Fuckin'-A, Strausbaugh; Totenberg Ain't No Limbaugh; Thong Thing Again; More

If I listen to the mindless blabber and observations of an utter goof such as Mr. Darius James in his "Chicks on Speed" (2/6) article, then I choose death. As you know, down here in the land of Pogo we tend to be appreciative of the knowledge and overall brilliance emanating from the city that never sleeps.

This time, however, we have not only struck dirt in our drilling, but a gush of truly foolish self-serving blather in James trying to pass as high octane his otherwise useless claptrap (I am going to leave this sentence, though it crumbles with its own weight of drawn and quartered allusions...as they say...it alone must prove the low wattage with which your New York Jewish brethren hold us farmers).

What a completely unappetizing group of people. None, writer included, notice that the very things they hate and find so utterly worthless are the very same things that give them both the money and the freedom to hate, and, I guess if necessary, kill. I see little reason to spend any additional time on this sad group. Surely, the events of September did not blow away all the good sense of my favorite paper of record.

A.H. Watson, Holkden Beach, NC

One of the Perks

C.J. Sullivan: Regarding the unnamed police officer who complained about his supposedly low-wage job in "No Protest No Peace" ("New York City," 2/6): there is a silver lining to his economic dark cloud. He may not be raking in a Bill Gates-style paycheck, but at least he has the most rock-solid job security in the city. After all, is there any other place of employment in New York that allows you to shoot at an unarmed man 41 times and still let you keep your job?

Phil Hall, Manhattan

Harder, Harder

Re John Strausbaugh's "News Flash: Struggling Freelancers in New York City!" ("Daily Billboard," 2/5). My man. I couldn't have said it better. Fuck 'em and fuck 'em again.

Brett Forrest, Brooklyn

More Pricks than Kicks

RE John Strausbaugh's "News Flash: Struggling Freelancers in New York City!" Fuckin-A, man. Thanks for this kick in the balls to the pricks who run big media in this town.

Christopher Ketcham, Brooklyn

London Calling?Collect

MUGGER: Enjoyed your column last week. Just discovered it today (okay, I'm a late bloomer). Glad to know you like comics. Hope you might take the time to visit my cartoon site . We celebrated four years today.

R. London, via e-mail

Brown-Eyed Girl

An avid reader of Michelangelo Signorile's column, a friend of mine suggested I no longer read the Press. When I inquired why, she referred to William Georgiades' article, "The Accursed Thong" ("First Person," 1/30).

I read the article and was horrified by the level of misogyny. Are there no women on the New York Press team? What genius allowed this article to be printed? On behalf of all females I would like to inform Mr. Georgiades that, yes, women, in fact, do have assholes just like men. The fact that you choose to let your mind become infested with thoughts such as bacteria potential is not the problem of women. The fact that you clearly hate and despise women shouldn't be our problem. Unfortunately, we have to face the obvious aggression that you and other men harbor toward women. This woman would like you to kiss?guess what??her ass.

Jessica Glass, Manhattan

More Butt-Floss Controversy

Isn't it just like a woman to cut a guy's balls off because she disagrees with him? In her letter to the editor ("The Mail," 2/6), Dina Di Maio of Manhattan resorts to the typical woman's response to William Georgiades, saying that he must be a fag or he hates women. Nice overreaction. Jesus, shut the fuck up. I doubt every female reader was incited to fury as she suggests. For shitsake, all the guy said was he hates thongs. I've news for you, Dina, 90 percent of chicks wearing those things shouldn't be. There's nothing attractive about seeing some babe with more cottage cheese than Sam Breakstone trying to pull off the thong look. (By the way, if she thinks gay men really appreciate the female form, just check out some of the crap coming down the fashion runways.) Di Maio castigates Georgiades for not liking women in thongs, then goes on to the "real men" thing by condemning the treatment of women by Victoria's Secret. What's it going to be Dina? Which way do you want it? He doesn't like thongs; isn't that what VS sells? Does she have any clue what she's talking about? Does she support wearing thongs (even though she is "subjected to the scrutiny of a society, culture or profession dominated by gutless males") or is this a case of a woman's right to choose? She immediately assumes he must be angry because he's been rejected by thong-wearing women. Yes, Dina, you are all so precious that we should genuflect at your altar. It seems pretty simple: the guy doesn't like thongs. It may be superficial (of course no woman has ever liked a man because he looks good or is rich), but that's his taste. Could it be she's angry that no men ask her out because of her big sloppy ass bouncing all over the place? It's underwear honey, the guy doesn't like them, calm the fuck down.

Mike Jacobs, Manhattan

Churchillian Dubya?

MUGGER: Great column (2/6). I think Bush's speech had a lot of parallels with Churchill's speeches in the 30s. He was the only guy yelling in parliament about the danger from Germany. Keep up the good work.

Bill Pearlman, Chicago

But He's So Folksy

MUGGER: Please tell us you're kidding about Dubya. Is irony back? I have a hard time understanding anybody's glorification of this mediocre man (and I'm being generous), but to call him "certainly the most stirring speaker of my lifetime" is going way too far. Judging by your taste in music and your Red Sox memories I assume you were born before 1968, which means Martin Luther King Jr. is a speaker of your lifetime. Dubya doesn't even know how to pronounce "nuclear." The clown insists on saying "nucular" and his handlers are either too stupid or scared to correct him. I know ideas are more important than pronunciation, but he's seriously lacking there, too. The guy's already pissed away a surplus that took years and serious sacrifice to achieve. Now he wants to cut taxes and increase our already-bloated permanent military budget. This is the same moronic Reagan-style thinking that gave us the debt in the first place. Any lasting security for this country is going to be based on justice, not weapons. It's hard to believe that a government that has trained terrorists all over the world, including Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, is serious about stopping terrorism. The real war on terrorism and the real strength of our country is only going to come when we move in a very different direction from the one Dubya's heading.

Mike Power, Bronx

Pucker Up, Osama

MUGGER: What Bush said in his State of the Union kind of reminded me, in a way, of when Reagan said, in the presence of an open mic, "the bombing starts in five minutes." Now, as then, one could hear the distinctive sound of the assholes of America's enemies tightening and sometimes that's a good thing.

Charles S. Domina, Miami

He's the GOP Mascot

Mike Signorile: The last paragraph of your piece on Cheney ("The Gist," 2/6) was worth the bulk of what's been printed to date on the matter in any source. Thanks for writing it, please keep going.

By the way, has anyone asked whether certain oil companies now before federal grand juries in DC and New York for corruption in, of all places, Central Asia, may have had their needs addressed in the Cheney task force? Look at Seymour Hersh's July 9, 2001, article in The New Yorker (that may have had much to do with things in the world today) and ask the companies described therein whether they or their representatives were at Cheney's table. Get them on the record. Then ask whether Ashcroft received money from either company when he was a legislator. Finally, ask whether Ashcroft is going to recuse himself (as he has not to date) from involvement in those two grand-jury matters, as he did with respect to Enron. The big pink elephant is right in the room, hoping (successfully to date) that no one with a column and readers will notice it.

T. Charles Marcus, Washington, DC

It's Privileged, Silly

Mike Signorile: Excellent article on Deniable Dick. If we're lucky, he Spiro Agnewed himself and this may be the first step of a Nixon deja vu story. Keep up the great writing.

Ray Belongie, Sunrise, FL

Pretzel Logic

What a sloppy hit-job on Vice President Cheney and his efforts to keep findings by his energy commission secret. Michelangelo Signorile used enough "ifs" and "maybes" to script a compelling afterschool special, but he hardly makes a case for illegality on the part of the VP or President Bush. The writer offers little more than his disdain for the administration, Mary Matalin, Ralph Reed and whomever he is referring to as the "nasty-as-hell crowd."

The comparison to the uproar about Hillary Clinton's secrecy on her healthcare commission is also weak. Hillary was not an elected official and therefore not accountable to the voters. Signorile and his sources have a lot of work to do if they're attempting to turn Enron into the boon for Democrats that "Hillary Care" was for Republicans in '94. Please bring back Caldwell!

M. Van Voorhis, Alton, IL

Is Mailer Pouting?

Jim Knipfel: God knows, if there's a living authority on having "an almost obscene infatuation with [oneself]," it's Norman Mailer ("Daily Billboard," 2/6). I think in his heart of hearts, he's devastated that bin Laden hasn't mentioned him by name.

Kate Coe, Pasadena, CA

Tutu Hard to Imagine

MUGGER: "I'll wager that if [Gail] Collins took a poll among the male workers at the Times as to whether they'd rather be journalists or professional athletes, the latter choice would come in at 90 percent" (2/6). I don't think the fruit loops at the NYT would rather be athletes. Ballerinas? Maybe.

Jay Moran, Atco, NJ

Strausbaugh'll Use His Pitchfork

RE "Shirley Jackson Has a Place for You in Hell" ("Daily Billboard," 2/1). God bless Shirley Jackson and John Strausbaugh. May they both get to kick the crap out of John Leonard, Charlie Rose, Bill Moyers, Stephen Ambrose and Terry Gross for eternity in the afterlife.

Richard M. DelliFraine, via e-mail

What About Me?

Adam Heimlich's article, "2002: Hiphop's Year One" (1/23) was on point concerning the three acts he focused on. What I have a problem with is his characterizing all New York hiphop as being under the same umbrella. This, to me, feeds into the corporate domination of the record industry that we have today, which makes it tough for the independent artist to have his voice heard. I would like to see some balance in articles like this?perhaps the author could have spent a couple of paragraphs surveying the landscape of New York. If he would have done that, he might have discovered the group I'm part of, Ghetto Government, which is made up of New Yorkers, and we were all deeply affected by 9/11 and have a song expressing our viewpoint on the matter that is very very different from the examples cited in the article. New York is a multifaceted place, and it's a disservice to characterize its artists so narrowly.

Marc Lindahl, Manhattan

Enronified

MUGGER: So, Ken Lay refuses to sing to a bunch of Senate witch hunters (2/6)? Bravo! "Chairman Ken" will not tailor his conscience to suit this year's fashion! The Senate can take its bullying tactics and stick 'em where the Enron don't shine! Ken Lay will not rat out his friends! Hands off the Enron 10!

J.D. King, Stockport, NY

Now He Sees the Light

Jim Knipfel: As a resident of W. 10th St. between 5th & 6th Aves. ("the most beautiful block in New York City," said The New York Times), I read your article, "The W. 10th St. Enigma," with great interest ("New York City," 12/5/01). For many years, our legacy has been to maintain and beautify our street as a one-block-long community. Those among us who agreed that the streetlights were an eyesore, with their "War of the Worlds-style death rays arching out over the street," decided to do something about it. We, ourselves, the residents of 10th St., donated all the money, applied for the permits and ultimately saw the results of our group effort: beautiful, historical bishop's crook lampposts. Not a nickel of city money was used.

The West Tenth Street Block Association and all the city agencies you referred to in your article deserve an apology for your gratuitous insults.

Vicki Polon, President, West Tenth Street Block Association, Manhattan

Endless Battle

Mike Signorile: Thank you for the tireless battle against Andrew Sullivan and his army ("The Gist," 1/30).

Alan Rowland, Manhattan

It Ain't Le Cirque, But What the Hell

Taki: I have been a reader of yours only a short time, since the article about downing the black assailant that had the temerity of assaulting you. I believe this was in, or just outside of, Central Park.

I digress. Your article on Gosford Park ("Top Drawer," 2/6) is excellent as far as it goes. I was struck by how awful the portrayals of the aristos were and how noble the servants were.

I haven't the experiences that you have had?my view of life is from a working-class level?but I have traveled and did spend three years (in the 70s) in England, and can attest to the fact that class pervades their thinking. I told my wife, who is English, of Irish descent, and the granddaughter of a tweeny, after we saw the film together, that the portrayal was the obvious work of a writer from the lower classes getting a bit of revenge on the upper class. She disagreed, and offered the following insight: that both upper-class and lower-class moderns view the aristocrats from between the wars as a product of a dying culture, that in fact the stereotype of landed gentry in the 30s was not far from what actually existed. Country life was marking time, the roots had been cut but the tree had not yet withered.

England and English culture have suffered recently from egalitarian impulses. The common man has seized political power and is leveling the playing field. While many socialists see this as a good thing, even they are feeling a bit nostalgic for the days when country houses dotted the landscapes and admirals and industrialists and the pampered pets of the court built huge estates and supported many servants.

I admire your style, Taki, and while I doubt you will ever grace Normal, IL, if you do stop here, I would be proud to treat you to the best dinner in town.

Wally Taylor, Normal, IL

It's Always Been a Big Tent, Mike

MUGGER: You're breaking my heart! I'm a born-and-raised native Manhattanite and New York Press has been my faithful link to rare truth and reality practically since its first publication. Lately, however, I have to keep looking back at your front page to make sure I'm not reading the Village Voice. Your column and "Taki's Top Drawer" (which should have been increased to eight featured writers instead of reduced to two) are about all that's left of your once truly courageous paper. Michelangelo Signorile constantly spews Village Voice material, and I'm so glad Andrey Slivka has finally faded into the background (perhaps he's totally gone, but that might be too much to hope for). I have noticed that your page count has thickened in recent months. Am I to sadly assume that financial straits have bowed you to whisper the unspoken motto of the New York Slimes: "America, the left will bury you!" Please tell me I am wrong.

Michael Thomas, Manhattan

Dhimwit

I have been entertained by the entertaining Taki for a very long time (early Esquire) and find it so depressing that he has a cultural blind spot the size of Crete. Please refer him to this book: Islam and Dhimitude: Where Civilizations Collide by Bat Yeor. Taki is persistent in his attacks on Israel and pretends to be offended by people who call him an anti-Semite. He is a classic expression of the Dhimmi mentality. I find it pathetic that he has convinced himself that if the West and the U.S. in particular would abandon Israel that the Muslim-dominated countries would embrace us and join hands in fellowship. Taki certainly is not stupid but that notion is one of the more stupid fantasies of the Dhimmi mentality. He should be ashamed of his ignorance. I don't care if he is ashamed of his hatred.

Stephen E. Anderson, Manhattan

Quoi-ever

Taki: I'm sure you have had others point this out, but who knows? Maybe not. It was Voltaire who said in Candide that "Dans ce pays ci (England), il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres."

He was summing up the French astonishment at the ill handling of the good admiral whose bravery or patriotism was never questioned. To the victors?magnanimity. Mind you, they gave up the flogging of soldiers and sailors soon thereafter, where the British kept it up well past the Napoleonic wars.

As to French being the lingua franca of the Royal Navy, I have to say, first I've heard of it. But then, there's a lot I've never heard of.

Bruce Ware Allen, Norwalk, CT

Et Encore

Taki's fortunately powerless friend, whose ancestors were in fact succeeded by an anticommunist and royalist government doomed by virtue of their inheritance of the hash the Romanovs had made of things, had it wrong. The phrase "pour encourager les autres" (said of the execution of Admiral Byng) has come down to us in French not because the Admiralty used French, but rather because it was originated by Byng's defense attorney, one Voltaire. In his Candide, a sea captain says of England: "Mais dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres."

The Admiralty were too self-important to have laughed at themselves in this way, a trait common to aristocrats of all nations?yet another good reason I'm glad that we at most tolerate them here. (And I'm afraid M. Arouet would be shocked that the blood of the Enlightenment has grown so thin that we go even that far...though I am, like all decent folk, an opponent of capital punishment, sometimes Mr. Theodoracopulos' work makes me understand, at least a bit better, a Frenchman's residual affection for his Revolutionary Barber.)

M. Turyn, Watertown, MA

Cheney's Worm Turns

Mike Signorile: Excellent, excellent work in New York Press on Big Dick C ("The Gist," 2/6). Gosh, the worm is turning rather rapidly in these brave new times, no? Thanks for your words.

Sally Lambert, Manhattan

Signo Trumps Gail Collins

Mike Signorile: As usual, beautifully put, cogently argued, devastating. Why aren't you editing the NYT editorial page instead of the putz(es) they have? Well, we know the answer to that!

Richard Miller, Paris

Smack-Down on Ave. A

Okay, so maybe Ned Vizzini was born in the 80s, but when was Jamey O'Quinn born, yesterday ("The Mail," 2/6)? This pathetic little dolt, who takes Ned to task for his "boring" review of East Village nightlife, whines that "true" East Villagers don't go to "boring new places on Ave. A," and that only "real" East Villagers should report on the neighborhood. Well, speaking as a native New Yorker who has been living on 11th St. and Ave. B since 1980, and who considers herself a "real," "true" East Villager, I would like to clue Kid Whippersnapper in a little bit.

Jamey, "real" East Villagers don't make the rounds of those ever-multiplying nightspots on the alphabet avenues and side streets?we tend to avoid most of 'em like the plague, knowing as we do how they fill up nightly with jostling legions of smug, self-satisfied, 20-year-olds with fake IDs, trolling to get drunk and laid. "Real" East Villagers usually have to leave the neighborhood to get a quiet, adult drink or meal, so we're not forced to endure the endless "conversations" of graceless dullards who can prose of nothing but themselves and their experience-free lives. "Real" East Villagers live in the neighborhood 24/7, not just while we're going to school on our daddy's dime. "Real" East Villagers patronize not the bars, but the ever-dwindling number of useful establishments geared for residents?things like supermarkets, drycleaners, shoe repair shops. And here's a hot flash for ya?most of the "real" East Villagers you extol (of which you obviously consider yourself one) would not have been caught dead down here in the 80s (unless they were in a cab scoring dope), they would have been too terrified to set foot in the place.

You want to talk boring, young Jedi? Take a long, clear look at those bland, stereotypical, cookie-cutter, carbon-copy NYU students who overrun this place seven nights a week. Ned Vizzini has nothing on them. Now please, go home to wherever it is you came from, and grow up. We'll talk then.

Lisa Ramaci, Manhattan

The Event Itself

What was the most unexpected on 9/11: the event itself, or the course of actions going out of "control" while the first tower collapsed?

Alexandre Cvetkovic, Montreal, Quebec

The Poet's Corner

MUGGER:

THE PRESIDENT-REJECT

Why the beard

And what's in store,

O candidate

Al Qaeda Gore?

Leon Freilich, Brooklyn

We're Guessing He Said "Noam"

In his 1/16 "Wild Justice" column, Alexander Cockburn says Chomsky good, opponents bad. Today on "Booknotes" (the superb C-SPAN2 feed on weekends), 48 hours of nonfiction bookish things, in a tape of Noah Chomsky at a lectern on Jan. 22 at a midtown Manhattan forum, he said, "From 1961, when the U.S. cackled mischievously that they would blame the necessity for military buildup on the then-agrarian reforming, not Marxist, Castro, through the 1989 collapse of USSR, when the Reaganites needed a bogeyman to replace the Evil empire as justification for, uh-oh, again, military buildup, and settled on the Mideast/insane/militant Islamism, it just proves that 9/11 will be used to justify more militancy." His standing ovation lasted two minutes, and the gleeful moderator thanked the savant "for being Noah Chomsky," another standing ovation, a minute. His reasoning was preset, formulaic and a stupid reading of causes and effects, with political realities completely ignored, so to broadcast a bumper-sticker Marxism to sappy fans, and to get huge applause as a "thinker." Now these dorks bound away from their Jan. 22 43rd St. rally, fortified, armed with "arguments." What a great shame, an emptyheaded mass of ignorance. A waste of space.

Michael Smith, San Francisco

Four Chums

MUGGER: In your last piece, you compared Rush Limbaugh's friendship with Clarence Thomas and Nina Totenberg's with Ginsberg. One difference: Limbaugh is a noted conservative talk show host whose political bias is well known. The idea that a leading conservative spokesperson would be friends with a known conservative jurist is not surprising. Nina, on the other hand, has been covering the Supreme Court as a "neutral reporter" and her friendship with Ginsberg is that of a different matter.

Tom Donelson, Marion, Iowa

Russ Smith replies: True, Limbaugh makes no bones about his political leanings. Perhaps it's naive, but I just assume that anyone who listens to NPR knows what they're getting into. The larger point is the chumminess between the media and politicians. As for Limbaugh, what if Thomas?a superb justice?one day issued an opinion that angered conservatives? Would Limbaugh attack him? I'm not sure.

Woburn Slowburn

MUGGER: Last week's column contained a slight error. You said that Rush Limbaugh's friendship with Clarence Thomas is just as bad as Nina Totenberg's cozying up to Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The big difference here is that Limbaugh makes no pretense to being a journalist. Indeed, he goes to great lengths to make the point that he is an "entertainer," not a journalist. Totenberg, on the other hand, pretends to be a "journalist" with all the fairness and objectivity that implies. Ha ha.

Allan R. Thompson, Woburn, MA

Open Biases

MUGGER: I find a distinction between commentators accepting funds from corporate entities about whom they might opine, and personal friendships that those same commentators develop in the political jungle.

Mr. Limbaugh, bless his soul, makes no bones about his political preferences. If he were ever to present himself as a "neutral" in the left-right wars, I might look askance on such a personal relationship, and its likely effect upon his opinions. One need not concern oneself with that possibility.

Similarly, anyone who is employed by NPR has given tacit notice of her political bent. Sorry?no harm, no foul?save, perhaps, to the uninformed.

John F. McManus, Amityville, NY

Scott's Buddies

I just got back from a month in Tel Aviv and can report that Scott McConnell's take on the Israeli-Palestinian situation is pretty common there ("Top Drawer," 1/2). I served in the Israeli army, speak Hebrew and read the Hebrew press, and McConnell would easily fit in Ma'ariv or Ha'aretz. People are depressed and angry and feel that Sharon is leading them nowhere. So McConnell shouldn't be too upset being called anti-Israel by those brave warriors in Great Neck and Scarsdale who are prepared to fight to the last Israeli. They are the ones who are anti-Israel, not people like McConnell who want to see my friends in Tel Aviv living in peace and without fear. Peace for Israel means peace for Palestine. It is that simple.

Zev Fried, Brooklyn

WHAM Bam

Taki is incorrect when he says "Americans...do not suffer inherited privilege gladly" ("Top Drawer," 2/6). They certainly do if they are white, heterosexual able-bodied males (WHAMs). Everyone else in America has inherited group privileges based on race, gender, disability and, coming soon, same-sex sex.

Paul Craig Roberts, Panama City Beach, FL

The Cover-Up

Jim Knipfel: Ashcroft claims he knew nothing about the statue-covering ("Daily Billboard," 1/29). I believe him, but he should probably keep quiet about it because he'll get blamed no matter what.

MUGGER: Comparing Nina Totenberg to Rush Limbaugh is a bit unfair (2/6). Limbaugh, whether you like him or not, makes no pretense about being unbiased. He is unabashedly conservative. He makes no bones about where he stands and neither do you and that is why I like your column. Totenberg would have you believe she is objective.

Gerry Maestas, Española, NM

Rush Bum

MUGGER: You were quite wrong when you wrote that Mr. Limbaugh's friendship with Justice Thomas "is just as egregious as the Totenberg-Ginsberg bonding." Mr. Limbaugh is a self-proclaimed advocate for the conservative movement, etc.

Ms. Totenberg on the other hand is a supposedly impartial reporter for the supposedly impartial taxpayer-funded National Public Radio. There is a huge difference between the two.

David Mayotte-Ragsdale, Tunis, Tunisia

Well-Read Flagler

MUGGER: In the spirit of full disclosure, Rush had Justice Thomas officiate at his wedding, too. I love your column.

Evelyn Palmeri, Flagler Beach, FL

Border Patrol

Stan Hammond is correct in his assertion that much of the assholery committed in New York City is perpetrated by out-of-towners ("The Mail," 1/30). Boneheaded goons from Long Island and New Jersey seem to perceive a trip to New York as a license to misbehave. Back in my days in Greenwich Village, the drunken revelers emerging late at night from the White Horse Tavern ("McSorley's West"?actually, for some good clean fun, the next time a carload of jocks stops to inquire the way to McSorley's, give them directions to East New York instead) and screaming invectives at the "faggots" ostensibly residing in the surrounding buildings was as good an argument as any for raising the Hudson River tolls to $20. Piss on the streets in Fort Lee, shithead!

Actually, I recently saw some doofus get out of his car on the corner of 6th Ave. and W. Houston St. in order to, in full view, piss up against a wall. Upon trying to reenter his car, he inadvertently bashed his door against a fire hydrant, inflicting a nasty dent. Such are the little pleasures?if only the subliterate bastard could possibly be reading this. By the way, MUGGER, they love you in Texas. Ever think of running for Congress?

Larry Eldridge, Brooklyn

The Enron Way

MUGGER: I couldn't believe it when you said that if Enron's employees had taken a more active role in checking their 401(k) portfolios from time to time, then they wouldn't have gotten burned (1/30).

Don't you know that "Kenny Boy" Lay kept telling them that the company was doing well and would even do better? Also, many were prohibited from taking Enron stock out from their 401(k)s when they knew the company was not doing well.

Ed Scharf, Queens

When Rudy Was Milken It

MUGGER: You wrote, "...but will never forget Giuliani's scurvy tenure as a prosecutor in the 80s..." Thanks for remembering. Although only a spectator from flyover country, the whole thing sickened me. Excitement hit town with Milken. He all but singlehandedly restored the NY vitality that Giuliani gets credit for exploiting. I almost hate to admire the Rudy of the new millennium and I almost always will. Sigh.

Ron Neilson, Louisville, CO

Texas League Bawl

MUGGER: You can add Tom Oliphant to the list of Signorile, Dowd, Rich, et al. What a bowtied ratso bozo. I can see him sitting in his study with a shawl around his shoulders rubbing his paws together like the rodent he is. Salivating over the erection he gets when he thinks about Enrongate. He is as unreadable and predictable as the rest of that elitist media crowd.

I had to laugh out loud when I read last week's "Mail." All the "Thank you" letters to Signorile for his arrogant diatribe on "The Real American Taliban" ("The Gist," 1/9) had me in stitches. Anybody who believes that crap he continues to put out couldn't get an intellectual hit in a Little League game. There's a baseball term for such weak-kneed hitters. They call 'em "Judy's." Somebody needs to tell these scrubs that they struck out and to take a seat.

Tracy Meadows, Brenham, TX

"I Am Not a Crook"

Mike Signorile: Thank you for your article and for writing about Bush, Cheney and the administration (2/6). They are a bunch of crooks. When you steal an election, you have stolen and lied in the past. Enron and the Bush family are two of a kind: have investors invest in your company, then when the company starts to go under bail yourself out by taking the profits by selling the stock you have in the company. That is what the Bush family has done for years, especially George Bush, and now Neil Bush has started up another company known as Ignite. This country has gone downhill so bad since the corrupted Bushes got in office. Keep up writing the truth about Cheney, Bush, Rice and others. The truth always prevails.

Arlene Carlson, Helena, MT

Misty-Eyed

Bravo New York Press and Mike Signorile?thanks for telling it like it is!

Misty Smeltzer, Sarasota, FL

Touchy Feeley

I can't believe it, MUGGER! No mention of the moral ambiguities running rampant over at that bastion of righteous indignation, The New York Times?! With only so many fingers available for pointing, I guess the writers at the Times didn't feel the need to mention that their own beloved rag would follow the legitimately respectful "Portraits of Grief" series by selling out to the pandering 12-page Kenneth Cole ad supplement that dropped in the Feb. 3 edition. Maybe they missed that worthy piece of advertising collateral. Or maybe it's just that ad space is at such a premium right now that personal ethics becomes a luxury none of them can afford? Speaking of luxury, I wonder what the weather is like in that bubble Mr. Cole lives in? To run an ad with the line, "On September 12, fewer men spent the night on the couch..." just goes to show that expensive taste doesn't equal tastefulness. How easy do you think that idea was to swallow for the families of the thousands of heroes who didn't come home on Sept. 11? Beautiful people lounging in beautiful clothes finding witticisms in tragic events?talk about fun with fashion! Well, at least he isn't including images of the fallen towers or the NYPD/FDNY logos on his wares like the street merchants who were piggybacking on the tragedy by what seemed later that same day. Then again, he might be saving those jewels for the real folks at the 7th on Sixth shows.

Christopher E. Feeley, Whitestone, NY

Tricky Dick

Mike Signorile: I'm a California Democrat who's enraged over Cheney's silence over the whole Enron affair. So I've started a website, www.makedicktalk.com, where I'm selling boxers with "Make Dick Talk" to protest. Keep up the good work. You're the closest thing America has these days to a "Woodward-Bernstein" on the case.

Gary Mittin, Tarzana, CA

Silly Sully

Michelangelo Signorile seems to have found himself an interesting journalistic niche, exposing the hypocrisy of Andrew Sullivan ("The Gist," 1/30). Given how much material is available on this particular subject, Signorile could keep himself busy for quite some time. Sullivan's lack of disclosure of his ties to Charles Francis when he writes on the Bush administration or big tobacco is par for Sullivan's course.

Many readers remember an even more prominent case of Sullivan's hypocrisy?the barebacking scandal. Signorile took the trouble to go through Sullivan's prior rantings, finding in his book Love Undetectable where he accused gay men who practiced unsafe sex before the awareness of AIDS of "facilitat(ing) a world in which gay men literally killed each other by the thousands." The men he demonized did not know of the risks they were taking with themselves and others. Sullivan does. Also of interest was Sullivan's charge that his critics were engaging in "sexual McCarthyism." Sullivan established himself as one of the foremost sexual McCarthyites during his tirades on the Monica Lewinsky brouhaha.

Given his irrationality and hypocrisy, one wonders why The New York Times, CNN and other news outlets take Sullivan seriously. It is fascinating that a conservative and often homophobic gay man has been anointed by the corporate-owned media as the main commentator on queer issues. He is hardly representative of us. Most of us are far more liberal and lack his self-esteem issues. The exclusive pedestal on which he has been placed by the media establishment of this country is an example of how corporate power distorts our lives and keeps lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans down.

Thomas Klem, Washington, DC

Return of the Libs

I just wanted you to know the Signorile article on "The Real American Taliban" ("The Gist," 1/9) was right on target. I know you have probably gotten lots of mail from American conservatives who are pretty offended by his accusation, but he spoke the truth about who they really are. Keep up the good work, Mike, and thanks, guys, for giving him space to say it.

Roxanne Clanin, North Hollywood, CA

Church of Choice

I can't tell you how much I appreciate Mr. Signorile's column and thoughts about the "American Taliban" ("The Gist," 1/9). It warms my heart to hear my own thinking expressed so well. While I realize those in the religious right are firmly convinced of their righteousness, and rightness, and that they are on a mission from God, they really do not have the right to run the country and legislate their religious viewpoints on the rest of us.

For some understanding of who is expressing this, please let me explain. I am 52, a single mother of three and definitely not gay. Also, I'm more acquainted than most with conservative religion. I was raised in a very conservative religious home, sent to religious schools all my life and graduated from a conservative religious college, with a BA in religion. I never was a rebellious teenager in any way. I stayed in that church for many years. Only as time went on, in adulthood, in the last 10 years, did I feel sufficiently sure of my own thinking, and that it wasn't "being rebellious," but just truly my own thinking?only then was I able to leave that church and choose a more inclusive and accepting one. This was extremely difficult, but had been years in the making. I truly feel like I'm where I belong now, and am so much happier with being who I really am.

I know something about the American Taliban, from the inside and from the outside. I want you to know that here is one person who agrees passionately with Mr. Signorile's column.

Thank you for allowing him to express the thinking of so many of us. Please do not think that because we are not as trigger-happy as some, we aren't the "often-silent majority." Just because the violent protesters at the WTO are noisier doesn't make them representative of the majority.

Pat Alden, Columbia, Maryland