Correspondence: Ocean City, Here We Come &c.
CORRESPONDENCE Sorry, Sal I was amused at the letter of Sal Marinello in the September issue of TAS when he stated, "A few liberals probably subscribe to the Spectator just so they can write these...
...This denial is supported by the fact that a number of French Jews are highly placed members of the FN...
...And B'nai B'rith has intervened in French politics by requesting, and receiving, a solemn pledge from French center-right politicians to oppose FN...
...Answer that and I'll bet you will have another great story...
...I am Hispanic, but first, I am American...
...Le Pen advocated violence nor has the FN organized the kind of paramilitary "youth brigades" which were common among the pre-war fascists...
...Fair enough...
...We need look no further than the recently concluded term of the Supreme Court and its decision in the City of Boerne case...
...It is no exaggeration to conclude that the Left's campaign of defaming and demonizing the FN has been the essential element in the left's victory...
...Robinson's niece was not "serving her president" or "her country" when the crew of the C-13o committed the gross pilot error of hitting the mountain east of Jackson Hole, Wyoming...
...Why does he, or anyone else for that matter, think this is so...
...Sometimes the articles seem a bit beyond my comprehension, both intellectually and logically, but I try...
...Politics, Biography, History, Sports...
...While his remains lie in cold storage in Hanoi along with a statue of Lenin before which the party operatives genu82 October 1 9 9 7 ?The American Spectator flect regularly, he remains an international Communist who sold out Vietnamese interests too many times to be a hero to the masses...
...Le Pen, who as a very young man fought against the Nazi occupation of France, has spent his entire 20-year political career as a democratic politician...
...Every time there was a police roadblock, I got 1rrested, because no one is allowed to own 1 bike bigger han 125cc...
...The prescience of Madison's genius can be seen in an extraordinary letter he wrote to Jefferson in October 1788: The restrictions however strongly marked on paper will never be regarded when opposed to the decided sense of the public...
...He feels (and he may be correct) that it is the only way I will reach the promised land, either the one we are told by both parties we will be led into every four years or the true one...
...After reading Wladyslaw Pleszczynski's introduction, I thought I had picked up a spoof...
...Allow me to say that I have not read so much unadulterated bigotry since the Nazi propaganda of the '30's and '40's...
...And whoever did the cover of the August issue [Dean MacAdam], more of him or her too...
...In Bosnia, the Serbs will win if they can subdue the Croats militarily...
...Rather than listen to the propaganda of the crusty old lieutenants of "Uncle Ho" who run the politburo today...
...E.N...
...I am on my second subscription, a gift from a very good friend who hasn't given up on converting a life-long Missourian Democrat to the Republican ranks...
...CHARLES M. FREELAND Indianapolis, Indiana The Real Vietnam Mr...
...I hope and pray that your magazine gets into more American homes...
...EDWARDS Tarpon Springs, Florida Madison Avenues In his review of Robert Goldwin's book on Madison (TAS, August 1997), Joseph Shattan, with Goldwin, correctly points out that Americans' rights, according to Madison, are "woven into the fabric of the Constitution" itself even without the addition of the first ten amendments, or Bill of Rights...
...In conclusion, I must return to the so-called economic reforms of 1989...
...It is more than refreshing to read something that is not entirely or largely marked with the disappointments of our depressing decade—this is just the thing TAS needs to balance its content...
...DONALD C. BREWSTER Frederick, Maryland America First I appreciate the fact that I can go to your web site and find informative and often funny accounts of what really is happening in American politics...
...Bubba's Best...
...Jefferson wrote to Madison in 1788: "[The Federalist] is the best commentary on the principles of government which ever was written...
...GENE HOPP Bellevue, Washington Quiz Time Okay, everyone: Who is paying the legal fees for Susan McDougal...
...The successful candidate will have at least passing familiarity with the "issues of the day," and be able to craft a persuasive sentence or two...
...Free Catalog LHAMILTON raL2Zakge, CT 06031-6005j The American Spectator . October 19 9 7 83 Spanos, it's really classical, "an anti-hubris song, intended to chastise those who experience a reversal in fortune due to their own conceits and blindness...
...Box 549 Arlington, VA 22216-0549 Oceans Away Why in the world did you waste twelve pages on Richard W. Carlson's "Ocean City Cop" (TAS, August 1997...
...Secondly, it is a tribute to Madison's deserved title as the "Father of the Constitution" to note that he acquired that honor despite the fact he wrote only twenty-six, or about one-third, of the eighty-five Federalist Papers...
...As such, it carves out an island of state power within a sea of individual rights...
...Carville appears to be a very sick man in much need of professional help...
...Law enforcement and the professionals who make it work get pilloried in the media constantly by liberals who view any infringement on their hedonistic pursuits as an insult to their lofty left-wing ideals...
...Save 30% or more on a huge selection of current books and best sellers...
...Has your editorial board been taken over by small-minded closet Clintonites...
...Even if that were true, the Communists would be very slow learners indeed, as an interval of fourteen years of the most brutal Communist dictatorship was imposed on the unwilling backs of the South Vietnamese in the interim...
...In particular, Ms...
...If the center-right parties reject Le Pen, it is not because B'nai B'rith has "intervened" in French politics...
...JOHNSON Jackson, Tennessee Very much enjoyed Mr...
...Indeed, these points were made in my article...
...As evidence that Steyn has it all wrong about Bob Dylan's fan base, he cites a Wolf Trap concert where "the people in attendance ...ran the generational and political gamut...
...I doubt that anyone of his ilk would be ableto pass the oral review board or the psychological screening...
...My real purpose in writing is to congratulate Steyn on his double...
...Numbers aside, Madison's contribution was qualitatively enormous...
...But the same is true of the French Socialist Party...
...Pol Pot, with Vietnamese assistance, also won when he murdered several million Cambodians and installed his dictatorship in Phnom Penh...
...JOSEPH C. BROWN, III Green Cove Springs, Florida Thank you for the nostalgia cover story...
...Carlson's article in the August issue...
...James R. Baker's self-proclaimed credentials notwithstanding, his letter in the August Correspondence criticizing David Aikman's "Saigon Serenade" is a study in contradiction...
...It may be relevant to mention that, when Time magazine published a gushing effusion on the occasion of Chaplin's knighting, I addressed the magazine as The American Spectator ?October 19 9 7 11 above...
...The role played by Madison at the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787 likewise had been crucial...
...Baker declares in his letter...
...Also, various biographers of Madison, including Rutland, have told the story of this pivotal episode in Madison's political career...
...DENNIS ZICKERMAN via the Internet Another Ritz Driver Having finished lunch at the Ritz-Carlton and time on my hands as I waited for my wife to finish her shopping, I picked up a copy of your magazine, probably seduced by the cover...
...Jospin's justice minister, Jean-Pierre Chevenement, was the head of CERES in the 1980's, a radical Socialist youth group with ideological ties to the terrorist Red Brigades in France, Italy, and Germany...
...Why do those down on their luck need chastising...
...DON DESHETLER Ellicott City, Maryland It's good to have Richard Carlson back...
...This issue vividly recalls my last ever summer there prior to leaving in May '63 for a little known country in Southeast Asia called the Republic of Vietnam...
...RONALD TOGNETTI via the Internet Of all the publications in these United States I would think that your esteemed periodical would have been the last to print such libidinous liberal pulp as "Ocean City Cop...
...In appraising Le Pen's personal qualities, Mr...
...This program states that while welfare benefits are to be reduced for legal immigrants and eliminated for illegal immigrants, all Frenchmen of any race, religion, or ethnic origin are to be treated as French citizens, without distinction...
...His French mentor's act was that of a little tramp with a small mustache, a bowler hat, baggy and disreputable clothing, decrepit boots, a knobbly cane, and a flat-footed strut...
...Unfortunately, Mr...
...KERRY J. GAMBRILL via the Internet Le Pen Pal I am writing to comment on Christopher Caldwell's article "The French Malady," which appeared in the August issue of TAS...
...Robert A. Rutland relates the story of how the Bill of Rights came to be included in the Constitution and Madison's role in the process in his The Birth of the Bill of Rights (Northeastern University Press, 1983...
...The letter was, of course, not published, but interestingly, after a lapse of six weeks, the magazine wrote me an acknowledgment: "Chaplin may not have invented the character, but he developed it by his own genius...
...Even among so-called conservatives on the Court, or perhaps especially among them, any claim by a citizen to constitutional protection must be supported by a "textual basis" in the words of the document...
...Amendment X] These words have, alas, also been virtually ignored by the Supreme Court...
...To see these falsehoods repeated in an American conservative magazine, c'est navrant...
...Spanos came into our midst...
...Caldwell writes "Le Pen is, first and foremost, a clown...
...Libertarians, and maybe even a few conservatives, would say that Madison's original fears about the Bill of Rights have been realized...
...There are, by the way, a number of similarly placed Frenchmen of North African origin...
...Caldwell has repeated the "Big Lies" brilliantly promulgated by the left-dominated French intellectual establishment...
...Vietnam is a great place for Westerners to visit...
...Asrecently as 1995, Thich Quang Do, a Buddhist Bonze, published in Paris a book entitled Observations on the Terrible Mistakes Committed by the Vietnamese Communist Party Toward the People and Buddhism in which he declares that "millions of Vietnamese left because they were afraid of the repressive government not for any economic reason...
...This is madness...
...How did such lowbrow pabulum get past your editors...
...They have also learned that if you plan for a year, plant rice...
...Caldwell repeatedly refers to Le Pen's political party, the Front National, as "fascistic" and writes "the Front is also frankly anti-Semitic...
...He states that the Vietnamese government "started out as a typical Communist government but it soon learned that Communism wouldn't work," so it adopted a capitalistic economy in 1989...
...Patricia Brennan, a Washington Post staff writer, reported on August 3 about Karin Muller's recent trip to Vietnam to interview some Vietnamese that "she was arrested several times" and "paid fines in what she called police shakedowns...
...The same thing could be said about a Beach Boys concert, only proving that Boomers give nostalgia a bad name and that the mythical lure of the sixties and seventies persists despite their real legacy...
...Opponents to the enumeration of certain rights in a Bill of Rights foresaw this risk of misinterpretation and insisted on the inclusion of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments: The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people...
...Boy Martian" (TAS, September 1997) was even funnier, very cleverly written, and will certainly be sent on to non-subscribers (which, alas, is how Mr...
...They did not constitute a "capitalistic economy," as Mr...
...The remaining few papers of undetermined authorship may have been jointly written by Hamilton and Madison...
...Those of us who fly in and out of that mountain airport with commercial jets were astonished that a much better performing military plane failed to clear the known terrain...
...Quality hardcover books, starting at $3.95...
...Had the votes of the FN been pooled with the votes of the Center-Right, the Right would be comfortably in power in France today...
...The combination of those two is enjoyable beyond belief...
...Illegal immigrants or legal immigrants who have committed crimes are to be expelled, but in a humane fashion, in conformity with the traditions of the French republic...
...If you accept the premise that they have a right to boast because they subdued a democratic nation by force of arms in violation of several international agreements, then Mr...
...Keep up the outstanding work...
...Although I found the article intelligent and generally well informed, Mr...
...Additionally, those of us who have been pilots in the military reserve know it is a reasonably lucrative and enjoyable part-time job which —in every case I know about—served the needs and objectives of the pilot...
...dollars per annum and Amnesty International and the U.S...
...I still remember his story of a sting operation with a friend in San Francisco several years back ("Frostie's Revenge," TAS, September 1993...
...The Mayflower Compact of 1629 itself served as an early precedent for fixing in writing some of the basic principles of popular rule...
...Le Pen is hardly "a clown...
...The Bill of Rights has, indeed, become sacred text...
...This is an excellent opportunity to break into journalism (former assistants have taken important newspaper jobs...
...Yet, the Supreme Court has seen fit to engraft onto the First Amendment the words "unless Congress has a compelling interest...
...If you plan for ten years, plant a tree...
...It is inexpensive and the Vietnamese people are as lovely and accommodating as always...
...The American Spectator is seeking a smart, well-read, conscientious person to become our newest editorial assistant...
...Amendment IX] The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people...
...There is no basis for characterizing the FN as "fascistic...
...For example, Jean-Pierre Cohen...
...Le Pen has repeatedly denied this charge...
...One has only to consult with the overseas investors who complain incessantly about repressive government regulation, ubiquitous corruption, and a decidedly demoralized, if not paranoid, work force...
...Regarding the political platform of the FN, Mr...
...Several of the colonies had written charters...
...And, finally, does the FN propose to resolve the problem of immigration "inhumanely" by expelling most immigrants...
...Such a construction reflects a profound misinterpretation of what the Constitution does and is...
...Vietnam today remains one of the poorest countries in the world, where per capita income is about 250 U.S...
...Hitler won when he occupied France...
...It should be noted that these groups were also common among pre- and post-war Marxist movements...
...Research by some interested party in Parisian showbiz archives should unearth it though, judging from the care taken to expunge those two years from Chaplin's public resume, one can't be sure...
...I guess I liked this one because it reminded me that there were already aliens at the White House, or at least that's what Don Imus (in one of his best lines) told the president when he offered that Clinton's original Cabinet "looked like the bar scene from Star Wars...
...Baker presents the Communist "victory" as one which "They won...
...But when the FN, in turn, attacks the B'nai B'rith, c'esttrop beau, as the French say, to charge the FN with anti-Semitism...
...He regrets the error...
...KENT GORDIS Geneva, SwitzerlandChristopher Caldwell replies: Mr...
...There are other reasons...
...Gordis is correct that the left dominates French political discourse, that Jean-Pierre Chevenement should be held to the same standards as Jean-Marie Le Pen...
...As a retired law enforcement officer, I found the article by Richard W. Carlson to be insulting to professionals in that field as well as derogatory to police officers in general...
...Contrary to Shattan's amazement, however, Goldwin is not the first to tell the story...
...Le Pen's sillage there are fascistic elements...
...It was only after reading the correspondence that I realized this was meant to be a serious publication...
...I knew the French actor's name well at one time, but forgot it over the years...
...Of course, in Mr...
...This propaganda campaign has divided the left's opponents and succeeded in marginalizing a major portion of the French population...
...Yet Madison eventually endorsed those amendments...
...CORRESPONDENCE Sorry, Sal I was amused at the letter of Sal Marinello in the September issue of TAS when he stated, "A few liberals probably subscribe to the Spectator just so they can write these letters to make it appear as if there is a break in the ranks...
...I venture to say that the situation Mr...
...But enough...
...The Constitution does not set forth the rights of citizens...
...This statement, predicting the gradual erosion of constitutional restrictions in the face of the "decided sense of the public," captures, sadly, exactly what has occurred in American constitutional jurisprudence over the last 200 years...
...Caldwell is not aware that the FN has published an official program for resolving the immigration problem...
...During this period, millions of Vietnamese were imprisoned in what the Communists euphemistically called "reeducation camps" (trai cai tao) where many died, and millions more departed in leaky boats to seek freedom abroad...
...I appreciate my friend's gift...
...Carlson's piece mixed nostalgia, humor, and perspective so well that it caused me to turn off ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball...
...Here, as in many other aspects of our system of government, long, native American (Colonial) experience was influential...
...I spent every summer weekend at Ocean City from 1.959 to 1962 while I was a young single airman stationed at Dover AFB in Delaware...
...He also declares that most pagodas have been turned into warehouses by the regime and that if there were no opposition and a place to go "85 percent of the population would leave...
...Say what...
...Perhaps Sal should give that some consideration...
...and after repeated violations in extraordinary cases, they will lose even their ordinary efficacy...
...Fourth, Madison argued significantly and all but uniquely that the larger, more populated a republic is, the better the people's rights can be protected, the better the three-branch central government can maintain equilibrium, and the lesspeople's liberties can be done in by cabals and tyrants such as were common in small nation-states...
...In my case it provided security for my family during a time of career change...
...In other words, might makes right...
...But, if you plan for the future, educate your people...
...As in war, 'tis well that we understand our opponents...
...Caldwell writes that the FN intends to resolve the problem of immigration "inhumanely" "by sending most of France's North African immigrants home...
...BUD HUGHES Elkhorn, Nebraska WE WANT YOU...
...In all writings about Chaplin, a veil has been cast over an important break in his early, failing English career, when he took off for Paris and spent two years as an assistant to a well-known French music hall comic...
...At no time has Mr...
...It is, in fact, the oldest preserved written constitution in history...
...Finance—over 60 subject areas...
...They have the right to boast...
...And what "traditions of the French Republic" does the expulsion of legal immigrants conform to...
...Our analysis...
...If I want to read that kind of tripe I will buy the New Yorker...
...We need to be reminded, how(Continued on page 82) 12 October r 9 97 ?The American Spectator Correspondence (Continued from page r2) ever, of the reasons that men like James Madison originally opposed its adoption...
...Carlson's article, you foster the unfounded view of police officers that the left promulgates...
...As Madison foresaw, after repeated violations, plain unqualified words lose "even their ordinary efficacy...
...And he's right to note that Le Pen fought against the Nazis...
...He has never questioned the legitimacy of the institutions of the cinquieme Republique and has always abided by its rules...
...But I never called Le Pen a Nazi...
...Today's police recruit must pass rigorous physical, mental, and classroom work that is designed to ferret out those who would take out their sidearm and blow away an innocent gum-ball machine...
...Fair enough, again...
...Hamilton wrote fifty-one of them, or almost twice as many as the Virginian (Jay writing most of the rest...
...His book was banned by the regime...
...With the Mets and Braves headed for extra innings, no small feat...
...I have told him the chances are small that I can be saved but I enjoy reading your publication...
...Carlson had mentioned "The Irish House" of good beer and sing-alongs...
...Or are you folks just testing us conservatives to see if we actually care about such issues...
...Poorly trained or inattentive "weekend warriors" from the flat land of Texas...
...ALBERT L. WEEKS Professor Emeritus, New York University Sarasota, Florida I am sure that I was not the only one to read with interest Joseph Shattan's review of Robert Goldwin's new book about James Madison's role in the adoption of the Bill of Rights...
...Ed...
...Children are routinely taught that Uncle Ho is a savior who won independence for his country, yet their parents, who are obliged to hang a portrait of Ho in their homes, adamantly refuse to accept the party's deification of Ho...
...Thanks again—keep this stuff coming...
...As the most brilliant orator and debater among the major French politicians, Mr...
...Steyn is held to answer for the charge that he mislabeled "Like a Rolling Stone" a "protest song," whereas, according to r Bargain Books ?Save up to 80% on publishers' overstocks, imports, reprints...
...JERRY GONZALEZ via the Internet Reserve Flight Linda Harmon Robinson has little or no idea about gender equality in the military, her anger at Tom Bethell's article and her USAF Academy graduate niece notwithstanding (Correspondence, TAS, September 1997...
...Perhaps even more insidious than the blatant violation of the plain language of the Bill of Rights by the men and women who are sworn to uphold it is the way in which a constitutional misinterpretation feared by Madison and the other original opponents of the Bill of Rights has become conventional wisdom...
...So what...
...Really...
...Does he have more stories in him...
...Muller was also reported to have said, "She found the Vietnamese incredibly friendly, and they don't like their government, so they'll help you...
...The "parchment barriers" contained in the Bill of Rights have not been effective when "opposed to the decided sense of the public" and, "after repeated violations in extraordinary cases," have lost "even their ordinary efficacy...
...This was prior to the enactment of national law enforcement personnel training standards and of course computerized background checks...
...They will survive, however, because they have learned to bend with the wind...
...French Tramp John R. Dunlap's review (TAS, August 1997) of Kenneth S. Lynn's book about Charles Chaplin confirms what many of us have known since the twenties—that he has been grossly over-rated as a genius...
...The American Jewish organization B'nai B'rith is quite openly an enemy of the FN...
...If you think you're ready for a challenging position with one of America's most talked-about magazines, send a résumé and a short writing sample to: Ai „ ericanSp~ecator...
...capital and Mr...
...Keep up your great work informing the public of the liberal absurdities...
...Near the end of the sixties, many illiterate officers were let go due to the adoption of these standards nationwide...
...But the story deserves periodic retelling because it draws our attention to the equivocal role of the Bill of Rights in the evolution of our American democracy...
...MITZI PERDUE via the Internet 10 October 1997 • The American Spectator Carville Knifed After reading James Carville's response in the September issue to Byron York's "Carville's Cast of Characters" (TAS, August 1997), I could only conclude: Mr...
...The French Communists with io percent of the popular vote have thirty-seven seats in the Assemblee, while the FN with 15 percent of the vote has one seat...
...This is an entry-level position, in which you will be responsible for assisting the editors in evaluating manuscripts, handling correspondence, checking facts and figures, proofreading copy from our reporters, and other fascinating tasks too numerous to mention here...
...I called him "fascistic...
...Carlson describes is not in effect today...
...E.D...
...Bethell is absolutely right about the feminization of the military...
...Third, of utmost importance is the fact that the Constitution was a written charter, not unwritten, as in England and elsewhere...
...America's biggest bargain book selection...
...It is hell in a very small place, to borrow a phrase from Bernard Fall, for those poor souls who have to live there...
...Off duty behavior is closely monitored and the round-the-clock bacchanal at his apartment—much less his co-ed living arrangements—would not be tolerated...
...PAUL B. GOULDING via the Internet Spanos Spun Mr...
...He has, in particular, been given credit for a spontaneous invention of the Little Man...
...One day, the legend runs, during a slow spell in the studio, he suddenly snatched up cane and some disreputable items of clothing (which happened to be handy) and delighted the studio staff with an impromptu performance of his later famous persona...
...let us look instead at a few facts...
...I just wish Mr...
...All of these assertions are false...
...The Constitution enumerates the limited powers of the federal government...
...Caldwell's account of Jean-Marie Le Pen is seriously flawed...
...Chaplin returned to England to spend another two years on the road before moving to Hollywood where, one fine day, inspiration overcame him...
...For a full twenty-two years the dictatorship in Hanoi has tried to sell its version of events to the people, but they are not buying...
...A Mao Tse Tung he is not...
...This safeguarding by size was not only a persuasive argument against the view of the radical, anti-Federalist local autonomists, but Madison's perspective also helped the new, "experimental" nation confidently expand itself westward...
...By printing such as Mr...
...Not only is the FN not "frankly anti-Semitic," but, on the contrary, Mr...
...Apparently, Mr...
...The prohibitions contained in the First Amendment are not qualified...
...Madison's fears have come true...
...Of course, in 1962 anyone (white male, 21, if you don't mind) could be hired as a "police officer...
...Baker writes further that the "people still refer to Ho Chi Minh City as Saigon...
...It's hard to pick out his best line, but I'd have to go for Steyn's remark (for which Senator Thompson will forever envy him) that Clinton would have invited the aliens from Independence Day to the White House "were it not for the fact that, lacking a convertible currency, they'd have been unable to afford it...
...HARLAN L. FRANEY via the Internet Please, please, please, have more articles by Richard Carlson...
...To require a "textual basis" for individual rights is to invert the meaning of the Constitution, i.e., as carving out an island of individual rights within a sea of state power...
...George Spanos (Correspondence, TAS, September 1997) offers some sensitivity training to Mark Steyn that rises to a level of self-parody almost as hilarious as the original Steyn piece...
...Department of State rank it right at the top of the list when it comes to human rights violations and the suppression of basic freedoms such as the rights of assembly, free speech, religion, and trial by jury...
...So, basically, I nad to buy the bike back....I ended up carrying huge wads of money...
...Baker's home attests to these facts...
...HANS BOEKDRUKKER Charlottesville, Virginia Correction In last month's Letter From London, Marc Carnegie incorrectly reported the cost of the Labour government's Millennium Dome project—the correct figure is ?50 million...
...Attn: N. Roberts P.O...
...Sounds like gloating to me...
...The presence of approximately 50,00o Vietnamese within a few miles of the nation's...
...Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...
Vol. 30 • October 1997 • No. 10
