MORAL INDIGNATION: JEALOUSY WITH A HALO Moral Indignation: Jealousy ...
On Quotes and Cures
The article on Dennis Kucinich by Matt Taibbi was wonderful ("Cage Match," 2/25). It has quotes I will add to my email signature. He is totally on target about people being afraid to vote for Kucinich because they are worried about being perceived as weak, touchy-feely "outsiders by the remorseless center."
Now for that horrid article on AIDS politics by Celia Farber ("Rotation," 2/25). What the hell is she so defensive about? She acts like she's been hurt by the presence of red ribbons far more than PWAs and their loved ones have been hurt by the disease. Contrary to what she believes, AIDS activists don't necessarily want AIDS to be considered the "disease of all time" (emphasis hers) but they want to emphasize that this very painful disease is 100-percent preventable (as opposed to cancer, for instance) and has been made far worse by prejudice. She seems to think that research is "virtually fruitless" if it doesn't yield a cure. Learning what doesn't work in research is also progress. There are far more worthwhile places for this journalist to direct her anger. She is the one asking readers to "obliterate...your sense of proportion."
Susan Miller, Manhattan
Hawking Ethan
It's one thing to criticize Ethan Hawke for his political pronouncements, but Mugger's attempt to buttress his argument by disparaging a career that has been marked by intriguing, offbeat choices and a wealth of memorable performances is pathetic (MUGGER, 3/3).
His cursory dismissal of Hawke (an "also-ran") would indicate that he is oblivious to two of the seminal and most memorable films of the 90s: the heart and soul of both Keith Gordon's elegiac anti-war fable, A Midnight Clear, and Richard Linklater's incomparable meditation on fate and romance, Before Sunrise. Hawke gives beautiful, self-effacing performances in both. The actor also helped to define a generation in Reality Bites.
Anyway, what's so ridiculous about a well-read, intellectually curious actor exercising his right as a citizen to offer opinions, especially when those observations are so much more intelligent and cohesive and less self-indulgent than anything MUGGER ever has to say? Hearing Hawke's view on current events makes a lot more sense than enduring pontifications about New York City from someone who lives in Baltimore.
Damien Bona, Manhattan
Are You People on Stupid Pills?
Why have you dropped Ted Rall's cartoons from the Sunday edition of your paper? I suspect it is a politically motivated decision but I'd like to hear your response.
Marty Bluestein, Portland, ME
Rock 'n' Rall
Your reference to Ted Rall as "loathsome" is mistaken ("Page Two," 3/10). I will agree that his cartoons are prone to cause loathing, but only because he accurately portrays the current state of our society. If only you were able to read his comics as an American, instead of a Bush apologist, you would see this. Like most right-wing conservative spin peddlers, you have a knee-jerk reaction to any criticism of this president.
Sharif Ali Khan, Manhattan
Crazy Training
The recent article entitled "Integrate-or Else" contained significant misinformation ("Page Two," 3/3). The article implied that Kendra's Law (which involves Assisted Outpatient Treatment, or AOT) could easily be applied to the average citizen, resulting in forced psychiatric medication and involuntary psychiatric hospitalization in highly inappropriate circumstances for basically mentally healthy individuals.
In reality, there are very specific and very limited circumstances under which a person can be subjected to Assisted Outpatient Treatment. The person being considered for AOT must have not only severe and persistent mental illness but also a recent history of either causing significant risk of dangerous to self or others, or repeated psychiatric hospitalizations (i.e., the revolving door syndrome) resulting from non-adherence to treatment. Also, the law does not provide for people in AOT who do not adhere to treatment to be forcibly hospitalized. They can be forcibly brought to an ER for assessment, but if the ER doc says they do not require admission at that time, they are free to go and resume non-adherence to treatment. As a result, if an AOT patient is not adhering to treatment but is sufficiently stable, treatment providers typically will not call the authorities to haul the person into the ER because they realize the person is unlikely to be admitted.
I am all for maintaining people's rights, and Kendra's Law does provide for a certain degree of paternalism, but your article makes it sound like fascists invented Assisted Outpatient Treatment, and its slant is wholly unjustified.
Linda Bellama, M.D., Manhattan
Off the Gridlock
Aaron Naparstek's article ("Auto Asphyxiation," 3/3) was an important and insightful window into the workings of the city's Department of Transportation and how it affects the lives of every New Yorker.
Nothing would enhance the quality of life in New York like reining in the automobile, and nothing stands in the way like the "cars first" mentality of the DOT. We can only hope that these ideological dinosaurs choke on their own exhaust and are soon replaced by more highly evolved life forms.
Jeff Prant, Brooklyn
Green Party Monster
I'm the one who put together the Green Party event in your March 3 write-up ("Picks," 3/3), which I thought was pretty ridiculous. This was the first show/event I have done for them in the four months I've lived here. I thought the bands were great, but only one of them was actually punk. We promoted it the best we could, all by flyering. I was frustrated by a naive member of the office that restricted my promotion of the event.
The entire point of us doing things like this is to get younger people interested in politics and show people that we are involved in the community. Apparently that doesn't count for much if it isn't trendy enough for people like you.
Alayna Hughes, Queens
White Makes it Right
Armond White: This has been a very stress-relieving article, but then again most of your criticisms are. Just when I throw my arms up in the air over the critical dumbness a la Denby, I can see some are still fighting the good fight ("Film," 3/3). Quite simply, you're absolutely spot-on. If violence in movies is treated as a sick joke or reflects our need for it in such mindless "twisty" movies as Memento (horrible), or video game nonsense like Kill Bill, then it's accepted by our culture. But as soon as an artist applies it to try and connect it to faith or social commentary, he's crushed. I imagine perhaps Peckinpah had that same problem; certainly, from what I've heard, he did with the very underrated Straw Dogs.
I just want to ask if you could please, please, please send me your list of the top films of the 90s. I always hear that Short Cuts is your number one, and I think I can guess a few others-perhaps Amistad?-but as someone who is starting to really read and admire your work, it would be great for me to have. Your ballot for the Village Voice poll is unavailable, and your Film Comment list is for the decade's underrated films.
I would really appreciate it if you could send me this, and it would certainly make my next trips to the video store a lot better. Also, having read all the other so-called critic's lists, I really would like to see the one from the guy I'm reading most nowadays. This would be greatly appreciated.
Mathieu Ricordi, Vancouver
Armond White replies: Not a definitive list but in addition to the titles you mentioned, some alphabetized fond memories: Beloved, Chameleon Street, Geronimo: An American Legend, Kansas City, Little Buddha, The Long Day Closes, Metropolitan, A Moment of Innocence, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Naked, Nouvelle Vague, Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train, Wild Reeds and, oh, yeah, Fear of a Black Hat. Good luck finding these at your local repertory cinema or video store.
Moore vs. MUGGER
I am writing about the mugging taken by Michael Moore in Russ Smith's last article (MUGGER, 3/3). Okay-you don't like him. But you fail to explain why. Could it be because he believes that the man who received the most votes in the last presidential election should actually get the job? Or is it because he objects to large numbers of American civilians being killed by gunfire every year?
I'd like to point out that Moore is, in fact, a great American. He is concerned with the welfare of the average person. He would make a good president. Unfortunately, he'd never be elected because he's not a member of the ruling class, which has the typical voter correctly diagnosed as being stupid and easily manipulated.
Bruce Cahn, Manhattan
No Flourish?
Bravo to Matt Taibbi. His fantastical attempts at ironic black humor bore the shit out of me, but when he just writes what he thinks, he shows an intelligence and insight completely lacking in almost all other media. His rational and often brutal honesty further illustrates how truly and completely fucked we are. Thank you for having the courage to publish someone that says something different without always sounding like a crank. And Matt: Please be careful to stay out of Alex Cockburn-land; just keep telling the truth, without resorting to the flourish.
Brian McCaffrey, Manhattan
With Luck
This is the first New York Press article I have ever read, and it is great, great, great. Finally, a newspaper has told the truth about New York City's transportation priorities ("Auto Asphyxiation," 3/3). The article makes clear that only when the Department of Transportation stops catering to motorists will we have safer streets and less congestion. With luck, your important article will spur a reassessment of the place of the automobile on our streets.
Kenneth M. Coughlin, Manhattan
Heimlich, Maneuvered
Adam Heimlich, in an article about Les Enfants Terribles ("Eats & Drinks," 3/3) writes: "The cocktails, by the way, are fine. [M]aracana is something of a house specialty. It's a caipirinha with grape juice. You can't taste the grape juice-all you get is that caipirinha flavor of jet fuel and candy. At least the price ($7) isn't trendy-restaurant ridiculous" ("Eats & Drinks," 3/3).
This is wrong. If you had looked properly at the drink menu, you would see listed under Maracana: cachaca, sugar, lime and fresh grape; grape juice is not an ingredient. In the future, double-check your own research.
Alex de la Tour, Manhattan
Backdraft Bitchslap
Regarding your article on firefighters ("Page Two," 2/18). No. 500 why firefighters are better than every one else: We're not.
The idea behind the school is to make the FDNY more racially diverse. I doubt your paper is against diversity. And you omitted lesson no. 343: dying to save a stranger.
Bob Thomson, New Hyde Park, NY
Nothing but a Sandwich
At first glance, Russ Smith's breathless and reverent reference to George W. Bush, "an incumbent president, who heroically led the country in the aftermath" of 9/11, looks more like a line from a pre-teen RNC propaganda picture book than the studied opinion of a serious pundit (MUGGER, 3/10). "Heroically"? This stuff is just silly partisan cheerleading.
Smith goes on to happily reminisce about our great leader: "I also remember the president's swift destruction of the Taliban, as well as the subsequent and necessary overthrow of Saddam Hussein." Unfortunately, Bush didn't finish the job in Afghanistan, due to his bizarre and irrational obsession with invading a weakened and toothless Iraq beneath a smokescreen of lies and bogus "evidence" of imminent danger to the United States. U.S. and British forces killed thousands of Iraqi civilians in an unjustified war, the Taliban remain a problem in Afghanistan, Osama runs free and Iraq is headed for a bloody civil war. Mission accomplished, indeed.
John Cantilli, Cranford, NJ
Bush-Bashing
Mike Signorile's demand that gay Republicans resign from the hate regime of George Bush is timely, although I would have asked any right-thinking person to have done so when the gangster president invaded Iraq in violation of U.S. and international law, and after lying about nonexistent weapons ("The Gist," 3/3).
Be that as it may, I would not restrict taking a walk to those working in some way for the Bush reelection. As ACT-UP Philadelphia did with Al Gore in 2000, let's use direct action to hold to the fire the feet of every candidate for public office, pushing with others a program of marriage equality, and other issues vital to the future of democracy at home and self-determination abroad.
Bob Schwartz, Chicago Anti-Bashing Network
X Marx the Spot
Michelangelo Signorile doesn't care if gays get married, or that the Boy Scouts can't use public property or that students can't mention God in the Pledge of Allegiance ("The Gist," 3/3). He should care that activist judges overturned established laws and principles in order to impose these decisions. Our legislatures are suppose to make laws and judges just apply the law.
Karl Marx identified three steps to make revolution: Confuse people with pleasant-meaning words-"civil rights," "equal protection," "separation of church and state." Manipulate the media so lawbreakers appear as victims. And destroy people's faith in the institutions of their government-as happens when judges overturn fundamental laws. We cannot directly remove these judges, but we can remove the politicians who appointed them or confirmed their nomination. Vote for candidates who will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Michael Francis McCarthy, San Lorenzo, CA
Looking for a Date, Noah?
Audrey Silk loves to take umbrage with Mayor Bloomberg's smoking statistics, claiming that secondhand smoke isn't as bad as the mayor says it is ("The Mail," 3/3). But is she going to argue that tobacco, with hundreds of toxic chemicals (not to mention that nicotine is classified as a poison) isn't more harmful and addictive than fried foods? She lost this debate a long, long time ago, and it really comes down to whether you believe adults have the right to do bad things so long as it hurts no one else.
I fully support anyone's right to hurt themselves, get stupid tattoos, pierce their asshole-whatever. But your rights end the moment they infringe upon someone else's. And tobacco smoke is nothing like fried foods obviously, because the french fry I'm gobbling can never end up in your mouth, yet smokers' poisons go up my nose at least once a day in this city, and I'm sick of it. Smokers should not be allowed to smoke anywhere that other people who don't smoke are, outdoors or indoors. Smoke all you want, just don't force your stupid drug addictions upon others.
Smokers are assholes, first and foremost, and Bloomberg's ban doesn't come close to addressing their dangerous and rude behavior. Ever see a smoker litter? Even if secondhand smoke doesn't kill a single person, it's the most arrogant and ignorant poison in our society. At least car exhaust is the result of more functional objects. Smokers are both a danger to themselves and the community, and that is not open to medical debate. They should be locked away in a mental institution. Except for all you smokers who smoke in moderation, no? (And just how many people are part of Silk's "group," CLASH? Even most smokers think they're idiots and assholes and have tried to quit on many occasions but failed because Big Tobacco drugged them up good.)
Silk sounds like another shrew that needs to get laid, and maybe that will help her mature to adulthood.
Noah Hornbuckle, Manhattan
Kendra's Law Enforcement
Among the eight mandatory elements in the eligibility standard for Kendra's Law are that a person must: be "suffering from a mental illness"; be "unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision"; have either had to have been hospitalized due to noncompliance with treatment twice in the last three years or had non-compliance result in "one or more acts of serious violent behavior toward self or others or threats of, or attempts at, serious physical harm to self or others"; and be "in need of assisted outpatient treatment in order to prevent a relapse or deterioration which would be likely to result in serious harm to the patient or others" ("Page Two," 3/3).
By design, this law is only used to help the sickest of those with severe psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Of New York's 19,000,000 inhabitants, fewer than 800 are placed in the Kendra's Law program each year-that's about one out of every 24,000.
The New York State Office of Mental Health reports that for 1407 individuals who completed their first Kendra's Law order as of September 2003:
63 percent fewer experienced one or more hospitalizations;
55 percent fewer experienced homelessness;
75 percent fewer experienced arrest; and
69 percent fewer experienced incarceration.
Exactly which of these are you afraid of? I have bipolar disorder with psychotic features; I'm glad to know that Kendra's Law is there, should I ever need it.
I used to be a major fan of Lawrence Sanders ("Dustjacket," 2/11). Had no idea he died. The First Deadly Sin is one of the all-time great detective novels, period, and its reputation was ruined by a horrible movie. But the book that was truly incredible was The Tomorrow File. I remember a science-fiction magazine at the time raving about the book and telling readers that because it's listed as a detective novel, sci-fi fans were missing it. It was clearly a blend of detective work and scary future science-fiction in a world where corporate profit and medical science went amok. Believe me, I did not want to see the year 1999 after reading this novel. I still have it, and I've read it three times since then.
Joseph Colagreco, Cliffside Park, NJ
Michelangelo El Diablo
Hey Michelangelo: I'm laughing my ass off after reading your column in New York Press ("The Gist"). You little devil you. I think we will get the last laugh in this fight.
Sinakhone Dino Keodara, Atlanta
Hip-Hip Hoorah! (Ad Infinitum)
Three thousand cheers for Matt Taibbi. Who is the genius who hired this superb and brilliant writer? It's been a long time since I have read such a perfect mix of humor, intelligence, insight and clarity on the current political scene. Matt's "Odd Man In" piece on Dennis Kucinich was right on the money ("Cage Match," 2/25). Boy, is it satisfying to hear someone so eloquently give that man his due. I have heard Kucinich speak on a number of occasions and was humbled and impassioned by his vision and unwavering commitment to the higher traits in the human being. He should be treated with more respect all over this country-not least because he has the courage to run for president with such a honed message of hope and intelligence but also because he is out there pounding the legislative pavement every day in the congress.
I hope you'll give Taibbi a raise. If the world of journalism had more like him, this country wouldn't be so deeply mired in its own television-drugged, consumer stupor of mediocrity. Thanks again for publishing his work.
Sarah Brown, Kittery, ME