CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence LATIN LOVERS AND THE GRINCH On Christmas Eve I happily settled down to read Tracy Lee Sim-mons's review of Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abro-gaverit, since...
...And this isn't just because government regulations inevitably follow government funding...
...LEWIS L. PREDDY JACKSONVILLE, FL DEALS ON TOBACCO ROAD Christopher Caldwell misses the real reason why the tobacco companies agreed to allow the tort lawyers' fees to be set by a seemingly one-sided arbitration system ("Dirty Deals in Smoke-Free Rooms," Jan...
...A fecund mind cannot tolerate boredom...
...It was so with Porter, just as it has been with myriad others with that most enviable combination of brains, talent, and inherited wealth...
...21), allow me to question one slight slant by the author, who writes: "Astonishingly— given the means and the temptations to slip into dissolute torpor—Porter continued to study music and scribble songs...
...The Dutch aren't alone...
...I think we are slowly upwardly mobile, but our college degrees are in a box in the attic...
...JAMES JOHNSON KEY WEST, FL...
...4/Jan...
...According to White House counsel Charles F.C...
...These awards may influence the share of the settlement paid to each lawyer, but they don't affect the companies' bottom line at all...
...I also voted for Republicans George W. Bush and Rick Perry for very similar reasons—they too are men of integrity with excellent records...
...Allow me to suggest that it was not in spite of, but because of Porter's independence of means that his creative genius flourished so richly...
...In no case did I vote for Clinton—had he been on my ballot I would have voted for his opponent...
...we recycle only when the garbage cans are full...
...Those subsidized "religious" schools produce a citizenry which embraces prostitution, drug use, and euthanasia...
...They took the principled position that even "general-assessment taxes," which allowed taxpayers to choose the church their tax dollars would support, were inimical to liberty and ultimately would weaken religion...
...Simple arithmetic will show that, assuming a reasonable 7 percent rate of return, $7 billion will accrue $500 million each year until the end of time...
...And while many people simply do waste their time when they don't have to work—witness countless dreary retired businessmen puttering mindlessly around golf courses—creative people are driven to, well, create...
...and we never, ever pledge to PBS...
...DAVID STEIN COLUMBIA, MD CLINTON'S VIRTUAL REALITY The SCRAPBOOK makes an interesting point worthy of note ("Clinton-ism of the Millennium," Dec...
...They won't have such a healthy adversarial stance for very long if they become financially reliant upon the broader society...
...I fully expect Kiss will still be turning out pre-teen-friendly heavy metal, putting on pyrotechnic stage shows, and pushing Kiss products even as the rockers collect Social Security...
...He cites European countries as religious models for the United States, even though government funding for religion has helped leave those nations almost completely devoid of strong churches...
...As to the "temptations" which Porter surely indulged in, I am reminded of a tart remark from a matronly character of Agatha Christie's who said that one can indulge in just so much sex, and then it becomes uninteresting...
...Ruff, Bill Clinton could not have perjured himself because 'in his mind—and that's the heart and soul of perjury—he thought and he believed that what he was doing was being evasive but truthful.'" Let me see if I get this right: The president's own attorney is claiming that there was no perjury because in Bill Clinton's reality he told the truth...
...The saga of human history is in part the struggle of individuals for the freedom to do what they wish with their lives, rather than work for someone else...
...Throughout history, most government-funded religions have ended up becoming indistinguishable from the world around them...
...Also, they were freshmen who did good jobs of representing their constituents and each of them deserved a second two-year term...
...We home-school our children and are trying to provide a somewhat classical education, so while Caesar in Gaul and Select Orations and Letters of Cicero are good and have their place in our children's study of Latin, I thought the Grinchus would be a quick, fun read for us all...
...TIMOTHY LAMER FALLS CHURCH, VA READING TOO DEEPLY Fred Barnes has it right when he says, "They're all wrong" ("The Scarlet 'I,'" Dec...
...By securing a cap of $500 million on annual payments to the lawyers, the tobacco companies have already capped the (Correspondence continued) total payment at around $7 billion, which is certainly outlandish, but is far from the $40-65 billion that Caldwell credulously accepts as the eventual total of fees to be paid...
...we currently drive a 1990 15-passenger Ford van (to lug around our 8 children...
...I voted this past Election Day for two Democrats: Jim Turner and Jim McReynolds...
...However, our family doesn't quite fit Simmons's description of the "typical buyer...
...But is this really astonishing, or is it simply the predictable course of any truly creative individual possessed of reasonable self-control, as was surely the case with Porter...
...What this really shows is the danger government funding poses to religion...
...McConnell inadvertently proves their point...
...The middle-aged rockers that make up Kiss do not pretend to solve world crises through music (as other bands claim), they are simply entertainers putting on a show and trying to sell things...
...Truly independent churches can stand against the excesses of the broader culture, and thus fulfill the biblical mandate to be salt—a preservative—for society...
...Correspondence LATIN LOVERS AND THE GRINCH On Christmas Eve I happily settled down to read Tracy Lee Sim-mons's review of Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abro-gaverit, since that book was one of the gifts my husband and I had wrapped and put under the tree for our children ("How the Grinchus Stole Christmas," Dec...
...I think it is a safe assumption that, having effectively negotiated a one-time payment of $7 billion to the lawyers, the tobacco companies were understandably uninterested in whatever theoretical awards the arbitrators might grant...
...For example, voucher advocates point out that 70 percent of children in the Netherlands attend religious schools with public funds, as if this is an argument for vouchers...
...Simmons was right—the book is a "frolic...
...SHELDON JAY PRICE HAVERHILL, MA COLE POWERED With appreciation for Eric Felten's excellent commentary on Cole Porter ("King Cole," Dec...
...Dependency itself undermines character...
...As a longtime Kiss fan, I find that some things never do change, and Kiss has never changed its capitalistic formula...
...But he neglects to note that many evangelical Protestants (especially Baptists and Southern Presbyterians) fought for the independence of religion from the state long before large-scale Catholic immigration to America occurred...
...Like many Americans, I voted for those candidates that I consider best qualified and most likely to do the right thing for our country...
...Of course, $7 billion is still quite a bit of Danegeld to pay, even to a horde of rapacious tort lawyers...
...BOB CURRIE KENNARD, TX A GOOD KISS I read Matthew Rees's article on Kiss with great pleasure ("Kiss and Sell," Dec...
...They are good, decent men with high ethical standards who have earned reputations of being faithful to God, country, and family...
...What a model...
...LAURA DOWLING JACKSONVILLE, NC DON'T GO DUTCH Michael W. McConnell attributes nineteenth-century opposition to government support for religious institutions to anti-Catholicism ("School Choice in America," Dec...
...The record is clear: Socialized religion functions about as well as socialized medicine...
...The oft-repeated myth that a vote for a Democrat was a de facto vote for Clinton is not only dead wrong, but also insulting—to both me and those Democrats for whom I voted...
...And that means Vice President Gore ought to be studying the 25th Amendment...
...It seems that Ruff is conceding that the president is subject to delusions...
Vol. 4 • January 1999 • No. 17
