Correspondence/An Appeal from P J. O'Rourke
CORRESPONDENCE Erratum I am very interested in reading the remainder of Joe Queenan's "Reality Check" (TAS, June 1992)—or is this a ploy to find out how many people read TAS cover-to-cover? —Bob...
...But, seeing as this was edited and printed, we must conclude that you do not find this appalling...
...It is enough of a disgrace that he should actually feel this way, but why is he being given the opportunity to have his perverted thoughts published...
...Reasonable people can disagree about van den Haag's proposal to curb rape by banning pornography...
...Timothy Milauskas UCSD, Class of 1990 Muir College (Yes, the easy one) Boston, Massachusetts 66 The American Spectator July 1992...
...Long guns are much easier to twist from your hand than are the shorter handguns—a consideration for any homeowner bent on prowling his property in the dark of night to check out the noise his wife heard...
...Anyone willing to forfeit the advantage of surprise and waste needed ammunition in order to spare his enemies should probably not spend $300 on what amounts to a glorified rape whistle...
...While it is a citizen's prerogative to show mercy, as I have, to an assailant once he is sufficiently cowed, only a loser would fire a warning shot if the outcome of the situation were in any doubt...
...So decide before you buy a gun whether or not you are capable of using it on a human being...
...In most cases this would do the trick...
...Worse, his argument is convincing...
...Best stick with a modern hollow point design...
...James Bowman is abusing his privilege as a journalist, if he should even be given that status...
...I'm not sure what I think of it myself...
...We think you should reconsider Mr...
...I must thank Ernest van den Haag for surprising me...
...For instance, what is commonly called "hardball" is a poor choice in any caliber as it zips through walls easily to endanger innocents, and has poor "stopping power...
...A .45 slug does not hit like the "flat of a shovel...
...Bowman's position with your magazine...
...Are you all that sexist in Virginia...
...Please let us know...
...Exactly what we are not trying to do is to "deter" criminals...
...Shotguns are fine defense weapons, but they have a down side as well...
...His attitude toward women is a little more than outdated...
...Olga Courtois Irene Vassilopoulos Montreal, Quebec Guns or Roses Brock Yates's "Guns for the Home" (TAS, April 1992) brings a point to mind that Yates, curiously, does not mention...
...One final note: Never, ever fire a warning shot...
...With all the emphasis in the article on scaring away (rather than plugging) the attacker, either by showing him the muzzle of the gun, letting him hear it being loaded, or shooting it out the window, why not solve the kiddie-access problem (continued on page 14) 12 The American Spectator July 1992 by loading it only with blanks...
...Buying a gun is only the first step in the metamorphosis from lamb to lion...
...Does this mean that radical feminists, whose central thesis is that relations between the sexes are about power, cannot be depended on to be wrong about everything...
...It's always mystified me that the same people who sing the praises of abstinence and sexual restraint can so lightly, even sneeringly, dismiss a woman's right to reject sex with any man who feels he has a reason to expect it...
...I hope his insights move conservatives to reconsider their anti-feminist reflexes on this issue...
...Melodramatic as it may sound, you must be determined to prevail inmortal conflict...
...If you have cause to point a gun at one of these products of American Liberalism, and aren't prepared to shoot him if necessary, whathe's going to do once he takes the gun from you won't be pretty...
...In reality, a well-swung shovel has a hell of a lot more energy than any handgun bullet...
...Ray Rusch Dubuque, Iowa While I generally applaud Brock Yates's article on guns for self-defense, even to his choice of the Walther PPK as the ideal carrying piece, I think he is gravely wrong in his answer to his own "basic question...
...Yates should have left the nonsense out of his article...
...While Mr...
...If we did hate men, date rape would be a much smaller problem...
...We are armed to shoot them...
...If this were even meant to be some kind of joke, it still would be in very poor taste...
...You have to accept that you are taking personal responsibility for life and death, and decide where the line shall be...
...Yates will get you into trouble without helping your situation one damn bit...
...Malcolm J. Sherman Albany, New York As a feminist, I must admit that this magazine was one of the last places I ever expected to see a sensible, evenhanded analysis of acquaintance rape...
...To acknowledge this, as van den Haag implicitly does, is to understand why the notion of date rape sometimes seems so ambiguous and why the ambiguity makes it no less real...
...Yates understands the necessity of gun ownership, he apparently knows little about their proper use in self-defense...
...Margate, Florida Two cheers and a few boos for Brock Yates's piece on guns...
...Obviously Mr...
...Leonard W. Fromm, Jr...
...Maybe this means that equating acquaintance rape with violent stranger rape as a legal issue is not the most helpful way of understanding or combating it...
...By pointing out that the acquaintance rapist, just like the street rapist, is more interested in humiliation than in pleasure, van den Haag exposes the misogynistic unfairness of this view...
...All serious calibers will shoot a variety of bullet styles...
...Like any major university, UCSD has its leftist element...
...Steve Roberts Northridge, California Convinced Ernest van den Haag accepts at least a soft version of the radical feminist tenet that rape fundamentally expresses a need to dominate and humiliate, as opposed to a brutal, primitive sexual urge ("Thinking About Rape," TAS, April 1992...
...If all he wanted from the film was to see a woman's chest, he should have stayed home and rented a porno...
...But it does not (continued on page 66) 14 The American Spectator July 1992 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 14) mean that a woman who charges rape after talking to or consenting to being alone with a man is blameworthy, shrewish, or undeserving of legal recourse...
...The cities are full of feral humans, and to confront them without the will to follow through is to court suicide...
...Profuse apologies to Mr...
...Norden's description of life at UCSD is accurate, and I was glad to see that it was not stigmatized as a pinko-leftist university...
...You have to believe in your absolute right to live your life unmolested by thieves, and the thieves' corresponding lack of any rights at all...
...Still, I'm pleased and grateful to see this levelheaded view of the issue expressed in a conservative forum...
...Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of students see this minority for what it is—a bunch of irrelevant, loud-mouthed, sixties rejects...
...Contrary to what many conservatives seem to think (see especially the vitriolic rant by Norman Podhoretz in the October 1991 issue of Commentary), the feminist concern about acquaintance rape does not reflect a vicious or man-hating nature...
...But, it is disgusting that he feels that it would have been worthwhile at least if Lorraine Braco [sic] had shown some skin...
...The article was intact when it left our offices, but the printer inadvertently allowed the last paragraphs to "reflow" on his computer, resulting in the dropped line...
...Criminals appear to have an almost animal sense about these matters, and know instantly if their victim is cdpable of firing or not...
...we would find ourselves less often in the situations that make rape possible because we would not seek out men's company, and we would not feel betrayed because we never would have trusted...
...A gun, without the will to use it, is a danger to its owner...
...This bit of advice from Mr...
...Even if one took a shot at the attacker using a blank, he would probably make just as hurried an exit as if it were a real bullet, anticipating that although the first shot missed, the second might not...
...Also for those not "into" guns, a large caliber handgun is very difficult to use in any case...
...Although it is certainly true that most criminal activity comes to an abrupt halt when faced with a firearm, it is not always so...
...Like any handgun bullet, even a .45 slug is useless if it doesn't penetrate...
...It is obvious that Mr...
...Fine...
...The Odd Couple After having read the movie review of Medicine Man in your April issue, we can honestly say that we've never been more offended and disgusted by an article before in our lives...
...Queenan and to our readers...
...Linda C. Lowenthal Boston, Massachusetts School Days As a recent graduate of the University of California, San Diego, I was pleasantly surprised to see my school reviewed in TAS ("A Month in Paradise," by Edward Norden, April 1992...
...Bob Lee Powell, WyomingWladyslaw Pleszczynski replies: The last sentence of Joe Queenan's piece should have read: "I'll be starting the session with Barney Frank, and I think we're going to be in there awhile...
...When it comes to handguns, Mr...
...The key is to pick the best bullet style for the intended purpose...
...Bowman did not like this movie...
...I'll have to admit, though, that it would take quite a bit of chutzpah to counterattack a bad guy knowing that your armament contained only blanks...
...Genuine misunderstandings and ambivalence are possible...
...James Bowman's comments about Lorraine Braco [sic] and the "native chicks" are racist as well as sexist...
...So what your movie critic is really saying is that a bad movie can be salvaged simply by having the female actresses undress for the camera...
Vol. 25 • July 1992 • No. 7
