Get real
Re: "The Bankruptcy of Violence," a conversation with Jonathan Schell (Sept. 17-23)
The only reason Gandhi's nonviolent protests were successful is that Great Britain is a society based on good moral principles. Try nonviolent resistance against a Hitler, Red China, Saddam Hussein or the Taliban and you are DEAD. Similarly, if the U.S. were to get rid of all our nuclear weapons (singing "Kumbaya" while doing so, of course) we would soon be a colony of North Korea or Iran.
Gratuitous violence = bad.
Survivalist violence = necessary.
—Mark Warda
Belleair
Invest In America
I would just like to say a few words to express my grateful appreciation to our great President George W. Bush and to the American people. My present income is over $1-million a year. This year I will be expecting a tax cut of around $30,000. I would like to thank the American people for going into debt and giving me this $30,000. I realize many of you are struggling and I appreciate your sacrifice on my behalf. I am going to invest my $30,000 tax cut by buying Treasury Bills. In this way, the American people will pay me the interest on the money they borrowed to give me the $30,000. This truly is the land of opportunity. May God bless George W. Bush and God bless America!
—John Seeman
Tampa
Bring It On!
Re: "The People's Party: Best of the Bay 2003" (Sept. 24-30)
I am a wee bit disappointed with your Best of the Bay issue. I had hoped to see the picks of Sami Al-Arian, the man you devoted a cover to (editor's note: two covers, actually) and designated Tampa Bay Martyr. I wanted to see if he picked Coleman FCC as the best place to await federal trial, and if he ranked McKeown — the handsome one; looks a little like Tim Robbins — over Moody as best federal magistrate to argue points of law with. And I was especially curious about Sami's pick for best group of unbelievers to solicit support for jihad from: USF faculty, Unitarians or WMNF news staff.
Oh well, it was a pretty good issue nonetheless.
—Ray Zacek
Tampa
GOTCHA! The Weekly Planet's politics have always seemed somewhat to the left of Che Guevara. Your new "PEOPLE'S BEST" logo betrays your influences. Except for the little guy raising his fist you have used the exact logo of the Soviet Union's Youth Pioneers (the communist scouting organization). The Web says they were started by Joseph Stalin and modeled after the Hitler Youth. The original logo had Lenin's picture in the center. At least you're being honest with us.
—John Galt
Clearwater
The Politburo responds: We also acknowledge, on page 102 of that issue, that we've studied both Marxes (Karl and Groucho), take lots of drugs and participate in bisexual orgies. Putting together our Best of the Bay is certainly fun.
This article appears in Oct 9-15, 2003.