E. Meadows, Brenham, TX
Oy Gestalt
MUGGER: I have been a great admirer of your forthright writing and honesty for a long time.
It is a disappointment that you gave Joseph Lieberman a pass last week. When the true test of courage came, this "conscience" and great moral leader chose to do the sleazy thing and acquit a man who is nothing less than a stain on the presidency. The other Democratic senators certainly put on no airs of moral superiority.
How is it that an Orthodox Jew can be divorced, as well as constantly say "God," which is forbidden by the Torah and Mosaic Law?
Lastly, if Lieberman were a truly righteous man he would have showed great character in declining to run with scumbag Al Gore.
Just my thoughts.
Ron Oliverio, Farmington Hills, MI
Russ Smith replies: Readers must realize that Lieberman's selection was announced literally two hours before my deadline last week. I have fuller comments in this week's column. My initial reaction was that he was a smarter selection than John Kerry, say, but wouldn't win many votes Gore hadn't already locked up.
Jesse's Girl
MUGGER: I'm really not being facetious: I don't understand how Jesse Jackson, as antiquated and flawed a "politician" as he is, could be described as a hatemonger (8/9). He's said some regrettable things, but when you look at him do you really see a racist?
Robecca Glover, Brooklyn
Peyton Place
MUGGER: I guess the difference between us is that you believe George W. Bush when he speaks about a new inclusive Republican Party, and I don't. Not yet. And I know the party itself is still filled with venal race-baiters who couldn't care less about inclusion?the stink of the Southern strategy still wafts about the celebration?and are only keeping their mouths shut in hopes of winning the White House. But if the party truly can change, well, then, sure, that's good for politics and good for the country. But still.
Jesse Jackson is a lot of things, most of them tawdry, but he's hardly an Uncle Tom (8/9). If one wants to hurl that archaic term at someone?and I don't?the target might unfortunately be Colin Powell. A man who for some reason addresses the Republic National Convention with issues none of the delegates give a fuck about (like affirmative action) and then returns to the wings until the next time the Token-in-Chief's presence is required in order to, well, promote a little inclusion. I still can't figure out why he isn't a Democrat.
And as for the poll vault? Geesh. That 14-point bounce evaporated in record time, down to five points in a blink of the eye. Either the pollsters are nuts, or Shrub's support is a mile wide and an inch deep, or the Lieberman choice was the smartest thing Gore's ever done.
And hey, ease up on Hollywood. I'll say hi to Bubba for you at the West Wing party.
Harley Peyton, Santa Monica
They're Your Friends, Russ
Right on, MUGGER baby!
You keep on telling it like it is and like it should not be!
You are a voice of reality and reason in a season of exposure to fairytales, lies, mean-spiritedness and downright evil.
I hope your columns get read by the millions of voters who have long been bathed in the smell of the Clintons' administration.
Jim Myers, North Canton, OH
The Perfect Strom
MUGGER: One of the more ludicrous elements of Bill Clinton's attack on Bush's bona fides?the implicit criticism that his only qualification is his bloodline?was that sitting at stage right behind the Commander-in-Chief as he made this charge (at a Rhode Island fundraiser, if I remember correctly) were none other than the senior fat drunk senator from Massachusetts and his moron congressman son from Rhode Island.
Actually, though, I have concluded that whatever group of ancients it was (I read Death of a President too many years ago to remember precisely) had it right when they killed the king after his term of office had expired. My suggestion for updating that would be that we first extend it to all major political offices, and then include the rest of the family in the ritual. Imagine: no Gore, Bush brothers, Bayh junior, Andrew Cuomo, Liddy Dole, Kennedys or Hillary. Civic discourse would soar and tv news might be safe to watch again. And it would spare us the grotesque possibility that a Strom Thurmond offspring might be sitting in the Senate when 2100 rolls around.
Gene Salorio, Storrs, CT
Hamburger Hill
MUGGER: Will Hillary Clinton be to the 2000 convention what Mayor Daley was to the 1968 convention? If Hill loses, her foul mouth and bigoted ways should qualify her for a regular gig on the Howard Stern show.
Morris Roberts, Los Angeles
Land of the Horny Nutria
Except for the part about fucking the pig (I find goat pussy to be substantially tighter), Berkeley reader James Day's stern-lecture-in-a-prose-poem ("The Mail," 8/9) nailed me dead to rights. His ruthless unblinking eye omitted no unsavory detail: my youthful fling with the works of David Irving, the little IPO that couldn't, the esthetic shabbiness of caring for a dying parent, the thudding drudgery of Kinko's?all of them signposts on the Road to Philistinism that my loser DNA had, after all, doomed me to from birth. Bravo, you courageous Speaker of Ugly Truth, you! Some of the other lonely and bitter Libertarians here at the Klavern might write you off as a deer tick nestled on the yeasty balls of Academia, but not me!
Lou Manzato, New Orleans
That's for Lou Manzato
MUGGER: Would like for you to know that I usually enjoy reading your column, but there's one thing I find questionable. Do you need to have pictures of animals fornicating on the page? I'm referring to the J.T. (Terminator) Leroy ad up on your website.
Vote against Hillary for me!
Dave Darnell, Clarksville, MO
Connecticut Schnorrer in King Albert's Court
The Gore campaign's decision to promote Sen. Joseph Lieberman's faith as a reason to vote Democratic invites fair scrutiny as to what that belief system is all about.
Unlike their Reform or Conservative brethren, Orthodox Jews are not allowed to pick and choose those elements of observance that "work" for them. It's not a new-age religion. Traditional Judaism is a system of absolute laws that are, if anything, explicit. Observant Jews are encouraged to inquire, investigate and even argue those laws, but only to better understand them. The whole point is that they are G-d's eternal laws, above change or secular understanding.
Among those laws is an absolute ban on abortion except when the mother's life is endangered. There is simply no way an Orthodox Jew can be broadly pro-choice. An Orthodox congregation cannot accept a female rabbi, now or for all of time. In fact, Sen. Lieberman, in his morning prayers, thanks God for making him a male, the underlying explanation being that he appreciates the opportunity to express his devotion in ways not given to women.
Those are just two facts about Orthodox Judaism, and they are two reasons why Jewish feminists have a very hard time with it, to say the least. And the most worrisome schism in Israeli society isn't about how much land to return to the Palestinians. It's the ever-growing gap between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews.
Does this matter in the context of the presidential campaign? It wouldn't had the Gore campaign not made Sen. Lieberman's religious beliefs a selling point. Gov. Bush's beliefs and utterances were very much scrutinized by the media, which fretted mightily over their implications for church and state issues . But take Sen. Lieberman's speech in Nashville last Tuesday and put it in the mouth of a Christian Republican. Liberal pundits would howl.
Martin Kahan, Manhattan