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Iraqi Gridiron

Matt Taibbi criticizes U.S. defense policy like just another armchair quarterback ("Cage Match, 11/19). He advocates annexing Iraq as a "territory of the United States, and sticking an NFL franchise in Baghdad." Annexation is easy, but what about the tough issues Taibbi refuses to tackle. What should we call the Iraqi team? The Oilers is taken. The Baghdad Bombers? Perhaps. What about the cheerleaders? Should they wear burqas? And corporate sponsorship? Would "Halliburton stadium" roll off Madden's tongue? What league would the Bombers play? In a new NFL Mideast division or added to the NFC or AFC?

Then we would need more teams. Okay, the Damascus Devils, the Iran Incubi, the Riyadh Crusaders. We'd need to acquire more Arab territories?and here's where it looks like you haven't thought this thing through, Matt. At some point, the U.S. taxpayer may simply draw the line on NFL expansion that slights other great American sports leagues. I wish you bench-warmers on national security would think a few plays ahead, instead of repeatedly finding yourself fourth and long with your punter hobbled on the sidelines.

Keith Lisy, Manhattan

Best Gossip in Town

"Page Two" is fast becoming?or maybe has already become?my favorite part of New York Press. Keep it up!

Richard Fried, Brooklyn

Conductor Redux

I, too, am a conductor on Metro-North. I know Billy ("New York City," 11/19) very well and I have to say, "Thank you." Unlike Billy, I only have nine years on the railroad. My jobs change more frequently than his. My job used to take the train he brought in to Southeast. We used to chit-chat until he went over to set up your train. I read your article and just wanted to let you know how appreciative I am of what you wrote. It's nice to see that some people can appreciate the passion that man has for his job. Thank you again for recognizing "Superconductor."

Keith Smith, Poughkeepsie, NY

Deathcamps: Not Funny

Even if Matt Taibbi intended his article ("Cage Match," 11/19) as satire, it is a morally horrendous article. To joke about mass murder is no joke at all.

I am from a country?Hungary?that suffered from both the Nazis and the Communists. Both were mass-murdering people to achieve their own particular visions of Paradise. To even mention Stalin as a possible clue as to what to do with the Iraqi people is just too much for me to comprehend. Is this the level to which American journalism has sunk? Of course, if this is not a joke, then God save us all.

Gabor Mandler, Brooklyn

Whoabodia

Predictable now are the "Free Tibet" and "Men Are Pigs" crowds alike pounding their drums again over chosen geography and prepubescent hookers ("Cambodia 2003," 11/12), when they should be rallying for the dismantling of the post-Maoist cloud hanging over both. And while on the subject of said "losers and sketchy con-artists" (take note Martha Burke), Caeriel was dead-on in his Sign Language column of the same issue and as ever-grittier than the Voice's new-agey, candy-coated Rob Brezsny. Though for all that so-called human spirit elsewhere his assertion still seems too fucking late for this curmudgeonly crab.

Pierre Brown, Manhattan

Barry's Levity

Armond White raves about two obscure, though probably worthy films and then concludes with this gem: "The movies The Matrix Revolutions, Lost in Translation, In This World and Mystic River sound the death knell for cinema" ("Film," 11/19). I read that and burst out laughing. Thanks. I needed it.

Barry S. Levy, Manhattan

Just Like Heaven

I look forward every week to Russ Smith's accurate insights into the chattering classes in the MUGGER column, but in his latest piece he outdid himself in his evisceration of the Krugman/Dowd blather in the New York Times (MUGGER, 11/26). Now if you could just get him to go after aging hippie Thomas Oliphant's dried-up 60s utopianism and James Carroll's defeatist crap at the Globe.

Paul DeSisto, Cedar Grove, NJ

JFK's (Medicine) Cabinet

MUGGER: JFK knew he didn't have a mandate, and that's why he had, believe it or not, Republicans in his administration. And JFK at least won the popular vote by 100,000?in contrast to the present usurper.

Jan Hutchinson, Phoenix

Who You Calling Funny?

"Only in rare cases does the elite product of an American university turn out to be the kind of person capable of this sort of thing. I mean, there are only so many Bob Kerreys to go around" ("Cage Match," 11/26). This is perhaps the funniest line written on the subject.

Alexander P. Vucelic, Manhattan

Minister Michelangelo

Thank you for Michelangelo Signorile's insightful column, "Whose Hand Grenade?" ("The Gist," 11/26). In 30 years of ministry, I have found that same-sex relationships provide essentially the same blessings and pitfalls found in heterosexual relationships.

Marriage in Genesis is God's gift of intimacy as a remedy to human solitude. So few find relationships that are permanent, socially responsible, mutually enriching and joy-filled that I must applaud and support those who do, regardless of their genders.

I pray for comfort for those who fear social change, and victory for those who live lives of compassion and tolerance.

Melvin R. Woodworth, Bellevue, WA

Riddle Me This!

The descriptions in the review of Flux's candy project are so detailed I could imagine myself there ("New York City," 11/26). It is probably the only art review that's kept me interested all the way through. Great work.

Kelly M. Riddle, Winston-Salem, NC

Back and to the Left

It figures that one of the authors of America Unbound ("Books," 11/19) is Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Like the party line of the Kennedy assassination, "there is no conspiracy," which is what all conspirators must preach.

And Bush is his own man, meaning there just ain't any conspirators from the CFR pulling his strings, like they have for the past many presidents. Of course, CFR agents like Cheney, Powell and Rice in the White House are just there to twiddle their fingers. I keep watching the latest top job appointments, like Paul Bremer, in Iraq, the new Senate president, Schwarzenegger's mentor who picked his new administration in California, Rep. David Dreier?all CFR agents.

As to 9/11, I suspect that they are a major part of the problem. They have been highly involved in "intelligence" since their founding in 1921, and psychological warfare. Their main goal is to bring about World Government, which is treason to the U.S. Constitution.

Warren Appleton, Dennis, MA

EVENBIGGER Is Matt Taibbi as big of a moron as he comes off as in his weekly diatribe? His column gives me a headache whenever I try to read it. He really is doing his part to destroy the credibility of New York Press, which is quickly transforming itself into a clone of that other bleeding-heart free weekly. Sean Casey, Breezy Point, NY

Making Sense is for Horses

Shades of Monk Eastman Hero and leader of an early New York gang or the many sayings of John Wayne movies when confronted with unhappy native Americans. The former's response when asked why he opened the head of an old man with one blow of his stick responded, "Well, I had forty nine nicks in me stick, and I wanted to make it an even fifty."

Or the latters' response to the shoot-outs with Native Americans: "A good Indian is a dead Indian, ma'am." Both views best expressed by Donald Rumsfeld's take on the liberation of Iraq to wit; the message that the American public needs to understand is "that there are known knowns. These are the things that we know we know. And there are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we know we don't know. And there also are unknown knowns."

Could Matt Taibbi have overlooked what that really says about us? Enjoy the holidays and keep on trucking.

Armand DeLaurell, Little Rock

Take a Deep Breath

I'm a 24-year-old college student enrolled with barely enough resources to pay for an over-$40 anime series on DVD, and yes, I do download anime fansubbed due to the passion of seeing, collecting, even trading it with other colleagues and friends. I would like to express my gratitude for your recent article that talked about the availability of anime and your opinion of so-called "piracy" ("On the D/L," 11/19). It's called a free trade, and as long as people appreciate that, it will always be shared, not pirated.

The internet is possibly the most viable source for anime?despite anime mags and stores that seldom give a good bargain on anime; all it needs is a good looking in the city, especially in New York. Heck, I caught my Berserk series for free and in fansubbing DivX quality before it got licensed, and it still looks good on my P4 HP computer?all from K-Lite++. But that's not new, because many of my friends can actually get the new series with Sonic X, the whole series ripped from Card Captor Sakura and Stellvia of the Universe. However, Sonic X was viciously licensed to be put on Fox as a Saturday morning cartoon, not unlike the recent fate of Shaman King, but do you see me complaining? Not one bit, because I know I'll be able to retrieve them on the internet without paying a dime. As for Sonic X, I don't watch it via Fox because I know I can get it via internet.

Low-income people such as myself have no other choice than to download anime because it's the only place we'll be able to get it. Where else would you find anime that's unavailable?new and even some of the old titles? In the shelves of your music store only to rob you of your precious green? Absolutely not!

Take me for example: I managed to find all of the OVA for Slayers, Slayers Next and Slayers Try, including the movie specials?some from the Book of Spells, and previews of Slayers Premium. To buy that from the company means you have to pay for what you get?Slayers OVA cost about almost $120 in Gamestop as well as close to every other series. Tower Records and FYE have a similar price. The availability? Harder to find due to the popularity shift from that to either Love Hina and/or even the old-schooled Ranma 1/2 and Patlabor fans, which have a clinging uprise now and then. See what I mean?

Unfortunately, letter-writers Luke Morgan and Leon van Hooydonk ("The Mail," 11/5) seem to fall in a narrow-minded category, only seeing the one side of the anime industry. Typical of those who want to "preserve" the companies who only rip us to shreds because of the overpriced exportation from overseas. Besides, they don't know what kind of "revision" a company might do to a certain animation that could "Americanize" it for our local viewers here in the United States. Take for example, Akira, which has already been revised three times over the last 20 years: first with the original Japanese/English subtitles, then with the old dubbing back around 1989, then not too long ago by Pioneer in which Wendee Lee, a very successful actor, was involved with the dubbing. The movie was semi-par since it had almost no similarity of the original Japanese dialogue nor the original dubbing script 12 years ago. After I saw that movie, I vowed never to see another dubbing production again.

Companies now compete for the latest animation title and try to "re-create" it to an American dialogue so even we the viewers can see it. It's impossible to bring a culture from the Eastern side of the world, revise its traditions and make it "American," then expect people to respect it as what it is and not what it was.

What do the Japanese say about this controversy? How do they feel about their works of art becoming demoralized by our laws and "revisable" dubbing?

Hiroshi states that it's best to use archives that are "a lot easier to work with if you just put down the bong for a few minutes and actually think about it a little bit." Hey, no need for the bongs on this route?we have Red Bull to bring in wings for the cure. However, not all archives are 100 percent stable and are at risk of being shut down by the government.

If you remember animesuki.net, which had its bit torrent and archive site shut down via Denial of Service from a government representative for being an "illegal site of archives of anime unreleased and unlicensed," then many sites could have the same fate. Fortunately, their last resort remains in Linux (until our boys in green find a way to jot us down from the outside). Thank God Europe still hasn't caught the swing of our Big Brotherly love in the superhighway of info.

Aristotle Stathatos, Queens