Letters To The Editor
Letters from Carl Bussjaeger, Kent Van Cleave,
Virginia Warren, James Grace, and Patrick Martin:
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A Message From the Publisher
by L. Neil Smith
As I write these words, talking heads in the mass media, operating in an almost
perfect information vacuum, are still interviewing each other about whatever
happened to NASA's Columbia space shuttle earlier this morning. The oldest
ship in the fleet appears to have exploded over north-central Texas at some
point during the dangerous reentry process.
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Freedom, Immortality, and the Stars!
by William Stone, III
On January 28, 1986, I was walking through the student union of the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln when I first saw the footage of the space shuttle Challenger
exploding. It was footage that I would watch with great sadness for the
remainder of my life. Indeed, I doubt anyone of my generation could avoid the
footage, considering that it was aired every few minutes for months.
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Frankly My Dear ...
by L. Neil Smith
My 13-year-old is home schooled.
My wife and I have always tried to supplement whatever education she receives
from the online institution of learning that she attends cybernetically, with
whatever else we believe is valuable. Last month, for example, I formally
introduced her to Mr. Marion Michael Morrison, beginning, for reasons that
seemed right and proper to me, with True Grit. I'm working up the courage to
show her The Cowboys and The Shootist. This month it was Gone with the Wind ...
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The World Turned Upside Down
by Patrick K Martin
It is now official, the world has gone completely insane. Why? Because of all
the things I have ever been called, of all the labels which have ever been
directed at me, the one which I never expected to hear is the one which might
soon be applied, Draft-Dodger! How in the Hell has it ever come to this? I was
in high school when they brought back Selective Service, and one of the nuns had
some old sixties hippie in to give classes on how to become conscientious
objectors or otherwise evade the draft. I didn't go to that class because I
threatened to spit in the guy's face, and now I find myself regretting it (I
threatened to spit in the face of the Sandinista she brought to class too, but I
don't regret that one, commie bastard).
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Cry Havok! And Let Slip the Lickspittles of War
by Joel Simon
Until recently, I'd have said "conservative" commentators were more fun than
"liberal" commentators. You know both are shoveling manure, but one load always
seemed a little less painful to bear than the other. I've had my favorites for
years. Sobran, Krauthammer, Will, Sowell, Charen - I could name dozens. The list
seems almost infinite.
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State of Disunion 2003
by William Stone, III
Well, Dubyuh's most recent State of Disunion address is out of the way, and I
managed to restrain myself from watching it. What would have been the point? All
he was going to do was go on about saving the world from terrorism and adding
all kinds of insane government programs that would save the world. And -- as
they've been in the process of doing since Bloody Tuesday -- the Republicans
would applaud like the wild, power-mad butchers they are, ejecting once and for
all the notion that they have any real affinity for limited government.
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There Ought Not to be a Law
by Wendy McElroy
One danger of arguing for or against a position is that everyone thinks you are
saying, "there ought to be a law." Take the issue of discrimination on the basis
of sex or gender as an example. If you argue against it, people assume you want
to prohibit discrimination. If you argue for the right to discriminate, they
assume you want to return to Jim Crow laws and force women back to the kitchen.
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