The Mail

Bring Back the Blacklist!

Re: "Catharsis Now" (7/6): Armond White, as usual, has it completely wrong. It's not the American public's confusion, doubt or "opposition" to the Iraq war that inhibits Hollywood filmmakers, but the now endemic leftist PC cowardice. There have been virtually no films made with Muslim terrorists and their guiding states as "villains" precisely because it has been deemed un-PC to do so. The scripts have been written and peddled, but the self-censorship of the industry chiefs, coupled by the active far left politics of a few very vocal film stars, have prevented good, genuinely patriotic films from being made. This is in complete contrast to the situation after Pearl Harbor, when Hollywood turned out scores of "pro-war" films that educated and inspired the populace.

Michael Disend, San Francisco

But Is It Art? And Does It Suck?

If you're going to write about artists in a New York City paper, you should do your research first ("Get 'Em George," 6/29). Manhattan is still a place where contemporary art is venerated more than it's ignored.

If you'd bothered to take a minute and Googled Amy Wilson's name, you'd have known that she's decades past her horse doodling days. She's been exhibiting professionally since 1996 and is currently on the roster of Bellwether, one of New York's most groundbreaking galleries. I am proud to say that Amy Wilson will be presenting her newest work, an animation based on this political debacle, at my gallery (Abaton Garage) in Jersey City this coming September 11. Perhaps you'd like to attend the opening and apologize to Amy in person.

Lauri Bortz, Jersey City

It's a sad day in journalism when people like Matt Taibbi are given an opportunity to write about art. His "Get 'Em George" article (6/29) was truly pathetic in how it portrays the so-called "talentless" Amy Wilson. Did Matt see her show recently at Bellwether, or the work in question from the Drawing Center show? Does he have any clue about her art? Or in the fashion of ambulance chasing, is it just cool to attack people in the news these days?

John Von Bergen, Manhattan

Matt Taibbi responds: I suppose I do owe Amy Wilson an apology. I never did get a chance to look at the entire "A Glimpse of What Life Might Be Like in a Free Country," as I couldn't find it in the short amount of time I had to write my column. Instead, I had to content myself with the works on Wilson's website (amy-wilson.com). I did not mention any of these works in the text, but if I had, my characterization of Wilson might indeed have been somewhat different. She is not, as I wrote, merely a bad artist; she is the worst I've ever seen. I direct NY Press readers to examine a highly subtle work entitled "It's Called Militarism," which features skeletons playing flutes in a watercolor wood as they discuss, under a brick tree-house bearing the inscription "American values," the wisdom of preemptive strikes and the novels of Hermann Broch. The only thing that could possibly make this work more pretentious would be the use of blood from a Moroccan clitoral circumcision ceremony to color in the tree-house. This is unicorn doodling after $120,000 in tuition.

Chicken Hawk, First Class

Your editorial about Gov. Pataki's son ("Fortunate Son", 6/29) was extremely misleading. Teddy Pataki is a volunteer for the Marines and his father's political views should have no bearing on his decision to request a law school deferment. I am Active Duty Navy-16 years service including the Iraqi war-and as I write this, the military is sending thousands of troops to service schools and colleges to earn advanced training and degrees. We are constantly doing this to improve the quality of our soldiers and sailors-there is nothing at all unusual about Lt. Pataki's deferment request. When Lt. Pataki completes his law training, he will be a better asset to the Marine Corps at no extra expense to the Marines or to U.S. taxpayers.

Michael Hardy, Chief Petty Officer, U.S. Navy

The editors respond: If George Pataki supports his son's deferrel request-and no doubt he has already pulled the necessary string-then he should also be doing everything he can to get the rest of New York's Marines out of Iraq and into law school. It was Pataki's overheated and dishonest rhetoric that helped get us into this mess in the first place, and his enlisted son should not be allowed to escape the consequences of a war the governor continues to support. Maybe when Teddy's on patrol in Fallujah, his father will wake up and join the small chorus of Republicans calling for withdrawal, if not impeachment proceedings.

In Deep with Sandeep

Every week, I look forward to grabbing a copy of New York Press and escaping life for two hours by sifting through the pages of the heartbeat of the best city in the world.

Last week, I found myself staring at the front page of the paper and noticed a caricature of a video clerk ("Requiem for the Indies," 6/29). What are the odds? I delved straight into the article to read more. I raced with anticipation to see if the neighborhood video store that I worked for receives a mention. Just like that, my eyes light up: Video Blitz. I am proud to say that I have worked there on and off from 1995-1998.

Hands down, the best night working there occurred when NYC was hit with a huge blizzard. Not a soul in sight, I thought this was going to be the easiest money ever made: Get paid to deal with seven or eight customers, watch our favorite movies, and blast homemade techno and hip-hop on the speakers. Turned out that was the busiest night the store had in three years-and I believe the only time Yellow Submarine and Ishtar were rented together.

Sandeep Nayak, Manhattan

Poll Dancing

Matt Taibbi's article, "A New Poll, Commissioned By..." (7/6) was so on point I nearly stood up from my subway seat and yelled for joy. These "scientific polls" taken as gospel by the press and dispersed as binary, 10-word items in the local paper and the news reveal little about the subtlety of where people actually stand on the issues. In this era of American Idol, we do not need to have the average American dialing in and saying that war sounds good.

Ed David, Manhattan

Pause for A Cause

You deserve praise for giving a needed platform to the rational voices with the courage to explain why they are not convinced of the AIDS mainstream's pet theories, which are that HIV causes AIDS (rather than coincides with it) and that ARV cocktails prolong the lives of HIV-positive people ("Drugs, Disease, Denial," 6/22). Why is this position so difficult to find in our supposedly free press? Is it a crime to be unconvinced? Even on the Internet, it's getting harder and harder to find this "dissident" information dated more recently than, say, 1999.

Peter McKenzie, Taiwan

I'm Okay You're UK

I was heartened to see Celia's article which I read online from London ("Drugs, Disease, Denial," 6/22). Keep up the good work.

Dr. Kevin Corbett, Lecturer in Nursing, University of York, UK

Blog Russ!

Re: "War Chills" (7/6): Russ Smith, don't pretend you were put off and inconvenienced by the power outage when you know full well you were going to use the episode as fodder for your next column, an eventful two days in your excruciatingly boring life (seeing a movie-wow!). Also, if it's torture for you to thumb through a hard-copy version of The Times, don't. But I suspect you'd rather whine about it. As someone who likes to thumb through the printed version of the Press, Russ' column needs to be downgraded to "blog." He doesn't own the paper any more, right, so why the obligation to publish his increasingly uninspired and humorless slice of life? (And a slice of Baltimore life at that-really, who cares?)

-NAME WITHHELD, via email

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Re: "A New Poll, Commissioned By..." (7/6): This article by Matt Taibbi is right on.ÊHe's brought out many things about polls, in general, that many people are simply ignorant about. I can't figure out how something so arbitrary as a poll or survey can be allowed so much credence in our society; I have personally made the decision to never answer a poll or survey, or to answer twice, differently each time.

Donna C Lee, San Diego

Seig Heil, Hizzoner

Matt Taibbi's column last week on polling seemed rushed and unfinished ("A New Poll, Commissioned By..." 7/6). It didn't go far enough, which I fully expect from Mr. Taibbi's work. I felt that he gave this form of evil a pass, because we see every day how these fraudulent polls are used by media to manipulate people. He should expose how deliberately vague the polling questions are, and why, such as this week's latest "Do you approve of the job Mayor Bloomberg is doing?" poll. It's almost like asking Americans, "Do you support national pride?" and then, when a majority ignorantly says "Yes", you can pretend that a majority of Americans support the Nazi Party.

Noah Hornbuckle, Manhattan

Elucidate THIS Plight

Re: "Get 'Em George" (6/29): I must again commend Matt Taibbi for stating things clearly. For years now I, like many Americans, have felt a growing unease with the direction our country is heading. Taibbi's last article galvanized me with one simple and obvious statement, "now we have public officials and the media in the business of deciding who is a loyal American and who is not." Our plight has been elucidated. Things have not gone so far (yet) that I am inclined to douse others opinion on art, morals, or public drunkenness for example. However misguided a conservative, Bush imbecile may be, I still support their right to publicly vomit their bullshit ideals. Yet I simply cannot tolerate wave of righteousness that the "New Right" immersed itself in. Of course, this article touched on only a few issues in the sea of slime that we have been force fed since the earliest stages of the Bush Regime. Still, I thank Taibbi for a brief moment of clarity.

Kelly Morris, Manhattan

Everyone Sucks Except Ed

I usually find your pieces and commentary well written and well-thought out. I enjoy reading contributions from several of your writers, including Gabriella Gershenson. So when I came across Matt Taibbi's "Get 'Em George" (6/29), I was taken aback by how poorly thought out this piece is. The title of the piece should be "Everyone Sucks Except Me." Taibbi takes unfair pot shots at Governor Pataki and artist Amy Wilson without offering any real solutions. His point about the media and who determines what "American" means is lost amid a sea of ad hominem attacks. Calling Pataki a "political hack" and Wilson a "hack artist" while offering no substance behind the attacks render his point meaningless.

Taibbi attempts to illustrate his point by citing Wilson's "A Glimpse of What Life Could Be Like In a Free Country, #6." He focuses on the same seven-inches of the work that the Daily News focused on. Did Taibbi bother to see the work in its entirety? Does he know how the figure criticizing Abu Gharib fits into a larger commentary? Apparently Taibbi simply reviewed the pictures in the News and figured that he had the entire story. Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what a "hack" does?

Edward J. Menghi, via email