Correspondence
NAACCCP Update Here is an update on the subject of Communists and ex-Communists in the "new" NAACP (see my "NAACCCP," TAS, August 1993). Benjamin Chavis's choice for director of communications of...
...Specialists are great, and I value their skills whenever I need assistance in evaluation and management...
...I do not propose to offer a full-scale defense of OU...
...Hunter before he writes again...
...This is where her heart belongs, this is where most of her information and opinions on Russia are coming from...
...Wattenberg find more accurate things to write...
...I'd gladly not join the millions of "uncommitted inactivists" in their "non-march on Washington" to remind people to just leave well enough alone...
...That "allowable" charge is significantly below the actual charge for non-Medicare patients...
...I also looked for signs of my alleged unthinking cheerleading for Boris Yeltsin...
...They cover the shortfall by profits from other products...
...However, I take exception to his statement, "That will be no help in treating serious illness...
...I do not understand why you feel that way...
...This is a point with which I'm sure Mr...
...Two economic axioms still hold: (I) Scarcity exists: Wants exceed the ability of limited resources to satisfy them...
...Jack, please call home...
...A random sampling of the first 1,000 left Parade staffers stunned...
...Jack has made a number of visits to Washington over the years...
...It's a language not taught in foreign language schools, but it helps us communicate and we will continue to use it...
...And with good reason: no one.wants to be seen as a puppet of foreign powers...
...The university for the last several years has recruited the third-largest number of National Merit Scholars attending tax-supported universities, and has one of the top rated engineering schools west of the Mississippi...
...In fact, the opposite is frequently the case: insurers won't pay even when doctors think the treatment is required...
...For some time, and with no small puzzlement, I have been reading her reports, wondering what on earth such a sympathizer with ultra-liberal causes in Russia is doing in one of the top American conservative magazines...
...Well, that part of the world not absorbed in their Gilder-goggles...
...That's why people get cheap Medigap insurance policies...
...Also, this bit about patients demanding needed high-tech care, counting on others to pay, is a straw man...
...I did note that the radicals were not giving up on Yeltsin because they saw no positive alternative...
...Entrepreneurs are really giving guys after all, unselfish types, stewards of the welfare of others...
...That's why 70 percent of American doctors are specialists...
...His "two rules of government" certainly (continued on page 84) CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 10) summarize the Libertarian philosophy as I understand it...
...When I challenged him to let Republicans and Independents into town hall meetings with Clinton, his answer was, Buy a ticket...
...The truth is, the U.S...
...Tyrrell's remark to be irresponsible and inflammatory, if not mean-spirited and elitist...
...His dubious "victory," much hailed in the West, was a direct result of the scare campaign launched by government-owned media, staffed and controlled by Yeltsin's liberal supporters...
...Free elections...
...You should be aware that the University of Oklahoma ranks in the top fifty universities as rated annually by U.S...
...Rojas then moved on to become editor of the New York Amsterdam News, published by the, notoriously Jew-baiting Wilbert Tatum...
...There is no doubt that Yeltsin's "team" is made up largely of power-hungry, corrupt, opportunistic nomenklatura men...
...I will respond on the reference to our mentally retarded 47-year-old brother Jack...
...As Adam Smith wrote, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest...
...Daniel Mehlhorn Anaheim, California...
...After all, if I could trick the OU Publications Board into letting me ascend to the editorship of the Oklahoma Daily despite a Bork-like paper trail of previous columns that enraged campus liberals, outraged many faculty, encouraged death threats etc., surely OU must have had some redeeming qualities...
...Instead, I am going to bed early tonight . . . I have to work tomorrow...
...His "less is more" theme in regard to the size of government runs counter to the "more is more" philosophy of our last Republican president and his secretary of housing and urban development...
...The West should be looking for new, fresh faces, honest people of a conservative persuasion, not liberal demagogues...
...Tyrrell goes deeper than that...
...Osherov' s letter sent me combing through my TAS columns to find what sort of "ultra-liberal" causes in Russia I had supported...
...What concerns me is not only the offhanded, petty tone of the remark but its complete lack of supporting evidence...
...As for "their bucks," I haven't seen any patient fork over the $40,000 from his or her private bank account for coronary artery bypass surgery...
...At last we can read some of the truth about Yeltsin, his personality, his "powers of persuasion...
...I'm not alone...
...But, sadly, a decade after my reign, RET may be correct...
...Valerie Shank Austin, Texas Wit's End P. J. O'Rourke's "Liberty Manifesto" (TAS, July 1993) was truly an inspiring piece of wit-drenched truth...
...What is constantly giving ammunition to anti-Yeltsin forces is Yeltsin himself, and his "team"—power-hungry, ruthless, corrupt, and incompetent...
...A never-ending list of defections from the Yeltsin camp by some of his closest allies (Oleg Rumyantsev, Valery Zorkin, Alexander Rutskoi, and others) has been virtually ignored or explained away by personal ambitions and other ulterior motives...
...As UCLA economist Jack Hirshleifer once put it, "All the world is largely governed by self-interest, and all the world knows it...
...In fact, one might even vilify P.J...
...O'Rourke is in accordance...
...Blair Hunter Bradenton, Florida Bogus Charlie Grover G. Norquist has done conservative Democrats a favor...
...As an afterthought: writing for TAS should have done the trick, sooner or later...
...Freedom of the press...
...I certainly did not mean to tarnish Jack's visits to Washington...
...But should these altruistic marvels be freed from the rigors of market competition...
...Cost-shifting "the death of our health-care system...
...Jeffrey D. Sadow Assistant Professor of Political Science Louisiana State University Shreveport, Louisiana Hot Ticket In the article, "What to Filibuster Next...
...Please...
...This is news...
...His brother Bill arranged those trips and escorted him proudly, with great love and attention...
...And, by the way, cost-shifting is routine in American business...
...Right...
...Instead, I can proudly boast that I chose to get on with my life rather than attend a march on Washington...
...Still, not many attempts were made to defend Gorbachev when his political fortunes took a nose-dive (counting out the much ridiculed "Chicken Kiev" speech by George Bush...
...I would also point out that our family members, including Bill, myself, his legal guardian and brother Tom, and others of the original eleven total children, frequently "speak retarded," adopting or warmly "impersonating" Jack's speech limitation...
...Barnes's understanding of Medicare is obviously deficient...
...If Wealth and Poverty was the Bible of the Reagan administration, then that makes Reagan Moses and George Gilder God...
...As for Mr...
...However, although disappointed with TAS in this instance, not being a liberal myself I will not cancel my subscription and encourage others to do likewise...
...Since I don't actually have to show up for this non-march, that saves me the guilt of making up some lame excuse why I can't make it...
...Cecil L. Peaden Norman, Oklahoma I take strong exception to, and am personally offended by, a book review by you in the July issue referring to the University of Oklahoma as "one of the most useless universities in the land...
...Barnes is dead wrong if he thinks that all these specialists are the only answer to seriously ill patients...
...So in the last solicitation of alumni, I wrote across my form I would never contribute to an OU academic unit again...
...Oklahoma, Okay...
...Freedom of private trade...
...News & World Report...
...Being a 1983 OU graduate and for that summer the only conservative editor of a major college daily newspaper in the country (before it was fashionable to start conservative alternative publications), I might be expected to be offended...
...Barnes is correct—I do want more primary-care doctors...
...Sentimental capitalist George Gilder is out to upset the economics apple cart based on a new and improved view of human nature ("Wealth and Poverty Revisited," TAS, July 1993...
...I am tired of the left's incessant bashing of the eighties economic boom as some kind of scheme for only the rich to get richer...
...The Democrats need a leader like Rep...
...What is so appealing about Yeltsin that he became the darling of both the liberals and conservatives...
...One of the main features of this picture is the virtual impossibility of any Communist revival...
...Oklahoma is a very conservative state, and I would expect that many OU graduates who are now medical doctors, lawyers, and corporate executives are enjoined in the struggle against political correctness and liberal misinformation...
...If Bill Archey and the Chamber would just get to their battle stations and beat back the Clinton tax hike, then I am sure that Jack and other members of the Archey family could afford to visit more often...
...Insurance companies won't pay for treatment if doctors don't certify it's necessary...
...Curiously, not many observers dwelled on Yeltsin's personal ambitions and personal qualities...
...As I eagerly await the next issue of TAS, I am not actively painting any protest signs...
...Jerrie Presley Ponca City, Oklahoma I almost took exception to R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s comment that the University of Oklahoma "must be one of the most useless universities in the land...
...I received my August issue of TAS with my lengthy letter and Fred Barnes's response (Special Correspondence: "What Health-Care Crisis...
...Bunk...
...I admit that these causes have been championed by the liberal Russian intelligentsia...
...Benjamin Chavis's choice for director of communications of the national NAACP is no less than Don Rojas, who was press chief under Maurice Bishop, the Communist dictator of Grenada, and lived several years in Cuba...
...Hunter is tricky...
...George Gilder's enlightening article was a breath of fresh air in this Clintonite tax-and-spend world of ours...
...Raining on Parade Terry Eastland's catalogue of paeans to Mrs...
...Let's not trade this in for Gilder's pottage...
...Some prominent conservatives (Paul Weyrich, to name just one) were giving Yeltsin and his people counsel and training...
...The February 1992 column, "'Democrats,'" quoted strongly worded criticism of the new (continued on page 91) CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 85) "democratic nomenklatura" by advocates of radical political and economic reform...
...I was dismayed to read in R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s otherwise outstanding review of The Real Anita Hill (TAS, July 1993) that the University of Oklahoma is "one of the most useless universities in the land...
...Petersburg...
...But, more importantly, what did it add to an otherwise informative and stimulating book review to include that snide remark as almost an afterthought...
...Before too long, they revealed themselves as statist, xenophobic proponents of snail-paced economic change, willing to ally themselves with men like Russian Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov...
...Arguably, Yeltsin's contribution to the demise of Communism was considerable, but this is not sufficient reason to keep him in power indefinitely...
...I wonder if nonmedical businesses such as supermarkets, appliance stores, furniture stores, retail clothing, accountants, attorneys, and everyone else could survive such a government-mandated system...
...Here goes: Sir, no reflection on primary-care doctors, but when my back ached recently I went to an orthopedic surgeon, and when my foot was ailing I went to a foot doctor...
...Rather, I tried to explain how, despite his manifest lack of brotherly love for supply-siders and other species of conservatives ("wackos," he calls them), he had risen to influential positions in the conservative Reagan administration and the once pro-market U.S...
...with all its allies does not have the money to prop up any puppet regime, least of all in Russia...
...Why are we meddling in Russian affairs now, and if we do—why don't we first find out what sort of people or policies we are really supporting...
...I just had to add a couple of comments: Mr...
...Stephen Schwartz San Francisco, California He's My Brother Two of my brothers were subjects of Daniel Wattenberg's piece in your June 1993 publication ("Clinton's Echo Chamber"), with brother Bill being the main target...
...Now, that said, will somebody please stop Dr...
...Folks with serious, specific ailments usually prefer specialists...
...What "conservative persuasion" would mean in the Russian context, I am not sure...
...My December 1991 column contained strong criticism of Yeltsin and other prominent "democrats," such as former Moscow mayor Gavriil Popov, for their imperial and anti–free market moves...
...Richard Nixon met at the White House with Bill Clinton...
...The mails run about 88 percent against the current First Lady, with a vituperation level that surprises and shocks even the most cynical...
...Yeltsin is perceived as the one and only anti-Communist in Russia...
...I also find it amusing that Mr...
...There has been a recent move to establish an endowed chair in the name of Anita Hill...
...Western media (Cathy Young included) were relying heavily on liberal sources of information...
...Maybe Ross Perot or Donald Trump could do so, but the rest of us rely either on insurance for such procedures (which hardly makes it "my bucks") or we rely on the charity of a hospital and doctors who then cost-shift the price elsewhere, or we simply go without the procedure...
...I plan to restrict my giving now to apparently the only serious units left on campus that eschew mediocrity, mendaci ty, and just plain silliness—the award-winning marching band (I'm an alumnus of that, too) and the national-championship-winning athletic department...
...But Mr...
...Merchants attract customers with "loss leaders," products priced below cost...
...Michael R. Murray Upper Darby, Pennsylvania What's Love Got to Do With It...
...Imagine what we regular folks would pay for food if supermarkets were expected to write off up to 50 percent of their prices for several million customers...
...As an internist, I evaluate and treat some of the sickest patients admitted to hospitals...
...I do not refer everyone to a specialist and spend my time treating runny noses, sunburns, jock itch, and sprained ankles...
...Only the Spectator has seen fit to try to tarnish what has always been a fun experience for Jack, Bill, our family, and those who met Jack in Washington...
...Can this be the beginning of an "Annus Horribilis" for Mrs...
...Fortunately, in her latest piece in TAS ("Russia Votes Yes," July 1993) she finally begins to question the validity of those views held by her Moscow friends—and this insight is long overdue...
...True, it also implies social-issues liberalism, which places Russian liberals close to American libertarians—by my lights, not a bad place to be...
...O'Rourke uses laser-like focus when he blasts away at the Occupying Couple and their entourage...
...True...
...Ronald Reagan was elected twice because his economic plan worked for everyone, even liberals...
...The root cause of this chronic myopia seems to be a lingering Western paranoia about Communists, shared by both conservatives and their liberal rivals—long after the Cold War has ended...
...But to label an entire institution useless simply because of the presence of one faculty member is insupportable...
...It doesn't work any longer, and without reform it will be the death of our health-care system...
...he has exposed Charlie Stenholm ("Bogus Charlie Stenholm," TAS, August 1993...
...I've got to answer his gripes without prompting him to write again...
...I have treated countless complicated AIDS, congestive heart failure, cancer, inflammatory bowel, depressed, and toonumerous-to-mention other seriously ill patients in my career...
...Osherov should attribute my supposed proYeltsinism to ties to the liberal Russian intelligentsia: in fact, most of the scathing remarks about the pre-referendum propaganda campaign quoted in my article came from intellectuals...
...David Blumenthal Lincoln Park, New Jersey In his recent speech to the Cato Institute, P. J. O'Rourke comes perilously close to surrendering his credentials as a Republican party reptile...
...Vladimir Osherov Westmont, Illinois Cathy Young replies: Mr...
...Isn't this a strange concept...
...Morgan Reynolds Professor of Economics Texas A&M University College Station, Texas Three cheers for "Wealth and Poverty Revisited...
...What exactly does he think I do all day...
...We are bringing new energy, talent, and life to the NAACP," Chavis says...
...I suspect it is no better or worse than most state-supported universities in this country, which is to say that most likely some of its schools and departments are quite good, some are quite bad, and most are decidedly average...
...The primary political value underlying Western civilization is that individuals are ends in themselves, that they have rights (a selfish idea...
...Chamber of Commerce...
...A case in point is Cathy Young...
...George Gilder sets the record straight about supply-side economics (Reaganomics), and explains why demand-side economics (Clintonomics) empowers government, not people...
...However, patients have no right to demand a CT scan, an MRI scan, or a cardiac catheterization if there are no clinical indications to perform the tests...
...Ed Royce, Bob Dornan, Chris Cox, and Dana Rohrabacher, was crashed by Democratic hecklers...
...This is just one more thing that's great about the American health-care system...
...But my quarrel with Mr...
...To me this is a hallmark of modern liberalism...
...Hence, cost-shifting...
...Nor am I engaging in any leaflet distribution at my local mini-mall...
...I am a proud alumnus of the University of Oklahoma and can assure you it is not "useless...
...Some anti-Communist Russian politicians, such as "Christian Democrats" Viktor Aksyuchits and Mikhail Astafiev, have tried to reclaim the term...
...Can't Mr...
...Few things are more frustrating than someone's inability to learn from past mistakes...
...The New York Times seemed to be singing in unison with National Review...
...Entrepreneurs are out for a buck, among other things...
...Frederick F. Hill Richmond, Virginia Hunter, M.D...
...I did, by the way, seek an interview with Bill Archey, and he chose not to respond—in any language...
...Even though the target is as large as the broad side of a barn, Mr...
...The other $60 is written off by the doctor by law...
...Walter R. Hunter, MD...
...Peter D. Archey Reading, Pennsylvania Daniel Wattenberg replies: I never questioned Bill Archey's love for his brother Jack...
...I fully agree that our policy toward Russia should not put all our eggs in one basket and that the West should look for "fresh faces...
...While I respect the Libertarian philosophy as an intrinsic guide to good government, I'm slow to vote for a party that can't scrape enough people together to finish off a keg of beer...
...Barnes's assertion that "it's their [patients'] bodies and their bucks," I am one of the strongest advocates for patient involvement in clinical decision-making and treatment decisions...
...With any luck...
...Indeed, it has passed the first hurdle, helped out by a speech given to the Board of Regents by a journalism professor who used to denounce me...
...Conversely, it is heartening to watch people learn...
...In a society which unfortunately can still shun the handicapped, it is especially troubling that sincere brotherly love and attention can be cruelly attacked...
...Communism, albeit dead, generates fear: Will, there be a resurrection...
...I might add that in Russia today, the word "liberal" is used exclusively in its "classical" sense...
...Does this mean that support will be purely symbolic and covert at the same time...
...I hope that his manifesto is picked up by the party to which he (presumably) and I belong...
...They need the leadership of someone who is willing to break with the straight party line if principles and constituents demand it...
...The West needs some honest, unbiased reporting capable of giving a true picture of what is going on in Russia...
...Murrells Inlet, South Carolina Fred Barnes replies: Responding to Dr...
...Forexample, a private fee for a 40-minute office visit in an internist's office might be $135...
...and (2) People are self-interested...
...It is apparent from, Barnes's response that he just doesn't get it...
...We would be happy to so educate Mr...
...Thanks for a great article...
...TAS, July 1993), Grover G. Norquist reminds us of the GOP Town Hall meetings and their role in bucking up Republican opposition to Clinton's socalled "stimulus package...
...I guess they're more interested in separating people from their money than in representing the people in government...
...Was, then, the whole "Support Yeltsin" fuss designed only for domestic consumption...
...as a politician, Yeltsin is no match for Gorbachev—even with all the coaching and intellectual support he is getting...
...Whither Russia...
...The basic philosophy has never been questioned...
...Conservative and moderate Democratic voters do not need people like Charlie Stenholm leading and abandoning the true conservative and moderate Democrats in Congress...
...so far as to call him a latent Libertarian...
...If four years of Willy the Wonk(a) are followed by four more years of the same, this reptile will welcome extinction...
...in fact she always writes with pride about her intelligentsia origins...
...Clinton ("Counting the Days," TAS, July 1993) omitted the full-issue puff piece done by Dotson Rader in Parade magazine last April...
...I am sure you did not intend to demean the University of Oklahoma and a retraction or apology would assure all your readers of that...
...Also we are able to draw some conclusions on the nature of the so-called referendum and whether it may be viewed as .a popular mandate for Yeltsin's policies...
...American conservatives should take note of this fact...
...Oklahoma University has graduated no fewer competent and successful professionals than any other major state university...
...To her credit, Ms...
...Clinton...
...Let's not be blinded by a primitive and false Manichean dichotomy—"Democrats" versus "Communists...
...I wonder if anyone has tried to analyze this touching unanimity, especially in the face of the ideological split Clinton's presidency is causing in America...
...Sure, capitalism encourages people to be considerate of others, take pride in serving others, etc...
...Gary Condit of California, who voted against Clinton' s higher taxes—at the risk of incurring the wrath of the liberal leadership and losing his subcommittee chairmanship...
...It keeps the system going without further government intervention...
...But in the anecdote I related in my article, he adopted his brother's manner of speech to communicate to colleagues in the Reagan Commerce Department his disgust over Reagan's cuts in social spending...
...Patients, Doctors, and Fred Barnes...
...Indeed, his remark is the type of insulting, outrageous comment one usually associates with liberals...
...Tyrrell would choose to offend such people by wantonly disparaging their alma mater...
...I am at a loss to understand why Mr...
...Wattenberg...
...Barnes astounds me when he asserts that all this cost-shifting has "one virtue: it works...
...Until now, Yeltsin enjoyed an amazing bipartisan support in the U.S...
...Gorbachev's role in ending the Cold War was far more significant and profound...
...Nor will I organize protest marches, demand a humiliating public apology, or plan a vicious personal revenge...
...My guess is: this happened because of a very successful effort on the part of Russian "democrats" (i.e., liberals) to paint all opposition to Yeltsin as coming from hard-line Communists, represented by parliamentary speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov...
...It must be noted that rural Russia (about 40 percentof the population), in fact, voted against Yeltsin in the referendum...
...But if Medicare only allows $75 for that service and pays 80 percent of that "allowable," which is $60, then the Medigap policy is only required to pay the additional $15 to the $75 level...
...Yeltsin's main support comes from the liberal intelligentsia in Moscow and •St...
...The liberation of former Soviet republics...
...Bill's efforts to "speak retarded" to communicate with Jack sound commendable...
...Our town hall in Fullerton, California, where we met with Reps...
...He can ably respond for himself on the political matters, if he chooses...
...As to Communism—Communism in Russia is gone forever...
...On May 10, gossip columnist Liz Smith reported: The huge-circulation newspaper supplement is now buried under thousands of readers' letters...
...This will not be easy...
...I wasn't even aware of them...
...All the signs of learning are confined to deceptive electoral tactics (Bill Clinton...
...One was dressed in a Day-Glo orange jacket announcing that he was an Orange County Democrat...
...Odd that the GOP Town Hall was packed and no admission was charged, but the Democrats demand payment for admission to their gatherings...
...Private property...
...Young never made any secret of her cultural, if not political affiliations...
...This questionable premise somehow justifies support, but even then with a large degree of ambivalence: Yeltsin's own media, as everyone knows, kept the Vancouver meeting out of their headlines...
...It [Medicare] doesn't cover all patient costs...
...They are, first, not so cheap and second, responsible only for the 20 percent that Medicare does not pay of Medicare's determined allowable charge...
...E. Foster Group President, Southwestern Bell Corporation San Antonio, Texas I found Mr...
...I admit up front that part of my dismay can be attributed to the fact that both my wife arid I are graduates of the university, and she is on the faculty there...
Vol. 26 • September 1993 • No. 9
