Readers on Our New Online "Billboard" Feature; Dumb Ex-Marines; Tiger's Economics; Is Taki Real?; Rock Critics vs. Doughty
I don't know how Jim Knipfel ("Slackjaw," 2/21) can enliven the soul-crushing routine of his life, but I can at least tell you how to suck 16 stones in the right order. You just start out with five pockets: four with four stones in each of them, and one that is empty at the beginning.
Molloy must have been a fucking moron if he couldn't figure that out, or maybe Beckett was.
Wayne Hepner, Staten Island
Wallflower
Loved the John Ellis, Rich Turner, Dave Kansas thing (John Strausbaugh, "After the Goldrush: New Media Mavens Combat Internet Fatigue," 2/21). Let me embarrass myself at the next one! Really terrific stuff, and very much honest about the state of things.
James J. Cramer, Manhattan
Transmission from Mars
Christopher Caldwell ("Hill of Beans," 2/21) sounds like an angry, dejected Clintonite/liberal DemocRAT who voted for Gore and cannot handle a Bush/Republican victory. After all, people like him winked at and excused the Clintons' behavior over the past eight years, so he should not talk about logic. Caldwell should get a life, or the next eight years will consume him.
Jerry Pownall, Fredericksburg, VA
Sub, Marine
A few comments on what Andrey Slivka posted ("e-Billboard," 2/22) about the reader reaction to Christopher Caldwell's 2/21 column. I am particularly disgusted by the correspondent who wrote in to insult Caldwell and who claims to have been a Marine.
My grandfather was at Guadalcanal, and I know he would've been ashamed as well. My father, when young and cocky, decided to ask Grandpa, "How many Japs did you kill in the war?" My grandfather smacked my father hard across the face. Grandpa saw some pretty horrific stuff, and though he was proud to have been a Marine, he didn't trick himself into thinking the Japanese he had been fighting were subhuman. The guy who wrote in attacking Caldwell is obviously a moron.
That said, I'm gonna make a guess that as more and more of the facts come out, these same blowhards railing about the Japs will start saying that it wasn't the Navy's fault, but rather that of the civilians aboard, conveniently forgetting who allowed the civilians on in the first place.
I appreciated Mr. Caldwell's article, because I didn't quite understand why an "emergency surfacing drill" would be enacted while civilians were on board. It does begin to make sense, and I hope after this incident big donors will be wined, dined and shown slides of all the neat, nifty equipment our military gets to use, instead of being taken on very expensive joyrides.
Mary Pat Campbell, via Internet
Dead in the Water
I thought I'd just congratulate you guys for the wonderful job you're doing with the new online daily "Billboard" feature. It's a gas.
Except, of course, for that bloody Andrey Slivka, who is still idealistic enough to think that because people have access to the Internet they would also be literate, circumspect, thoughtful and reasonable. I would have said, "Kudos especially to Andrey Slivka for flushing out the dumb shits who use the Internet like an intellectual latrine," but then Slivka would've never bothered to read this letter. Up yours, Slivka: keep up the good work.
And two cents for Christopher Caldwell: you're right, and the U.S. Navy is wrong. The bitch of it is that military honor didn't outlast the Clinton years?those guys were supposed to be better than their previous Colostomy-in-Chief. This incident is a national scandal for which we should not only apologize but pay recompense.
Frank Turk, Pittsburgh
Dead Twerps
John Strausbaugh's "After the Goldrush" piece (2/21) reminded me of the temp gigs I had between December 1999 and January 2000. I took phone calls from folks betting huge amounts of money on a certain Internet concern. The next week I started a spell at an investment house just launching an Internet-focused fund. "Can I go in with $50,000?" was one investor's question. If only he knew the business plans the firm was sifting through. All of them painfully stupid?but yet the money people there were prepared to put money in these "ideas." That the NASDAQ 100 is still trading at whatever insane level Strausbaugh cited foreshadows more e-doom and e-gloom for the junior masters of the universe. Good riddance. The irrational exuberance of the Internet and the spectacular crash is a particularly fitting metaphor for the Clinton years and America's coming troubles in foreign policy.
It's good to see Scott McConnell back in "Taki's Top Drawer" (2/21) after the hard-fought Buchanan campaign. His "We're Not Humble" and Taki's own "A Symposium" were a good one-two punch of the sort that keeps New York Press so enjoyable to read and think about. What will bring this great nation the most trouble in the next four years? A safe bet is that America's passionate attachment to Israel, along with our short-sighted policies on Iran/q (pick one!) and Libya and anywhere else in the Middle East, combined with the Bush administration's NMD fetish, will find our country standing alone with a miserable little country against our allies and the rest of the world. Let's hope Condoleezza Rice can make her voice heard amidst all the noise, soon.
And perhaps, MUGGER, you could devote a little more ink to New York City and state politics in your always entertaining column. Just a thought.
Name Withheld, Queens
Probably
Please tell me: Is this guy Taki a joke? He's nothing but a caricature, created to provoke readers, right? This must be the explanation because his arrogance is so profound, I almost find it hard to believe. His notion of what constitutes a gentleman is so dated and sexist that if it wasn't so offensive might actually be funny.
His piece "Alimony" ("Top Drawer," 2/14) was just another example. All of his writing about friends in high places and his womanizing is incredibly tiring. Enough of this crap about men of honor. There is nothing in his privileged existence that sounds terribly honorable.
Is he really any better than Bill Clinton?
D. Gilbert, Manhattan
Smells Like Freelancer
What, exactly, is Andrey Slivka's banal attempt at a mood piece doing in the 2/14 New York Press food section? Some eight-plus dull paragraphs on fighting fish, comments on the "gynocracy" of Park Slope and two cursory and uninformative sentences on what he ate.
New York Press has a number of talented writers whose insightful, varied proseworks are a pleasure to consume, from "Sign Language" to "Bronx Stroll" to the film critics to even the obits. (Everyone should check out Michael Yockel's online piece about Eddie Parker in the New York Press website archives.)
Slivka's column was no fighting fish; it was a limp, decaying flounder. Please let me know when new applicants are being considered.
Seth Boigon, Manhattan
Central Time
I enjoy New York Press' columns?nay, the entire issue each week?for the guffaws and general mirth that is induced. Always a good read, especially on the ride home on the el train. Keep up the good work, all!
Kip Krady, Chicago
The Three Jakes
In regards Russ Smith's 2/21 online "Billboard" post about Michael Wolff's Fox News article, I really believe Michael Wolff is Michael Tomasky is Jake Tapper?I don't believe anyone has ever seen the three of them in the same room together, and their prose and political opinions are virtually interchangeable conventional liberal boilerplate.
If they are not the same person, then it's possible the secret to human cloning already has been discovered and tested in New York magazine's offices.
Rebecca McChesney, via Internet
Field-Stripped
MUGGER: Love it. Just read your stuff for the first time and it's beautiful: no crap, no literature, no hemming, no hawing, no b.s. Just the truth, baby, indisputably. Great minds think alike.
Michael Hammond, San Diego
Sub, but No Heroes
MUGGER: So a U.S. Navy submarine, piloted by a Texas oil man, kills some Japanese school kids. Were Clinton still in office, congressional Republicans would now spend millions of dollars trying to pin it on him. I've got no argument with you that Clinton is a lying scumbag?just stop pretending he's any worse than the rest of them.
On another note?consistently great stuff in the last few issues! The history of garbage was fantastic (John Strausbaugh, "Publishing," 2/14) and the kind of readable professional journalism that puts you above the Village Voice. Good Thomas Paine biography ("Old Smoke," 1/31, 2/14) by William Bryk.
Jason Goodrow, Manhattan
Cargo Shorts
Lionel Tiger is on target when he points out ("Human Follies," 2/21) that economics' widely used assumption that all actors in an economy are behaving with omniscient rationality disconnects it from the real world and leads to its dismal record in prediction.
One of the reasons that economists cling to the myth of rationality is that it makes the math tractable. This is important if you want to cloak your endeavor in the aura of science, and you believe that this can be achieved only if you can express your knowledge in mathematical terms. This desire for respectability through mathematics is, I believe, the sort of thing Richard Feynman warned against in a widely anthologized 1974 Cal Tech commencement address, in which he compared pseudosciences to post-WWII Pacific island cargo cults, seeking to recapture the fruits of a technological culture simply by erecting the facade of a working airfield, without any of the technology that could actually deliver the goods, and without any comprehension of the reasons for failure. It should be required reading for anyone seeking enlightenment (or stock tips from the experts, for that matter).
Andrew Raybould, Irvington, NY
Fast-Food Imperium
Scott McConnell's observations on the emergent national security policy of the new administration are altogether on point and most disquieting ("Taki's Top Drawer," 2/21). Triumphalism remains in vogue, and the hopes for a normal America are very much in question. Consider, among much other evidence, Secretary Rumsfeld's mostly inscrutable and occasionally alarming comments on NMD at the recent NATO meetings.
Perhaps Mr. McConnell will have an opportunity to ask the Secretary why, after an NMD is deployed, a malevolent and suicidal state wishing to visit the U.S. with a nuclear weapon would not deliver it by merchant ship? Does the Secretary have a coherent response? Or did he just arrive from another planet and is unfamiliar with human ingenuity?
Larry Wade, professor of political science, UC Davis, Davis, CA
We'd Rather Wait for the G Train
MUGGER is totally wrong (2/14) if he believes that the Hollies and the Searchers had nonstop top 10 hits in the 1960s. According to Joel Whitburn's book cataloguing the Billboard charts, the Hollies had just three top 10 songs: "Bus Stop," "Stop Stop Stop" and "Carrie Anne." And miraculously, the Searchers had only one top 10 song: "Love Potion #9" peaked at three. "Needles And Pins" got to 13 and "Don't Throw Your Love Away" stalled at 16.
And here's a word to the wise. Never correct MUGGER by sending e-mail to the address at the end of his column, unless you want to receive a rant that begins, "Who the fuck are you and your music knowledge sucks..."
I hope I won't be waiting long for my apology.
Stu Taubel, Manhattan
A Billion Served
I like your New York Press. It is interesting and informative. I am glad that I have learned something from the paper.
I never heard the term "post clock" until I read the article "post clocks" by Mary Karam ("Scouting Report," 1/31). I came from China; I've been living in New York City for many years. I am surprised that there have been a lot of post clocks in New York City. I am so interested that I checked my dictionary, asked my friends what kind of a clock is a post clock. I could not find it in my dictionary, or my friends did not know, either. Mary Karam tells me that it "would have to be the clock in the sidewalk," and "it's an old-fashioned clock, embedded in the sidewalk under thick glass." I love to see them. Luckily, there are only eight of them left in New York City. It is American culture and history.
New York Press is an interesting paper. It is also free for everyone who likes to read. It carries a lot of stuff. I learned a new thing from it. It gives me a free additional education while I learn English, too. I like New York Press, and I will tell my friends to read it.
Guojian Xu, via Internet
When You Chose Not to Decide (You Still Have Made a Choice)
Mike Doughty: What's dumber, writing about rock records, or writing about the writers who write about rock records ("Music," 2/21)? What happened, you didn't get your ballot?
James F. Kenney, Whitestone
Sold Our Souls for Rock 'n' Roll
Okay, I'm one of the 586 people Mike Doughty accused of leading pathetic lives because they voted in the "Pazz and Jop" poll this year. He's probably right about some of them, but I'm not normally a jerk, I don't think voting in the poll makes me one and I suspect I'm not alone.
"Some insecurity drives you to think your opinions worthless unless musical quality can be quantified with a chart," he accuses. But this is wrong on both counts. For one, I never claimed my opinions are "worth" anything in themselves to begin with, chart or not. They're interesting to you if they lead you somewhere. I didn't vote in the poll to validate my opinions (I better not have, since half my choices received no votes others than mine), I voted so 10 albums I loved last year would make it onto the list somewhere.
And more importantly, the tabulation of results is the least revealing part of the poll, by far. Much more interesting, to somebody who cares a lot about music and doesn't care at all about exactly how many votes Outkast and Eminem got, are the ballots themselves. Ignore the goofy point system, ignore everybody who only voted for the crap they think they're supposed to vote for, ignore the artificiality of only getting to pick 10, and you still have at least a hundred or two tantalizing little lists of potentially life-transforming records to which the Village Voice is giving some exposure they wouldn't otherwise have had.
So plug some records you liked into the search page, see who voted for them, then see what else those people voted for. See who else voted for those things, and what else they liked. Yes, no doubt some of those records were things they got in the mail, but some of them are brilliant albums somebody put heroic energy into finding and understanding. They're now trying, through a ballot?because that's one tiny way to maybe get your attention?to tell you about them, to tell you what a loss it is in your life that you haven't heard them.
Glenn McDonald, via Internet
The Spin Room
Mike Doughty: I knew I'd live to regret calling your singing whiny and supercilious in a Spin review six years ago. Not only did you seem like an otherwise smart guy with good taste, but you also wrote about music for New York Press, which seems to mean you write mostly about music writers.
Anyway, I wanted to say that I appreciate your comments about my dumb opinions and wasted life. But I also wanted to address a few minor points from your "Pazz and Jop" aneurysm.
First, regarding my idiocy in listing "using high-powered attorneys to quash a democratic movement (Napster)" among the actions that make Dr. Dre, the public figure, similar to our new president. Believe it or not, I, too, have more complicated feelings about file-sharing software than will fit in a whimsical 10-word blurb. I'm also aware that Napster has high-powered attorneys, but thanks for the heads-up. In fact, thanks for mentioning the one Napster lawyer, David Boies, who also led the fight for a ballot recount in Florida, although I don't know if you consider voting a democratic movement.
Thanks, too, for crediting me with "sum[ming] up the critic's frustrated mind-set," as daunting as that task sounds, by calling Dre emotionally detached. But while I agree that Dr. Dre is obviously emotional about making beats, I'd love to know what his cold-blooded attitude about the non-mixological aspects?i.e., the songs?have to teach me about "how to just be happy and live your life." Not only do I sometimes pay attention to what these rapper guys actually say?like, verbally?but I thought I was happy. Maybe I should take your advice and "go out into the world and write about real stuff," but I sort of thought music was real stuff.
Please help.
P.S. Cheer up. Music will survive even if a couple hundred would-be poets circle-jerk over it once a year. It is, as you say?ulp?"the most beautifully nebulous form of human expression."
Keep up the good work.
Chris Norris, via Internet
Rock Island Line
I just read the 2/21 piece on "Pazz and Jop" by Mike Doughty?aka M. Doughty, aka Doughty, aka Dirty Sanchez?in which he calls every one of the poll's 586 contributing critics a big fat jerk, and I gotta turn it around on him and say that he's the one being a bit of a jerk. This is the umpteenth time that New York Press has run a rant about how bad the "Pazz and Jop" poll is, but Doughty's take on it this time particularly irked me. Maybe it's because he takes aim at the entire profession of music criticism instead of just complaining about one annoying poll.
He makes two points: first, that the chart and points system is stupid?and it's hard to argue with that. Like Christgau's grading system, it seems very silly and narcissistic, as though anybody cares about the exact number of j poets and Jane Darks that gave points to Stankonia versus All Hands on the Bad One, and how many points out of their allotted 30 those people doled out to them.
Doughty's second point is where he goes off the deep end. Like many a New York Press critic who gets too caught up in the us-against-them thing, Doughty turns his complaint into a personal attack against Christgau?and therefore against all music critics in the world, as though they're all just Christgau wannabes. According to Doughty, the worst thing you can do with your life is to write about music. "If you are a young, talented person who has something to offer the world, I'm sure that a gig as a rock writer can be great fun for a little while, but please, please, eventually go out into the world and write about real stuff," he writes. "Don't channel your gifts into a life spent writing about your mail."
What the hell's so bad about writing about music? And why is that not "real stuff"? What should we music critics of the world do, give up and join the Katha Pollitt/MUGGER/Stanley Crouch folks who spill endless unwanted ink about political gossip and claim to speak for the common morality of our country? Aren't there enough of those people already? There are a hell of a lot more than 586 of them. And unlike music critics, they actually think that lots of people out there give a shit about their opinions.
And Doughty, "as a musician who's actually been reviewed by [Christgau]," should recognize that he's damn lucky that music critics aren't as powerful as many other kinds of critics. If Doughty were a filmmaker, or a novelist, or a playwright, or an artist, or if he played any other kind of music other than rock 'n' roll, he'd beg critics to review him. His career would depend on it. And then he wouldn't turn around and ridicule them for doing what they do. Does anybody criticize film critics for sitting on their asses all day and watching movies? Or theater critics? What about book critics?when is the last time you heard somebody complain about people who get books in the mail for free and then read 'em and criticize the people who wrote 'em? Those people are very important in a commercial sense to the arts they review?what they say sells tickets and books, and that's why people respect them. Unfortunately for pop music critics, their opinion ultimately means bupkes when it comes to sales or popular opinion. Even the mighty Robert Christgau has no sway at all in the music world; if he died right now, no musician would care. And it would be their loss, because, as Doughty points out, he's a smart guy who's usually pretty much on the ball and has made many people think about the music they listen to.
Why are pop critics so hated by other pop critics?and by wannabe pop critics? Doughty's done plenty of writing, and he's good at it. Even if you've never read his reviews from back in the day, or his "Dirty Sanchez" column, you can tell from this one article that Doughty's a good writer. He calls music "the most beautifully nebulous form of human expression." That's not going to end up in Bartlett's, but it's pretty good. Worthy of a music critic. And New York Press has served as a forum for many a good music critic. Doughty got his start there. So did Neil Strauss, Adam Heimlich, J.R. Taylor. So did I. Lately Eva Neuberg has been tearing it up. Her 2/14 story about the Ken Burns Jazz series was an excellent and much-needed piece of sober, insightful criticism?and what the hell did she do? She sat on her ass and watched tv!
I didn't contribute to the "Pazz and Jop" poll because I wasn't asked to. If I was asked, I don't know. Maybe I would have, maybe not. I've written for the Voice before and I found them to be real jerks, and I haven't been interested in dealing with them again. And the poll is no big deal to me, though I am glad that it exists. The points thing is stupid, but I do like seeing some of the choices in there. Isn't it at least a little bit interesting?and reassuring?that Outkast got almost 50 percent more votes than Radiohead? Or that folks like Shelby Lynne, Jurassic 5 and Ryan Adams placed as high as they did? The chart is kind of interesting to me, I have to admit, like a kind of tarot cards that I can understand?just as the Billboard charts are. What really bugs me about "Pazz and Jop" are those ridiculous blurbs that go on for like 20 pages, in which all the Doug Wolks and Chris Norrises and Alec Foeges of the world try to outsmart each other, and, as Doughty points out, they all fail miserably. He's right to ridicule people who say idiotic things like "Download a free track by a band or artist you've never heard before. If you like it, pay to see them live. And buy a t-shirt," (Foege) and "Homework assignment for Eminem: Write an entire rap that has nothing to do with his various names, identities, revenge schemes, or the myriad ways he's been misunderstood. Can he do it?" (Tom Moon) It's music criticism at its blurbiest, most sycophantic. These folks didn't get their quotes on CD stickers, so they're quoting themselves.
Coming from an artist like Doughty, his complaint about music criticism as an intellectual endeavor in itself sounds like a whiny prima donna move to be above any criticism. He says that he found Christgau's criticism of his band to be interesting and insightful even when he wasn't positive. To me that sounds like an invaluable contribution to music. What should Christgau have done instead?just shut up and bought a t-shirt? Or written some rant about how stupid all of his colleagues are? If he gave up writing about music at some age that Doughty finds acceptable?like Cameron Crowe, who for some unfathomable reason Doughty likes a lot?then he would never have that criticism. Nobody would. Is it really so terrible that the guy, even at the age of 58, has something to say about your band?
Ben Sisario, Manhattan
Eastern Nuthatch
Bravo! Hugh Pearson's ("Harlem Hospital: A Brief History," 2/21) was a wonderful article. I function as the unofficial historian at Bellevue Hospital, where I work, so I know much about Bellevue. It is good to read about Harlem Hospital and to become more familiar with its history.
The municipal hospitals are diamonds in the rough. They are the great jewels in this city, and New Yorkers should learn more about them and appreciate the gifts these institutions bestow upon our city.
Lorinda Klein, Manhattan
J-Low
Enjoyed the informative Health & Fitness piece "Harlem Hospital: A Brief History," by Hugh Pearson.
Of course, it's the kind of article that, if it ran in your rival publication, the Village Voice, would have occasioned some juvenile reactionary sneering by you. Odd contradiction there, but easily understood. You want to compete for their readership by running articles that might appeal to their readership, even as you mock their sensibilities. And your "Mind-Body-Spirit" slogan is an obvious knock-off.
But why didn't you ever run serious criticism of the Voice? God knows there's plenty to criticize. But since you're taken in by their faux leftism, you miss the point of the Voice. It's actually quite phony?something you never managed to expose.
Alexander Cockburn a few weeks back ("Wild Justice," 1/31) mentioned the Kahan Commission report on the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacres, which criticized Ariel Sharon for carelessness and negligence. Of course that sort of criticism (by the commission) is itself a whitewash. Sharon wasn't merely negligent. Given the fascist, terrorist nature of the Lebanese Phalange "militia" (they named themselves after the Phalange of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco), and their hatred of Palestinians, unleashing them in a camp of helpless civilians was tantamount to putting a fox in a chicken coop. What happened over the next three days?under the watchful eyes of the Israeli army, with their U.S.-supplied weapons, meaning the Phalange's weapons were probably from the U.S. too by way of Israel?was predictable and inevitable. Sharon has a 50-year history of killing Palestinians. He's an old pro at it. He knows what he's doing?as he showed again with his Temple Mount provocation, by which he's propelled himself into the premiership of Israel.
Like he says, he "understands the Arabs." That is, he considers them subhuman beasts who must be subdued by force. The Israelis don't realize the damage they do to their souls by regarding others as subhuman. It's a shame because it warps the nature of the Zionist enterprise itself.
Jason Zenith, Manhattan
(They're White)
A propos of C.J. Sullivan's piece ("Bronx Stroll," 2/14) about the Bronx "slave market" in the 1930s (we're white):
1. My mother, recently widowed, was hired by Gimbels, 33rd St., in 1940, for a 40-hour work week, 9 to 6, at $16 per week, 40 cents per hour.
2. I worked at Macy's in Parkchester in 1942 for 37 cents per hour.
3. I babysat across the Bronx for 50 cents per night in the 1930s and 1940s.
4. The best pay?commercial?in the early 1940s was the Miles shoe store on 125th St.: 43 cents per hour.
5. The best pay for a kid in college was on the National Youth Administration: 50 cents per hour.
6. I was an assistant bookkeeper in a commercial laundry in the East Bronx, 9 to 6, five days a week and a half day on Saturday, for 20 dollars an hour. And a YWCA assistant dietitian, 44 hours a week, at 23 dollars a week, in 1944.
Roslyn Willet, Manhattan
Randall's Island
MUGGER: I can't believe you still read The New York Times. I haven't bought it since October. It's sloppily written, poorly sourced and ineptly factchecked. Whenever Times reporters covered anything of which I had personal knowledge, they got it wrong. And it's as predictable as Pravda. I think its most loyal readers are out-of-towners, who cling to it when they move here to validate their identity as New Yorkers.
Virge Randall, Manhattan
L.A. Noir
MUGGER: Another excellent column. This is my second time reading your work and I really like how you write. For your information, the only newspaper as biased as The New York Times is right here in L.A. Readership is so far down that this generation of Chandlers would be on the streets if it weren't for the buy-out from the folks in Chicago. Keep up the informative work!
Lesley Van Borssum, Monrovia, CA
Big Fat Whore
MUGGER: Good columns on Clinton's problems. I view the liberal hysteria as an inoculation. They have defended him through far worse than the Rich pardon, but now that he can no longer help or hurt them, they want to separate themselves. This outrage is their means of doing so. They shouldn't be allowed it. They should be forced to just settle into bed with the whore they defended and enjoy the stench, because it is partly their own fault and no amount of painless pseudo-repentance now will change their utter cravenness when it counted.
Kelly Whiting, Boston
Nasty Little Man
The Scott McConnell article entitled "We're Not Humble" ("Taki's Top Drawer," 2/21) was an interesting take on the new administration. As much as I did appreciate his writing, I have to take exception to his rose-tinted view of Japan.
He writes: "In Japan, a prime minister might apologize individually to bereaved families under the circumstances, and a corporate chief whose company erred might press his forehead to the floor to show remorse."
Prime Minister Mori reacted to the news of this very accident (the high school students sunk by a U.S. sub) by continuing with his golf game for another two hours. The Japanese government just settled the Minamata mercury poisoning case of the 1960s a couple years ago, after most of the claimants had died (so there was less payout). Corporate chiefs will, when they have really screwed up (meaning, they may face prison), indeed bow their faces to the ground. This, in Japan, is simply an Eastern version of "I feel your pain," and indicates no remorse whatsoever. All parties involved understand this, and the contrite CEO will follow his display by a night of drinking and abusing some poor bar girl to make up for his loss of face.
None of this excuses the behavior of the U.S., but I think it would help to remember that our government is still relatively responsive and that other places are usually not as sweet as some would like to believe. I, too, am very critical of the U.S., but let's not canonize some very nasty people indeed to support the point.
Bill Fish, via Internet
Killer Tune
MUGGER: I've just finished your latest column, and I can say without a doubt you are the most in-tune journalist in the country. The New York Times has as much credibility as my three-year-old daughter's weekly school newsletter, so trash away at them.
Steve H. Schaw, via Internet
Billy, Goat
MUGGER: Read your 2/21 column about how The New York Times disses Billy Jeff Clinton, the grifter president.
I think all the pundits and analysts have got it wrong. It is my judgment that once they realized what and whom they had helped climb into the Big Seat, they were terrified of him. A madman who controlled the dials and switches and levers of every Cabinet department that could do them harm; who controlled voluminous files; who controlled a hand-picked death squad from Arkansas; and God knows what else.
Look at the lists of dead people. Look at B.J.'s comments, made in a rage and reported by George Stephanopoulos, that he exists to help his friends and fuck his enemies to death. Look at his ability to make the military, particularly naval intelligence, go weak in the knees. Look at the number of dead Marine One heli-drivers who all died the same way?one-car late-night rollovers.
I think The New York Times and Hollywood and even the Democrats realized this was one Satanically demented cat who would kill anyone he perceived to be thwarting his kink. And they were right. Boy howdy, were they right to be afraid. And now that he's no longer near the KILL THEM switch?they're gonna roast him alive.
Just my opinion.
Avi Yazul, Salt Springs, NV
So Bored with the U.S.A.
Jack Trask: Your article ("Yellow Peril: Good Cabbies Are Being Punished by the TLC," 2/14) has been circulated to a couple of our taxi discussion lists here in London. It was a well-produced article and made fascinating revelations about the taxi scene in New York. It is compelling stuff, and from a London taxi driver's perspective rather ominous. It appears they don't want taxi drivers in New York?they want zombies or even slaves, with a "do as we tell you or else" attitude. The penalties can only be described as vindictive and beyond reason. Your cab drivers, it seems, are treated as second-class citizens working under conditions that no other members of the community would tolerate. The system sounds like the very worst from a communist regime?not from the freedom-loving country that the U.S. is famous for being.
In London, taxi driving is considered a profession, with drivers who come into the trade and spend their lives as drivers. It is not a filling-in job or a stepping-stone or a part-time job for students during the summer holidays. Getting the "Knowledge of London," which is the entry criteria, can take from two to three years. That's why we are so highly praised. We know what we are doing. Getting the standards up in this way could be the start for you?unless, of course, you want the servile trade that the TLC seems determined to maintain.
In London we often read about how visitors enjoy our taxis and our taxi system and that we have a worldwide reputation. New York, in my view, will never achieve this under this kind of regime. We know we haven't got everything right here, but draconian enforcement is not the answer. Bureaucratic bullying says a lot about the people in charge?and that, if I may say so, is where the changes should be made if you want New York's standards for taxis to improve. The question is, do New Yorkers get the kind of taxi system they deserve?
Your informative article may help to bring about seemingly much-needed change, and I hope it does.
David Clegg, London
Darktown
Jack Trask's piece attacking the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission is tainted by his own unconscious racism and the inaccurate data he marshals to critique his target. As a continuous holder of a NYC hack license since the late 1980s, I am no defender of the often dictatorial TLC, which teams with fleet owners to oppress the immigrant drivers at the bottom of the profit chain. As Trask points out, TLC hearing officers frequently presume driver guilt, and unreasonable penalties are sometimes coupled with traffic court violations for the same offense.
On the other hand, during the years I have been driving, TLC has successfully instituted a number of improvements. The yearly cattle-call for license renewal is now handled largely by mail. The license term has been extended to two years and computerized photos save drivers the expense of a trip to a photo shop. TLC has improved medallion driver safety by enforcing the provision of protective partitions or video cams in each vehicle. TLC-required defensive driving and courtesy classes are possibly well-intended; however, I know of no evidence they have prevented a single accident or insult.
Trask's main complaint is how Operation Refusal (OR), a successful sting operation to detect discrimination in picking up minority passengers, has been used by TLC to punish "good cabbies." Obviously any program can be misused, and if the two cases cited by Trask were accurately reported, they were truly unjust. The program may have been catalyzed by Danny Glover's unsuccessful attempts to hail a cab, but the problem it addressed is very real. Almost any dark-skinned New Yorker can recount multiple occasions where taxi drivers passed them by for no apparent reason other than skin color. I have personally experienced this a number of times, and as a volunteer at the Mayor's Action Center, I handled a number of credible complaints from minority citizens who were unable to obtain taxi service. Slamming Danny Glover for not attending livery drivers' funerals, labeling OR as "political correctness" or suggesting that "It's about time the TLC learned to trust the drivers" are not solutions to the painful problem of discrimination. OR has been remarkably effective in reducing the amount of discrimination, in much the same manner as using Asian agents posing as tourists eliminated much of the meter-zapping at JFK.
If OR is not being fairly implemented, it needs to be remedied, not tossed out with the bath water. Trask suggests, "This is not about racism, it's about discrimination." Maybe?although his reverse stereotype that "middle-age black people are the best tippers of all" doesn't square with my data. Actually, discrimination often hurts more than racism. If a racist driver picks me up and safely carries me to my destination, I have been inconvenienced less than if a driver who discriminates fails to serve me for whatever reason. The public accommodation laws of the 1960s ensured that minority tourists could stay at any hotel, not that the owners would love them. Taxis are licensed by the city as part of a public transportation system designed to serve all New Yorkers. It is "very difficult" for Trask to believe that immigrant and other nonwhite drivers discriminate based on race. Well, believe it! Try interviewing some of your fellow drivers. Some discriminate not so much on the basis of race as they do on the basis of apparent destination, often correlated with race. Such economic bias usually means failing to pick up a fare headed for a distant borough that will require dead-heading back to Manhattan.
As a driver, I do not accept the unfair and sometimes abusive tactics of the TLC. Nonetheless, I do appreciate the necessity to enforce equal access to public transportation. I have never been ticketed by OR because I pick up anyone requesting a ride unless they are obviously drunk or drugged (TLC regulations permit drivers to refuse such fares).
Alan E. Gross, Manhattan
Hand in Glover
Jack Trask's article makes a compelling case for the debureaucratization of the TLC. However, as the great and powerful Oz pointed out to the Scarecrow, it's not brains he lacks, it's the diploma?specifically, in this case, the recognition/sponsorship by others with the power to effect change.
Has Mr. Trask considered sending his article to Danny Glover? Don't laugh. If Mr. Glover is a reasonable man, reading it could help him understand that he has unwittingly perpetrated the oppression of a hardworking but politically disenfranchised group, and he may actually appreciate the chance to rectify the harm his "crusade" has caused.
Laiki Huxorli, Manhattan
Big Yellow Wienie
I should have known that Jack Trask was going to subject us to a full dose of white arrogance when he carefully let us know that he was white and blond, and what an exception that made him in applying for a hack license.
Apparently unaccustomed to being a minority, white Trask didn't waste any time brushing aside a good century of racial prejudice in transportation in New York. Rookie driver Trask let us know that cabbies aren't bigoted; that the TLC won't let them avoid perilous fares; and that Danny Glover's complaint was just "grandstanding."
Ah, the comfortable surety of white supremacy. Mr. Trask, like too many blond New Yorkers, apparently knows little about the city's sad racial history. It took mass demonstrations just before we got into the Second World War, led by Adam Clayton Powell Jr., to get the city to hire black bus drivers and subway conductors. Until the immigrant wave of the 1970s and 1980s, most New York cabbies were white?and unfortunately, they bore the prejudices of their generations. The majority of black Americans will tell you that cabbies routinely passed them by no matter how well-dressed they were?or where they were going. It was so blatant that I remember one black executive who sent his white secretary out to get him a cab.
And some immigrants, limited in their knowledge of African-Americans, have too easily embraced the worst stereotypes and acted accordingly. Being of ambiguous racial appearance, I have heard many immigrants go on rants about African-Americans based on very limited contact?just as I've heard it from white cabbies. Driving a cab is perilous and there should be room to let cabbies judge the dangers, but passing people by on the basis of color alone is wrong, and it's a long-standing problem.
Mr. Trask's facile dismissal of a point of view (and an experience) long shared by black New Yorkers shows that white arrogance is alive and well, and not just in City Hall and the Parks Dept.
Joel Dreyfuss, Manhattan