SERIOUS, NOT STUPID
Correspondence SERIOUS, NOT STUPID WHEN I READ Matt Labash’s article, “The Other, Stupider Convention” (Aug. 14), I was so overwhelmed by his misrepresentation of the facts, his obvious bias...
...Labash’s reputation does not precede him so I can’t rejoin with witticisms about his physical traits, style of dress, intestinal status, age, hearing, race, or any of the other attributes he uses to describe the committed citizens who took the time to attend...
...RONALD P. SEYB Saratoga Springs, NY DON’T DEBUNK DARWIN ONCE AGAIN fellow conservatives have embraced populist anti-intellectualism in the conflict over education standards in Kansas (Jack Cashill, “The Natural Selection Election,” July 31...
...His piece on the Shadow Convention was a puerile and lazy attempt at humor mocking those who decided to get involved...
...And while the review outlined my profound disagreement with Olasky’s view that government social programs can and should be replaced almost entirely by religious charities and other private groups, I also noted that former Indianapolis mayor Steven Goldsmith has praised Olasky’s work, and I praised it myself (“brilliantly profiles,” “wisely concludes,” “I join Olasky...
...They will surely resurface during a Bush presidency when factional conflict may erode Bush’s political support and perhaps trigger memories of another former southern governor who believed that appeals to “compassion” could obviate the need for debate and compromise...
...Guess I see the point: Why would anyone as supercilious as Labash want the two major political parties to discuss anything of substance...
...RAY ALDRIDGE Ft...
...Alas, it would appear that Labash is a poster child for the selfinvolved boomer movement...
...Letters will be edited for length and clarity and must include the writer’s name, address, and phone number...
...The differences among Republicans over issues like abortion, entitlement reform, and environmental policy that Bush elided during the convention will not remain submerged...
...If liberals took the First Amendment as seriously as they pretend, they would ban public education as a kind of government-forced speech...
...Some in the intelligent design movement believe Darwinism may be on the verge of collapse...
...But I will let Labash’s own unabashed name-dropping suffice as my lone jab at the man...
...I helped to set up several of Olasky’s visits to local churches and I have always judged him to be a superb journalist and a dear, publicspirited man with a good heart...
...Voters who reject the evidence of evolution by natural selection in favor of “creation science” are not conservative, just ignorant...
...The Shadow Conventions are exactly what we need to help get people involved in political issues that affect their lives and to overcome public apathy toward American politics...
...It seems that before Labash entered the doors of the Annenberg Center, his mind was so laden with prejudice against the event that, no matter what he saw, he was bound to report on it with a cynical, snide slant...
...Quite pitiful...
...Pace Olasky’s letter, however, imagine that I had added something like “But the charge is false because Olasky has praised, not decried, Jewish charities and repeatedly called for closer relations between Jews and Christians...
...I have no desire to exile grass-roots creationists from the conservative movement...
...Not all of us have left our ideals behind and many others have begun to reflect on what was gained in the intervening decades without the rudder provided by those ideals...
...People ought to be free to believe what they want...
...But is it really a good idea for conservatives to defend the insinuation of a faith-based attack on scientific fact into school curricula...
...The board knew exactly what it was doing by virtually eliminating evolution from the schools while still being able to claim there is no “ban...
...Still, I am truly sorry if my innocent passing reference to his recent controversies offended him so...
...TARASWOLANSKY Jersey City, NJ THE JEWISH QUESTION IS IT FAIR to report a terrible accusation against a person without noting the charge’s falsity...
...Maybe that wasn’t such a good thing, considering the way things have turned out since Labash “grew up...
...The public is becoming increasingly disenchanted with the political process as they see the major parties failing to address issues such as campaign finance reform, the failing war on drugs, and the increasing disparity in the distribution of wealth...
...But such lifeless conventions are not only bad television, they are bad politics...
...For what it is worth, contrary to Jack Cashill, the Darwinian theory of evolution through natural selection is not “on the verge of collapse...
...Conservatives are far better served by learning the truth about life and the universe than by hiding in sophistry...
...14), I was so overwhelmed by his misrepresentation of the facts, his obvious bias against anything not apple-pie mainstream, and his childish characterization of participants in the Shadow Convention that I began to think I could find a more accurate depiction of the event from a South Park episode than from his article...
...Whether it should be taught in public schools is another matter...
...Holloway’s supporters may indeed “read voraciously,” but an intellectual diet rich with pseudo-scientific books that pick straws with modern biology doesn’t produce informed voters...
...The reality is, Darwinism has proven to be a very successful scientific theory...
...This is an ugly charge without any basis that was circulated before the New York primary, when supporters of George W. Bush such as myself were being accused of all sorts of biases...
...We spend vast amounts of taxpayer money on incarcerating users of politically incorrect drugs...
...ROBERT LEWIS Kansas City, MO NOT OUT OF THE WOODS THE REPUBLICAN platform committee’s exercise in Soviet-style democratic centralism described by Tucker Carlson bodes well for the Bush campaign but ill for a Bush presidency (“The Well-Tempered GOP Platform,” Aug...
...The first paragraph of John J. DiIulio Jr.’s “What Is Compassionate Conservatism...
...Walton Beach, FL MATT LABASH’S INCISIVE PIECE on the Shadow Convention was just about what one would expect from a jerk who left “bad weed and jug wine” behind in his college dorm...
...But the essentials of his theory have stood the test of time...
...The result is two national conventions, Republican and Democrat, which Labash himself admits “aren’t addressing any issues...
...If I had to guess, I’d say that the reason Labash didn’t see more significance in the Shadow Convention was that he was too busy agonizing over the terrible injustice of Al Franken’s fame and Matt Labash’s obscurity...
...Thus, the theory is growing stronger, not weaker, and conservatives make fools of themselves insisting otherwise...
...JAIME YASSIF Swarthmore, PA ISN’TMATT LABASH an entertaining fellow...
...A complete education for Kansas students will only be possible when a new board reverses these regrettable actions...
...RESPONDS: I opened my long review of Marvin Olasky’s book by noting that, having “slipped from view” after “Newt Gingrich’s political demise,” Olasky “has been back in the news lately for penning remarks about ‘the religion of Zeus’ that were taken as anti-Semitic,” among other controversies...
...We have more of our citizens in jail than most other countries in the world...
...Coddling the cultural sensibilities of those who believe they have been abducted by space aliens...
...Our crime rate is multiples of the rates in other industrialized countries...
...DAVEMICHON Spooner, WI IREAD WITH moderate amusement Matt Labash’s snarky sendup of the Shadow Convention...
...MARK A. WILSON Wooster, OH WHAT NEXT...
...Whether the charge was politically motivated or not, it simply would never occur to me to dignify it by citing such “evidence” as dispositive...
...Bush has praised Olasky as “compassionate conservatism’s leading thinker...
...THEWEEKLY STANDARD welcomes letters to the editor...
...Never mind if it’s a dialogue many of us gave up on long ago—when we left our dorm rooms, bad weed, and jug wine behind...
...reported that I had made remarks “that were taken as anti-Semitic” (Aug...
...He might have to familiarize himself with actual issues instead of strolling around making derisive yet delightfully wry comments...
...The evolutionary family tree of species Darwin and his collaborators posited solely on the basis of gross anatomy is now being corroborated at the level of DNA...
...Worst of all, the Constitution is in an advanced state of decay, eaten away by the necessities of the drug war...
...I resent that Labash refers to people who advocate change because they are dissatisfied with the current political climate as “flared-nostril revolutionar[ies] and bleeding-ulcer moderate[s...
...Teachers teach to the tests because money and reputations depend on the results...
...PETERWOOD Boston, MA JACK CASHILL WRITES that the “holes” in Darwinism “are large and growing larger...
...In its place we have public officials who do not dare question the status quo for fear they will be branded bleeding-heart liberals or soft on crime...
...MARVIN OLASKY Austin, TX JOHN J. DIIULIO JR...
...Since Darwin published The Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1874), his theory of evolution has been modified and extended by thousands of scientific advances in genetics, paleontology, and anthropology...
...I had hoped that the evidence—for years I have praised, not decried, Jewish charities, and have repeatedly called for closer relations between Jews and Christians— had laid to rest such an accusation...
...I am one of those “bleeding-ulcer moderate[s]” and proud of it...
...In the very next line I noted that Gov...
...This is exactly the kind of black-or-white extremism in the American media and politics that makes reasoned, carefully thought out dialogue impossible...
...All those angry people upset because Vanilla Gore and VanillaLite Bush don’t seem to want to discuss anything but “Why Johnny Can Read in Dallas” and the most compassionate way of putting retarded folk down in the Lone Star State...
...He ends his piece with the lines: “A seed was planted, a dialogue started...
...Arianna Huffington and the participants in the Shadow Convention should be applauded for putting together an event that addresses issues that matter...
...You may also fax letters: (202) 293-4901 or e-mail: Editor@Weeklystandard.com...
...All letters should be addressed: Correspondence Editor THEWEEKLY STANDARD 1150 17th St., NW, Suite 505 Washington, DC 20036...
...The state board of education under chairman Linda Holloway may have “merely” deleted evolution, the Big Bang, and other “contested theories” from the state assessment tests, but we well know the major effects these decisions have in the classrooms...
...The Republicans’ “streamlined” platform hearing process complements well the abbreviated speeches, video montages, and uplifting nightly themes that have provided recent nominees with the ersatz displays of party unity they need to launch successful general election campaigns...
Vol. 5 • August 2000 • No. 47
