Correspondence: Internal Reform Efforts &c.
The "hacks at the Associated Press" as a Republican "anchor," an unpopular check their facts first. Try it sometime. position Republicans can't afford to aban- WALTER R. MEARS don. He's certainly...
...The problem with U.S...
...Because these are all baby boomer artists, their exclusion seems logical, in light of your otherwise fine magazine's habitual condemnation of my pampered generation...
...Bethell wants to split hairs and say my wife is only paying my taxes vicariously because it is my income she is spending, then he takes too narrow a view (Continued on page 78) 12 November 19 97 • The American Spectator Correspondence (Continued from page 12) of marriage...or at least, my marriage...
...If she orders merchandise from another country, she pays import duties...
...It is sad, indeed, to disJim Nicholson, with a hand-scrawled note: cover that adherence to the commandment, which in its original Aramaic reads Dear Jim: "Thou shalt not murder," or the amendSorry, I don't give money to liberal, big- ment, that proclaims itself "being necesgovernment Democrat impersonators like sary to the security of a free State," is a Newt "Speaker Ethanol" Gingrich, Trent shackling anchor...
...After all, of Hot son d'être is to change our self destrucWheels Frank is the patron saint of today's tive tax system...
...FRANK TALLAR via the Internet Two Jeers Tom Bethell's "Two Jeers for Democracy" (TAS, September 1997) brought up many good points, but missed the bull's-eye...
...Calling our nation a democracy is a twentieth-century perversion...
...On the other hand tax "Senator Shipyard" Lott, and the other reform, though both tactically and strateflunkies and lackeys of the Kennedy-Kasse- . gically sound, always somehow somebaum-Clinton-Republican Party...
...was never intended to be a democracy...
...Two songs Chapman didn't include are Neil Young's "Down by the River" ("I shot my baby") and Billy Roberts' "Hey Joe" ("Mere you goin' with that gun in your hand...
...Would Mr...
...Sony—we should have said "sloppy hacks I could explain the difference between at the Associated Press...
...If ours on CompuServe—the AP account of even Grover Norquist has forgotten what the Gerry Adams visit was headlined really happened in '94, and bought into "Sinn Fein Leader to Meet Clinton...
...Col., USAF via the Internet Tom Bethell replies: I had not heard of the south Texas activists...
...The American Spectator never ceases to find new ways to take journalism to new lows...
...But a case can be made that government workers, including the military, should be denied the vote...
...EDT hourly news summa- actually holding it, let alone having it dicry of "Associated Press Online" — we get tate your vote, but what's the point...
...may not only be used by Republicans against Democrats but by "moderates" in the Republican Party to pull the wool over the eyes of conservatives...
...But when my wife goes to buy clothes, she pays sales taxes...
...The ultimate purpose...
...The process they instituted to allow amending the Constitution was made intentionally difficult and slow to encourage great thought and deliberation before changing it...
...His concise primer on the ludicrous stance of the little donkeys was enlightening and refreshingly brief...
...It has to do with parental rights...
...Bob Dylan's recent World 78 November 1997 • The American Spectator Gone Wrong featured one or two traditional killing songs...
...your g enactin help e h need nee you y time Next what smacks of selfishness...
...Springsteen's various killing songs, tales of the desperate and hopeless, on the little-celebrated "Nebraska" album were a welcome break from the latter-day PC posturing of this miniature millionaire...
...Wladyslaw Pleszczynski replies: Since Ms...
...Heinlein (a U.S...
...Heinlein's imagined future, the women crew the spaceships while the men fight in the infantry...
...This has to do with the right of parents to be part of a teenager's decision to have an abortion...
...Head Slop The odd and gratuitous slap at The Associated Press in your October issue sent me to the archives to determine just what we wire service hacks had been doing on the Gerry Adams visit to the White House...
...TAS readers N socialized health plans and massive spend- will, of course, be shocked, shocked, to ing increases, why not pass the hat over at discover that Mr...
...One of these concerned her own employer, who is suing two former Laborers' officials for daring to speak about LIU president Arthur Coia to this magazine...
...The money I earn is our money, not my money...
...Dick, how about a 2 percent gross income tax for personal income with no exemptions...
...In his hypothetical future era, serving would be difficult and pay meager...
...To prevent anyone from exercising the franchise who hadn't already demonstrated that he or she would place the good of the community well above his or her own (I regret the clumsy pronoun usage, but it applies here: In Mr...
...What does Mr...
...Sales Tax segment, was the question of why Dick Armey believes that a 17 percent personal flat tax is necessary...
...On September 3 expressing an opinion when asked, and in the 6 a.m...
...Is that what passes for "internal reform efforts...
...I may be the sole breadwinner in the family...
...They did say he was going to the White House...
...Department of Education—and the ever-increasing funding to achieve their ends—in spite of the Republican platform plank urging its demise...
...would be to discard Mr...
...Dylan himself was murdered in your last issue...
...Unless the IRS has really strange tax returns I'm not aware of, the situation in Canada is that my tax return forms only reflect income taxes, and no other form...
...They sent me to the room across the lake to kill her...
...Indeed...
...Se cash con un mojado, Dos veces ya casado y un ladr6n de poder...
...I wrote the 1994 tune before I ever heard of the NWU, much less joined it...
...Justice Chin, the swing vote in a controversial recent ruling, comes up for voter approval in 1998 and there is a strong movement developing to toss him out a la Rose Bird...
...FRANK BADOMI Brooklyn, New York While Norquist's article offers a hopeful seem..., :or the z000 election campaign, there is one glaring omission without which the Republicans will not succeed...
...As Robert Bork put most succinctly Fair Lawn, New Jersey in Slouching Towards Gomorrah, "much of the general public must be brought I was a bit surprised to see Grover back to the virtues we practiced not long Norquist list opposition to gun control ago...
...Her writ of execution was a foregone conclusion When they caught her on the take and didn't tell her...
...amongst us, we are all forced to set prior- MICHAEL BROWNING ities...
...RONALD COLEMAN Clifton, New Jersey Dirty Harry David Aikman's review of Just As I Am (TAS, September 1997), the new autobiography of Billy Graham, gives him the title he most treasures: "pastor to the presidents...
...BRETT P. BELLMORE A Renegotiated GOP Capac, Michigan Grover Norquist's exposition of Republican strategy for the year 2000 ("A Rene- The September 1997 issue provides a tangotiated Contract," TAS, September 1997) talizing glimpse into the New Grover is masterful...
...Thus, it is our taxes being paid...
...We were aware of that...
...NADJA MUSIC August 18, z994 Lake San Marcos, CA] Mr...
...El mat6n era su espejo, Realmente un pendejo con un gran pasiOn de joder...
...The next time you are tempted to use the word "democracy" to describe the United States, hum or whistle a few bars of the "Battle Hymn of the Democracy...
...Mean a copy in the mail...
...isn't he...
...and bear arms...
...ALBERT H. BIENSTOCK Camp Hill, Pennsylvania Norquist's article truly spells out the direction the Republican Party ought to take for the year z000...
...Sister Carrie's in my sights...
...he was still in Martha's Vineyard...
...They established a representative republic, which protected freedoms and personal and states rights, and which had cast iron limits on what the federal government could do...
...York made news by breaking stories that were picked up by other news outlets...
...I too lament the loss of shoot-yoursweetheart ballads...
...FARMER Henderson, Kentucky Donner's Past Ben Stein ("It's Only Money," TAS, September 1997) writes that "there is a disc of Ral Donner...who sounded just like Elvis...
...If they feel their rights are unduly abrogated, they can return to private life...
...Most, of course, would prefer the paycheck to the ballot...
...If she buys wine, she pays liquor taxes...
...True democracy is: three wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner...
...Norquist's personal raithe Roosevelt Memorial...
...GARY TAYLOR Hanover Park, Illinois Tom Bethell's "no representation without taxation" is too simplistic...
...But it is interesting that his opposition appears to encompass only concern about unilateral initiatives by the administration—if Congress is involved (i.e., if Goodling has a large degree of control over the issue), it's okay...
...MICHAEL JENKINSON Edmonton, Alberta Tom Bethell made wonderful comments on the indiscriminate expansion of the franchise...
...Here are the lyrics: The Room Across The Lake Sister Carrie was a con...
...And in Canada, she pays a federal sales tax to boot...
...Regardless of how fervently I believe that the IRS is the single most significant policy tool in our dysfunctional government, and needs to be eradicated as the embarrassment that it is, I cannot back a personal flat tax that is in double-digits...
...We should not be surprised that it is not working well in other newly free countries...
...DEAN C. SPRAGGINS Lt...
...this "Contract With America" fantasy, the (We've sent Mr...
...Republican Party is probably doomed...
...as insightful as I've seen any- Norquist Thesaurus ofLibertarian Terms, where...
...In any event, I checked our story headlines, which actually are summaries for editors, not the kind of headlines published in newspapers...
...kiddie-care, takes-a-village Republican Other than the coupon clippers Party...
...As I read the section on "shields," I immediately thought of Pennsylvania Congressman Bill Goodling, who chairs the Committee on Education and the Workforce...
...None said that Adams was to meet with Clinton...
...Harry Truman, who knew an opportunist when he saw one, dispelled any illusions in this respect when he said that Mr...
...Sister Carrie's by the phone...
...or recite "I pledge allegiance to the flag, and to the democracy for which it stands...
...I see her through the window walking naked down the hall, Leaving white men in her wake who'll never tell her They sent me to the room across the lake to kill her...
...The same thesaurus Acutely aware of this is the Republi- equates virtually any form of tax reform as can National Committee, which is now a conversely positive goal...
...We didn't know reporters were supposed to make news...
...Byron York repeats the same old lies and misstatements about the Laborers' International Union's internal reform efforts, only this time it's on your website...
...Now, in the wake of a near loss of his seat to conservative challenger Charlie Gerow in the last Republican primary, he is suddenly (and uncharacteristically) sounding the alarm against the president's proposals for national educational testing—building a "shield...
...Naval Academy graduate whose poor health ended his shipboard service and forced early medical retirement) proposed preventing anyone from obtaining full citizenship (and thereby the vote) who hadn't completed a tour of military service...
...These are issues that can reach out to many voters...
...They sent me to the room across the lake to kill her...
...DAN CALABRIA South Pasadena, Florida Hats off to Grover Norquist...
...It is doubtful if Mr...
...Donner, who provided the voice of Elvis in the film This Is Elvis, died in 1986...
...But to say that voters must produce "a copy of last year's tax returns" in order to vote would restrict the franchise only to direct income earners, which is an unjust discrimination against those who do not earn income yet pay taxes...
...I, too, wrote a killing song, "The Room Across the Lake," about an illegal Mexican immigrant who marries a gringa and then shoots her...
...This is not an abortion issue...
...Besides, there have been many a year in the past where my income tax return would have shown only that I paid X-amount in income taxes, but had everypenny of it reimbursed due to various write-offs, including large charitable deductions...
...RONALD PEET Del Rey Oaks, California Surely by now Stephen Chapman has heard from a chorus of people from New Jersey that, in his lament for the killing song, he missed a whole bushel of them from our native son Bruce Springsteen...
...H.H...
...rather frantically soliciting "satisfaction The thesaurus's author is obviously guaranteed" contributions (your money aware that the soul of the Republican back if not pleased with the 1998 election Party is torn between alleged pragmatic results...
...Maybe he still does...
...I think I'll ring her home and ask her what it's like to die With all those deals to make, but I won't tell her They sent me to the room across the lake to kill her...
...But while the Republican "lead- which equates "anchor" with "unpopuership" fantasizes about the millennium, lar issues that a candidate cannot aban244 of 284 Republican seats are up for don," e.g., right to life and right to keep election next year...
...If Mr...
...Bethell think of the recent "legal" challenge by south Texas activists to military absentee balloting...
...We must be aware that "wedges," "magnets," "shields," etc...
...The first ten amendments to the Constitution all limit federal power further...
...Our Founding Fathers didn't trust the whim of the masses any more than they trusted an all-powerful government...
...Perhaps your "prowler" missed the distinction...
...They can simply learn to do more with less...
...the most famous cover of which was recorded by Jimi Hendrix...
...Fisher's work environment may not be conducive to nuanced thinking, let me explain to her that Mr...
...Bethell deny me the vote on the grounds that my net (income) taxation was zero...
...One of them was even covered by the original Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash...
...Clinton wasn't even in Washington at the time...
...If she buys gas, she pays gas taxes...
...Could be...
...Sister Carrie's new career Was based on exploitation of her old fear of strong men Who could see she was a fake and didn't tell her...
...Is he familiar with the citizenship concept Robert Anson Heinlein expressed in the novel Starship Troopers...
...Here in California we have another hot issue...
...According to the All-Music Guide, Mr...
...we thought they are supposed to report it...
...democracy is that the U.S...
...Graham's pastoral counsel has had any effect on the evil rulers of our age, inasmuch as the powerful are not given to taking advice from those viewed as weak because of their emphasis on non-violence and conciliation...
...Nothing reflecting what your hacks wrote in the cheap shot claim that we said in "wire service headlines" that Adams would meet with President Clinton...
...in any real sense, he's been spending too much time reading opinion polls, instead The Prowler replies: of exit polls...
...A good start toward those virtues 10 November 199 7 • The American Spectator Web Browser Executive Editor VVladyslaw Pleszczynski praises The American Spectator's Byron York for finding "new ways to make news" in the "About This Month" section of your October issue...
...Because I wrote it in the first person, the song was used by the National Writers Union to throw me out of their august organization, on the grounds that I "advocate" the killing of women...
...It is excessive and there is absolutely no justification for Armey to continue to proclaim the need for a revenue-neutral transition...
...Norquist's list of priorities and substitute instead a list which makes more fundamental sense to conscientious Americans...
...When (if) they awaken to the pulse of their constituency, they will include strictly enforced term limits (three years congressional, twelve years Senate) in a "Renegotiated Contract...
...Then the only concern will be how to handle slugs like Bill McCollum and his ilk, who believe their continued re-election involves some form of divine right...
...I recently responded to one of opportunities versus uncompromising these pleas, signed by RNC Chairman moral absolutes...
...JOHN FINERTY Alexandria, Virginia...
...Graham "...is not my pastor...
...It's not as PC as it used to be to kill your beloved,' says Bruce Iglauer, president of the blues label Alligator Records...
...As a career Air Force officer long concerned about citizenship and national defense, but wasting little love on powers-that-be in the military-industrial complex, I have reasons both high and low for my curiosity...
...Chorus [Copyright 1997...
...TED THAXTER Lone Pine, California Grover Norquist's "A Renegotiated Contract" was interesting not only because of the seven contract issues he suggests but for the categories of issues which might be exploited...
...I fully agree that we have devalued the vote in the Western world by giving it to everyone whether they know anything about the people for whom they are voting or not...
...Chapman correctly observed, "The rise of humorless left-wing moralism has also been uncongenial to the art form...
...LINDA L. FISHER Director of Public Affairs Laborers' International Union Washington, D.C...
...One thing that was not mentioned in the Flat Tax vs...
...For many years he has been the champion of expanding the role of the U.S...
...The inclusion of term limits will succeed in putting the Democrats on the defensive—permanently...
...His last paragraph on denying the vote to recipient classes put an idea into print that crossed my mind some time ago...
...They are inadequate measures of overall taxation...
...Songs That Kill I enjoyed Stephen Chapman's "Hang Down Your Head" (TAS, September 1997...
...Whoever wrote your "On the Prowl" piece apparently was not...
...He's certainly right about the "can't Vice President afford to abandon" part, but if he thinks Associated Press opposition to gun control is unpopular Washington, D.C...
...I wish to know whether he includes the military among those recipients...
Vol. 30 • November 1997 • No. 11
