The Well-Adjusteder-than-Thou Richard Karpel; Surprise: Readers Misunderstand MUGGER; Hail, Brave New Yorkers; Armond White Confirms: Spielberg Rules, Shyamalan Sucks; More

MUGGER: My youngest sister got married in Syracuse just a week and a half after the attacks, but many of my parents' friends from Staten Island still made the trek upstate to attend. In the church the parish priest, who has known my future brother-in-law since he was a kid, was doing a nice job with a personal sermon when he suddenly made a bizarre left turn and started talking about Sept. 11. Now I thought this was a bit out of place, as the NYC contingent was trying hard to just let this be a normal wedding. Then the good Father went into a very long story about how he couldn't get in touch with his nephew who worked downtown until quite late that day when, thank God, he was all right.

Now this idiot knew where my sister grew up. At that point the ruins were still burning and the estimates were more than 6000 dead. You'd think it wouldn't take a Rhodes scholar, or even a Jesuit, to surmise there must have been several guests in the congregation whose friends and loved ones hadn't been so fortunate; as was indeed the case. The insensitivity was appalling.

Later, at the reception, I was sitting with my other sister, her husband and my aunt and uncle from Salt Lake. Uncle Tony is a retired Air Force major and an ultraliberal Democrat. My brother-in-law, aware of Tony's former profession but not his politics, asked him when he thought we'll start bombing Afghanistan. "Well never, I hope..." my uncle starts to drawl. My sister, who knew what was coming, immediately cut him off with a very no-nonsense, "Oh yeah, well they didn't blow up your home and kill your friends." All poor Tony could mutter was a weak, "Well, I suppose you do have a point there," and the conversation ended.

Alex Albanese, Manhattan

Depends on Your Definition of "It"

MUGGER: Thanks for using me as your straw man this week (8/7). For obscure functionaries like me, it's nice to see your name in bold every now and then. I should note, however, that I never said, "Get over it." I said stop being so sanctimonious. And that bit about me "and similar cretins" not realizing that "New Yorkers live with the sword of Hamas, Al Qaeda, Saddam, etc., over their heads." Hell, I work two blocks from the White House and take the Metro every day but you don't see me campaigning for a purple heart. Hope everything is well with you and your family.

Richard Karpel, Washington, DC

Comic Flap

Am I blind (completely possible) or have you stopped printing the comics in New York Press? I certainly hope not. I still like to leaf through a paper from time to time as opposed to doing a search for "Mr. Wiggles."

Clyde Scott, Manhattan

The editors reply: Though there are weeks when we run out of space for comics, as well as some editorial, rest assured we're proudly and happily continuing to run them.

Scabs! The Movie

Another thing Jim Knipfel ought to note in his piece on the Pennsylvania miners' deal with Hollywood ("Daily Billboard," 8/5): these guys worked at a non-union mine, where they were paid $12/hour. Though the mine owner promised to pay them for their time in the hole, you know they all needed the money, chump change in movie parlance or not.

Brian Boyles, Brooklyn

This Means War!

Kurt Thometz: I perused your article about these dangerous pimps in New York ("Pimpology," 8/7) and wanted to send you some documented material about real slavery going on against many women in Japan. Dangerous, violent pimps tricked 300,000 foreign women with fake jobs there, then kidnapped and enslaved them. All these women suffer a hell on Earth. Why don't you expose this about Japan, a major country whose government is evil? I'm afraid to give my name.

Name Withheld, via e-mail

Man Power

Michelangelo Signorile: Re "Still More Sex" ("The Gist," 8/7). Can't say whether it's just you, but for sure those thumbs-up Con Ed ads ain't "heteroerotic"!

Name Withheld, via e-mail

Oh, Please

While I agree with much of what Russ Smith writes in his essay ("MUGGER," 8/7), I have to strongly disagree with his assertion that dissenters have not been punished for exercising their First Amendment rights since Sept. 11. A perfect example of someone who has been punished is Bill Maher.

For questioning the Bush administration's policies, the status quo and the Republican hypocrites (among other things), Politically Incorrect, the only intelligent show on late-night tv, was canceled by ABC after an orchestrated campaign by the conservative talk-radio mafia and an admonishment by none other than Bush flack Ari Fleischer.

No, Maher was not jailed, but he definitely was punished. And so were those of us who enjoyed that show, for many reasons, including, but not limited to, the fact that it was the only tv show where there was alternative commentary of any kind. And where diverse opinions were voiced freely.

Deborah Gilbert, Manhattan

Appreciate It

Just read MUGGER's "You Weren't There" (8/7). Thanks for writing?I'm not a New Yorker, and didn't lose anyone I knew on 9/11, so I don't feel the same level of direct, personal grief. But I still did feel grief, anger and horror, and it's still like a punch to the gut each time I see the videos. I don't intend to completely "get over it" either; I need to remember what happened as I face whatever lies ahead, and I need to remember so I'll never lend my voice or my vote to anything that remotely resembles surrender to barbarians like those who unleashed such evil. Not to be too sentimental, but New York, and all those New Yorkers who stood tall on 9/11, and since then, will always have a special place in my heart. You do us proud, New York, New York!

Liz Le Mond, Indianapolis

Rock the Cashbox

Christopher Caldwell: Sorry to hear you're distraught over the Clash's recent foray into corporate whoredom ("Hill of Beans," 8/7), though you missed the best, the use of "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" in a Stolichnaya malt-beverage campaign (ex-commies, Russian vodka, commercials; irony on so many levels). Speaking of whoredom, welcome to 21st-century punk culture. Have you seen the Pistols lately? There's now a long line of classic punk bands (unfortunately including the Clash now) who've sold out their ethic (flimsy as punk ethic may be) for a buck. It's gone beyond merchandising, licensing and, as you wrote, changing your mind to the most crass creative prostitution. These guys have made themselves as irrelevant as the Stones or the Who in about half the time, and I find myself wishing most of 'em would dry up and blow away so as to leave the scene for the kids, who at least haven't become completely jaded yet.

Phil Henken, Manhattan

The Daily News?

MUGGER: I read your writings on occasion, and while my views run contrary to your ideology, I respect your right to hold such opinions. However, I felt compelled to write after you described Attorney General John Ashcroft as a "left [wing] house nigger" (8/7).

If Ashcroft is from the left, I'm selling the Brooklyn Bridge for a dollar. He and President Bush are cut from the same cloth, and neither man has done anything to help the working class or the disenfranchised. (Don't even get me started on that so-called tax cut, which only made the rich richer and the poor poorer.)

What disturbs me about your analogy is it implies that "field niggers" make up the right and, by extension, the left are calling the shots in Washington. If that were the case, how come detainees are being held indefinitely in Cuba without being charged with a crime? Such actions fly in the face of the Constitution. (If these detainees committed a crime against America, they should face the legal consequences?not languish in legal limbo.)

As for your disdain toward "the liberal media," most of the political pundits I see and hear in the media are from the right. (Tucker Carlson, Robert Novak, Armstrong Williams, Robert George, Fred Barnes, Rod Dreher, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham and Blanquita Cullum are a few conservatives who come to mind.) Also, in New York?the media capital of the world?we have three newspapers that endorse a conservative ideology: the Daily News, the Post and the Sun. As for the Times, they hardly represent the liberals?just the WASPs.

Latrice Davis, Brooklyn

Cockburn Ring a Bell?

MUGGER: I keep hearing varying snippets about how big a bad guy Ashcroft is. Tell us exactly and clearly why? I never heard any of your writers report that Clinton was a big-time drug runner, a murderous thug and a guy who consorted with the enemies of this country. Why pick on Ashcroft?

David Luhta, Ashtabula , OH

Have You Considered Looking For a Job, Seth?

MUGGER puts himself in rhetorical limbo in his current column. Rebuking hypersensitive civil-liberties types, he asks, "Has George W. Bush (or the left's house nigger John Ashcroft) even come close to that sort of policy [interning dissidents]?"

This use of "house nigger" marks a radical expansion of the meaning of the term?in fact, MUGGER has expanded its meaning beyond any comprehension. "House nigger" typically has been synonymous with "Uncle Tom" or more generally "sell-out." The phrase, as Malcolm X famously explained, refers to black slaves who worked indoors as butlers and whose sympathies were aligned with the master rather than with their companions in chains. The "house nigger" is essentially a class and race traitor.

How this term could describe John Ashcroft is absolutely puzzling, especially since MUGGER insists that Ashcroft is the "left's house nigger." Does this mean that the left is bitter at Ashcroft because he is a natural representative of its views who has blatantly taken a contrary position for his own gain and comfort? I don't know of anyone on the left who is disappointed in Ashcroft from this perspective.

Perhaps MUGGER looks at Ashcroft and sees, correctly, the opposite of a class traitor or a race traitor. MUGGER sees a loyal functionary who is doing everything expected of him and then some: a faithful servant of his leader and the privileged class, what we used to call a lackey or spaniel. Trying to ameliorate this rather strong yet accurate characterization by ventriloquizing the left perspective with a gross and insensitive epithet, wrongly applied, is intellectually disingenuous and morally empty. It is a lazy abuse of language.

John Ashcroft is nobody's nigger, house, field or otherwise. To say so would give him too much credit. It makes much more sense to compare him to a plantation overseer.

Seth Barron, Manhattan

Russ Smith replies: Once upon a time, reading comprehension was stressed in American schools, both public and private. Sadly, these correspondents must've cut a lot of classes or are under 35 years old.

I like John Ashcroft, and not only in comparison to his corrupt predecessor. My point was that the left uses Ashcroft as a punching bag because they're afraid to go after Bush. It's the reverse with Colin Powell: Liberals think he's being undercut by hawks in the Bush administration, and think he ought to resign. In reality, Powell is right in sync with Bush, playing the good cop to Bush and Rumsfeld's bad cop.

Did You Even Read the Thing, Dumbass?

Michelangelo Signorile writes an article condoning the murder/suicidal behavior of homosexuals having unprotected sex and you join him by printing his crap ("The Gist," 7/31). There is no excuse for the homosexual behavior (degeneracy at best) being condoned, let alone in its most dangerous form. Why not just go out randomly killing people as opposed to assisting them into a long, slow, torturous death. Shame on both of you.

Tony Mangan, San Jose, CA

Make Him

Bill Tucker: As an American of partial Polish descent (with strong roots in my mother's country), I of course will admit that the Poles have always been, broadly speaking, anti-Semitic. But I was saddened to find that in your article you managed to once again make the standard American journalistic error on this subject by implying that Auschwitz was the creation of (or the fault of) the Poles and Poland. This is simply not the case. Yes, close to three million Polish Jews died in World War II. So did close to three million Polish Catholics. Under German and Russian occupation. Read about it.

Derek L. Piper, Manhattan

Because He's King of the Paulettes

I think what I find most baffling about Armond White's weekly film criticism is the way he seems to feel a need to personalize everything. In his review of M. Night Shyamalan's Signs ("Film," 8/7), he writes that Shyamalan (or "Shifty," as White nicknames his?a moniker a p.c. obsessive like White himself would call racist if anyone else used it in association with an Indian) "caters to viewers who can't keep up with Spielberg's cinematic wit." This statement implies that viewers who enjoy Shyamalan's work are morons, and, by extension, inferior to White (I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone work out their Napoleon complex quite so publicly as White does). Why does White feel that everything made by Spielberg (or Robert Altman, James Toback or any of the other filmmakers White writes a rave for six months in advance of every film they make) must be brilliant, and everything made by Shyamalan (or David Fincher, or P.T. Anderson, etc.) must be garbage? And if every great work by Mr. Spielberg is a sign of what great person he is ("sincere" and "enlightening," White calls him), and every bad work by Shyamalan is a sign of what a putz he must be ("overrated" a "manipulator" with "nothing artistic in mind"), then how does Mr. White explain Mr. Spielberg's association with crap like MIB2 or?gasp!?Shyamalan himself (as when he nearly hired him to write the latest Indiana Jones film)? My guess is, he can't. Last year in regards to White's review of Sexy Beast and the trashing of The Sopranos (6/13/01), White never bothered to respond. For my own intellectual satisfaction (or lack thereof, I'm sure White would say), I'd love to hear his thoughts on the subject this time around.

Matthew E. Goldenberg, Manhattan

Armond White replies: Maybe the truth has not occurred to Mr. Goldenberg. Spielberg, Altman and Toback really are brilliant and everything done by Shyamalan, Fincher, P.T. Anderson and David Chase (Sopranos) really is garbage. Who doubts that if Spielberg himself had directed the Men in Black movies they would have been better? And remember, Mr. Goldenberg, condemning filmmakers for their professional associations led to the Blacklist.

He's Our Own Little Kreskin

MUGGER: Love the way you write! Thank you for saying what I've been thinking.

David Lauster, Orlando

Letter of the Week

MUGGER: A few years back I sent you an e-mail and you kindly replied and even sent me copies of your paper. Since then I've always felt a connection to New York and the Press. I've been afraid to fly (bad flight out of San Antonio) and haven't done so in many years, but after Sept.11, I vowed to go to New York on a plane because I was inspired by the brave acts of all of those people on that day, and my fears seem so puny and insignificant. So I will be flying to New York on Aug. 29 and I will spend as much money as I can on small businesses there, and I will weep at Ground Zero, and then I will turn to my 16-year-old son and tell him that he must never forget the bravery and the courage that New Yorkers have shown, and that I will count my job as a parent well done if he grows up to be such a man as they raise in New York.

Lisa Anne Ohlund, San Juan Capistrano, CA

Art & Commerce

Loved the cover story "Painting Eggplants" by Thomas M. Disch (7/31). His take on the contemporary "art" world is uncannily true to life. It conjures up memories. Once upon a time I also painted two eggplants much in the style of Chris Hiers' illustration. Mine were sold in 1961 from my last one-man show at some cheesy art gallery. I wonder where they might be preening today. I'm not wondering, however, about the whereabouts of my painting bought by Joseph M. Hirshhorn back in 1959. I do know this one reposes in the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, since the curator assured me in his 5/26/1984 letter that it is "indeed" in the museum's permanent collection.

After 1961, I gave up on this gallery madness. I didn't like being a picture manufacturer producing kitsch for art appreciators. And so I took a job as copywriter with an advertising agency. There I wrote catchy BMW advertisements like "BMW goes like schnell," and "Our exclusive Dreikugelwirbelwannenbrennraum."

Finally I retired with a bundle, a vice president no less, financially independent, to paint how and what I wanted to paint. No eggplants! I am 81 now and still paint every day, although I'll never show again. Well, no one takes a doddering old dauber seriously.

Consequently, 1000-plus brilliant (take my word for it) canvases are hibernating, stacked to the ceiling of my studio?somewhat like that hoard of yon notorious Collier Brothers. Crazy? Yes. But, like the man says: Art is a mystery.

John Hockland, Manhattan

Kind Words from the San Diego Reader

I just read "You Weren't There" ("MUGGER," 8/7) and I think it's just terrible that anyone would actually say, "Get over it," to New Yorkers about the attack on your city. I wasn't in New York on 9/11, but I had visited (for the first time in 30 years) in August and had a great time. What a place! It just broke my heart to see all those dazed New Yorkers walking around downtown looking for their loved ones, hoping against hope that they were still alive in some hospital. "Get over it," eh? Every time I even think about that attack I get so goddamn mad I think I'm gonna have a stroke. I suspect most other Californians feel pretty much the same. No, New Yorkers deserve a lot of credit for the way in which you conducted yourselves, and I for one will never forget the horrible attack, or the brave response of New Yorkers to the worst crisis in the city's history.

John Butcher, San Diego

Alabama Slammed

RE MUGGER: Written by a truly confused individual.

Paul Dawson, Birmingham, AL

Now It's "Liberating Iraq"

MUGGER: Great column. I thought you would enjoy this.

Top-10 Reasons The New York Times Opposes Liberating Iraq:

10. George W. Bush is for it. Duh.

9. Might lower oil prices in the long run.

8. Palestinians are against it.

7. Israelis are for it.

6. French will no longer like us.

5. "Arab Street" will rise up in anger. This time we're not kidding.

4. Could cost the Democrats control of the Senate.

3. Islamic terrorists might hijack planes and fly them into?never mind.

2. Don't want to watch Iraqi people cheering American soldiers in Baghdad.

1. Abused as children and Saddam is sort of a father figure.

Bob Kingsbery, Mill Creek, WA

Pole-Axed

I enthusiastically began Bill Tucker's article ("Culture," 8/7) appreciating his apt descriptions of life as a dissident artist. But when he decided that after his fortnight (or less) in Poland he now had a broad understanding of what "holds Poland back" today, he was asking for criticism. Tucker confidently exhorts that it is "this goddamned anti-Semitism" preventing the land from greatness and "those ancient fears and prejudices that keep people trapped in provincial economies." Tucker might be surprised to learn that, despite current unemployment woes, Poland has been in the economic and political vanguard of all former communist states in Central and Eastern Europe. They have had the highest rates of growth and a relatively reasonable transition (when compared with most of its neighbors). Despite huge problems still (reactionary parties, wealth stratification, rural poverty), Poland will be a member of the EU in 16 months and is, after all, only a dozen years out from an unprecedented transformation from a state socialist to a market capitalist model. Labeling the country backward and pinning a nonexistent state of affairs on anti-Semitism only makes clear Tucker is a neophyte in these matters.

Leonard Benardo, Brooklyn

Do We Really Need to Know That?

I'll never forget where I was at 8:52 a.m., Thursday, Aug. 1, 2002: in Duane Reade buying cough syrup so I could face another day of employment. The light rock faded into the opening of "London Calling" to the confusion of many ("Hill of Beans," 8/7). And then the Jaguar commercial began. I was so shocked I allowed others to cut me off on line. Nothing felt right for the rest of the day. I was feverish all evening. I found blood in my urine the following morning. I'm glad Christopher Caldwell feels my pain.

Morgan Sara Schulman, Brooklyn

Cross Your Heart

MUGGER: I understand that Republican blast-faxes suggest attaching "personal injury lawyer-turned senator" to John Edwards' name whenever possible, but the smear becomes an opportunity for the Senator to talk?endlessly?about just what kind of personal injury cases he won in the past. And in a blink, the sleazy lawyer starts to look a lot more like Mr. Smith on his way to the White House. (Betcha Shrub doesn't use the L word a single time in the '04 debates.)

Harley Peyton, Los Angeles

Russ Smith replies: When an attorney buys advertisements in the yellow pages, as Edwards did in North Carolina years ago, I don't think calling that attorney a "personal injury lawyer" is a smear. The 2004 campaign, despite the political jockeying among Democrats seeking the nomination, and thus skewing congressional legislation, is still in the distance. Will Edwards be debating Bush? I doubt it: If he keeps the self-aggrandizement down to a minimum, maybe he'll be debating Dick Cheney.

But He Is #1

MUGGER: I couldn't agree more with your Springsteen thoughts (8/7). After hearing a few cuts from the "Boss'" (he's not) new release, my disappointments are manifold. Lo and behold, I then find a review at Reason online, which, in a much more erudite and readable manner, pretty much mirrored my thinking. By the way, Born to Run was Springsteen's seminal work, everything since has been baby-boomer pretentious bullshit.

Mike Daley, San Andreas, CA

But John Knew

Taki's recounting of Onassis' and Mugabe's airliner diversion antics ("Top Drawer," 7/24) are strikingly similar to Bill Clinton's nights out in the DC area and elsewhere, in which Secret Service goons were dispatched to empty out restaurants and, in some cases, whole neighborhoods, in order that King Willie could dine and be entertained in comfort and privacy. Many had their cars towed and impounded to make way for the king and his entourage. This was pretty much routine behavior for King Willie, though an adoring press gave it little coverage at the time, apparently considering such behavior the legitimate due of royalty.

John T. Morzenti, Devon, PA

Dewy in Dewey

MUGGER: No, I wasn't there, but your writing was so vivid and excellent that this 87-year-old lady was able to picture the horror all over again (8/7). Thank you. You also brought into vivid focus exactly how I feel about the contemptible makeshift former president. I appreciate that. Again may I say, "Thank you."

Hester L. Nichols, Dewey, OK

Smartass

MUGGER: Not to be sanctimonious, but actually, the Pentagon is not in Washington, DC. It's in Virginia. I guess we Virginians should "get over it" when New Yorkers don't know the difference.

Pat Gooley, Suffolk, VA

Russ Smith replies: I thank the correspondent for the geography lesson. Of course the Pentagon is in Virginia; however, when the events of Sept. 11 are referred to, the shorthand is New York, DC and a field in Pennsylvania.

Hometown Insecurity

What happened to us was horrible and is far from over. Never get over it. I was just so happy that you, Mrs. M. and the little Ms were okay (physically). There are many of us who won't get over it. I shall never be lulled back into that false sense of security that I allowed myself to be in after the attack in '93. Considering the way things are going now, I don't even trust this government or anyone to really look out for us (I mean Americans), so when the next attack comes, I won't say, "I told you so," but I won't be as shocked or surprised. Just hurt, very hurt. God Bless and now I'll read the whole article.

Adrienne Warden, Manhattan

Or Hid from Them

MUGGER: Great column on the idiotic "Get over it" view out West, regarding Sept. 11. Sad thing is, it could be worse: I just got back from a stint in Paris where the pseudo-left airily pronounce some satisfaction that "at least America has now learned some humility." This coming from a nation who welcomed the Nazis marching down the Champs-Elysees.

Charles Glasser, Manhattan

And Good Brats

MUGGER: I don't think Middle America can apologize (empathize? What exactly is the emotion when your own are attacked?) enough. If the attack knocked the wind out of NYC, it would have decapitated those of us elsewhere. I think we flatter ourselves to think we'd handle things as well as you. By the way, over the last months, writers like you, Peggy Noonan and maybe Podhoretz have produced the kind of thought-provoking material that ought to fill history books regarding the attacks. I can't speak for California, but I think you will find the Midwest has a pretty solid memory.

Rich Malloy, Milwaukee

Terrible Neighborhood

MUGGER: My daughter lives within blocks of the U.S. Capitol. We're not over it. I worry every day.

Elaine Westfall, Lawrenceville, GA

Beach Bummed

I opened my eyes at the sound of my clock radio. It was Sept 11. Curtis and Kuby had just been interrupted by a news flash. A plane had hit the World Trade Tower. Accident, terror attack? I grabbed for the tv remote. My wife was stirring as I poked her to get up to see this. I watched mesmerized. I remember telling her that there was no way this massive building could come down. Pundits theorized. Then in shock and disbelief a second plane came into view. At first I thought it was a video replay of the strike. It took a second to realize that this strike was on the second tower. I screamed aloud. Transfixed as I watched and listened. Then it happened. In an instant the tower came down like a crumbling house of cards. This can't be real? It was. Tears slowly came as my eyes welled up. One of my son's best friends worked in one of those buildings. Mr. and Mrs. American heartland will never be the same. This has changed me forever. In the intervening months a hatred has grown for those fundamentalist Muslims responsible. I will never be the same. They came into my house and tried to kill me. I will never be the same.

Howard Gleichenhaus, Delray Beach, FL

Say It!

MUGGER: Amen!

Lee DePue, Nashville

Gratuitous Fatuities

The fatuities contained in bigot Tom Bachar's letter ("The Mail," 8/7) are many and manifest. But some of his contentions are particularly risible and egregious. A couple of examples: "tradition has been proven foolish or evil exactly 100 percent of the time" and "it's pretty clear to any educated and honest person: organized religion is an evil sham." Oh? I wonder if this person (one can hardly call him a gentleman), in his no doubt wide reading experience, ever came across the works of St. Augustine. No? How about current writers who recognize that tradition is the outward manifestation of immutable truth and that religion encompasses absolute morality. Prof. Robert George, Father George Rutler and H.W. Crocker III come most immediately to mind. These gentlemen tower over this person, which, given his mental midgetry, is nothing short of inevitable.

C.A. George, Manhattan

Mighty Sphincter

Now you have a new name for the rabid, insular, clueless opinions of butt ostriches on the left. Gee, MUGGER, you should thank the guy for allowing you to name their disease. (Okay, I did, but you inspired it.) When their heads are stuck up that kind of tunnel, it's obvious why they can't see the truth.

Skip Press, Burbank, CA

There You Go, Tracy

MUGGER: Your 8/7 column was a gem. Your thoughts on "normalcy" mirror mine. We will never be the same and things are not normal now, nor will they ever be while our collective memories still conjure up the horror of the murderous attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. We live in a different world. A world where I don't dread tomorrow, but one in which my threshold for sorrow has been lowered considerably. I wake up each morning not knowing what to expect when I tune in the tv for my morning dose of how many lives Hamas has taken overnight. You are correct in your assertion that New Yorkers live "under the sword." I am filled with a great sadness when I think of how another massive attack on New York could again test the brave citizens of that fine city. I pray that it will never happen, but I fear its inevitability.

I get angry when I see the liberal media and the Democrat operatives trying to hang all the woes of the country on Bush/Cheney. If Clinton had a plan to take out Osama bin Laden, why didn't he execute it in the last years of his presidency? If Clinton was responsible for all the prosperity of the 90s, why isn't he responsible for the fraud that has come to the surface now? It would be sophomoric of me to point out that these "Ponzi schemes" that have come tumbling to the floor of the stock market were built during the Clinton years. Even baseball has a pall over it with millionaire players arguing with millionaire owners about issues that the average man or woman in America can't even begin to relate to. It's hard to find much to get excited about this summer, but I guess that's a personal problem. I guess I have many things to be thankful for and those are things I should focus on. I can be thankful that Tom Daschle is not the commissioner of baseball, or that Joe Lieberman isn't the skipper of the Astros or Al Gore isn't coaching third for the Red Sox. Hmmm, things seem better all the time.

Tracy Meadows, Brenham, TX

Architecturally Unsound

MUGGER: If there's a connection between clear thinking and clear writing, is the opposite true: does bad writing reveal a muddled mind? If so, a quote from Donald E. Winters in your column "You Weren't There" indicates remediation in Logic 101 for the professor (8/7). He writes: "Under the facade of being a hero in times of peril, Bush can take a light hand with..." and so on. "Under" the facade? Is Bush part of the metaphoric building's foundation? Shouldn't his depredations be hidden "behind" a facade?

Kevin Atherton, Elmhurst, IL

Got Any Answers?

MUGGER: Is the reason we seek out murderers and terrorists "revenge"? Or is it justice, the upholding of law and, most compellingly, the prevention of further crimes being perpetrated?

If we are never to pursue even the most vicious criminals who would seek haven among civilians, what would prevent the most vicious of criminals from deliberately seeking haven among civilians so to remain above the law, likely to plot further crimes against a society impotent to act against such cunning ruthlessness? If it is not possible to apprehend a vicious criminal bloodlessly, and it is to the fault of the vicious criminal who is very unlikely to surrender freely and very likely to endanger anyone around him if he's threatened, do we leave society at this person's mercy?

If this barbaric intifada is resistance against occupation, why did it so escalate in intensity following the peace process? Why do the leaders of the Palestinian people constantly and consistently urge on the end of Israel and death to the Jews? Why do the majority of Palestinians support suicide bombing not only in the occupied territories but against any Jews? Why do terrorist groups target schools that educate not only Israelis but Israeli Arabs and foreigners? And most importantly, is this depraved method of "resistance" the only method of resistance available to the Palestinian people?

Not only is this war campaign egregiously barbaric, its response, its real and alleged instigations unequaled, but it has and does only serve to accelerate the most undesirable outcome on both sides. Why does the situation worsen the more Israel lets up its occupation in the justified interest of its own security? Why did the conditions of the Palestinian people decline dramatically the more Israel transferred authority over to the PA? Why did the war against Israel escalate the more Israel transferred authority over to the PA? Why is the blatantly anti-Semitic and death-to-Israel rhetoric propagated daily in the Arab media, even during the Oslo accords, ignored as if negligible? Why is all the evidence Israel provided to prove that the PA had been actively funding terrorism ignored as if negligible? Why is it so impossible for some Israelis and Jews and international observers to even allow for the possibility that the pain and suffering of the Palestinian people, understandably sympathetic, is mostly the result of the actions of the Palestinian people themselves, their leaders and all the Arab leaders who sponsor terror, anti-Semitic and death-to-Israel venom and who contribute almost nothing to the civic infrastructure of the Palestinians and in almost all cases will not even accept Palestinians in their own countries? Where is the morality and the honesty in determining right from wrong on the basis of numbers and military strength? Does this mean, in the most simplistic terms, that the "bigger guy" is always wrong by default? Does anyone consider what Israel stands to gain by occupying any of the West Bank and Gaza or if this is done as a matter of real necessity? Does anyone consider how the refugee situation was created and nurtured? Does anyone consider nearly 20 percent of Israel's native population is composed of Arabs who have repeatedly shown that they would prefer to remain in Israel over any new state of Palestine? Does anyone consider how small the land of Israel is and how vast the lands of Arab world are and yet none of these countries, except Jordan (and to a limited extent), have offered to repatriate these refugees? Where is the morality and the honesty in ignoring the brutality inside most of the Arab world, as if unelected leaders who viciously subjugate their own people have tangible and credible ideas on how to achieve peace?

Irina Fayerberg, Manhattan