Harvard Man
Professor Harvey Mansfield's "Fear and Intimidation at Harvard" (March 7) offers a breath of fresh air from academia--which is to say, Mansfield's piece is both true and reasoned.
My only criticism of Harvard president Lawrence Summers is that his response to the outrageous criticism of his remarks was unseemly. On the other hand, if the mark of a great general is to know when to retreat and then have the courage to do so, perhaps his retraction is justified.
Summers's remarks attacked the culture of victimization, the very soul of feminism and much "politically correct" thinking. Yet the one positive outcome of the feminist reaction to Summers's mild utterances has been to reveal, in bald fashion, the vacuous and retrograde thinking of Summers's opponents.
As a result, perhaps more people will become aware that politics trumps reason in the groves of academia and will help restore some degree of integrity to our educational system. And perhaps sometime in the future, when the sixties' radicals are dead and a new generation is in place at our universities, the utter nonsense we are seeing at Harvard and elsewhere will be swept into "the dustbin of history."
Tim Norling
Fort Lauderdale, FL
I have no idea at all what Harvey Mansfield means when he claims feminists won't discuss issues, won't argue, and won't entertain rational debate.
Since Lawrence Summers's comments were publicized, I have had numerous arguments, discussions, and debates regarding what he said and what it means. I have read reasoned, researched arguments for and against his claims in the New York Times, in Slate, and in many emails and blogs.
In a typical exchange, a woman will say, "Yes, I have faced discrimination, and this is what it feels like," and a man will respond, "Yes, but it's not that big a deal. It's not a huge factor in our modern lives. Why are you getting so upset?"--or, basically, "Stop being so emotional." Which, from my reading of the transcript, is exactly how Summers initially responded to his critics.
This feminist does not want the other side to cave. This feminist would like the other side to listen, with an open mind, and to discuss the issue without it becoming an argument. This feminist believes that by doing so we can find some common ground and answers that work for both sides, rather than simply bullying people into defending their positions beyond rhyme or reason. The consensus-building management that Mansfield dismisses has been found time and time again to be an effective leadership style.
That Mansfield and, apparently, Summers believe listening to others and responding to them as individuals with unique concerns and experiences somehow diminishes both their manhood and their leadership is hardly the fault of feminism.
Lisa Nosal
San Francisco, CA
Really Big Oil
In "The Axis of Oil" (Feb. 7), Irwin M. Stelzer suggests that the U.S. government should be more attentive to structural changes underway in global oil markets.
In fact, the State Department, working closely with the Department of Energy and the interagency community in Washington, and through U.S. embassies abroad, is actively involved in protecting America's energy security in an admittedly difficult geopolitical context.
The National Energy Policy is being implemented, and we are making progress. In the Caspian Sea, persuasive U.S. diplomacy is helping to make the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline a reality, deepening our energy security and the economic independence of Caspian states.
We are also modernizing North American infrastructure linkages. The State Department has streamlined its regulatory review of cross-border pipelines, and record volumes of Canadian heavy oil are coming safely to the United States. Additionally, U.S. ambassadors are working closely with our companies as they make sound economic investments in Africa, Russia, the Western Hemisphere, and the Middle East. Meanwhile the U.S. government is channeling its resources into new technologies, such as hydrogen, that will address energy challenges in the future.
We agree it is healthy to debate the difficult issues surrounding energy security. Stelzer correctly hopes that "somewhere in our government a small group of knowledgeable people" is addressing these issues.
This is indeed the case, both here at the State Department, at U.S. embassies overseas, and through a larger interagency group--all of which serve an administration that made energy security a core priority from its first moments and at its highest levels.
Matthew McManus
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC
Remembering "Gonzo"
Tucker Carlson's goal as a young teenager, he says ("When the Fun Stopped," March 7), was to emulate both Hunter S. Thompson's writing style and his lifestyle--including the wholesale use of grass, mescaline, blotter acid, cocaine, uppers, downers, laughers, screamers, ether, and amyls.
"I resolved to try it all," writes Carlson. Of course, he then adds "the customary disclaimer about how drugs are bad," but says that for him, "the whole experience"--using nearly every drug imaginable--"was interesting and fun."
Fortunately for Carlson, he "grew out of it." But Hunter S. Thompson never did. He destroyed his mind and body, and ended up a suicide.
How many other teenagers will come across Carlson's article some day and be tempted to experiment with drugs? We can only hope that they will be more influenced by Carlson's description of Thompson's pathetic later days than by the glorification of his earlier ones.
Carlson's Casual was a strange article to publish in The Weekly Standard, a magazine that purports to stand for conservative values.
Bill Stetson
Burke, VA
NARAL vs. Abortion?
The Weekly Standard's Parody page is always a fitting wrap-up to the sound thinking found in your news articles and editorials. However, when I read the NARAL Pro-Choice America advertisement on page 10 of your Feb. 28 issue, I initially thought you had moved the Parody to a new spot in the magazine.
NARAL's Orwellian headline, "Please, Help Us Prevent Abortions," and, for that matter, NARAL president Nancy Keenan's entire letter, might be humorous were the atrocity of abortion not so grave, and were NARAL's responsibility for it not so enormous.
Peter Rabalais
Corpus Christi, TX
Incorrect Correction
A recent item in The Scrapbook, "Great Moments in Self-Parody" (March 7), is incorrect. The item faults the New York Times for asserting that two Ivy Leaguers--Jim Beattie and Steve Adkins--have played with the New York Yankees since 1965. The Scrapbook says the correct number is three: Beattie, Adkins, and Doug Glanville, who is currently in spring training with the Yankees.
But it seems fairly obvious that by "played with the team" the Times means "has appeared in at least one official major league game with the team." This, Doug Glanville has not yet done. (Glanville played for the Philadelphia Phillies last year, and for the Chicago Cubs and the Texas Rangers earlier in his career. This will be his first season with the Yankees.)
So, although it pains me to do so, I must conclude that the New York Times is right and The Weekly Standard is wrong.
David A. Wright
Collierville, TN
Radio Rodeo
Kudos to Andrew Ferguson for an article ("Time for National Private Radio," Feb. 28) that's exactly on point. Here in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill part of North Carolina, we've recently lost WUNC in Chapel Hill to the talk crowd.
However, we are very lucky to have two jazz-oriented public radio stations, WNCU at North Carolina Central University in Durham and WSHA at Shaw University in Raleigh. Both stations provide a terrific mix of jazz, blues, and several other types of offbeat and interesting music programming with absolutely superb, knowledgeable, and passionate DJs.
We are also fortunate to have WCPE, a truly publicly funded, unaffiliated radio station located in Wake Forest, North Carolina, which broadcasts classical music 24 hours a day. All deserve--and get--strong local support.
Ferguson is correct: Advocacy radio should not receive government funding.
Randall Marcuson
Creedmoor, NC
Coffee Talk
As the foremost "Starbucksologist" of Westside Los Angeles, where I am, like John Podhoretz ("Café Society," Feb. 28), outnumbered by the Michael Moore-ons, I am surprised that Podhoretz failed to discuss the most essential feature of a Starbucks store: namely, the electrical outlets that facilitate extended use of our beloved T-Mobile Internet access.
I also fashion myself a national-caliber Starbucksologist--I have been to the Starbucks at 93rd and Broadway that Podhoretz mentions--and am happy to report that the most outstanding Starbucks in the category of electrical power availability is located in Overland Park, Kansas, at 119th Street and Glenwood.
That particular store also seems to have a more politically balanced clientele, but the employees differ not one iota from their counterparts in more liberal bastions.
Jay Braun
Los Angeles, CA