Good Gay Pride Issue, But Where're the Real Lezzies?; We Will Burn in Hell for the Onion Dip; A Smattering of Praise for Taki and the Skin Flautists; Armond Gets Whacked; MUGGER's Missed; More
PLEASE help me, I'm desperate. Would someone at your venerable publication do an article on how wrong capri pants are on a man?
Name Withheld, Manhattan
Trashy Outing
Re Christopher Carbone's Q&A with Chris Crain (6/20). Maybe Mr. Crain should start by cleaning his own house before going on about his "outing" campaign. The fact that his own parents can't accept his being gay (e.g., not phoning his house for fear of Chris' boyfriend answering the phone) means that there is work to be done on the homefront. Being a public figure does not, in and of itself, give someone else the right to dictate said public figure's rights to something as private as sexual preferences. The only exception would be a public figure who has shown hateful attitudes or actions to the gay community, while remaining closeted. Could it be that Mr. Crain takes the point of view he does because it sells? I say, leave that trash to the Post or Daily News.
Gerardo Ramirez, Manhattan
Va! Gina!
In response to "Gay Pride Week Listings" on p. 60 (6/20), why didn't you people get a real lesbian to write that intro? The only reason I picked up your lame newspaper was because of the Gay Pride Week cover, which, by the way, had no drawings of women on it. Then I had the displeasure of reading a ridiculous article from a pitiful wannabe lesbian, Miss J.T. LeRoy. I have one thing to say to you, Miss LeRoy: a real lesbian would not say "a certain penis won my heart" unless it was a dildo. I have never heard a homosexual man say that "a certain pussy" won his heart. J.T., I'm glad you're back to licking smelly balls, and choking on dicks, cause you're a pitiful excuse for a lesbian.
Gina Lorenzo, Manhattan
Girlfriend Writes
Just wanted to send in a quick note to tell you how much I enjoyed the "Rod & Tyler" comic strip ("Cartoon Contest Winner," 6/20). It was very well-drawn. I hope I will see them published again.
Lisa Vogel, Levittown, NY
Friend of Rod?
Just a quick note to let you know: good choice on the winner of the cartoon contest (6/20). "Rod & Tyler" was great. I'd like to see some more.
William Powell, Copiague, NY
Friend of Tyler?
Just a quick note to tell you how much I enjoyed the winning comic strip "Rod & Tyler." I speak for myself and many friends when I say it would be a welcomed addition as a regular feature in each and every issue.
Christine Horvath, Mineola, NY
It Was All Ironical and Stuff
In John Strausbaugh's 6/21 "Daily Billboard" piece, he blasts Washington Post writer Libby Copeland for the content of her article (which I agree is not newsworthy), as well as for her use of cliches, specifically her decision to open her article with "Once upon a time..." I find it humorous that Strausbaugh's typically elitist attempt to belittle this writer begins with the line, "Adding insult to injury..." It would be yet another cliche for me to slyly refer to his use of cliche to mock someone else's use of cliche with a cliche of my own, but as it happens I am simply not clever enough to think of one.
Matthew Carpenter, Manhattan
Home of the Brave
Congratulations on the brilliant ad on p. 27 in the 6/13 New York Press. A bowl of Lipton onion dip, held by a grinning man about to receive Holy Communion?wow. It really takes courage to mock and ridicule Christianity's sacred beliefs.
If your aim was to alienate the faithful and have them boycott Lipton products, you may have succeeded beyond your wildest dreams.
Andrea Bucher-McAdams, Manhattan
Note to Selves: Spike the Exploding Matzoh Ball Ad...
While I'm certain you couldn't care less, I still wanted to comment that the Lipton ad in the 6/13 New York Press was a very low blow against Catholics. I was really angered, not only at Lipton, but by your poor judgment in printing such a very offensive advertisement. Communion is the most holy moment in the Catholic mass. Would you run an ad of a Jew during a Passover meal smiling while slipping a piece of bacon on his matzoh? For goodness sakes, use a little better judgment next time.
Vince Michalak, St. Louis
...And the One with the Vinyl Siding on the Kabbah
Your ad depicting a person on a Communion line in a Catholic church with a dish of onion dip is extremely offensive and never should have been printed.
The act of Holy Communion in the Catholic church is, for the true believer, the act of receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ. To reduce this to an onion dip commercial shows at best a callous disregard for the feelings of Catholics and at worst contempt for them. I am not even a practicing Catholic and I found the ad offensive. It is sad to think how many people in the manufacturing company, the advertising company and your paper passed on this ad without seeing its offensive nature.
Mario C. Henry, Flushing
Catholic Gall
The website the Smoking Gun is apparently run by Catholic zealots. Last week they ran an image of the Lipton ad that ran in New York Press recently (6/13), which showed a guy standing in line to receive communion while holding a bowl of onion dip. Ooh, that's heavy stuff, especially if you're a member of the Catholic League or on staff at the Smoking Gun.
They wrote that they had "seen some offensive ads before, but this one from Lipton is particularly galling..." I don't imagine we'll ever see that ad again, which is a shame. It was genuinely funny and hardly mean-spirited or at all critical (which is not to say that it's wrong to criticize religion). Thin-skinned special interests are making this quite a square country to live in.
Tom O'Connell, Manhattan
Gilding the Lily
After all of the generous coverage New York Press has extended to writers espousing alternative viewpoints on the cause of AIDS, I was a bit disappointed that the subject was ignored during Christopher Carbone, Russ Smith and John Strausbaugh's interview with Michelangelo Signorile (6/20). Granted, the interview wasn't specifically geared in that direction, but I'm certain it would have generated some provocative commentary and improved an already superb piece. By the way, why isn't the long-form interview a standard feature in every issue? It should be.
Josh Tate, Los Angeles
Lost and Found
Congratulations, Jim Knipfel, on rescuing neglected Alabama writer Tito Perdue and introducing him to us ("America's Lost Literary Genius," 6/6). After reading your fascinating piece, I raced to my favorite book dealer, who happened to have his first novel Lee (1991) in stock. As Knipfel warned, it is outstanding: a witty, poignant, devastating portrayal of the "New South." I have forwarded the article to all lovers of Southern literature I know. One e-mailed me back: "Man, isn't it amazing that we're finding out about our unknown Southern writers from the New York Press? Who would've guessed?" Keep up the good work and great articles.
D.M. Martin, Bethesda, MD
Hey, Wait a Minute...
MUGGER: "George W. Bush is as shrewd a politician abroad as he is at home" ("Daily Billboard," 6/18). The sword cuts both ways on that one, doesn't it? A despised, unconscious doofus at home, a despised, unconscious doofus abroad.
Matthew Holm, Queens
Give the MUG a Break
MUGGER: Please don't take off a week again. Bob Herbert seems less hysterical, Maureen Dowd is actually funny and Krugman is making me consider giving my tax rebate back.
Robert Alberty, Bronx
Lenny Said a Mouthful
Dear John Derbyshire: Lenny Bruce said all there was to be said about the movement away from ye olde-fashioned sex and the orality that was sweeping the nation ("Taki's Top Drawer," 6/20). He caught it in midstream so to speak.
Fred Lapides, Orange, CT
Play on, Flautist
The use of the term "flute player" as a sly reference to a fellator or fellatrix is evidently of ancient lineage ("Taki's Top Drawer," 6/20). Ptolemy XII, a younger brother of Cleopatra and (until she had him assassinated) her co-ruler of Egypt, was an accomplished flautist. He was popularly called Auletes (or Avletes), meaning "the flute player," a sly reference to his purported sexual preferences. When I was a teenager growing up in New York more than 40 years ago, it was not uncommon to hear homosexuals disparaged as "flute players" or persons who "play the meat flute." I would be surprised if the allusion were all that uncommon in Europe at the same time.
Edmund J. Gannon, Margate, NJ
Retro-Bush
Christopher Caldwell claims that Britain and France lacked the zeal to defend Poland in the 1930s ("Hill of Beans," 6/20). In what way does declaring war in 1939 and sacrificing so many young men reflect a lack of commitment?
In his analysis of the President's recent trip to Europe, Caldwell, like many journalists, underestimates Bush's skills. Bush is determined to avoid the mistakes of his father, which led to his defeat in 1992. After the collapse of communism in Europe, Bush senior lost one of the primary reasons many Americans voted for him. Junior wants to antagonize Russia by spending billions on a missile-defense pipedream and by admitting the Baltic states into NATO. Then Russia will again rattle its sabers and Bush will be able to call the Democrats "soft on the neo-Commies" in 2004.
My view is that the purpose of NATO was to contain communism from absorbing any more states than it had by the late 1940s. Having accomplished that goal and more, NATO should disband. The only purpose it serves today is nostalgia for the 1950s.
Kenneth Hermann, Manhattan
Beastly Critic
It takes a lot for a critic to piss me off since I have so much respect for the profession, but Armond White accomplished it with his ill-conceived column of 6/13. While it would seem the article was supposed to be a review of the good new film Sexy Beast, White digressed into a wacky rant against The Sopranos with asides lambasting Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas and others.
Certainly, White is within his rights to express his misgivings about The Sopranos (though one wonders why, since the column implies a long-standing grudge against the series, he was still watching it by the time Annabella Sciorra and Burt Young showed up in the most recent season). If he wants to spit into the wind about how misguided all fans of the show are for liking it, he needs to pick a better forum for his gripes. He's done a great disservice to Sexy Beast. It's a good movie. Too bad few readers will realize he liked it since so little of his column was devoted to it.
Scott Schuldt, Oklahoma City
Conscience Point
MUGGER: I can't quite concur with the notion that the Times' calling for Clinton's impeachment would have "given Democratic senators cover to vote their conscience." (6/13) The idea that any but the merest handful (Breaux perhaps, and Miller) have a conscience seems unlikely.
Tim O'Brien, Scituate, MA
Way-Back Machine
MUGGER: Way back in 1964 when I worked in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign, The New York Times "led the pack" of liberal attack dogs who made Barry "ground zero." Aside from open editorial attacks, it spun the news and often lied outright in covering him. The Times was indignant at our revision of its famous masthead to read, "All the News that's Fit to Tint." As usual, the truth hurts and we hit 'em with it throughout the campaign. The description aptly fits their activities today.
Ken Wyman, Huntsville, AL
Like Clooney, Only Good-Looking
I've been entertained by Taki since I was a teenager back in the days of his Esquire column. Now I'm a helluva lot smarter and more experienced (read: older), and I'm even more entertained. Yet I've never seen a picture of him. Forward this e-mail to him: Taki, the world (and nearly everyone in it) these days is boring as hell, but you make it far less so. What's your drink of choice? Send me a photograph.
Luke Ercole Rosa, Mount Vernon, NY
Love and Kisses
Congratulations, Taki! Your first kiss with the Swedish tourist ("Top Drawer," 6/20) must have been unforgettable, since the biggest fantasy of young Greek men is to kiss a woman without a mustache.
Sinuakin Fiksumpi, Manhattan
Q.E.D.
TakI: You're writing that Swedes are boring and walk around naked ("Top Drawer," 6/20). And what are you Americans like then? Spring break?what is that? It's a party where the kids can have sex, probably not for the first time, without the parents knowing it. And what you don't know about is okay. But when you're at home, they're not allowed to have sex, so they do it in your cars. Is that one, two or three moral standards?
Perhaps you should look at your own country before you start writing about countries you know nothing about.
Stefan Glimne, Vara, Sweden
What About Brando?
Taki, I'd rather be bored by some blonde skinny Swede than by some fat American slob ("Top Drawer," 6/20).
Paul Demers, via Internet
Those Darn Ukrainians
I thank New York Press for printing my letter on Ukrainian immigration ("The Mail," 6/13), which you headed "Nice Attitude, Paige," and though Slivka called me "stupid," I must point out that I am much older than Slivka and I have a long memory.
I was a young adult in the 1940s when World War II was at its worst. My friends and I read the Times and other New York papers daily, and we kept reading about the many Ukrainians who joined the German army during the invasion. Invasion and occupation by a violent army are horrible experiences, and there were collaborators in several European countries. Their punishments after the war were equally horrible. Ukranian collaborators were terrified, of course, and flooded out of the USSR. Those with blood on their hands knew there would be severe punishments, such as a long "vacation" in the Arctic Circle.
In the United States during the late 1940s there was a great deal of public controversy about the collaborators' fates, and the U.S. did accept quite a number of collaborators, on the grounds that they had been forced to cooperate by the Nazis. Many Americans resented this.
I was always interested in the subject because one of my great-grandmothers had come from the Ukraine in the 19th century.
Paige Riding, Brooklyn
Turtle Torture
Regarding Mary Karam's write-up of the Dragon Land Bakery ("Scouting Report," 6/20), she was right when describing how customers can sit and eat while watching fish or turtles trapped inside the tables. When I stopped at the bakery recently, I noticed that the "tanktables" were only half-full, the water murky and the fish practically lying on top of each other with no room to swim. But their plight is nothing compared to that of the turtles. These turtles are big and the tanks are small. A turtle can only walk six inches before hitting a wall, so there is nothing for it to do but sit tight and occasionally glance up at some idiotic customer stuffing her face with a hotdog.
It really seems wrong to use animals, reptiles, etc., as pure amusement while giving them no quality of life. I hope that anyone else who agrees will please speak to the manager at Dragon Land Bakery.
D. Gilbert, Manhattan
Credit Where It's Due
I think that you have a responsibility to give due credit to the well-known phrase, "a dream deferred" ("Taki's Top Drawer," 6/20). For Carol Iannone to say she is "paraphrasing from Steele" leads me to believe that she is ignorant of the allusion to Langston Hughes' brilliant poem of that name. Steele is certainly overtly borrowing the phrase. To not mention this seems either ignorant or disrespectful.
Erin Durkin, Boston
Taki, So Delicious
This one is vintage Taki ("Top Drawer," 6/20). Deliciously irreverent and so true.
Bob Kress, Staten Island
Aarping on Taki
Why does a hip weekly like New York Press embarrass itself by publishing Taki and his minions? Taki, when not ranting and repeating himself ad nauseam, lives entirely in the past; his minions delude themselves into thinking that anyone actually gives a shit about their boring goings-on. (At least Toby Young was amusing, which is more than you can say about drips like Charles Glass.)
If for some psychological reason Taki needs an audience, he should write for Modern Maturity. I hear they are looking for geezers to puff up their publication. Surely New York Press can do better.
Jack Forsyth, Manhattan
Affirmative Action for Acidheads
Reading Carol Iannone's recent article ("Taki's Top Drawer," 6/20) about the decline in support for affirmative action and the diminution of admissions standards based on tests like the SAT compels me to mention that, for many intelligent kids who find high school to be intolerably boring, the SAT provides the only admissions criterion that can potentially save them from a life spent pumping gas.
At my own high school, for example, I was one of only five students wonky enough to enroll in AP physics for that year. At the time, I was strung out on drugs, suicidally depressed and so hopelessly bored that I came close to failing every other class I had that semester. My classmate Jeff, who was an even bigger acidhead than I, performed similarly.
Given our, ahem, predilections, imagine the school administration's surprise when Jeff scored a perfect 800 on his math SAT and was offered a scholarship to MIT. I didn't do quite as well, but I still did well enough to be accepted to Columbia, despite my "C" average. If it weren't for the SAT, Jeff and I would have fallen down the rabbit hole long ago. I call SAT scores "affirmative action for the weird."
Zachary Siegel, Manhattan
Gimme Gimme Global Warming
Alexander Cockburn and his scientific sidekick Pierre Sprey correctly report that there are uncertainties associated with the roles of aerosols and atmospheric water in global warming ("Wild Justice," 6/20). Cockburn denies that global warming is at least partly induced by human activities, and he concludes that "...it's arguable that the more sulfate particles you put in the air, the more rain you cause, and the more you cool the Earth."
Let's return to the IPCC Working Group I Summary report . The IPCC reports that sulfate concentrations in Greenland ice have increased about 400 percent since 1900. During the 20th century, precipitation increased up to 1 percent per decade in parts of the northern hemisphere, and cloud cover increased 2 percent over mid-high latitude land areas. But atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane have risen 31 percent and 151 percent, respectively, since 1750, and the global average surface temperature has increased 1.1 degree F. since 1900.
The Earth has warmed, even with the possible cooling effects of rising sulfate concentrations and increased precipitation. According to the IPCC report, "The warming over the last 50 years due to anthropogenic greenhouse gases can be identified despite uncertainties in forcing due to anthropogenic sulfate aerosol..." Perhaps the skeptical Cockburn/Sprey team should shift its emphasis from model-debunking to an examination of existing data.
John Cantilli, Cranford, NJ
Alexander Cockburn replies: As the National Academy of Sciences tactfully hinted in its recent report on the state of climate change science, the IPCC is increasingly self-selecting, particularly in terms of governmental representatives committed to the model ascribing a huge and malign role to anthropogenic greenhouse gases. The IPCC report fudges numbers and probabilities to a scandalous degree. Though straining to be agreeable to the IPCC report, the panel of scientists assembled by the NAS stated flatly, "Because of the large and still uncertain level of natural variability inherent in the climate record and the uncertainties in the time histories of the various forcing agents (and particularly aerosols), a causal linkage between the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the observed climate changes during the 20th century cannot be unequivocally established."
You want to impose the Kyoto protocol on the foundation of that sort of qualifier? My point has always been that the greenhousers rely on computer-driven models that exclude inconvenient data, such as the effects of water. Incidentally, anyone who knows Pierre Sprey would scarcely describe him as a "sidekick" to anyone or anything.
Son of Global Warming
Alexander Cockburn made a valiant return to the global warming debate in this week's issue of New York Press. While I must commend him on a more coherent argument than last time (3/14), he is still seriously confused about the science involved.
He claims that a recent paper in Nature (from which he helpfully extracts the main figure) actually shows that the world cooled between 1970 and 1997. The argument rests on the assumption that the net warming or cooling of the planet is arrived at by integrating the area under the curve in the figure. That would be true only for a graph of irradiance, not brightness temperature. Even if the graph was of the right quantity, the spectral region highlighted is nothing like wide enough to get an estimate of the change in total heating or cooling.
He is also wrong in assuming that the positive areas above the curve are due to the cooling effects of water vapor. In reality, it is because the planet was actually warmer in 1997 compared to 1970, which naturally leads to increased brightness temperatures in the regions not effected by greenhouse gas absorption (i.e., away from the spikes). Most of the water vapor effect is felt at wavelengths considerably off the scale of this graph.
The interest in this paper was that for the first time researchers had been able to document a change in the radiation balance at the planetary scale, almost exactly in line with calculations made with "a priori" models of atmospheric physics (the second line in the figure). How this can be twisted into an argument that models are completely hopeless is a mystery to me.
I realize that radiative transfer is not necessarily Mr. Cockburn's strong point, but might I suggest he switch scientific advisers to someone who knows what they are talking about?
Gavin Schmidt, Manhattan
Alexander Cockburn replies: Schmidt's invective beats his science. He simply cannot focus on details. I never claimed that the world cooled between 1970 and 1997. Indeed, I said I believe that it warmed up, though not because of greenhouse gases caused by humans. Schmidt maintains that our arguments are wrong because we were trying to calculate a heat balance, and brightness temperature is not the way to do that. This is true, but brightness is not only a valid indicator of whether the cooling effects of water vapor, as shown in the graph, are larger than the heating effects of CO2 and methane, but brightness temperature substantially understates the relative effect of water vapor. Why? Because the irradiance that Schmidt so happily leaps upon increases as the fourth power of temperature. So what look like small temperature differences on the graph are in fact much bigger differences in irradiance.
Schmidt is quick to denounce our reading of the "positive areas" above the curve as due to the cooling effect of water vapor. This shows how slapdash is his reading of the Nature article, whose authors in fact think that a much more probable reason than the warming of the Earth for the positive areas is absorption due to ice particles in clouds, ergo water again. As for his point that "most of the water vapor effect is felt at wavelengths considerably off the scale of this graph," we couldn't agree more, and it makes the crime of ignoring water vapor even worse.
The Nature paper does not prove that greenhouse models work, nor does it claim to. In that respect it's quite restrained. What it's really saying is that the measurements over the central Pacific are consistent with their calculation of absorption of CO2, methane, ozone and some CFCs in the atmosphere. Schmidt has hopelessly confounded this technically narrow calculation of heat absorption with global heat balance models.
We never said their model didn't work, though they mangled the data. Indeed we were inclined to think their calculations were probably right?which is why we were happy to point out that, on the basis of these same calculations, the cooling effect of water is vastly more important than the heating effect of CO2 and methane. I hope Schmidt isn't advising anyone on science. His certitudes are plump, but he can't concentrate on the precise issues under review.
Global Warming vs. Godzilla
Since I didn't respond to the last global warming article, I must write in about this one. Alexander, thank you so much for such a succinct, well-written and factually correct dissertation. It proves that the anticapitalist, anti-industrial and anti-American crowd, usually your fellow-travelers in the political realm, are using a giant misinformation campaign enabled by scientifically illiterate reporters and politicians of the left for the short-term political advantage it gives them. Besides, I love a science adviser who doesn't mince words. If it fucks it up then that's the best term. Wish the DC weenies, both left and right, would be so up-front.
Anyway, wanted you to know my opinion that it's a great article and though I almost always disagree with your politics, I love and enjoy your writing.
As for MUGGER: You ruined my Tuesday! Come back.
Mike Daley, San Andreas, CA
Wanton Vocabulary
Y'all have really been dropping off of late. I used to be able to circle unfamiliar words regularly, reveling in newfound terms such as hagiographic and tendentiousness. This week I was only able to underline a few terms that I feel I should use more often, like interstice and wanton. Wanton has a lovely mouthfeel. Just for the benefit of saying that word alone, I would commit wanton acts of mathematics.
In any case, if your writers have not been able to dredge up some archaic terminology, your editors should insert them. It would be a regular verbal Easter egg hunt. If your writers have been using just as many esoteric terms as before, stop cutting them out!
Mary Pat Campbell, Flushing
From the Frontlines of Fellatio
Even though I feel a little awkward talking about such a serious subject as fellatio, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed John Derbyshire's informative article ("Taki's Top Drawer," 6/20). Fellatio is something like an epidemic in teenage circles. It's a little sickening because it is done without taste and without restraint. Girls usually perform it at will to even the most busted of the bunch and what's worse they don't even ask for much in return. Of course, these aren't the ladies who have the most developed intellect...but some smart girls do it, too.
It's accepted in the high school society as a sexual norm. Boys drool at the thought of getting fellatio performed on them. Somehow it's become a rite of passage into manhood?something like if you get "head" you're finally not only a man, but a hot, able man.
I think it's taken the place of sex partly because it's somehow more innocent, and there is no work involved for the carriers of the XY chromosomes?it is a free, joyous ride. I agree with Derbyshire about the "compromise" thing, but I think there might be more to it. It might be that girls have a compulsive need to hold on to their male friend, because why else would any girl do that? It's degrading and more importantly not mutually fulfilling?most of the time.
The question of why fellatio is so prevalent in our society puzzles me too. I asked someone who was a teenager in the 1970s in Yugoslavia how it was in her time. In contrast to Derbyshire's statement about his teenage years, she said that fellatio was almost common in relationships. Now it is a little different and much more impersonal. Boys tend to get fellatio performed on them at a much earlier age, so they become "siti," as the Yugoslavs would say, or sexually satiated by the time they're 18.
Of course, maybe everyone did it in the past and it just wasn't talked about, but Derbyshire's story seems to refute that. When girls are so willing to perform fellatio, men will not desire sex. Fellatio shouldn't be taken lightly, especially with evidence suggesting that HIV can be spread by oral sex.
Name Withheld, Manhattan
It's a Cinch
After having his ass kicked by Swedish guys and being rejected by Swedish girls, no wonder Taki does not like Swedes ("Top Drawer," 6/20).
Mark Koss, Larchmont, NY
Taki's Rolling Paper
Taki: Your 6/20 column was brilliant. You are as usual a breath of fresh air, instead of the stale media air that is so prevalent. Keep that pen rollin', rollin' on the paper.
Name Withheld, via Internet
No Pity for the Poor Immigrant
Re Scott McConnell, "Stemming the Flow" ("Taki's Top Drawer," 6/13). High-fives to Ms. Merkel in Germany. The corporations that want to become richer through cheap labor by exploiting these poor people?immigration from Third World countries, both legal and illegal?should be content to just make their 1000-percent profit.
Ms. Merkel is right in believing that each nation needs to preserve its culture and borders. As a legal immigrant myself and now an American citizen, I love to see other immigrants like myself assimilate to American culture and become real Americans. However, with legal and illegal immigration out of control, foreigners are not being assimilated into American culture. On the contrary, Americans are being told that they have to learn foreign languages if they want to work with immigrants. Because of the enormous numbers of these immigrants, our society is becoming like the Balkans. The politicians take advantage of this, pandering to each group and pitting them against one another. I consider the current situation to be the result of dishonest, greedy politicians that put commerce before country. I include in this distinguished group the President of the United States, Mr. Mi-casa-es-su-casa-Bush.
Haydee Pavia, West Hills, CA
Whatever It Takes
RE "Stemming the Flow": Our Constitution says our military is to be used to protect our borders. Why then are we reluctant to do so? Our borders resemble a dike with a large rupture, through which pour thousands of illegals and God knows what else. Let's emulate Europe and most of the world by maintaining secure borders. Using whatever it takes.
Bill Rouchell, River Ridge, LA
Merkel Fan
Thanks for your well-reasoned article about stemming the flow and about Frau Merkel's thoughtful position on immigration. My thoughts and well-wishes go with her. The other world globalist leaders?and that certainly includes ours?can screw themselves, if you'll pardon my earthiness. I hope she does indeed shake up the world's crooked establishment[s].
Larry Jordan, Portland, OR