Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Salamizdat In the course of reading Cathy Young's excellent article in the November issue ("Suicide Solution," Soviet Presswatch), I was suddenly transported back in time about...
...Because coal is mostly carbon, it produces much more carbon dioxide per unit of energy than any other source...
...Or somebody might confuse you with the left—complain, complain, complain...
...CORRESPONDENCE Salamizdat In the course of reading Cathy Young's excellent article in the November issue ("Suicide Solution," Soviet Presswatch), I was suddenly transported back in time about sixty years...
...With respect to electric vehicles (EVs), it all depends on the battery...
...His discussion of alternative fuels merits a few emendations...
...Hey, is she on the list...
...The customer's letter referred to a "blurb about [the] famous all-male poster in American Spectator...
...It seemed a difference worth noting in New England—but maybe in Toledo the distinction doesn't matter...
...A lot of people have thrown money at solar, wind, geothermal, etc...
...Congressional Delegate...
...Steven "Doc" Rudd, M.D...
...Please forgive my lack of memory and/or imagination, but most of the friends I can think of are dead (or missing), and if we really start counting dead enemies (e.g., Augustine of Hippo), I fear that my faith will go into a total eclipse...
...Anyone who puts a little jacket on his dog...
...Donald R. Wulfinghoff...
...Your short "anti-blacklist roster" of Hollywood good guys did not assuage my fears on this score...
...At its core, liberalism believes, not in the "innate rottenness" of mankind like Augustine, but in the innate goodness of its own elite...
...Nothing I have ever said nor nothing [sic] we have ever written could lead any honest observer to describe APF as supporters of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) or Jonas Savimbi, its leader...
...It gets worse...
...We are not Anglophiles...
...If the atmospheric carbon dioxide threat proves genuine, achieving success with electric vehicles would be a major environmental setback...
...The "Welfare State" was hardly the "inevitable result" of the "incessant whining" of Augustine of Hippo...
...It was, as I expected, wickedly entertaining...
...By simple default, I concluded that electricity would become the dominant energy source for stationary applications, since only coal, nuclear, and hydro would remain relatively cheap in large quantities...
...Eleanor Holmes Norton, Carterite EOC Chair and current representation-without-taxation Democratic nominee for D.C...
...This being said, I (of course) have a few entries of my own: 1. Anyone with a "knee-jerk" political reflex, left or right...
...Because EVs are recharged at the distal ends of the system, the transformer on the pole outside your house would have to be doubled in size, along with all the wires stretching from the power plant to your circuit-breaker panel...
...Could it be that he has fallen victim to the same tactics...
...Maybe you all should pack up and return home...
...Gayne Nerney Murray, Kentucky I swear, this is more fun than stealing blankets from the homeless...
...This faith in "fresh alternative ideas" is what psychologists call denial...
...Indeed, under glanville (sic), they were not loved, and much talent was wasted due to his idiocy, but they were consistently a playoff team...
...They emerge in their own good time, if at all...
...Also, many of the candidate battery technologies pose environmentally nasty recycling problems...
...They are not a team of glanvilles (sic): they have class, dignity, and a winning record, more than can be said of the once-mighty "America's team" a few hundred miles up Interstate 45...
...Don't you people like anybody...
...Nonetheless, I have begun to develop a nagging fear (no doubt the result of brain-washing by the omnipresent liberal media) that the list is getting so long that there is no one of celebrity or note that isn't either already on the list or a candidate for future "inclusion...
...There is nothing left to improve in vehicles powered by lead-acid batteries, which have been around since the turn of the century...
...I am originally from Houston, and sojourn in this hotbed of leftists simply to learn the intricacies of how evil my nation has been and how to deconstructively analyze works of literature...
...and our reigning dean, Judith Areen, who was, no kidding, one of Nader's original raiders...
...I never would have believed that The American Spectator would accept an advertisement for Penises of the Animal Kingdom, considering that a vast majority of the self-proclaimed bastions of tolerance and free expression that make up the liberal media establishment (including the likes of Playboy, Rolling Stone, Spy, the Nation, and Atlantic Monthly) refuse to run my ads...
...That's right: I am a true-blue Oilers fan...
...With such a list certified and published in TAS, those of us who have a little free time, and (continued on page 48) THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1991 9 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 9) are in the market for a new hobby, would have a little list of opportunities to join and sabotage the machinations of a variety of neo-Marxist social clubs and loose clumps of left-leaning organisms...
...It occurred to me that as the names of the more obvious individuals are almost used up, informants are more and more turning in the names of organizations—both the formally structured (e.g., the ACLU), and the informally structured (e.g., animal rights activists or owners of certain bumper stickers...
...I was born just outside of Houston, lived there ever since, and was always a part of the tradition Joe Queenan maligned so cruelly in the November issue (review of Jerry Glanville's Elvis Don't Like Football and Tom Landry's Tom Landry...
...He provides welcome leavening for TAS's amusing but otherwise unrelieved recounting of political idiocies...
...Promised breakthroughs in EVs have been "a few years away" for decades...
...It was a while ago...
...Because I am not an authority on the Rainbow Lobby, the New Alliance party, or any other of their incarnations, I would not consent to do an interview because I have nothing of any value to say for the record...
...A good rule of thumb is that a specific technological development predicted several years in advance will never see the light of day...
...John P Roche The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy Medford, Massachusetts Get Back I've noticed that since you left the Hoosier state, it's gone lulu for Demos...
...Tim Ferguson Hermosa Beach, California Some Say Over the Rainbow I read with interest the article by David Brock on the Rainbow Lobby in your November 1990 issue ("The Rainbow Lobby Storms Congress...
...Gregory B. Simpkins Communications Director Angola Peace Fund Washington, D.C...
...I guess what I am really saying is that in the spirit of the "friends/enemies" distinction upon which this list stands or falls, I'd like to see a list—a long list—of friends (new and old) just to buoy up my sagging liberally co-opted spirits...
...Queenan mocks the Oilers as a "third-rate" team...
...Like Marxism, it believes the proper environment can create a "new man...
...Prof...
...I actually heard an ancient swamp Yankee refer to the British as redcoats once—he thought no good would come of helping them out against the Huns...
...the booty is divided up by the law agreed upon...
...Nothing has occurred since then to alter this conclusion...
...On the demand side of the ledger, energy conservation is no panacea, either...
...You can imagine my surprise on hearing that a publication as culturally square as yours would be willing to publicize my product...
...And all this on a semi-cozy campus within spitting distance of the House of Congress...
...The band itself is made up of men...
...Pelagius, Augustine's opponent, better represents the liberal view...
...I urge you to correct this matter as soon as possible as both the characterization of APF and the quote attributed to me do not accurately reflect the truth...
...So as a token of my appreciation I've sent you a complimentary copy of Penises of the Animal Kingdom...
...Also, I'd like to offer full payment for additional runs of my ad, though I'd prefer that it be carried in the classified section for greater visibility...
...Don't gun down our friends, even long departed ones...
...that the problems of the future are bound to be solved in the nick of time by our scientists and engineers...
...Simpkins (by telephone, on September 11, according to my notes), he did in fact have something of value to say about the Rainbow Lobby's "tactics of intimidation...
...Simpkins by a pro-Savimbi lobbyist at Black, Manafort and Stone, I mistakenly inferred that the Angola Peace Fund shared the same view...
...J...
...How this legendary feast got to Russia I leave to cultural anthropologists, but at least salami would provide a potato with more tasteful emanations than salt herring...
...Anyone who really thinks Dave Barry is funnier than P. J. O'Rourke...
...Fumento stumbles in dealing with solar energy...
...48 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1991 Heck, you guys didn't even ask for money...
...Arlington, Virginia (formerly, by God, of Alabama) I've just finished reading the latest installment of P. J. O'Rourke's New Enemies List in the November TAS...
...Jim Knowlton Scientific Novelty Bloomington, Indiana Check the Oiler I have not always lived in Moscow-onthe-Colorado...
...Saul David Springfield Classical High 37 Van Nuys California Please, TAS/P...
...A recent perusal of the sports page notes the Oilers to be in contention again, under a coach who ranks with Tom Landry in class and sportsmanship—not to mention knowledge of the game...
...Remember the predictions for gas turbine cars, and the Stirling and Minto engines...
...Even if pushed to its limit, conservation cannot compensate for more than a single doubling of population...
...Mike Perry Seattle, Washington As with the other installments of the New Enemies List, I laughed heartily—that is, when I wasn't doing a slow, indignant burn at the very thought that such persons and organizations as you list really do exist...
...Either way, it's no excuse for bullying us with charges of Anglophobia...
...Bring out the cattle prods, oil the lash, grease the rack, sharpen the meathooks, hone the guillotine and let's get on with the fun: Armand Hammer (it must just break his heart to see statues of his beloved Lenin crashing to the ground all over the Soviet Union...
...President, Wulfinghoff Energy Services Wheaton, Maryland THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1991 49...
...Seidman and Tusnet, co-authors of a widely used constitutional law text that reads like James Madison on veterinary pharmaceuticals...
...Well, I was even more surprised to discover that the "blurb" (which is printed in the "Current Wisdom" section of the November issue of The American Spectator, page 51) was actually a verbatim reprint of the classified advertisement for the poster as it appears in Mother Jones magazine...
...it is knit together by a pact of confederacy...
...It is pointless to put photovoltaic cells on cars...
...energy supply in the early twenty-first century...
...We are a non-partisan group which has always advocated direct peace talks between Angola's warring parties, a lasting cease-fire, and free elections...
...Matt F Foster Austin, Texas Fuel for Thought It is time to praise Michael Fumento's rare talent for sorting out controversial scientific matters ("What Kind of Fuel Am I?" TAS, November 1990...
...Ron Ellis Sandpoint, Idaho Pen Pals I recently received from one of your readers an order for my comparative anatomy chart Penises of the Animal Kingdom...
...I loved P. J. O'Rourke's article "Shoot the Wounded" (TAS, November 1990...
...New Friends and Enemies I like to think of myself (along with author Robert Anton Wilson) as being perpendicular to the left-right politcal spectrum, and so I read your magazine and the Nation...
...It believes, not in an unchanging (and sinful) human nature and society but in societal perfectability when led by themselves...
...Queenan, I have decided to let it go and subscribe anyway, but from now on, please give the Oilers the recognition they deserve...
...Prof...
...He writes that liquid fuels "will eventually go the way of whale oil," implying that perforce they will be replaced with something better...
...For political and technical reasons, the vast new electricity requirement of EVs would come mostly from coal, at least for the next decade or two...
...Some women have too many names, some pop singers don't have enough . . . Lighten up...
...In the schools of Springfield, Massachusetts, long ago, students were taught pronunciation, one example of which was the way to pronounce "aunt" so as to differentiate between your female relative and a member of the family Formicidae, or "ant...
...And you haven't exactly improved things in your new neighborhood either...
...In the process of penning his wonderful assault upon useless bag of cells jerry glanville (sic), Mr...
...Moreover, under no circumstances have I ever or would I ever identify the Angola Peace Fund (APF) as being "pro-Savimbi...
...Robert Drinan, formerly a Massachusetts Democratic congressman and still a Jesuit-lawyerhuman-rights-activist-Brennan crony (you want more...
...Even if the electricity for EVs were to come from fission, fusion, or some other "clean" source, total rebuilding of the electricity distribution system would be required...
...I would also like to take this opportunity to launch my own modest crusade: to have the words "In God We Trust" removed from the currency, and replaced with the motto "Mind Your Own Business," which I think is much more in keeping with the principles this nation was founded on...
...But what a list...
...For what are robberies themselves but little kingdoms...
...Think of the confusion we could sow, the dissension, the internecine warfare, the practical jokes...
...Again a kid of seven, I was listening at dinner in our Brooklyn apartment to my father, who had just been fired, tell the family how we would have to cut back on expenses, including food...
...Wish me luck...
...I have reached the conclusion that in spite of their excellent crossword puzzle, and Calvin Trillin, you guys are much more fun...
...2. Anyone who confuses his/her pet dogma with fact, and then gets mad if you aren't similarly confused...
...Sam "Special Prosecutor" Dash (on second thought, for a guy who prosecuted Nixon and defended Hoffa, Prof...
...It is regrettable that he now finds it necessary to disclaim not only the quote but the entire interview...
...Notwithstanding cute demonstration projects, the surface area of cars is not large enough to allow solar to make a difference...
...A peculiar superstition has arisen among some conservatives (Julian Simon et al...
...J., we got enemies enough...
...David Brock replies: As evidenced by my decision to use a quote from my interview with Mr...
...In the meantime, I'd like to take a swipe at welfare queens by suggesting two names for the Enemies List, if you haven't already mentioned them—that guy Andreas who makes tax subsidies gush from corn-based auto fuel, and that guy Iacocca who took my tax money all right, but refuses to sell me what I want—a good old-fashioned gas guzzler so I can thumb my nose at Andreas and that pompous earth-lover woman on the Archer-Daniels-Midland TV commercial...
...In 1978, I was asked by the National Academy of Sciences to prepare a prediction of U.S...
...While I doubt that the Rainbow Lobby has extensive contact with congressional aides, it is not and has never been my style to refer to them or anyone else as "political commissars...
...with little progress against the basic truth that these resources are too diffuse for economic harvesting on a scale that can satisfy the earth's present population...
...Prof./Fr...
...From the fact that I was referred to Mr...
...What triggered this flashback was her story about the right Russian way to eat salami...
...It won't be too bad," he reassured us...
...The fact that the Arabs invest heavily in solar research means nothing...
...We never be down to 'potatoes and point.' " He explained that in hard times (before the potato famine brought disaster), Irish families would hang a dried, salted herring on a string in the middle of the table and "point" their potatoes at it for flavor...
...Sam's a pretty good ol' boy...
...Since then, through good and bad, I have been a fan, and happen to know hundreds of thousands of others...
...The fact is that no alternative energy sources yet developed or foreseen can fill the energy supply gap that will open in the next century, aside from the receding apparition of fusion power...
...Michael Bolinski West Deptfor New Jersey To P. J. O'Rourke and Charlotte Smith: Hold it, friends, Toledo isn't the Sorbonne either...
...What are kingdoms but great robberies...
...And think of the increase in electromagnetic fields that presently have the Luddites biting their fingernails...
...I was prompted by the editors of thepiece to insert the "pro-Savimbi" description...
...Anything owned by Ted Turner, Anyone who actually drives 55...
...Female body builders-, Ann Richards, Molly Yard with make-up and a bee-hive...
...I was most interested by the quote attributed to me, especially since I do not know David Brock nor have I ever been interviewed by him...
...In fact, the last time I even used the word commissar was in reference to the song "Der Kommissar" by the Austrian singer Falco...
...Charles E. Chace Williamstown, Massachusetts To your laudable Enemies List I'd like to nominate the following institution, where I am completing my third and final year as an inmate (I plead self-defense): Georgetown University Law Center (i.e., law school with undergroundparking), whose administration and faculty include: Profs...
...it is ruled by the authority of a prince...
...What this suggests to me is the opportunity to create a parallel operation modeled after the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (which, so far as I know, has not been kept up to date, and contains nothing more than the congressional roster...
...Thanks again for the promotion, and welcome to the select circle of true champions of free enterprise and defenders of commercial speech...
...I was picked up as a child by Coach Bum Phillips as the Oilers boarded their plane for the AFC Championships a decade ago...
...Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson—I love your music, guys, but I find your politics as appealing as a naked Molly Yard...
...I'm sure Harper's, the Utne Reader, Spin, and, yes, even the New Agers at Mother Jones, are proud to have you join their ranks...
...Think of it, though...
...Having served time in both capacities, I offer the observation that technological developments cannot be willed...
...he asked...
...Augustine's opinion of the state would fill any conservative with pride...
Vol. 24 • January 1991 • No. 1
