Christian Viveros-Fauné, the Jug-Stupid Hyphenate; Hobbits' Hats Off to Seitz; Taki, the Hypocrite, Aces "Lies"; David Signorile Brings Down Goliath Enron, But Where's the Proof?; Marquis James' Granddaughter Bows to Bryk; More
Lord of the Stoned
Just a short take on Matt Zoller Seitz's review of The Lord of the Rings ("Film," 12/19). I think he nails it. The film is an impressive, often moving, bit of filmmaking by Peter Jackson. It's been 25 years since I read the books, and I hadn't missed them much, though I remember being engrossed at the time. The combination of whimsy and classical scholarship seemed to genuflect just low enough for my high school taste.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone sucked. I left the theater thinking, "What was the point of that?" Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, takes its basic theme seriously: the good, though difficult, is worth every effort. Egbert (excuse me, Ebert), over at the Chicago Sun-Times, gave Potter four stars and Lord of the Rings a miserly three. Which studio head is he blowing? Hard to take the little chubby seriously anymore. Anyway, hats off to Seitz, his review was informative and a pleasant read.
Name Withheld, via e-mal
Bring a Lot of Money
MUGGER: I read you, too, regularly, and admire what you write. But please let Taki know that his "Lies, Lies, Lies" column ("Top Drawer," 12/26) was right on the mark. I also graduated from Mr. Jefferson's University (Law School, 1982) and wish I could have said what Taki said. If he is ever in Washington, I'll buy him a drink of his choice.
Michael R. Calabrese, Washington, DC
But It's Different for Them
Does the idiot Taki consider the fact that his heroes Bush and Cheney are Draft Dodgers? Probably not, but that's no shock.
Edwin Garfinkel, Brooklyn
He's Actually Bullish
Can Alexander Cockburn really believe his own hyperbole regarding proposed Social Security investment choices ("Wild Justice," 12/19)? In equating Enron with investment in general, has he not noticed that stock market returns have far outpaced bond investments for the past three-quarters of a century? Is he so bearish on the United States and the world in general that he cringes at the notion of letting a Social Security contributor decide if he'd like to dedicate a portion of those contributions to a long-term growth fund? Speaking for myself, I'd sure like to have that choice.
Jerry Peragine, Harrisburg, PA
Excellent!
Jeez, MUGGER, sending fan mail to Bart Simpson makes me feel like a 59-year-old kid ("e-MUGGER," 12/27).
John Lindley, Long Beach, CA
Pole-Axed
Two silly Polish things for Andrew Baker ("New York City," 12/26): one, the Polish river is not Wista but Wisla (the "i" has a slash through it and is pronounced like aw), and two, I don't think I have ever met a Pole (in my, you know, time living in Poland and being a Pole) who was a member of the aptly named Russian Orthodox Church. Roman Catholicism has been bred in the bones of Poles since the Jesuits came and wrenched them away from Luther. And besides that, the Poles hate Russians so intensely that very few would ever associate themselves with anything tainted by the murderous and thieving progeny of Russia. I'm not saying that there are no Poles who are Russian Orthodox Christians, just that their numbers are hopelessly small (Poland is overwhelmingly Catholic).
I hope and pray that Andrey Slivka's downward movement in the masthead means he is working on a book, and that said book is coming soon. Finally, I haven't tested this on any other computers, but it seems that AOL's DNS servers don't have an entry for nypress.com (meaning that AOL users can't access the website). You may want to look into that.
Milosz Meller, Queens
Andrew Baker replies: I congratulate Meller on being Polish and I invite him to come spend a little time in Greenpoint, where he'll discover that roughly 10 percent of the local Polish population does, in fact, worship at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration. Perhaps, if he's attentive, he will detect something of the enduring soul of forgiveness that has often characterized his own people.
As for the river, most Poles I know pronounce and spell it not Wisla, as Meller contends, but Vistula (with a hard "v" and "t"). It's worth noting that in preparing the piece, I came across such different spellings as Vistula, Wistula, Wista, Vista, Visla and, yes, Wisla. Lacking consensus, I deferred to the National Geographic folks (Atlas of the World, Revised 6th Edition) for my spelling. Regardless, I do trust Meller is not, by implication, asserting some pedantic decree on place-name usage and that he does not, in the midst of his own chest-thumping bristles, rail against the murderous and thieving progeny of Mockba.
Go Heels!
Taki: I am a student at Notre Dame, and it is a pretty widely recognized idea now that George O'Leary insisted on resigning, while the school tried to get him to stay ("Top Drawer," 12/26). They insisted they could work through the problem and didn't want the bad press. Plus, they do not appear to have any top prospects right now. Thus, while I agree with your points, the George O'Leary introduction is not completely accurate. Go Irish!
Daniel Barabas, Allendale, NJ
It's Part of Our Charm
I had a good laugh this week when I read Signorile's column ("The Gist," 12/26) about the Bush administration's Enron-related lies, and immediately followed it with Taki's high dudgeon on the horrors of Clintonesque falsehood.
Kira R. Singer, Manhattan
Bush's Free Media Pass
Thank you for running Mr. Signorile's column about the Bush connection to Enron organized crime. When is the press in general finally going to stop turning a blind eye to the many illegal activities of George W. Bush? There are so many stories waiting to be told, and investigated: his AWOL status for the last one and a half years of his Texas Air National Guard "service." His insider-trading violations. His lies about the conditions under which a barely qualified underachiever got an appointment to the Texas Air National Guard in front of a couple hundred thousand more qualified candidates. His barely legal fundraising activities from the governor's mansion in Texas. His lies about his arrest record and lies by omission about his drug use. His welcoming of Enron criminals to his administration (Lay and Racicot). Republican conflicts of interest in Congress about Enron.
And the Texas connection to all the people who were illegally prevented from voting in Florida, and who knows what else. If ever there was a politician for whom the independent-counsel law needs to be reenacted, it is George W. Bush. Thank you for being one of the few journalists worthy of the name. Keep up the good work.
Kim Sayers, Greenwood Village, CO
It Was Clinton's Fault
Mike Signorile: If you've got something on Enron, then show us. I call bullshit.
Robert Wheeler, Manhattan
Say It, Ellen: Ass! Ass!
Michelangelo Signorile: At a time when many of your peers seem to have their heads up?well, never mind?I found your column to be asking the right questions! This emperor (although he would rather be a dictator) has no clothes! And yet, even someone like myself, who reads voraciously, has to dig or use the Web to find any coverage of the mess at Enron. Our media would still rather chase Clinton (or in Ann Coulter's case, make some bizarro claims against airline security). Thanks to real journalists like you, Cragg Hines, Thomas Oliphant, Clay Robison and a few others, people like me can keep up the fight! Bravo, and please keep up the good work.
Ellen Donovan, Boston
It's the Democrats' Fault
Michelangelo Signorile's column on Enron might make sense for aficionados of The X-Files or Oliver Stone movies, but for those of us who care about the facts it leaves a great deal to be desired. It may be true that Ken Lay contributed money to Republicans. It may also be true that Enron committed accounting and securities fraud. However, what is the connection? If Signorile knows that any particular Republican politician aided and abetted or covered up that fraud, he should lay out the facts in detail for us. Put up or shut up, Michael. (By the way, Signorile accuses Rove of insider trading for selling his Enron stock at the start of the Bush administration while failing to note that Rove was forced to sell after the press and the Democrats demanded that he do so.)
Doug Levene, Wilton, CT
Wag the Dog II
Michelangelo Signorile: Thank you for your great article, "Will the Enron Scandal Break Wide Open?" You said what needed to be said: the truth. You have expressed my frustration with the corporate media and the baby Bush love-fest. The scary thing as soon as the poll numbers go down for the smirk: we will go after Somalia and Iraq?which gives a whole new meaning to the war on poverty.
Jeff Huther, Daly City, CA
Water Seeks Its Own Level
MUGGER: I was recently was in New York on business and had the pleasure of reading "Wenner: Same Old Song" (12/12). I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading about this fucking slime and the way he has jumped in bed with the eternal king of slime, lies, adultery, scandal, perversion, Bill (I think with my prick) Clinton and his equally corrupt wife (you know, that fat shit in a pantsuit).
How can these people exist in society? Actually, Russ, I know the answer already. The sad truth is there are lots of really stupid people in this country.
Steve Tower, Rockland, MA
Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
MUGGER: Just read your column about Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner. Harsh, hilarious and informative. Good work.
Pat Kearney, Seattle
Sweet Letter
Adam Heimlich: There is also a La Maison Du Chocolat shop in Rockefeller Center ("Food," 12/26) and the staff there is very friendly. I went in there with nervous feelings that I put on myself because, admittedly, there is a sense that one is walking into some kind of cocoa cathedral. I think the main problem is that the decor of the La Maison Du Chocolat stores is very cold and forbidding. That's something the company should think about, I believe. However, the staff people were very nice in the Rockefeller Center location, very helpful, and I was waited on quickly. I was also given a booklet, which put me at ease.
I'm not disputing your experiences at the Upper East Side store, of course. I can see easily how they would be snippy there (which is precisely why I chose to go to the other one for my first venture). I'm just writing to suggest that next time you try the other store; you may leave with a happier experience as well as good chocolate. I enjoyed your article overall and plan to keep it for future reference.
Kimberly L. Robinson, Manhattan
Great Minds
William Bryk: I was most impressed to see your column on W.R. Grace ("Old Smoke," 12/5). Merchant Adventurer was written by my grandfather, Marquis James, and I am impressed that you located a copy. As far as I know, there are only about 10 copies in existence?actual publication of the book having been blocked by the Grace family, for reasons I have never quite understood, after bound galleys became available.
Oddly, as an appreciative reader of "Old Smoke," I had made a mental note to myself to contact you, thinking that now that we have a businessman mayor-elect, you might want to pursue the administration of W.R. Grace. That was obviously unnecessary; but I would still be curious to know how you came across the book. Although up to 15 years ago?which was the last time the subject came up?the Grace family still didn't want to see it published, it would be pleasant to try to figure out how those interested in New York City history could have more access to it.
As you probably know, what makes this blocking of publication more mysterious is that my grandfather was an outstanding biographer and twice a Pulitzer Prize-winner. Much to my astonishment, I recently also read that The Raven, his biography of Sam Houston, is one of our current president's favorite books.
Chris Norwood, Manhattan
William Bryk replies: Merchant Adventurer, by Marquis James, ISBN 0842024441, was published in 1993 by Scholarly Resources, Inc., 104 Greenhill Ave., Wilmington, DE 19805, under the imprint of SR Books. It is presently out of print. According to the introduction by Lawrence A. Clayton, he came across the manuscript while researching his own book on W.R. Grace. Clayton describes the non-publication history of the book.
Apparently, persons within the Grace organization felt that the book's revelations about the relationships of W.R. Grace with certain Peruvian politicians in the 19th century might affect W.R. Grace & Co.'s 20th-century interests in Peru and Chile. The company owned the book, having commissioned and paid the author, and so lawfully suppressed it on the eve of publication. By the 1990s, however, the company had largely withdrawn from Latin America and the persons who felt the book might injure the company were dead or retired. J. Peter Grace himself did not recall why the book had been suppressed and favored its publication, nearly half a century after its suppression.
The book is a good read, solidly researched, well structured, elegantly written and worthy of the man who wrote The Raven, one of the finest historical biographies that I've read.
Morality Tale
Carol Iannone is right. It is outrageous to view Israeli and Palestinian violence as morally equivalent ("Taki's Top Drawer," 12/19). The Israelis use violence to perpetuate an illegal occupation. The Palestinians utilize it to resist illegal occupation. There is no equivalence or, if you insist, the same equivalence as between Hungarian Freedom Fighters in 1956 and Soviet tanks. Israel forever! Ditch the occupation. Thank you, Carol.
Mordechai Anilewicz, Poughkeepsie
Fuming Like Hume
How could you have printed such a shoddily thought-out piece in your paper? You're way cooler than that?that's why I pick your paper up whenever I'm in the city. C'mon, guys?you owe me an explanation! I'm talking about Carol Iannone's "Moral Relativism" ("Taki's Top Drawer," 12/19). What's next in New York Press? An article arguing that there should be more human compassion in the world because according to Einstein's Theory of Relativity, we're all related? Sheesh.
Now, I know she meant well. I heard the passion in her writing and her well-intentioned pleas for truth as a solution to the quagmire that is the Middle East. But it's hard to take Iannone seriously when it is obvious that she has no clue what moral relativism is. Moral relativism is the belief that all cultures have a right to practice their own sense of morality free of outside criticism, since there are no clear objective moral standards that apply universally to all societies. This has absolutely nothing to do with what she was really talking about, which is the epistemological theory some people hold that truth is subjective, and therefore relative. Apparently, the author, not knowing what to call that theory, flipped through the dictionary, saw what she liked and couldn't resist using it. She shouldn't have done that, because she wound up making an unbelievably bad, horrible mistake.
To make matters worse, after boldly giving us the wrong definition of moral relativism, Iannone went on to give examples using it in situations where it had no business being, an action that only underscored her ignorance. Using the O.J. Simpson case as an example of moral relativism at work? The only way O.J.'s acquittal could be argued as a legitimate case of moral relativism is if the defense had argued that the killing of his wife was a practice of African-American custom (i.e., a sacred ritual or religious rite) and as a result, could not be used as grounds for finding him guilty, since to do so would be a case of cultural imperialism. But that's not what happened. What happened was a bunch of high-priced lawyers used every trick in the book to persuade a bunch of shnooks that O.J. Simpson was innocent. Moral relativism as an explanation for how the West is viewing the actions of the Palestinians? What?because, as the author says, the conflict is being seen as equally the fault of both parties? Or that the intentions of the terrorists are being seen as well-intentioned as the Israelis'? What on Earth does that have to do with moral relativism? Nothing at all. A true case of moral relativism would be if the West allowed terrorists to commit acts of terror, since, according to it, to keep them from blowing things up would be a blatant imposition of its culture on their values and their cultural "right" to practice terrorism.
The point of my letter is not to gleefully rain on Iannone's parade, but to say that no matter how passionate you may be on any given topic, you don't help your case any when you try to argue your point based on an idea you may have heard once or twice while accidentally stumbling through a Nova special during one of your many sessions of channel surfing. It smacks of laziness. But it also makes you look like a fool of Don Kingish proportions, except when he says things like, "The loquacity of my turpitude is the penultimate of my intelligence," he has an excuse?he's a showman. You, the writer, have no excuse?that is, unless you personally go out of your way to annoy malcontents such as myself for the sole purpose of reading our crabby responses to your articles.
Now I'm going to let you slide with this one, New York Press, but don't let this happen again. If you do?well, I don't know what I'm gonna do, but it might involve me wiping my derriere with the offending article from your newspaper next time round. Trust me: you don't want that!
R. Cherubin, Brooklyn
A Vote for Decency
Rudy deserves "Person of the Year" for representing New York City. How about "Rudy for Senate in 2004" so he can represent all of us? Send me a bumper sticker. He's got my vote!
Allan Ellis, New Berlin, NY
Gutless Wonder
MUGGER: You're right, Time was gutless in choosing Giuliani "Person of the Year" ("e-MUGGER," 12/27). If one used Time's own criterion that the Person of the Year is the one who had the most effect on world events, for good or bad, then there is only one choice and that is Osama bin Laden. And if there were an alternative, it would be George W. Bush. But the media now has this love affair with Giuliani, their once and maybe future chief villain. But this love affair has gone to Rudy's head. I mean, he gives his farewell address at St. Paul's Chapel. Who does Rudy think he is, George Washington? Rudy is no George Washington. And in that ill-advised speech, New York's mayor cost the city thousand and thousand of jobs. For Sir Galahad's (Giuliani's) proposal that the World Trade Center not be rebuilt, but a memorial be put in its place (wonderful for birds, not so good for people trying to make a living), will cost the city thousands and thousands of jobs. So, in a way, what bin Laden started, Giuliani is finishing.
Gary Schwartz, Fort Lee, NJ
He Won Last Year!
George Bush was clearly the "Person of the Year." He came into office without a mandate. He had an international crisis with China. He had a slumping economy. The United States was attacked.
What does George Bush do? He didn't attend every Yankee game. He didn't pose for every magazine cover. He didn't do Saturday Night Live twice. He didn't read David Letterman's Top 10 list. Bush merely won a war and got his programs through Congress. But he's a Republican who's not a lame duck. He stood no chance to get any credit. But in all fairness, can you think of any president in recent memory who had a better year? What exactly did Rudy do? Did you read last weekend where "America's Mayor" claimed that he's leaving the city with a $600 million budget surplus? So all this talk of our being in the worst financial hole since the President Ford "Drop Dead" days is not true? Can't anyone in the media step off these bandwagons and analyze things objectively?
Barry Popik, Manhattan
Only with Morrissey Tunes
I thought C. Zwyer's letter about "composer/creep" John Williams ("The Mail," 12/19) was completely accurate, albeit way, way too polite. If you ask me, Armond White is just the sort of imbecile who would actually approve of Williams' lousy scores.
George Bell, Manhattan
Inside Dope
I've always enjoyed the writing of Mary Karam. I don't have to meet her to know that she is a woman of taste and learning. So I was pleased to learn she was thinking about writing about the famous "Pete's Place" on 3rd Ave. between 21st and 20th.
Pete's is the best Greek-owned diner in New York. Since I live nearby in a little apartment, I spend a lot of time there. Often, I'm reading New York Press. Often, I'll be chatting with either of the two owners (both Pete) about something in the Press. I used to toy with the idea of writing something myself, but I was relieved to hear the job was in good hands.
Tom Phillips, Manhattan
How Veddy Kind of You to Write, Fergie
Claus von Bulow ("Taki's Top Drawer," 12/26) commits a double error when he states that "London theaters proudly displayed the defiant slogan 'WE NEVER CLOSED' during the Blitz." Although this slogan refers to wartime conditions, it was not displayed until after V-E Day, and it was displayed by one theatre only.
The Windmill Theatre, near Piccadilly Circus, was a burlesque house which specialised in striptease shows and comedians. (Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe performed at the Windmill before they were famous.) At one point during the Blitz, all London theatres and cinemas were required to close by law, on the grounds of public safety. The Windmill was the only theatre which re-opened as soon as it could legally do so, and continued to offer girlie shows and lowbrow humour through the rest of the war. Soon after V-E Day, the Windmill's managers erected a large sign which announced (not quite accurately) "WE NEVER CLOSED" in bright red neon letters. This sign was a London landmark for nearly 20 years, until the Windmill was finally shuttered. (I remember watching the removal men dismantle this neon sign in November 1964.) No other London theatre made a similar boast, and, if they had, it would have been untrue.
For more information about the Windmill Theatre, I refer you to the entry "We never closed" in Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Catchphrases, which is out of print but available in many libraries. Maybe George Szamuely has got a few copies.
And now that I've got your attention, why in hell have you lot stopped running "The Straight Dope"? I always went to this column straight off, before reading anything else in your paper. Now I flounder through the trannie-sex ads in search of Cecil Adams.
Fergus Gwynplaine MacIntyre, Glasgow, Scotland
Dugs Out
Great article on Van Halen ("Music," 12/12). Jessica Willis really summed it all up. We all need Van Halen now. Eddie still rules. I'm 34 and living in suburbia with my wife and three little kids. I need a new Van Halen CD so I can learn all the guitar parts and jump around my living room like a complete ass. Maybe my wife will even show me her dugs. Thanks again for the great article.
John Conklin, Yorktown Heights, NY
Taki's Christmas Balls
Taki: I look forward to your writings week after week and agree with you 90 percent of the time. One article you had written in the past was unsympathetic toward Denise Rich ("Top Drawer," 12/19). I've met Denise several times, we have the same nutritionist and I think she is a delightful woman. I, unlike you, did not have the balls to tell her what I really think of the weasel (silly Billy). Nonetheless, the truth comes out on how anti-American the former president is. Who is fond of him now after the Georgetown lecture? Keep writing the truth, Taki. You're a fountain of information and I would love to hear you give lectures. Merry Christmas (Kala Hristouyena).
Chryso Maria, Manhattan
What Taki Suffers For His Art
Taki's choice was obvious: leave once the situation was properly assessed and walk out without angry words in order not to embarrass your hosts, or stay and shut up. Yet he chose to stay and then complain about staying. You can't have it both ways. It is sad that Taki takes such pride in his ugly behavior. Anything for a good story, even hypocrisy.
Otto Avila, Brooklyn
State of Mystery
I hear or read this phrase so often?but I never see a map or description of the actual "Proposal" nor do I understand that any offer was made. I did recently read that the Barak-proposed Palestinian "state" would consist of four cantonments and Gaza, all supervised by Israel. It is really too bad Bush had to lend his prestige and that of our country to this apparently hopeless cause.
R.T. Carpenter, Panama City, Florida
Questioning AIDS
Michelangelo Signorile: Whether dissident AIDS activists Dave Pasquarelli and Michael Petrelis committed the crimes of harassment that the San Francisco DA's office alleges they did remains to be proven in court ("The Gist," 12/12). Meanwhile, defenders of official AIDS policy?including Gabriel Rotello in his recent L.A. Times editorial?are trying to blacken all disagreement on AIDS science by equating it with Pasquarelli's and Petrelis' alleged crimes against city health officials and others.
Their effort belies the facts. If Pasquarelli and Petrelis were to disappear off the planet tomorrow, the AIDS establishment would still have a growing problem with an international group of dissenting scientists, journalists, activists and patients. These people don't fit any criminal profile, and they don't use what Rotello calls "harassment and obscene threats" to get their points across. They're asking questions about nagging issues that haven't gone away. The issues include debate about San Francisco AIDS statistics that Pasquarelli and Petrelis were questioning when they were arrested in December.
AIDS dissent goes back to the early 1990s, when the international Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis first united over some common concerns. In a letter published by Science in 1995, these scientists and other experts called for?among other things?an independent audit of CDC AIDS statistics. At that early date, there was already controversy about the methodology for creating AIDS statistics, which doesn't operate off head counts. Instead, estimates are projected more or less freely. To this day, a number of scientists, investigative journalists and activists note that some so-called "AIDS statistical studies" are more like polls than peer-reviewed studies; they express the view that some statistics are hugely inflated.
The AIDS-statistics controversy is not a local San Francisco squabble. In India, at this moment, debate rages over whether HIV cases are at four million or 10 million?a big discrepancy. In a recent Rolling Stone, investigative reporter Rian Malan, originally a believer in AIDS policy, tells how he recently visited his home country, South Africa, and found himself unable to match the public-health scene he found there with WHO's "alarming" AIDS statistics on South Africa.
Why are AIDS statistics a key issue? Because "alarming" figures are used to leverage public opinion and pump ever-growing AIDS funding?including in San Francisco, where public-health officials insist that there are new "sub-Saharan" statistics for HIV infection among gay men. In other words, the folks who defend the statistics are also defending their programs, jobs, political power, etc.
But the statistics issue is only one among many, and they shouldn't be settled by political demagoguery, but by impartial examination. Congress, alarmed over growing reports that federal AIDS funds are being widely misspent, is already doing a bipartisan investigation. Democrat Max Baucus of Montana, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is one of those on point. I'd also like to see Congress scrutinize AIDS statistics. The government has regulations about how scientific research should and shouldn't be conducted. Federal money pays for many of these widely questioned statistical studies. So Congress should want to know if the feds are getting their money's worth.
Meanwhile, more and more defenders of AIDS policy are saying that AIDS dissent should be considered a crime, and prosecuted as such. I find it alarming that these people are demanding police-state solutions to scientific issues that really deserve to be handled on a less bloodthirsty level. Are the figures accurate or not?
Patricia Nell Warren, Beverly Hills, CA
Ground Zero Tale
Mike Signorile: I just read your very good story about the bum who slept through the WTC collapse ("The Gist," 12/19). What a wonderful story! Thank you.
Hastings Wyman, Washington, DC
It's All Relative
Your columnist Carol Iannone uses the phrase "moral relativism" ("Taki's Top Drawer," 12/19) to refer to the blind prejudice of some people who believed, in 1995, that O.J. Simpson was guilty of murder, with no evidence. Why not use the phrase "immoral relativism" to describe that point of view?
Recall that the California police covered up evidence, committed falsehoods and about stood on their heads to convict the man! Only after the trial was over was it revealed that the local telephone company had records of the victim speaking with her mother at midnight, when O.J. was already on his plane flying to Chicago. Obviously someone else performed the bloody deed, but the LAPD never figured it out.
It's really boring to note the dumb attempts to involve Simpson in other crimes, such as "road-rage" and "drug-running." And some dumbass comedian drags out Simpson's name whenever his audience gets bored, which is often!
Iannone tries to misstate and twist the Middle East conflict by dragging Simpson's name into it. How absurd can you get? The "immoral relativism" in this column sticks out a mile. The author doesn't know what the word "objective" means. It's pitiful.
Veronica Weiss, Brooklyn
Money Can Buy Gayness
Mike Signorile: I have just read your article "The Gay-Bashing Pope" ("The Gist," 11/21), which I found to be somewhat uncanny. You see, although you accuse the Holy Father of promoting anti-gay sentiments and therefore potential physical threat to homosexuals, I think you just did the same thing by writing your article. In 1981 he was shot by someone who obviously read tabloids and reviews about the Pope. Pope John Paul is a man for all seasons, he is ready to endure anything for what is right. Dogmatic? Yes. Obstinate? Perhaps. But you can bet that right now he is on his knees praying for the souls of the oppressed, gays included. What right do you and I have to criticize him like this and potentially put him in danger? In a world where school shootings are not uncommon and people have lost their sense of right and wrong lies the breeding ground for anti-papal terrorists. I am a young Catholic woman living in a Muslim country. I have lived through revolutions, war and natural disasters. I have seen hate crimes, people shot to death in front of my eyes. We don't waste our time thinking about exploring homosexuality, for it is the outcome of an affluent society with nothing else to worry about. What do war and poverty mean to you? Have you lived through them? The Pope has. We have. He is a symbol of hope and tolerance for us. He is the number-one peacemaker in the world at this moment and does his job without flinching. So please, let's not promote "papaphobia."
Guita Yasseri, Tehran, Iran
Um, About that Gum...
So the Jew-hater extraordinaire Taki is shocked, shocked, to hear that the Arab world, including its ridiculous "media," thinks that the Mossad blew up the towers, while at the same time applauds bin Laden and the deaths of innocent Americans ("Top Drawer," 12/26). This from the man who believes that all power in Washington "runs through Tel Aviv," is how I believe he put it some time ago. He wrote (admittedly, without a shred of evidence) that the Mossad tipped off the traitor Marc Rich to avoid his being captured by American fighter jets while in his private plane. Yeah, I was at the International Zionist Ruling Elite meeting that day, and let me tell you, that was a close call. We were only able to get the American generals we control to call off the F-16s at the last second (how they made a decision like that without consulting us is beyond me; the nerve of some people). Then we got down to the business of World Domination. Taki, the Arab media has been telling "Lies, Lies, Lies" like yours for years to bolster its even more outrageous claims (Israelis spreading AIDS in Egypt via stunning Jewish prostitutes; Israeli bubblegum that turns virginal Arab girls into raving sluts, etc.). Nazi websites regularly quote them as well.
So how could you expect the truth? Arabs have developed a victimization theology?that it has to be Americans, Britons and Jews who are keeping them down, because it is impossible that they permit themselves to be ruled by brutal, thuggish, warmongering, kleptomaniacal liars who work to keep the vast majority of their populations in poverty and ignorance. It is fed by fantastical musings like yours. But what could we expect from a man who daydreams of joining the Waffen SS, butchers