THE DAILY STANDARD welcomes letters to the editor. Letters will be edited for length and clarity and must include the writer’s name, city, and state.
*1*
With respect to the Stephen F. Hayes’s response to Newsweek, I was surprised that Isikoff had used Vincent Cannistraro as a source (Newsweek’s “Case”). It was Cannistraro who warned, based on Saudi intelligence, in 1995 that Iraq had sent attack teams to the United States to blow up government buildings.
–Edward Guay
*2*
Larry Miller’s article about con men at the door took me back to Halloween 1978, when I was in graduate school at Indiana University (The Sting). A man knocked at my door, and since it was a beautiful afternoon in a small town, I opened it. He was “selling magazines,” complete with clip board, but he took time out from that task to drag me onto the lawn and attempt to pull my head off. The IU football team was just leaving practice, I’m happy (and here) to say, and I am indebted to them forever for taking charge of said salesman.
–Mary Alan Woodward
*3*
About a year ago, I had an almost the identical experience with a “magazine guy.” My guy (Troy, as it happens) had a slightly different story–he wasn’t raising money for a soccer trip, but selling magazines as part of his parole. Yep, he identified himself as an ex-con. He was fast talking and slick, almost manic. And he scared me, too. Fortunately, my boyfriend was there and he stood protectively behind me. However, as Larry Miller knows, these guys can wear you down, and eventually I selected a high-priced magazine (something girly, O, to be exact) even then not really expecting I’d ever receive it. My boyfriend just shook his head at me. He couldn’t believe that I actually bought something. But here’s the payoff. About a month later, I received a copy of Allure in the mail. I was annoyed. It wasn’t what I ordered, wanted, or would ever read. Fortunately, I had a receipt and called the non-profit association listed on the top. Yes, they told me, O was on its way, but Troy had requested that a complimentary subscription of Allure be sent to me in appreciation. I was floored. So was my boyfriend.
–Sian Marcone
*4*
I had a similar experience with a pair of Florida con men back in 1994–the details of which came rushing back as I read Larry Miller’s piece.
A native New Yorker, I was living in Fort Lauderdale at the time. During one of those monsoon-like Florida thunderstorms, I ventured out to a local auto parts store to replace a taillight bulb in my rusty old 1975 Chevy Malibu. Upon exiting the store and racing to my car, a man about my age (mid-twenties at the time) hustled out from under the store awning to seek my help. Like me, he was white, suburban-ish, with short hair–someone I could have gone to high school with–but with a somewhat weary face. He was holding a medium-sized box labeled in part “alternator” and said something along the lines of “Excuse me, buddy, but I’m wondering if you can help me. My car broke down up on Federal Highway. The alternator blew. Could you possibly give me a lift there?”
More annoyed than suspicious (even though I do remember thinking I hadn’t seen him in the store), I paused briefly and then said, “Sure, no problem.” After all, it was raining buckets and I had certainly been in the same predicament at one time or another. Dripping wet, I got in the car and reached over to the passenger side to unlock the door. That was when Mr. Alternator motioned to a friend who had been hanging back under the awning and said, “Manny, come on.”
Manny I could not have gone to High School with. He got in the back seat, thanked me, and we were off. Now I was nervous–but Mr. Alternator, all smiles despite his car problems–said, “We re just a few miles up on Federal. You know where (I forget the landmark) is?” I didn’t. Nevertheless, the route to Federal Highway was on a main road with plenty of stores and traffic–what did I have to fear? But as I prepared to exit the parking lot, Mr. Alternator said, “Oh, wait a sec–hey Manny isn’t it faster if we make take _____ Street instead?”
Not knowing where I was going and increasingly suspicious, I soon found myself on a far less trafficked side street with a few cheap, low-slung houses. That’s when Mr. Alternator, perhaps sensing my fear, continued the sob story–“I can’t believe I had to spring for a new alternator”–and made his first mistake, quickly opening and closing the box on his lap to show me the auto part. I caught a better look at it than he probably wanted to give me–it didn’t exactly look brand spanking new. At about the same moment, Manny chimed in with “make another left at the end” at what to me looked like a street that might not have many outlets ahead.
With a sudden and complete certainty that these men meant me harm (why else would they choose a mark who clearly wasn’t rich?) or at least wanted my car and wallet, I jammed on the brakes, put the car in park in front of a random house, and said, “This is as far as we’re going, guys. Get out of my car.”
Wordlessly, knowing there was no way I would believe their denials of bad intentions, they stepped of the car and back into the rain. As I quickly made a U-turn to find my way back, I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking.
–Jerry Farrell
*5*
Matt Labash’s good sense has temporarily taken flight (The War on Terror’s Newest Bad Cliché):
(1) He takes some easy shots at politicians for the “there not here” soundbite . . . but we are left wondering his position on the underlying logic of our involvement in Iraq. I happen to believe President Bush that a stable middle eastern democracy will set off a reverse domino theory by those hungry for representation in other countries. The argument’s conclusion is that our involvement there now will minimize the rogue-state-supporting-terror model that our post WWII foreign policy has wrought. Maybe he would feel better with this cliché: “We’re fighting in Iraq now to massively decrease the danger to those who can’t fight, i.e., office workers in tall buildings.”
(2) Labash also comes dangerously close to the Chicken Hawk argument when he derides those talking about fighting but not doing any. The logical extension of this argument is that no one can hold a position on an issue without direct experience with it. The Chicken Hawk argument’s close relative is the “It’s a black / gay / woman / disabled / choose your minority group issue, and you’re none of those, hence you can’t understand.”
–Jason O’Connell
*6*
What on earth is going on here? (A Dangerous New Policy Toward Taiwan? William Kristol & Gary Schmitt) We elect a conservative Republican president, and, with the exception of Iraq and our war on terror, and tax policies, we get left liberal domestic (Medicare bill) and foreign policy initiatives? Could Bush’s critics be right? Is the man stupid, or have the budget deficit, extravagant spending policy, trade deficit, and weak dollar policies pursued by this administration made them come a cropper in their relationship with China, which holds all of those dollar reserves?
–James Bilezikian
*7*
In Fat City Irwin M. Stelzer left out the fact that while the McDonald’s salads are proving popular, they are not necessarily a reduction in fat or calories.
If one orders the Caesar with crispy chicken (breaded and deep fried) and croutons and then uses all the Caesar dressing, that person will consume more fat and calories than eating a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder. The saving grace is that the burgers are usually ordered with fries while salads almost never are, so while more than the burger alone, the total of the salad is less than the burger and fries.
–Aaron H. Frank
*8*
Whatever “The Cat in the Hat” may have had in tremendous faults resulting from Dr. Seuss’s liberal ideology, we can still take heart in the fact that The Fish is a conservative voice of reason and worthy of admiration for his persistence and solid world view. (Jonathan V. Last, The Cat in the Hat Does Paris)
–Nick Winter
*9*
As detailed by Matthew Continetti, the problem with Wesley Clark’s Conspiracy Theory is not that such plans may exist (I hope they do), but that Clark deplores them. Why, exactly? The illegitimate thugs who control Iran, Syria, and some of the other states he mentions are unquestionably aiding terrorists, even while they feign cooperation.
Apparently, President Clark would not use force to end these regimes. But what other method would be sure to end them? And if Clark would let them survive, what makes him imagine they would not continue to cooperate with proxies to murder anyone they can’t tolerate? No president can rest our security on the unwarranted assumption, that these regimes would never conspire with fanatics to murder Americans.
–Mike Hollins
*10*
Am I on glue here? Is a presidential candidate basing accusations on “gossip circles” in Washington? A former commander of NATO is using fact-finding tactics normally reserved for high school cheerleaders? Truly a chilling thought!
–Diane Sylvester
