CURRENCY IMBALANCE
Re: Lawrence Henry’s The Weak Dollar Summit:
The interesting thing about current dollar weakness is that the euro has fallen so much against the dollar, while Asian currencies have not. The primary trade imbalance is with China, rather than with Europe. This arrangement is unsustainable, but how it will be resolved is unclear.
— Ian Callum
TOO GOOD FOR VOTES
Re: Shawn Macomber’s His Old Pompous Self:
Shawn Macomber writes, “But after the Iowa win Kerry quickly returned to his self-righteous, pompous self. This was the John Kerry on display after Tuesday’s wins.”
I would like to point out the fact that less than 1% of the registered voters of Iowa voted for the man. What a mandate. OK, maybe he was just getting warmed up. How about Michigan? Again less than 1% of the registered voters. Well, how about that “southern support”? Virginia has 4,233,240 registered voters and 203,486 voted for Kerry — an eye popping 5%. He has nothing to be cocky about.
— Chris Petschke
ANTI-KERRY VETS
Re: George Neumayr’s The Antiwar War Hero:
In your article on 2/11 “The Antiwar War Hero” — you said: “If the Republicans formed a group called Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, it wouldn’t hurt for members. “
Well, there is a group called just this — in fact the Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry plan to start their protests against him in the New York and Massachusetts primaries. Here is a press release about this.
BTW — their home address is P.O. Box 246, Kinston, NC 28502.
— John Buck
Washington, D.C.
Just read your great online piece about Sen. Kerry and his bizarre use of the Vietnam war to make himself look heroic for fighting it while denigrating all those vets he now relies upon for votes. In beginning the article you suggest a Republican group of Vietnam Vets against Kerry would collect members fast. Well, there IS such a group already, not connected to any political party officially, as far as I know, just connected by their outrage. Try www.VietnamveteransagainstJohnKerry.com. Great website, full of information they want to get out there into the discussion. I found it when listening to WABC in NYC, 770 am, on last Sunday early afternoon. Their young Sunday afternoon talk show host, Andrew Wilkow, I think, had the spokesman on and he was terrific.
See! Truth is stranger–or, in this case, faster–than fiction!
Sincerely,
— Diana Rowland
Mr. Neumayr should be aware a veteran group against John Kerry does exist. Here is their their Internet site. They could you use our support.
— Ed Dermody
Count me in as ” A Veteran against Kerry.” He worse than Hanoi Jane; he has built a career on being a traitor to men who he now courts for votes. She was/is just stupid!
— Mike Sigman
USMC 1967 to 1971, 19 months RVN & Forever a Marine
I think it was General Giap who wrote in his bio that without the American anti-war groups Hanoi would have surrendered. Small point, but …
— Rodger Schultz
I would think if John Kerry knew that atrocities were being committed in Vietnam he would have been duty bound to report them. Why is it he never did
report such crimes?
— Dick Melville
Ozone Park, New York
There is a constant error in the timeline about Kerry. He got an early-out of the Navy to run for Congress in 1970 in, I believe, the Massachusetts 3rd Congressional District. He was proud of his service, proud of all others still serving and his medal were a testament to the efficiency of his crew. It was only AFTER the voters rejected his candidacy that he became a major player in the anti-war movement. When he stopped being a Congressional candidate — we all became dirt bags.
— Lonnie Shoultz, Life Member
Special Forces Association
Wasn’t it Bob Dole, who years ago running against Bill Clinton, repeatedly asked, “Where’s the outrage?” Yes, John Kerry has plenty of ghosts in his closet. But he knows he has the full faith and backing of the mainstream media. Unless and until they turn on him, these stories will never get beyond these and other conservative media outlets. What is the media fixated on? No WMD’s. Bush’s National Guard records. Sexing up the pre-war intelligence. That’s the outrage!
— unsigned
John Kerry has introduced his Vietnam service and patriotism into the political debate. There are three questions each of us must answer before we can make any judgment on Kerry’s patriotism:
(a) Were his actions after returning from Vietnam motivated by love of country, or did he use his Vietnam experience to advance his political career?
(b) Have his words about Vietnam been patriotic or self-serving?
(c) Have his words and actions after returning from Vietnam been helpful or harmful to Vietnam veterans?
For information which might help you answer these questions go to: https://www.geocities.com/armigercc and click on Kerry’s Patriotism.
— Dr. Sam Holliday, Director
Armiger Cromwell Center
SULLIED REPUTATION
Re: Jay Currie’s Sullivan’s Troubles:
The thoughts of a Brit on two Brits.
Once it was said that the Lodges speak only to the Cabots, and the Cabots speak only to God. It’s reaching the stage where Hitchens speaks only to Sullivan, and….
Both Christopher Hitchens and Andrew Sullivan are the product of the UK elite (public school & Oxford). Although both are relatively capable wordsmiths, when they moved to the USA they both gravitated to similar elites (Washington, New York, The Nation, The New Republic). They reached this stage of social advancement without passing through the necessary other stages of, perhaps, living in rural poverty in Arkansas, or working on a production line in Detroit. Can you imagine how long either of them would last working a Sunday shift?
The thing that amazes me about their intellectual Rowan & Martin routine is that none of you seem to have seen through them yet.
— Martin Kelly
Glasgow, Scotland
I stopped reading Andrew Sullivan long ago. I always have suspected that he is a David Brock in the making.
— Steve Nikitas
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
STARSHIP WINDBAG:
Re: Colby Cosh’s Starship Bloopers:
I would never have spotted Robert A. Heinlein for a conservative on the evidence of the first half of “Stranger in a Strange Land,” the only Heinlein I ever attempted. I only got this book half down because the central character in the novel, one of Heinlein’s classics I’m led to believe by his fans, is an unconscionable windbag and a bore of the first water. Sort of a Nero Wolfe without the humility. This bloviator, a mouthpiece for Heinlein I presume, is constantly pontificating a kind of naive, pre-lapsarian nonsense which I suppose some could consider libertarian/conservative – undergraduate branch. After bogging down several times, I finally put “Stranger” aside and concluded that my book buddies who had recommended Heinlein were entitled to their eccentricities and were, as I am sure Colby Cosh is, otherwise sound.
— Larry Thornberry
Tampa, Florida
KERRY NOTHING
Re: Paul M. Weyrich’s Advantage: Kerry:
I suggest Mr. Weyrich “emblazon” this somewhere: no Northeast liberal will be elected president of this country in the foreseeable future. People in the South, Midwest, and West will not permit such foolishness.
Besides, other than leftist Democrat primary voters and Bush-haters, who would support a man who is among the biggest phonies in politics today? No matter the political skill Weyrich wistfully ascribes to John Kerry, Kerry is a total fraud soon to be discovered by the American electorate. His name will be emblazoned all right, but not as a viable candidate for president. Rather, he will become widely known as one of the most shallow, deceitful, hypocritical, and empty-suited (if “neatly pressed”) political figures of our times — a joke.
The following are only a few of the most obvious of his political flaws: his status as an ultra-rich Boston Brahman, while claiming to be a populist; his despicable post-war conduct and association with Jane Fonda and her ilk, to the terrible disadvantage of his comrades left in Vietnam, many of whom were POWs; his acceptance of more money from lobbyists than any Senator in recent history, while loudly professing disdain for them: his persistent Senate votes against adequately funding the military and intelligence communities, thereby, keeping them less than fully effective; his vote for the post 9/11 Iraqi war resolution, followed by his vote not to give the troops money necessary to fight the war successfully; and his numerous other intellectually corrupt fence-straddling, obviously, undertaken to further his personal political ambitions.
Yet, in the face of all this, Weyrich thinks, among other equally unconvincing reasons, that Kerry wearing a hockey uniform will win over the majority of American voters. Jeez Louise, doesn’t he know people outside Canada and the Northeast don’t even like hockey, which, by the way, is known principally for glorifying thuggery?
— A. A. Reynolds
Chula Vista, California
P.S. I’m especially anxious to hear Kerry explain why the United States must obtain “permission slips” from France and Germany before it may proceed to ensure its self-defense and vital national interests. But, actually, I suppose, making such a case shouldn’t be too difficult since those two nations are especially well-known paragons of honor and moral certitude.
