Posted April 29, 2002

Insanity

[Justin Raimondo's] ... article on "Winning Through Intimidation," is so true! The PC crowd who brought us "hate crimes," where one person tries to get into the head of another person and determine motives, will eventually destroy our first amendment. Look at Canada and the loss of freedom the press, and citizens now endure. Half of the books I own would be confiscated at the border with their new anti-hate laws. Eventually the Bible itself will succumb this insanity.

~ Ed Jacobs

Pilgrimage

Jeez! Why in the world did ... [Alan Bock write his column of April 24, "Chalmers Johnson: Changed Cold Warrior"]? You admittedly haven't yet bothered to even read the book and still make the pilgrimage for the interview, but don't recount the interview -- this is a waste of time. Why not assume that maybe the purpose of the interview might be to shed real light on Johnson's views post-publication of Blowback and 09/11/02?

~ John Buquoi

First Amendment

I always enjoy Raimondo's columns. He is one writer who is not afraid to speak directly, but I am in partial disagreement with his column on the First Amendment. It seems to me that a comment like "Die Jew, die. Die. Die. Die" comes perilously close to being a direct incitement to violence and is the kind of speech that is not covered by the First Amendment.

Having said that, I do applaud the rest of the column. I am particularly sympathetic to the last paragraph about pro-Israel factions trying to maneuver this country into a war against Iraq for the sake of Israel.

The fact that I am opposed to threats against Jews does not mean that I want Americans to die for a country that tortures members of minority groups and refuses to allow non-Jews to marry its Jewish citizens.

Imagine the outcry if Ireland refused to allow Jews to marry Catholics yet Irish-American politicians were asking soldiers, including Jewish ones, to die defending Ireland's interest. Yet this is exactly what Israel's "amen corner" is doing.

To make matters worse, the same warmongering groups have the nerve to lecture us about "tolerance" -- while at the same time supporting policies that will get us killed for a country that would treat us as second class citizens if we ever lived there.

It is time to stand up to Israel's amen corner and say "If you want to defend Israel, send your children to die for it. But leave us alone."

~ Jessica Ramer

Fighting Through Proxies

Regarding Mr. Raimondo's op-ed pieces about the divergence of Israeli-US foreign policy interests, this article asserts that we were in effect fighting one another through proxies: "US accused of weapons deals with jihad forces."

~ James G., Massachusetts

Free Speech

Your column on the First Amendment was wonderful, though, I'm sorry to say, I can't share you faith in America's love for free speech.

~ Derek C.

Origin

In Justin's reply to Dave Stratman in Backtalk Justin rightly points out that we owe a lot of our freedoms in the West to the influence of the Judeo-Christian ethic but in his article on ''the meaning of Jenin'' he seems to suggest that the moral/ethical decline in Israel is due to a departure from Israel's Ashkenasi (Western) influence and they are adopting the values more akin to the Middle East. I would like to ask Justin where our Judeo-Christian tradition comes from? It certainly is not from Western thought but is totally Asiatic/Semitic in origin but has been adopted in the West. If this being the case it seems a bit rich of Justin now to point out the superiority of Western values.

~ T. Walker, New Zealand