Correspondence: Taking Our Country Back &c.
announced her desire to be buried with her dogs when she turns room temperature. Though a prodigiously humane gesture, it is not unsurpassed. Bear in mind Britain's illustrious friend of the furry...
...Thank you, TAS and Mr...
...Shiflett...
...Supreme Court's lawful decision, facing down the South Carolina Nullifiers on the question whether the federal tariff power extended to social engineering (via protection of domestic industries), and vetoing recharter of the Bank of the United States...
...BROOKS ALEXANDER Berkeley, California Tom Bethell says, "[Andrew] Jackson famously took the side of the people against the encroachments of federal power...
...but the mayor, it's said, breathed new LIFE into her opponent's campaign...
...I think the recent changes in Country Music are one reason for the expanding popularity of talk radio, that is the same conservative group that used to listen to George Jones now listen to Rush Limbaugh...
...It's not true that only you min feel the same...
...Though the "boy" president joke escapes me...
...Clinton, employees of The American Spectator met with sources, fished with them, and passed vast sums of money...
...p. 83 Forbes p. 91 Greatsite Marketing p. 49 Haverhills p. 13 Jackie's Junction p. 57 Jefferson Coin & Bullion p. 33 Lear Financial p. 6 Liberty University p. 21 Ted Mafia Life Insurance p. 45 Meade Instruments Corporation p. 31 New Oxford Review p. 63 Quotesmith Corporation p. 53 Sarkes Tarzian Inc...
...Still, his air play is, for all practical purposes, non-existent...
...All the best and keep up the great work...
...I had instantly subconsciously clumped it up with the usual boorish "news" magazines of our day, such as Time, Newsweek, U.S...
...I can't believe it...
...He's as genuine an article as they come, still touring and producing records the quality of which most new hopefuls can't begin to match...
...Almost everyone will do better—and most, very much better—than the 6o percent replacement of final salary that most pensions aim for...
...Of course not, he says, why should I? The stock's been placed in trust...
...How great...
...85 in question were just about what Nixon had recommended...
...Levin's investigations continue, as do Mrs...
...IVAN W. PARKINS New Port Richey, Florida I see that TAS, at the same time it screams that Clinton is a "sociopath," is still engaged in its bizarre last-ditch defense of Nixon...
...Oh yes, "the crazy lady...
...LOUIS PINES via the Internet A Clintonista at Work and Play I was in the University at Buffalo library, Monday afternoon, when the March '98 issue of The American Spectator caught my eye...
...In past elections, she'd carried 15 percent of the black vote...
...Girls...
...JUSTIN TRIBBLE Sedona, Arizona 86 May 1 9 9 8 • The American Spectator...
...From the start most every heart that has been broken Was because there always was a man to blame...
...I figured if I really wanted to satisfy my appetite for Clinton-bashing I would need to look to the "extreme" New American, or resort to an obscure right-wing newsletter of some sort...
...JAMES W. ROBERTS Portland, Maine *TIAA-CREF: Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association—College Retirement Equities Fund...
...Joe Conason, who is in rehab on the pages of the New York Observer, and someone called Mr...
...Even worse by today's "standards," country music used to tell it like it is, with no apologies to any Irelands or Steinems...
...Binkley what I get out of it is a man who has learned the eternal values...
...Of Peggy Wilson's successful opponent Eddie Sapir, one story tells it all: An original investor in Chris Hemmeter's operation, New Orleans' new councilman-at-large — a lawyer and former judge—still holds a financial stake in casino gambling...
...References to God in a country song...
...As to Judge Rothwax's question, "Do we want it to be an equal contest...
...And, inflation in public construction did exceed that in most of the economy...
...on that day, she carried only eight...
...However, your continued Billy blitz will ultimately dull the readers' concern, and even make Billy Joseph's transgressions seem the norm, therefore defeating the purpose of reporting them...
...I'm movin' on...
...One can only hope that movements such as the one Nola Reeves is spearheading can have some type of impact...
...Box 549, Arlington, VA 22216-0549...
...We'll hit all the nightspots Dance, drink beer and wine...
...Weekly Edition p. 23 To learn more about the benefits of advertising in The American Spectator, contact: John Funk, Associate Publisher—Advertising...
...Stay tuned, fellas...
...Clinton's operatives at the Democratic National Committee and possibly at the White House, where security checks have become lax...
...Mark Levin of the Landmark Legal Foundation reports that the agitations of Mrs...
...Perfect...
...Well, Mr...
...Take Our Country Back Dave Shiflett's excellent "When Country Wasn't Drivel" (TAS, March 1998) woke me to the fact that PC had taken over this former musique verite...
...My officemate, who like myself was aware of the size and partisan diversity of that committee, had heard the story and was also skeptical of its accuracy...
...Nixon resigned, that something was being overlooked...
...News ear World Report, et al...
...It is indeed an excellent scheme...
...I'm a ladies' man and when I was three Wimmin used to take me on their knee, and They said when he grows up "Watch out...
...Those gals sure knew what they were talkin' about...
...I even have the writer for you, David Brock...
...And factoring in Social Security (which most of them will also get), most will have higher incomes when they retire, than when employed...
...Clinton's agents is, however, not without entertainment value...
...Taylor, and his predecessor Don Wilson, will experience deja vu watching the attempt to suppress...
...He also cited legislation directing him to refrain from any wasteful spending...
...RET The nerve center of the right-wing conspiracy The American Spectator • May r 9 9 8 9 tion...
...Collectively, the family is said to be the largest private, actively managed retirement fund in the world, assets over $too billion...
...But I wish I could have more confidence in his happy speculation about the supposed transformative effect on the political consciousness of the state employee beneficiaries...
...It's a great piece to consider and it'd fit right in...
...How insensitive...
...It wasn't God who made honkytonk angels...
...It's wonderful how well you blend rumor and speculation with news...
...RICHARD PETERSON Portland, Oregon I found myself nodding in agreement with Dave Shiflett...
...Levin has called upon the Justice Department to investigate whether "taxpayer funds and personnel were involved in researching, preparing and distributing" a twelve-page schema of the conspiracy...
...Please no more than two Billy articles per pub...
...When, exactly, did Jackson do that...
...Neither Senator Fulbright's May 5,197o embarrassment nor the clean water spending matter has received wide public notice...
...For all the years I've read his column, it's been obvious that Mr...
...Parker Dozhier, who regularly sent faxes to the Spectator's headquarters in Arlington, Virginia...
...Yet they call our love a back street affair"), but Lefty Frizzell propositioned his intended date with the unthinkable—drinking and driving...
...This isn't going to stop simply because a few folks in Nashville have chanced to discover modem marketing techniques...
...2-3 Country Home Products p. 65 EL.A.M.E...
...He's referring to the TIAA-CREF* system, which covers most of this country's professoriate...
...The inaptness of that imagery is even plainer if you reverse the natural disasters in the figure of speech: "Mount Saint Helens is gathering strength in the Northeast Pacific and is expected to make landfall somewhere on the coast of Washington...
...The same day Morial was re-elected, Councilwoman Wilson, his and Harrah's one-and-only council pain, was upset in her bid for a second term...
...Actually a family of stock and bond mutual funds...
...Even better, find a bar or club where the bands play...
...It was at least a minute and a half before I could get back to a serious engagement with the rest of the article...
...That is not, The American Spectator • May 1998 I would think, an effect that the author wanted to produce...
...In none of those cases was the question one of "the people against...the federal government...
...Murray Waas, writing on the Internet...
...DAVID A. GANCARZ Buffalo, New York Bash Full I have known about your magazine for a time now, but I had never given it much notice...
...I have an idea for a mock investigative piece...
...Keep the faith, though...
...Most of all, he recognizes that he is flawed and we must, as Viktor Frankl reminded us, give more to life than we take...
...Unlike me, he would have liked to believe it was true...
...my answer is "Hell, no...
...She was considered, from the beginning, an overwhelming favorite for re-election...
...Measured by his record plurality and near record majority in 1972, Richard Nixon had, arguably, the strongest claim to office of any president so far...
...It is also quite unprofessional for Mrs...
...Let's wish them luck in California, but we'd better not count on any flood of new recruits to the conservative side from this quarter...
...Unfavorable comparisons of him with the present incumbent are a perverted farce...
...Jackson's three most important achievements as President were standing by as Georgians stole Indians' land in contravention of the U.S...
...Meanwhile, the shootings at Kent State occurred...
...According to an amused reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the informant is an adept of the occult, proficient in astrology who practiced her arts from the local Golden Leaves bookstore...
...Advertiser Page # Berlitz Publishing p. 65 BHN Sales Company P. 9 Blackstone Audio Books p. 81 Bose Corporation P. 5 Catholic World Report p. 17 Classifieds p. 87 Consolidated Cigar Corporation pp...
...You can't lose...
...From the Statistical Abstract I learned that actual expenditures for clean water during the years 84 May 1998 • The American Spectator Advertiser Index By patronizing the companies and products posted in this issue, your positive response rewards them for advertising in one of the gems of American publishing, The American Spectator...
...It's a take on the death of James McDougal...
...p. 71 T. Rowe Price p. 19 Thompson Cigar p. 37 Townhall.com p. 55 University of Chicago Press p. 81 Washington Times Natl...
...Andrew Jackson was a thug, a Napoleon without the brains...
...While punk bands cover Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson songs, Garth Brooks finds his way onto a Kiss tribute record...
...You may well say that since he is the prez, that this is important news that needs to be reported...
...I have savored the first few issues that I have received...
...DONALD F. BEACH Falls Church, Virginia Dave Shiflett's "When Country Wasn't Drivel" is a blessing to country fans, except he overlooks a very important fact: country is alive and well far away from radio and television...
...STEVE COTTON via the Internet Bill Bored Gentlemen, congratulations, for the first time in quite a while, your publication has diverted my attention, this time from much needed programming for a night class I am taking...
...On this the President was taken to court, and defeated in the Supreme Court...
...I don't mean to make a lot out of a little, but the very incongruity of it literally sent my mind reeling...
...During my infantry service, while defending against Communist aggression toward West Berlin from my position at the bar of the Kleines Ballhaus Schoeneburg, I oft listened to Miss Kitty Wells's hymn of the downtrodden, lied-to, put upon women: It's a shame that all the blame is on us wimmin...
...That said, I am surprised that he made no mention of Dwight Yoakam, who through pure force of talent has managed to make quite a name for himself without betraying the tradition that nurtured him...
...Let's not pretty up a sordid symbol of the Democratic Party's history of racism and statism...
...Can I make 'em swoon, oh yes I can...
...It occurred to me, long after Mr...
...Country isn't dying, but thankfully, the pop radio abomination of it is...
...Identified as Miss Caryn Mann, she apparently told Mr...
...Let me just project another president's future taping problem in balancing his legacy...
...People still love to play traditional country music and people still love to hear it, it's just a matter of looking in the right place...
...It is a bait shop outside Hot Springs, Arkansas, where, according to an informant for Mrs...
...Phone: 703-243-3733, ext...
...Not that I mind...
...Ditto for Haggard, Jennings, Nelson, et al...
...Why didn't I realize that country was just as susceptible to such undermining as is virtually every facet of our lives nowadays, especially entertainment...
...Two non-stories, one before and one since Watergate, have contributed to my belief that the impeachment move was precipitated more by President Nixon's strengths than by his weaknesses...
...Remember, Mr...
...How country...
...The problem, in fact, may be worse than he describes...
...Judged by his fulfillment of promises to Vietnamize the war, he deserves special credit for wartime leadership...
...One needs only to leave the "country section" at Wal-Mart and find a small, independent record store downtown to find thriving country and country-influenced artists like John Prine, Steve Earle, The Supersuckers, The Reverend Horton Heat, and many, many others...
...Around lunch time, AFN gave us "Stickbuddy Jamboree" where one might hear Ernie Tubb croaking country's lip service to independent tough mommas: You've broken your promise and you've left me here alone, I don't know why you did, dear, but I do know that you're gone...
...Ben Stein is a man who loves his God, his parents, his wife, and his children...
...By today's government-assisted PC interference, yesterday's country was certainly not for today's members of VOICS (Victims of Insensitive Country Songs) but boy was it good listening...
...Tucker, he is innocent until proven guilty...
...CONSTANTINE GUTZMAN Charlottesville, Virginia Tommy Gun Horrors...
...The day will come when the insights contained in the zo hours of Monica-Linda phone tapes will be sought by presidential probers...
...I have admired Tom Bethell's lucid and intelligent writing for some time...
...After instructing her that "we'll take your Cadillac and leave my ol' wreck behind" Lefty gigoloed: We'll go honkytonkin...
...we'll have a time...
...Upon his death he has ordered that he be fed to the quadrupedal inmates of London's Battersea Dogs Home...
...Those usually run something like this: "Although Merle couldn't be with us tonight...
...These award shows are topheavy with low-talent Garth wannabes, with an occasional sprinkling of a gifted performer (such as Alan Jackson, and one (Continued on page 84) 12 May 1998 • The American Spectator repeal the obnoxious term-limit law for council members—Peggy Wilson's work, single-handed: the one reform they couldn't deal away during her dozen years in office...
...Among those academics who chose, early in their careers, to direct most of their contributions to the stock fund (CREF), there are many who will retire with a net worth of $i million or more...
...It was also good to know that someone else has heard of Iris Dement, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Lucinda Williams, and Gillian Welch...
...Keep up the good work...
...Levin has written the Justice Department, reminding that "it is a felony to use government resources for non-governmental purposes...
...Clinton's investigations into what history might some day remember as the Bait Shop Junta...
...Insecure has all but trained his son to become the next Larry King, his own perfect example of a grown-up brat...
...Without a rereading the committee approved...
...So when votes come up on casino matters, will he recuse himself to avoid a conflict of interest...
...Upon leaming that, the Senate unanimously returned the resolution to the Committee...
...I have to tell you, it's one of the best parodies of a news magazine that I've ever read...
...DANIEL V. PRYOR Bowie, Maryland In the March 1998 edition, Lane Binkley criticizes Ben Stein's column, and asks: "But what are other people getting out of this...
...Levin, the product of Mrs...
...I want the government to have to work to prove my guilt, not sit back and have me prove my innocence...
...Even in times and cultures far less free than our current (admittedly lamentable) state, artists have found ways to alternately acknowledge, bemoan, and celebrate the darker side of human nature, and audiences have always sought out and embraced whatever reflects the actual realities of their lives...
...SCOTT HIESTAND Ellington, Connecticut As a former Nashville resident, Bluebird Cafe veteran, and Life Member of the Country Music Association, I think that more people than you think share Shiflett's views...
...It is unremarkable, of course, that unregenerate Nixon-haters Kutler, Scheer, and Lardner oppose returning the 264 (if my math adds up) hours of tapes to the Yorba Linda Presidential Library...
...If you've got the money, honey, I've got the time...
...One more thing...
...BRUCE MOOMAW Cameron Park, California A Berkeley Barb I am shocked...
...Johnny Cash continues to make excellent records, artists like Tom Petty have turned to country influences, and newer acts like Nashville's BR-549 and the Midwest's Son Volt make great country with traditional sound and traditional lyrics...
...To see why, consider Norquist's glancing reference to those "university professors" who currently enjoy a defined contribution plan...
...March also witnessed a counterattack against what Mrs...
...As a member of the loo percent straight male, hadto-leave-post-for-"sexual-encounters" 6th Infantry regiment in the mid-fifties, we were serenaded each morning by the Armed Forces Network's first program, "Hillbilly Gasthaus...
...During March the aforementioned zanies discovered one of the right-wing conspiracy's command posts...
...One doesn't even have to listen to a note of music to discern the grip of phoniness which is now the Nashville music scene—simply watch the Country Music Awards and count the AIDS ribbons...
...It has been my loss...
...An erupting hurricane...
...I figured it was another gutless, craven incarnation of political correctness and liberalism...
...Now, readers, ask yourselves whether the prospect of this anticipated bounty from market capitalism has engendered a sense of enthusiasm towards our economic system and the social order that undergirds it, in the collective consciousness of the professoriate...
...Responding to the protest of a member of the committee that he had neither discussed nor voted upon such a denunciation, Chairman Fulbright apologized...
...Maybe you can find some evidence for this, but after some thirty-five years as a member of that world, I haven't seen much yet myself...
...The arrival of your intelligent, witty, and informative publication upon my grateful doorstep used to be a cause for great joy to me, that is before its pages became engrossed in Billy Stalin's exploits...
...Clinton to employ UFO watchers in her anti-right-wing conspiracy research, for instance Mr...
...About a year ago, I sent you a letter indicating that I could not understand why you were wasting your time with the constant criticism of Bill Clinton...
...Although I've heard of the monthly, I've never stopped to read it...
...Actually, Nixon had accepted large spending increases for clean water, but had argued that only about half of what Congress appropriated could be spent productively, i.e., without sharply inflating the cost of scarce construction resources...
...Therefore I stumbled with astonishment over the badly mixed metaphor—"Hurricane Monica is erupting"—with which he began his piece on Al Gore ("Unpatriotic Gore," TAS, March 1998...
...An ill-chosen figure of speech tripped up my mind and sent it sprawling—and it took me a while to get back on my feet...
...as well as ran around ("The one that I'm tied to was the first to prove untrue...
...0/4 Correspondence (Continued frompagen) wonders where he would be if it weren't for his "made for TNN" face), or a three-minute "tribute" to a classic artist...
...veto), and plain morality (in the Cherokee cases...
...As it turns out, you were correct, and I was wrong...
...Clinton, summon your generals...
...Hank Snow, the "Singing Ranger" (from the Southern state of Nova Scotia) informed us via theme song: See that big 18-wheeler movin' down the track, Your true lovin' daddy ain't comin' back...
...Hillary Milhous Clinton has called "a vast right-wing conspiracy!' The estimable Mr...
...I bet if you dig deep enough (and you can always ask for help from Kenneth Starr...
...The output of Mrs...
...TIMOTHY P. O'NEILL Marco Island, Florida John H. Taylor's article is worth saving, in case I feel a need to look again at Watergate...
...Spot on...
...Between songs, he delivered a few soft tongue-in-cheek pokes at the new country singers, but his anger obviously runs deeper, and understandably so...
...It's in my son's name...
...A family affair...
...Bear in mind Britain's illustrious friend of the furry and the fowl, Lord Avebury...
...I'm walking the floor over you...
...He, and unfortunately any news concerning him is getting quite repetitive and boring...
...The schema, written in the fortissimo-con-exclamationmark style made famous by various schools of UFO watchers, is, according to Mr...
...Not to mention causing great disappointment to your loyal readers who are, no doubt as I, getting quite tired of the whole sordid affairs ad infinitum...
...Just like any genre of music, from R&B to punk, mass marketing and popular radio have made country music the drivel it is today...
...Clinton and her agents have caused his office to be "inundated with press inquiries about its alleged role in the alleged conspiracy...
...When the girls see his pretty blue eyes, They'll hang around him like a pack of flies...
...Address: The American Spectator, P.O...
...As for state and local government employees, I fear that people whose whole careers are invested in social provision, and who define the political good as more of the same, are highly unlikely to be deflected from their atatist values by the The American Spectator • May 1998 mere fact of having more direct control over the investment of their retirement funds...
...Here's how it goes: The same Arkansas mob that planned and executed the Foster "suicide" was involved in supplying McDougal with chocolate bonbons to facilitate an untimely death through coronary disease made to look like "natural causes...
...Indeed, in each case, Jackson successfully elevated his arbitrary will over economic freedom (in Nullification), fiscal well-being (in the Bank of the U.S...
...the sooner TAS cuts its own throat, the better...
...Gee, I wonder why...
...Let me be frank: Billy boy is a grade z movie, hence it can only yield grade z articles...
...The clincher of the story would be that the denial would be the confirmation...
...That is what I get out of Ben Stein's column...
...It's like a Republican version of the National Enquirer, though somehow I get the feeling that's what you were aiming for...
...PAUL DE PARRIE via the Internet Dream On Thanks to Grover Norquist ("A Pension for Politics," TAS, March 1998) for informing us of the attempts in California and elsewhere to give government employees the option of a fully vested ("portable"), defined contribution pension plan...
...I'm sure his non-partisan, impartial, never-ending fact-finding investigations could supply you with a few leads), you can find a mysterious and shadowy figure of a candy supplier who'd be reluctant to testify to an as yet undisclosed and secret candy contract...
...Amply stocked with rods, reels, and powerful lures, the store is owned by Mr...
...But it does seem to me that this is a bit loony even for your magazine...
...In response Mr...
...Fill it up to the brim 'till my troubles grow dim...
...Shiflett's Webb Pierce drowned his sorrows ("There stands the glass...
...Gals...
...Your no-holds-barred attitude is a welcome addition in a stagnant sea of gray we call "news commentary...
...Staff members, over whom Fulbright acknowledged responsibility, had surreptitiously added the denunciation to a resolution which Fulbright assured senators had been changed in only one technical detail...
...Perfect has needed a good swat on his perfect rump...
...Waas that the bait shop served as the Spectators "eyes and ears" in Arkansas...
...Ben Stein actually spoke sharply to Mr...
...Snow got off that 18-wheeler at the next town and advertised: I'm a ladies' man oh yesiree I love the gals and the gals love me...
...Don't know what it is about me they love, But what it is I got plenty of...
...He has learned that material possessions are neither inherently good or bad, but that they can be enjoyed for the time that God gives them to us...
...A few years later, abuse of power was one impeachment charge against President Nixon...
...And, unlike too many of our conservative friends who talk a good line, he has learned to live a good life based on those principles...
...Without so much as a smile or a wink...
...JACK MANN San Antonio, Texas Tell Dave Shiflett not to worry...
...The Congressional Record for May 5 provided an explanation...
...Two weeks of listening to and reading popular sources gained me no further details...
...On May 4, 1970, as I drove to work, I heard mention on radio news that the president had been unanimously denounced by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations...
...A blue-eyed stud...
...He knows the joy of friends...
...It rested partly upon his attempt to impound funds which had been appropriated by Congress, mainly funds for Senator Muskie's Clean Water Act...
...Make way for me, I'm a lovin' ladies' man...
...Anything biodegradable," explains his lordship, a long-time reader of Consumers Digest, "should be recycled...
...I was recently fortunate enough to see George Jones in concert...
...I spent at least 30 seconds trying to visualize a hurricane that erupts and another 3o seconds entertaining the fancy of a meteorological volcano...
...If you had not kept up the full court press, Bill Clinton would not now be as nervous as he is...
...Well, to my complete surprise, you are relentless in your bashing of Clinton—and everything else that is wrong with this country...
...TODD CLARK New York, New York Taylor Made I wish to salute the efforts of John H. Taylor ("Cutting the Nixon Tapes," TAS, March 1998) to attempt a more balanced review of President Nixon...
Vol. 31 • May 1998 • No. 5
