Correspondence
Correspondence GOPHERS GONE WILD CATESBY LEIGH'S "Subterranean Blues" (Jan. 13) on Washington's gopher-hole follies and banal "security" measures is exactly what is needed for Americans,...
...The basic conceit upon which all classic musicals were based is officially dead, except for cartoon characters and rock stars...
...On my pay stub, it is identified as "FiCA," an acronym for "Federal insurance Contributions Act," which is nothing more than the name of the tax provisions of the social security Act (first passed in 1935) as they appear in the internal Revenue Code...
...i agree completely that President Bush should not weaken the tax cut to appease the Dems...
...The mythology of the Palestinian people, evolving and increasingly embellished over the last 35 years, has the medical impact of a concoction brewed by a Borgia...
...Historically, they return no favors ("A Tax Cut, Not a Whimper...
...Podhoretz's arguments against this obvious fact are quite bizarre: Spaceships equal chorus lines...
...13) on Washington's gopher-hole follies and banal "security" measures is exactly what is needed for Americans, especially cultural conservatives, to sit up and take notice of officialdom's stance toward architecture...
...While critics of federal arts policy have justifiably focused on the artistic abominations underwritten by the NEA, they have largely turned a blind eye to the soul-crushing and artless mediocrity being churned out nationwide and sanctioned by various organs of the federal government, ranging from the Park service and the GsA to the Commission of Fine Arts...
...PAUL WILSON Washington, DC THE FICA FUDGE GREAT EDITORIAL BY FRED BARNES in the January 13 issue...
...Explosions equal production numbers...
...All those interested in accuracy in the media should be more conscious of this, and insist on using the more descriptive terminology...
...His latest piece, "Exploiting the Palestinians" (Jan...
...Unfortunately, the real victim of Arab exploitation of the "Palestinians" is truth...
...Over the years, the politicians (both Democrats and Republicans) have consciously substituted "payroll" for "social security" in an effort to mask the money's destination...
...run by the "values" of ugly, dangerous totalitarian regimes...
...Director Rob Marshall has simply capitulated to the "conventional wisdom" that Podhoretz attempts to debunk: Marshall assumes that audiences won't buy the expression of emotion in song, so he punts...
...People don't sing, at least not in movies...
...No real character sings or dances: All musical elements are "fantasy sequences...
...Our burgeoning appetite for lies has led us, for example, to embrace Egypt, Jordan, and saudi Arabia as friends, to honor Syria as a temporary member of the U.N.'s security Council, to take seriously a U.N...
...Brilliant though the punt is, it knocks the final nail into the musical's coffin...
...Uh, okay . . . if this makes his state of denial about the movie musical's demise endurable, i don't want to interfere...
...it seems to dull the senses so slowly as to prevent the central intelligence system from noting the growing danger...
...if the original "social security Tax" nomenclature was used, instead of the now common "payroll tax," the American public would have a better understanding of where that money is going...
...RICHARD RENKEN Chesterfield, MO PALESTINIAN POISON I AM A GREAT ADMIRER of Max Boot's work...
...The phrase "payroll tax" is misleading...
...NO MATTER HOW EXCELLENT the film Chicago might be, John Podhoretz's review of it is wishful thinking ("The Screen Sings," Jan...
...Conservatives need to call these agencies to account and insist that they produce works of art and architecture worthy of a great nation...
...But until a good and successful movie musical is made using the conventions of musicals, rather than pointedly avoiding them, the form must be pronounced, at very least, comatose...
...JACK MARSHALL The American Century Theater Alexandria, VA...
...Chicago cannot revitalize the movie musical, because it isn't one...
...By now, the media follows along, using the term without thinking, thus contributing to the subterfuge...
...How optimistic can we be that we "get it" before the poison gets us...
...This systematically administered poison gives comfort to a world only too happy to dump on what's left of the Jews, only too eager to ignore the veritable mountains of evidence, particularly from Arab sources, that the ingestion of this little hoax has been but the appetizing encouragement to eat larger, more lethal portions of poison...
...if and when we lose our taste for poison, and if we survive the enormous amounts we have already self-administered since the 1950s, the fallacious myth of the "Palestinian people" may join the other lies we have induced ourselves to swallow, not least of which, that "islam means peace...
...However, in his discussion of possible changes to the tax code Barnes refers to "the payroll tax...
...13), is of particular interest to me since i have been teaching high school and adult students about the Arab-Israeli conflict for more years than I care to admit...
...That means adopting once again the classical tradition that served us well from the Founding up until World War ii...
...ANITA STIEGLITZ Denver, CO CHICAGO: THE MUSICAL...
Vol. 8 • January 2003 • No. 19
