New Bruises on Old Bruises New Bruises on Old ...

Wacko Tobacco

"'Nearly one out of every six New Yorkers who died was killed by tobacco.' Excuse us? From what part of his ass did he pull that, exactly, and why?" ("Page Two," 2/11)

Probably the part that doesn't take tobacco advertising. And why? Maybe to help educate the people who've been reading New York Press. Your willful ignorance is astounding, as is your dearth of accurate coverage of tobacco issues.

The only difference between New York Press and the Flat Earth Society is that the FES didn't get paid for their b.s.

Gene Borio, Manhattan

Fall of the Ratner Empire

Dan Neel reminds me why taxpayers should just say "no" to using public funds for any new major sports stadiums ("Nets of Plenty," 2/11). In ancient Rome, government attempted to curry favor with the masses by offering free bread and circuses. Today, we have sports pork.

How sad that New York City taxpayers are continually asked to pay for new stadiums. Public dollars at the city, state and federal level are being used as corporate welfare to subsidize a private-sector business. The only real beneficiaries of these expenditures are team owners and their multimillion-dollar players.

It is impossible to judge the amount of new economic activities that these so-called public benefits will generate. Between selling the stadium's name, season sky boxes and reserve seating, television and radio revenues, concession sales along with rental income for other sports, rock concerts and other commercial events, it is hard to believe that future New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner can't finance his new stadium on his own.

Given the current municipal fiscal crises along with weak economic revenues and projected deficits of several billion dollars?there are city services more worthy of investment. As Raymond Keating wrote in a recent Cato Institute report, "public subsidies pad the bottom lines of team owners and boost player salaries while offering no real economic benefit to the cities involved."

Professional sports are not an essential service and shouldn't qualify for government subsidy. Increasingly scarce taxpayer funds would be better spent elsewhere. Let the current team owners float their own bonds or issue stock to finance new stadiums.

Larry Penner, Great Neck, NY

Elementary, My Dear Tanya

William Bryk's article on the dismal showing of fringe candidates in New Hampshire shocked me because of his uneducated assumptions ("Rotation," 2/4). But in light of the landslide election of Schwarzenegger, Bryk's ideas are even more laughable.

Voters all over the world have always been ignorant and superficial. We've known since the Nixon-Kennedy debates that people vote for hairdos and smiles, and we've known for a lot longer that voters vote based on name recognition. Is Bryk going to argue that wealth has nothing to do with winning votes? Did Bush win against his GOP primary opponents because voters liked Bush's platform more? That assumption is worse than dumb and this kind of foolish thinking is exactly what gave us Governor Schwarzenegger, so I'd love to hear Bryk defend his elementary school theories.

Tanya Langan, Manhattan

Riff-Raff Rehash

Jason Zenith's letter solemnly congratulates Adam Bulger for exposing the "seamy underbelly of reality" by reporting Libertarian media relations director Joseph Dobrian's use of a "racial slur" ("The Mail," 2/11). That's not quite fair.

When Dobrian said, "This whole smoking ban is Bloomberg's way of keeping the niggers down," he obviously wasn't saying anything about blacks. He was trying to make a satirical point about Bloomberg. His clumsy attempt to clarify?by "niggers" he meant "riff-raff"?didn't help much. See, Libertarians are on the side of the riff-raff on this one. Somehow I doubt that Zenith's interest in seeing an "analysis of the psychology of the particular white men who gravitate toward Libertarianism" is matched by a similar interest in an analysis of the psychology of the particular black men who use "niggaz" in rap songs.

But Dobrian's comment reveals a peculiar trait common to Libertarian true believers, even their media reps. Rather than trying to charm outsiders into considering the benefits of a Libertarian outlook, too many Libertarians are positively gleeful about offending people at every turn. "Compromise" is a dirty word, and "in your face" is often considered the only appropriate presentation of the philosophy. Anything less renders the speaker's ideological purity suspect in the eyes of many activists. Libertarians are the largest third party in the U.S., and their grassroots organization and ability to run local candidates throughout the country is unmatched.

Those candidates rarely poll above the single digits, largely because of the prevailing tendency in the party to view anyone who disagrees with them with contempt. It's that attitude that has caused this long-time "big-L" Libertarian to quit the party, even though I remain a "small-l" libertarian.

Jim Melloan, Manhattan

Dusted and Busted

Thanks to Derek Davis for drawing attention to a wonderful, underappreciated and underrated author, Lawrence Sanders ("Dustjacket," 2/11). However, you missed what I feel is the best work of Sanders, indeed one of the best thrillers of modern fiction, The Tomorrow File. Published by Putnam in 1975, The Tomorrow File is utterly absorbing and prescient.

Again, thanks for drawing attention to Sanders. I'd be interested in your view on this particular title.

John Magisano, Brooklyn

How about Piss and Moan?

Regarding that hack job on the issue of Dirt McGirt a.k.a. Osiris a.k.a. Ol' Dirty Bastard's use of the English language ("Page Two," 2/11): You're somehow offended when Time Out New York prints his colloquial speech verbatim, which you label an attempt to "make fun of the negro," and then you turn around and refer to his words as "malapropisms" that should be "corrected"? Somehow I suspect you guys would have taken aim at TONY no matter how they handled the ODB interview. For the many half-baked polemical pieces like this one, which somehow make it into your pages, I propose another name change for your paper. How about New York Reach?

Or you could use New York Poach and Reach, you know, like the Post-Intelligencer or the Globe and Mail.

Josh Chaffin, Brooklyn

Top Win, Lose or Drawer

MUGGER: When you sold the Press to these Voice wannabes, was there a clause in the contract that releases you from your obligation to write your column if the liberal lunacy editorializing reaches a certain threshold? You should have sold to Taki.

Ron Malpeli, Staatsburg, NY

Creating a Monster

Generally, I find Armond White absurdly vitriolic, extremely rude in his contempt for his fellow critics and condescending towards the movie-going public's tastes. I tend to read him solely to amuse myself and for the pleasure that comes with the occasional outrage. However, his review for the morally repugnant Monster ("Film," 2/18) is dead-on. The critics and audiences that have been fooled by this film and Charlize Theron's performance deserve White's disdain. If he continues to hate the same films that I do, we should start getting along swimmingly.

Adam Capitanio, Manhattan

Armond's Bulge

Armond White asserts that Diane Keaton's role in Something's Gotta Give has been "overlooked" in favor of Charlize Theron's publicity stunt performance in Monster ("Film," 2/18).

While I have seen neither film and can make no judgment as to their relative worth, one can hardly call Diane Keaton "overlooked," not after starring in a $110-million-grossing film (almost six times as much as Monster) and receiving a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination. The same recognition that make the little veins in Armond's forehead bulge with regards to Charlize Theron. We should all be ignored in such a manner.

Victor Catano, Manhattan

What do you Know, Joe?

Matt Taibbi's review of The Unknown Stalin ("Books," 2/11) states "the book that captures the essence of Josef Stalin has not yet been written." Sorry, it was written in 1978 by Ian Grey: Stalin, Man of History, published by Doubleday in 1979.

Renee Farmer, Manhattan

Oh, No! Not Google!

I've had it up to well past my eyeteeth with the hypocritical moralizing from the right, even as they shag the cat and the preacher's daughter and Misty Lee in Vegas. I did a quick search on Google for "Bill Bennett" and "dominatrix," and sent the URL to Drudge, with a quick note that I hadn't seen anything on his site, and he might want to check it out ("The Gist," 2/18). So he can't say he hasn't gotten any leads.

John Lyon, Austin

Call me Al

I despise his father, but I agree that gossip columnists coming down on Al Gore III for smoking a joint in college is a low blow ("MUGGER," 2/11). I remember hearing through the grapevine several years ago that he had been busted for pot at St. Albans, and how he quietly transferred to Sidwell Friends. I completely sympathized with the kid, having attended St. Albans, albeit long before his time. That school was such a pressure-cooker that by grade nine, pretentiously known there as Form III, most students had cultivated some kind of vice to take the edge off. I was caught smoking pot on the Cathedral "close"; I'm not a senator's son, so nobody cared except my mom.

On another topic, Bloomberg sure is doing his best to destroy New York nightlife. I never imagined that Giuliani's successor could be more of a control freak, but clearly I was mistaken. I'd be asking for his head on a platter if I still lived there, but I'm in Austin, so it's hard to get that steamed.

James Haley, Austin

Filmmakers United Can Never Be Divided

It is very important to set the record straight: The film We Interrupt This Empire... should be attributed to a collective comprised of members of Whispered Media, the Video Activist Network and independent filmmakers ("Louder Than Words," 2/18).

It's typical, but everyone is looking for the leader, the person in charge. What made the March 20 San Francisco shutdown so successful, and which is an important element in the film, is that there were no leaders, just common goals by affinity groups and individuals. And that is how the film itself was made.

Thank you very much for correcting this error and for writing about the film. And please encourage your readers to see the film March 14 and 15 at the New York Underground Film Festival.

Christian Bruno, San Francisco

Hey, We Make the Jokes Around Here

Don't you mean "shopaCRAPolis" ("Page Two," 2/18)?

Laura Magzis, Manhattan

See Above, Mr. Stratton

There is something really queer about this interview with Grover Norquist's ass, but I can't seem to put my finger on it ("Cage Match," 2/11).

Marc Stratton, Rollag, MN

Keeping it in the Family

I enjoyed reading Armond White's review of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers ("Film," 2/4). However, let me quibble over one of his observations. Matthew (Michael Pitt) does not join Isabelle (Eva Green) in provoking, ordering or daring her brother Theo (Louis Garrel) to masturbate. Matthew, instead, says nothing and then looks on in stunned silence as Theo complies with his sister's demands.

Barry Levy, Manhattan

Now Pronounce You?

Thank you for your article, but you have not mentioned the one issue that I find important ("MUGGER," 2/18). If you have same-sex marriage you will also have same-sex divorce. Divorce cases already tie up the courts. There are over two million marriages in the U.S. every year and one million divorces. Divorce cases consume a significant percentage of our nation's resources, involving as they do judges, lawyers and court personnel.

Presumably, same-sex divorce cases will be concerned primarily with the division of property and alimony, but adopted children could be affected too. Divorce cases go on for years and sometimes for decades, as the couples keep fighting. Is this something we want to encourage?

Sam Sloan, Brooklyn