The Mail
THIS WEEK: The Electoral College is under attack, distant cousins embrace and Mistress Syren erupts. PLUS: Why is Jim Knipfel holding a "Hollywood or Bust" sign on the side of the road?
THE OLD COLLEGE TRY
I've always been a bit smug about my preference for direct election of the Head of State over the Electoral College. After all, with direct elections you have at least an approximation of an empirical fact to legitimize the guy who wins: He is preferred by more people, and this is a democracy, so that's that. Somehow, some of my political science friends don't see it that way and defend the Electoral College, though they never really have anything compelling to say in that defense. I've always looked at it as a case of pure, blind, dumb faith that some truly believe that the Electoral College is a more representative way to elect the president.
Therefore, I was excited to see Russ Smith bring it up in his latest column ("What If Bush Wins?" 9/1). With a mind as imaginative, supple and fair as the Russter's on the case, I was prepared to read carefully and perhaps even let myself be persuaded. Alas, Russ let me down. He uncharacteristically concentrated on a weird attack on the New York Times for even broaching the subject and gave no reasons to support his point of view. Hopefully, it was an editor's fault and we can look forward to a brilliant, nuanced defense of the Electoral College in the next issue.
Terry Benoit, Larchmont, NY
AND A FEW THINGS TO LOVE
I finished reading "1001 Things to Hate about the Convention," and I have a few things to say (9/1). The GOP isn't perfect, but it isn't broke either. We are lucky to have them here. New York City can celebrate the diversity and a truly democratic process by supporting the convention. So what if Karen Finley doesn't get a government check anymore? I myself saw her pull the tampon out, and I think there is definitely an audience for that. Art is not for bureaucrats.
Republicans like Goldwater and Reagan expressed profound ideas in speeches written by Karl Hess, a savvy NYC guy. No Democrat since Jefferson dared to be so honest and freedom-loving. Less government in our lives and in our pockets makes a better life.
I appreciate some people here had communist grandparents in barbaric Europe. They seem as proud of those thugs as others are of Gestapo or Mafia links. Today those methods are used to disrupt the free speech of the Republicans. Americans, instead, should cherish what democracy is left! There ain't much. At least Republicans give it lip service. Democrats only had Monica, a stupid citizen on her knees to power. Where'd she learn that trick?
Tom Paine lived here in the Village. Could he get published in the Voice?
Today I hear people advocate programs right from the Alabama Slave Code: "The master will provide the slave with proper housing, clothing, medical care and a place to stay when old." Screw the paternalism, the demonstrations. Pump the oil out of Iraq and pay off the national debt, while we are at it. They'd be dying under Saddam today-some gratitude is in order.
Barrett Wilson, Manhattan
MAKE THAT 1002
Just read "1001 Things to Hate about the Convention" (9/1). As I sit here in Tompkins Square Park, I'm reminded why I despise the Bush administration, the GOP and the entire lot. A low-flying police helicopter has circled for the 40th (no exaggeration) time. I rode my bike through Midtown looking for some new tennies and encountered more police than I have ever seen in my entire life. Sirens all day in the 'hood.
Land of the free? Come to New York City and get a taste of that freedom. Home of the brave? Certainly not these chickenshit Republicans and their New York shills, Bloomberg and Ray Kelly. I'm sure Kelly is extremely disappointed he didn't get the fight/riots he was spoiling for (1000 arrests a day). Bloomie saved his precious Central Park grass. Protest is a privilege that can be revoked? Our mayor doesn't seem to know the First Amendment. Who are these guys afraid of-al Qaeda or the Democrats? Or both? By October I'm sure the GOP will have the two linked up. If this is Bush's brave new world, you won't even recognize America by the time these guys are done with it. I need a fucking Valium that will last until November.
N.O. Boddieh, Manhattan
COULD BE?
I was very surprised to see the name Gershenson as I perused your web edition this morning (Gabriella Gershenson, "Pizza Politics," 9/1). It is the maiden name of my 84-year-old mother, who recently passed. I am very curious to see if there are any lost relatives, since the name, as I know it, came from Russia in 1913 and all known descendants are deceased.
Steven Lipsky, Manhattan
COMING TO THEATERS NEAR YOU
I read a while ago that Jim Knipfel's book Quitting the Nairobi Trio was bought by Double A Films and is being made into a movie. Is this true? If so, when is it coming out?
Sally Scott, Baltimore
DEMOCRATIC ORGAN
I enjoyed reading Russ Smith's article about how disjointed the New York Times has become in its coverage of George Bush and the presidential election ("What If Bush Wins?" 9/1). I was amused by the editorial against the Electoral College last weekend and I have been (mildly) amazed at the bias of its pre-convention coverage. Should the Republicans win in November, it will indeed be interesting, even entertaining, to read how the newspaper of record balances "all the news that's fit to print" with its overwhelming political bias.
Pat Toensmeier, Hamden, CT
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-KVETCHIN'
I enjoyed Russ Smith's "What If Bush Wins?" (9/1). So the New York Times states: "The small states are already significantly overrepresented in the Senate, which more than looks out for their interests." Apparently the paper thinks that because of population, New York should be overrepresented in the White House, and to hell with fly-over country. A plague on the house of the Times.
Lucille McClure, San Jose, CA
JUST DON'T TELL THEM WHERE YOU GOT IT
Can I have a jpeg of the front page you fabricated, featured in the "Thank You, Really" article this week (9/1)? It was too funny. I want to make it my desktop background.
Michael Saltzman, Manhattan
MORE FROM MR. ANDERSON
I am so curious as to how it is that American voters are so overwhelmingly antiwar in media presentation and yet so clueless when it comes to the election.
Both George Bush and John Kerry support the war in Iraq, and the only viable antiwar candidate with the ballot access and popular base to challenge that moronic idiocy is Michael Badnarik (Libertarian), who is censored in most media.
Voting for Bush is like jumping off a bridge, and voting for Kerry is like shooting yourself to get free medical care. When will people who oppose this war and its offspring wake up and realize that voting for people who support war only leads to more war?
Paul E. Anderson, Jakarta, Indonesia
WHIP IT GOOD
Unfortunately A.J. Daulerio decided to interview people in the fetish scene who have no idea what's going on in the world around them or spend little time in reality ("Where the Republicans Roam," 8/25). Had he spent time researching, he would have found a much more mature crowd who not only know what the Republican Convention is, but who are very much involved in politics and care about what's going on in the world around them.
Though I'm sure the article was written to amuse the vanilla folks, I was not pleased with the generalization that all of us in the fetish community are graduated high school weenies playing an adult version of Dungeons & Dragons. I am a dominatrix, former fetish event coordinator and performer with very strong ties to our underground community. I am not a blundering idiot, nor are most of the people I have met in my five years in the scene. Like most communities you have the few village idiots roaming around that no one pays attention to. But most media seek out these people for cheap laughs and ratings.
I would have respected the article if he had actually done some research and interviewed people who had something to say, but instead he took the low road. Had he, for instance, interviewed me, he would have gotten a five-foot-eleven, drop-dead gorgeous, whip-wielding dominatrix with educated and informed opinions about Bush and the Republicans.
Syren D'mandz, Manhattan
THE CASE FOR WAR?WE THINK
There is a flaw in William Bryk's assumptions ("The Conservative Case Against George W. Bush," 8/4). Bryk would be better off saying Bush is trying to change the presidency into a lifelong job, particularly with his proposed solution to a terrorist attack on the day of the election. There is no reason for him to stay in power for another four months, so that he can handle the attack, aka start another war with a third-world and/or Muslim country. I think that we should just go on with the election.
I know that the Muslim faith is still in the point and time that coincides with the Roman Catholic Crusades, which means they will wage war. So all the government really needs to do is wait for a defiant sign of them attacking us. Not another 9/11, in which case they would be warring against an organization, not a country. I believe for the United States to wage another war on any country, it must be sanctioned by the entire United States citizenry, by a majority vote of 75 percent. But also the entire U.N. Security Council total agreement. No majority, but all or nothing.
Ryan Smith, Kalamazoo, MI
RICHARD CATCHES UP
I've always considered Godzilla my favorite sci-fi movie (the 1956 English-dubbed, Raymond Burr-added version, that is). I appreciated Jim Knipfel's "Acts Of Godzilla" (8/11). I never realized there had been so many Godzilla movies. The one I mentioned and its 1998 American remake are the only two I've seen. Well, actually, I've seen three if you count the fact that I recently saw the original 1954 Japanese version. (How could I not?) I think the Raymond Burr version is better, but at least now I know that the Japanese pronounce Godzilla accentuating the first syllable.
In the Books section of that same issue, I caught the reference to Jennifer Lopez as "J-Ho"-and I liked it!
Richard Fried, Brooklyn
LIVE FREE AND HATE
For a newspaper that is obviously geared toward the supposed liberal, you sure print lots of hate. Hate the Republicans, hate the military (some of whom are Democrats), hate almost everyone that is not of your personal opinion in short.
Oh, and by-the-way, in case you didn't bother to read the 9/11 Commission's report, Michael Moore is a proven liar who is laughing all the way to the bank on the liberals' lust for hate trash. Hum? But at least your paper is free.
Suzanne Levy, Brooklyn
BIAS IS OUR BUSINESS
I was very disturbed at the journalistic bias obvious in your columnist Russ Smith's "What If Bush Wins?" concerning the New York Times (9/1). One does not have to be a liberal pundit to be appalled at what even Sen. McCain has called lies about John Kerry's Vietnam combat record, and to choose to repeat the description of Kerry's attackers as "scurrilous" in quotes is certainly slanted journalistic sleight-of-hand-a handy way to cast doubt on that characterization.
The fact that he suggests it is the job of New York Times shareholders to be "more concerned with business than shrill sloganeering" and so to install a more "moderate" editor proves, however, that he is himself more philosophically a capitalist than a journalist. The job of any newspaper worth its name is to give the electorate the information it believes it needs to make an informed choice-not simply to make money. That Smith obviously disagrees with this order of priorities makes me question why he himself bothers to write?
Ann Kathleen Bradley, via email
JO MOMMA
I just finished Russ Smith's "What If Bush Wins?" (9/1). There are many things I could say about the downfall of the New York Times in recent years. Arnold would call them girly men-which is not too far from the truth. There are too many hysterical gays hyper-ventilating over Bush not going along with judges redefining marriage. We have the vapors goin' on over there-big time. Although not employed at the Times (yet), poor Andrew Sullivan comes to mind. Here is a guy with a brilliant mind and clearly conservative framework who totally lost it when Bush supported the marriage amendment. Now he is for commie Kerry. Mental illness comes to mind and maybe doctors were right for naming it a mental illness before they were wrong in naming it normal.
This is what the hysterical call for ending the Electoral College is about. The gays that dominate the New York Times know the only way they can sexually dominate our society is to control the political process and minimize the vote of red states and their culture/social influence.
I was thinking the Republicans ought to shut the Times down by boycotting it from top to bottom. No interviews. No participation beyond what they permit for the Nation. Republican leaders should make a joke of it and ridicule other papers for reprinting their puddle of garbage. The Associated Press is just as pitiful professionally, and Republicans ought to use their power to prop up another newswire while cutting off the AP. Yesterday the AP distributed a lie that Republicans booed at a rally when Bush wished Clinton well. They got caught as the session was recorded at Fox. No booing. AP lied, and spread the lie from sea to shining sea. And this is typical during this president's term.
What do you think would happen if the Republicans went after the New York Times and used its power to cut it out of avenues available to professional journalism? They could say the New York Times is a left-wing party paper, not a professional journalistic news source.
Jo Thompson, Boston