The Mail

THIS WEEK: A firm but polite letter of disagreement arrives from Iraq, Howard Dean's drug record is revealed as grotesque, Michelangelo Signorile is accused of turning serious matters into toothpaste and Press cartoonist Sara Edward Corbett gets b-b-b-body slammed from Poland. PLUS: Five bucks to the first person who knows what mercurochrome is.

The Daily Press?

The Page Two item in the 7/28 issue of New York Press, "Richard Jewell: The Sequel," deserves a Pulitzer Prize. It should also be hand-delivered to the editor and publisher of every newspaper in the city to show them exactly what journalism is supposed to be about: fact-oriented, told the way it is, resisting the all-too-easy temptation to, time and time again, play God, judge and jury.

You guys need to become a daily newspaper. You need to show all the poor examples of daily newspapers New Yorkers are forced to choose from that journalism is not about omitting facts inconvenient to one's opinion, writing a newspaper geared toward the fifth-grade level, or digging only as deep as is convenient to one's opinion.

Nathan F. Weiner, Bronx

From the Front

Alexander Zaitchik's editorial "The Slumbering Ranks" (7/28) is indicative of the disconnection that exists between the news media and those serving in the military.ÊHe discusses morale problems (which occurred after soldiers who were expecting to go home were told their tours were to be extended) and assumes that the soldiers are "losing faith" with the mission. In this it is obvious that he did not actually read the entire article published in the Stars and Stripes-or if he did, he presented the results in a misleading manner.

Mr. Zaitchik describes the high reenlistment rates, few soldier dissenters and historically low rate of combat refusals, then asks, "What is wrong with this picture?"ÊI submit that "what is wrong" is Mr. Zaitchik's perceptions.

The reality is that we all understand why we are here. What we are doing is dirty, dangerous and necessary. The people reporting the war regard it as too dangerous to leave the luxury hotels and bars in the Green Zone and actually live with the troops. I challenge Mr. Zaitchik to come out and spend two weeks at LSA Anaconda. Go on patrols with soldiers, eat in the chow hall with soldiers, stand a shift of perimeter guard with soldiers and really see who we are and what we think.ÊI suspect that he will not be willing to deal with a brutal summer that we hardly notice by now.

MSG Colin Campbell, LSA Anaconda, Iraq

81st Brigade Combat Team

This is Your Society on Drugs

Columnist Matt Taibbi has good reason to question the role of the various former Office of National Drug Control Policy staff involved in the Kerry campaign ("Narc Party," 7/28). The drug war is a cure that is worse than the disease. Attempts to limit the supply of drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed their habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime; it fuels crime.

Robert Sharpe, Washington, DC

MPA Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy

Dean's Weed Problem

Was Matt Taibbi's column "Narc Party" a joke (7/28)? I can't remember when I've read a pro-drug-policy-reform piece so thoroughly disconnected from reality.

Despite Taibbi's fantasy that Howard Dean is some sort of reformer, his record as governor of Vermont was that of a rigid drug warrior. He culminated his term in office by aggressively attacking and successfully squelching a medical marijuana bill that had overwhelming support among both the public and Vermont legislators of all parties. It finally became law this year, under Dean's Republican successor.

But it's hard to take a writer seriously who repeats with a straight face Bob Weiner's claim that in the Bush administration, "the War on Drugs isn't even a priority!" Hello? This crew, headed by John Ashcroft and White House drug czar John Walters (a protégé of the odious William Bennett) has actually managed to make McCaffrey and Co. look reasonable-no easy task.

Unlike the Clinton/McCaffrey/Weiner gang that preceded them, the Bush/Ashcroft/Walters cabal has sent squads of DEA thugs into California to arrest seriously ill patients-including a paralyzed woman who had automatic rifles pointed at her head by federal agents as they handcuffed her-for the crime of using medical marijuana. This is the crew that conducted one of these raids just weeks after 9/11, proudly trumpeting it as proof that they still had their priorities in order. This is the crew that has pushed for forced drug testing of high school students while actually claiming with a straight face that marijuana is more dangerous than cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

Don't get me wrong: John Kerry is no drug policy reformer. But, unlike Bush and his appointees, he has at least shown glimmers of open-mindedness. Asked point-blank in New Hampshire whether he would end the Bush administration's attacks on medical-marijuana patients, Kerry answered with a simple "yes." Dean never did give a straight answer to that question.

Bruce Mirken, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC

Director of Communications, Marijuana Policy Project

A Helping Hand

I recently read a very moving article by Henry Flesh in your April 21 edition about how his diagnosis of lymphoma changed his life ("Kingdom of the Sick"). We want to make sure that Mr. Flesh and your readers are aware of our patient services programs.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. The Society's mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

Baylah Wolfe, Manhattan

Patient Services Manager, NYC Chapter

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Broadening the Debate

Thank you for having the courage to print Liam Scheff's disturbing article about the children at the Incarnation Children's Center ("Orphans on Trial," 7/14). These days it is considered politically correct to espouse the AIDS establishment's entrenched viewpoint that drugs treatment is the solution to testing HIV positive. I am grateful that New York Press is willing to explore the truth on the issue as well as reveal the horrifying reality at the Incarnation Children's Center. I hope for those children's sake the testing will come to an end and they will be allowed to regain their health.

By the way, I'm HIV positive and in great health.

Kathleen Tyson, Eugene, OR

We Already Have

I just want to add my thanks to Liam Scheff for his shattering article about the children in Washington Heights ("Orphans on Trial," 7/14). I was shocked that this horror story is unfolding right here in a country where there is such resistance to embryonic stem cell research on ethical and moral grounds-and yet there appears to be no objection to inflicting gross emotional and physical suffering on live and defenseless children.

On another subject-will you be writing about the new law forcing cigarette manufacturers to produce "self-extinguishing" cigarettes-in an effort to reduce the number of domestic fires caused by unattended cigarettes? I am curious to know what, if any, research has been done on the effects of smoking paper! The new cigarettes are made with more and thicker paper-and also require the smoker to toke more frequently in order to prevent the cigarette from extinguishing itself!

Anji Janitschek, Manhattan

New York's Blindest

A recent Crime Blotter spoke of my brother Anthony Borrelli. My brother was arrested in January 2004, and the judge ordered him to be sentÊto a hospital for a mental competence exam three times. Each time this order was ignored,Êand he was never sent. He was finally sent when he tried to commit suicide. He was ordered to Elmhurst Hospital to be operated on, and the items he swallowed were removed. After recuperating, then and only then, was he sent toÊKings County Mental Health Correctional FacilityÊhospitalÊfor hisÊmental competence. Meanwhile, Anthony was already diagnosed as schizophrenic affective years ago and had severe paranoia. He was also diagnosed at 13 as neurologically impaired.

We were told by the Captain of Rikers IslandÊMental Health Ward C95Êthat Anthony would be protected against doing any harm to himself.ÊAs you know, this was not the case.ÊMy family has been left with a lot of unanswered questions. We want to know where the people were who were supposed to be guarding and watching my brother.

Carol Borrelli, Brooklyn

Son of a Beach

Just want to let you know I really enjoyed Richard Kostelanetz's article about NYC beaches ("The $2 Vacation," 7/7).ÊLet's see more of his angled view on other parts of city life! I also liked the observations about people self-segregating, self-sorting themselves and his touch of political focus on city beaches.ÊI'd love to see more development and exploration of this kind of thing from him.

Sean Bronzell, ManhattanÊ

Excellent Logic, Jim

Alexander Zaitchik's leftist views are seen clearly in his book review of Graham Allison's Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catstrophe (6/30). He doesn't dispute the author's proclamation that Kerry must be elected to put into place a program to track down nuclear devices in the hands of terrorists (absurd). He also states that the U.S. is spending big money on a "missile defense system that does not appear to work." How does he know? Have we had a missile attack on the U.S. that has been successful? Not that I know of.

Jim Ober, via email

The Arab-Bush Love Association

Signorile's devotion to image goes past sycophancy ("Young George in Love," 7/21).ÊI'm tempted to remand him to The Picture of Dorian Gray, but I'm afraid he'll distill that into toothpaste, too.ÊSignorile writes an entertaining column, but remains innocent week after week after week of one simple concept, best expressed in the verb, "to cheapen."

Women kiss one another, Republican or not, because it doesn't mean anything. It's a simple protocol of, "no, I am not going to physically attack you," exchanged between peers, in public.ÊIt can express mild affection, but that is secondary.

Arab men by tradition are more demonstrative with one another. It only amounts to shaking hands. Not shaking someone's hand, or kissing his cheek if that's his custom, is disrespectful.ÊBut these are rituals of meaning only insofar as you consider "I won't kill you," or "I'll admit to not hating you," meaning.

A man who loves a woman expresses his affection for her in public by mild ritual. It's no different for a man who loves a man.ÊI could show off how much I love my father by slobbering on him publicly, same as I could for a woman I loved, but I don't. I have nothing to prove. When you have something to prove, you'll drag into common moments affection that, if it's real, is much too scary for that. When you are kissing your dad or your best friend in public and meaning it past decorum; it is because your feelings have overtaken you, and it's these sacred moments Signorile is happy to have Kerry and Edwards cheapen. Hijack human moments for politics and demean both, but we have a columnist here who still believes 'the personal is political,' meaning politics is the most beautiful thing around.

John T. Foster, Brooklyn

Scheff's Sparks

Just read Liam Scheff's "Orphans on Trial" (7/14/04). I was completely taken with the writing, to the extent that I made a point of keeping the issue without knowing just why or just what to do. Perusing this week's issue I noticed the assorted responses, some of them so well informed (sorry about the fag-hater). Please extend my thanks to Mr. Scheff for researching and writing about a situation about which I knew nothing. I no longer have that excuse. Things are a little hectic for me right now, but when it's possible I'll find a way to help spread the word and somehow help defeat this tragic policy. Mr. Scheff's piece was more than just well-researched writing. It might be the start of a movement.

William Sande, Manhattan

Coming Never to Theaters Near You

I found it very disappointing that your July 21 edition's thought-provoking article "Expatriate Manifesto" was parlayed by Porfirio Witherspoon into a cutesy, confessional-style advertisement for his film, Gringoland. If Mr. Witherspoon wishes to be a successful filmmaker he may just have to get in line behind everyone else in Williamsburg with a digital camcorder and a B.F.A.

Nick Scoullar, Manhattan

The Day Sports Died

Taking sports lightly-in all seriousness-finally! New York Sports Express had the right mix, getting better all the time. Why did New York Press cut down the plant that made art of sports, found sassy satire (rightfully so) on Peter Vecsey's private language, put importance on taking socks off on the golf course, hit on Birdstone angst. The country's love (and my own) of Smarty Jones, let jazz in (Coltrane marathon vs. NCAA brute competition), admitted all our interest in the crime block-why slay it? Is this a bad parent not liking the kid's new relationship with the outsider?

Man, looking for the paper at this week's end, not finding any trace of it, I bugged. Can't you reconsider-while the machinery is still poised? It sure is a summer bummer to see originality squashed.

Cyra Greene, Manhattan

It Is Getting To Be That Time of Year, Isn't It?

For your "Best of 2004," try the french fries at Black and White on 10th St. between 3rd and 4th Aves. Last year you picked McDonald's. I've found these to be consistently better. Check 'em out!

Drew Eckmann, via email

Newsweek.com

We're Sad, Too, Tom

My name is Tom Alexander, publisher of the Chicago Sports Review. I was saddened to read about the closing of New York Sports Express. I have picked up a couple issues of your paper and found it to be irreverent, amusing and positively inspirational. I thought you guys were doing a great job, and I'm sad to see you go.

Tom Alexander, Chicago

Mercurochrome's Revenge

The July 21 issue of New York Press was like a trip down memory lane for me. First, there was Cecil Adams' "The Straight Dope" (a column which, I might add, I'm glad to see back in your paper) and the first mention of the word "mercurochrome" that I'd seen in years. I used to use mercurochrome on cuts and bruises. The good thing about mercurochrome, as I remember, is that it didn't sting the way iodine did.

The other bit of nostalgia in the paper was in Joshua Cohen's double obituary for computer pioneers Herman Heine Goldstine and Robert W. Bemer. The long-lost word mentioned this time was "Univac." Where do I remember Univac from? In the 1950s, (yes, I'm that old!), on Art Linkletter's show People Are Funny, Univac computers were used for matchmaking. In some cases, the joined couples ended up getting married-and even won a little prize money on the way. Univac was probably the world's first computer dating service!

Richard Fried, Brooklyn

The Suppressed AIDS Debate

For 20 years now, one of the world's most critical scientific debates has raged out of public sight, with one side paraded everywhere as unchallenged dogma and the other side relentlessly suppressed. In all that time, there have appeared but a handful of publications with the courage of New York Press to provide the silenced a public platform. Liam Scheff has chillingly illustrated the grotesque abuses that unchallenged doctrine can descend to ("Orphans on Trial," 7/14). For two decades, every prediction of the corporate-government AIDS complex has been proven wrong. They unashamedly boast in their pharmaceutical advertisements that, in all that time, not a single patient has been cured. Today they subject children to medical experiments worthy of the worst Nazi doctors. And yet every critique of the HIV=AIDS theory, although carefully documented by scientists and physicians, including Nobel Prize winners, is dismissed by our free press with waves of the hand and puerile epithets. Scheff and the editors of New York Press are to be commended for doing what should be commonplace for the alternative press, for advancing open and honest investigation.

Frank Lusardi, Manhattan

Doesn't Your Last Name Mean "Poop" in French?

I hate New York Press, but I loved reading New York Sports Express. I can't believe you are pulling the plug on the best sports journalism in NYC. Fuckers!

Karsten Marder, Manhattan

Small Green Machine

Just read Matt Taibbi's column on those high-minded progressives over at the Green Party and had to rub my eyes ("Donkey. Elephant. Chicken?" 7/7). Had I been dreaming or has someone in the media finally discovered what a disappointing sham this entire party has become? Four years ago, the Greens and Ralph Nader renewed my belief in the idealistic possibility that issues mattered more than political parties. But like all idealism, it turned out to be temporary. That such a shining light of a political party could drink the Democrats' Kool-Aid is the greatest political disappointment of the year. And how a previously viable party could, in essence, nominate a candidate on the premise that he will help another party's candidate win is beyond my comprehension.

To the sanctimonious assholes (Nation editors, Michael Moore and the rest of you) who voted for Nader four years ago but have sworn off of him in a fit of "anyone but Bush" hysteria this time around, I politely offer this: Fuck you. If your bullshit idealism allows you to support a candidate who's pro-death penalty (sure, Kerry supports it for terrorists only, but the fact remains: He supports it), anti-gay marriage and pro-NAFTA solely on the basis that he's not George W. Bush, then your moral center is very different from mine. Thank you, Matt, for revealing the hucksters at the Green Party (and, by extension, the Green Party faithful) for what they really are.

Stephen McGill, Manhattan

CXB Gets Inflated

While skimming last week's paper, I made the mistake of glancing at Russ Smith's column ("Boston Beanballs," 7/28) where he parrots typical right-wing lies about Jimmy Carter's "atrocious economic record."

Speaking of inflation, why were Russ and the GOP totally silent when, under Giuliani and Pataki, inflation rose to record heights in almost every category? Pataki and Bloomberg gave us a superhuman 33 percent inflation rate in subway fares, which historically is only on par with-you guessed it-Pataki and Giuliani's record-shattering 25 percent inflation rate in subway fares. Hey Russ, my rent went up 100 percent under the Republicans; too bad my home isn't rent-stabilized, huh?

Christopher X. Brodeur, Manhattan