Questioning Kerry

WILLIAM KRISTOL presents four excellent questions for John Kerry ("Four Questions for Kerry," August 2). But I would also like to see the Massachusetts senator address this question: If he were president, would he allow "Old Europe," Russia, and a variety of Third World countries on the U.N. Security Council to dictate how the United States fights the war on terror?

President Bush has emphatically asserted his right as commander in chief to defend the American people from terrorists through unilateral action. Indeed, Bush maintains that he has an obligation to do so. Does Kerry also consider this a presidential obligation? Or do his hyper-multilateralist instincts make him categorically opposed to the potential unilateralism implied by the Bush Doctrine?

Bill Strong
Elk Grove, CA

I THOUGHT THE QUESTIONS laid out in William Kristol's "Four Questions for Kerry" were reasonable--until I came to the fourth. It asked: "If Kerry were president, would marriage be redefined?"

It amazes me that a magazine that supposedly champions "conservative" causes has latched onto the issue of denying gays the right to marry. The more important question that needs to be asked of President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and the entire Republican establishment is whether they believe gay couples should have the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. Put aside the semantics of "civil unions" versus "marriage" for a moment. Does the GOP believe in equal rights under the law, or not? That is the true issue at stake here.

Jason Scorse
Santa Cruz, CA

The Rich Are Different

NOEMIE EMERY'S FINE ARTICLE "John Kerry Is Different from You and Me" (August 2) is made even more relevant by Kerry's recent trip to Wendy's. A few days after the Democratic convention, where John Edwards spoke of "two Americas," Kerry and Edwards ate lunch with their wives--and Ben Affleck--at a Wendy's restaurant in Newburgh, New York.

It was reported that the Kerrys tried chili and chocolate Frosties, while the Edwardses had burgers. Most reports ended there--but not Mark Steyn's piece in the London Daily Telegraph. Steyn added that, after stopping at Wendy's, Kerry and Edwards boarded their bus. There, it turned out, "the campaign advance team had ordered 19 five-star lunches from the Newburgh Yacht Club for Kerry, Edwards, Affleck and co. to be served back on the bus: shrimp vindaloo, grilled diver sea scallops, [prosciutto-wrapped stuffed chicken], etc. I'm not sure whether Ben had the shrimp and Teresa the scallops, but, either way, it turns out John Edwards is right: there are two Americas--one America where folks eat at Wendy's, another America where the elite pass an amusing half-hour slumming among the folks at Wendy's and then chow down on the Newburgh Yacht Club's specials of the day."

Yes, John Kerry is different from the rest of us--very different.

David Cruthers
Groton Long Point, CT

No Place For Playboy

I WAS APPALLED as I read Brian Murray's review of Hef's Little Black Book ("Bare Nekkid Ladies," August 2). Is a book by and about the man who brought soft-core pornography to mainstream America really worthy of such lengthy treatment in your magazine? I doubt it. More disturbing than your decision to review Hefner's book were the pictures that you included with it. And the quote attributed to Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione was over the edge.

I have always felt very comfortable letting my children read THE WEEKLY STANDARD before I did, knowing that the content was generally safe. After "Bare Nekkid Ladies," I need to rethink that.

Rosanna Shenk
Plain City, OH

Loyal Bay Staters

AS A TRANSPLANTED MASSACHUSETTS native and a die-hard sports fan, I enjoyed Christopher Caldwell's "The Boston Diaspora" (August 2). I once tried in vain to be both a Boston Red Sox fan and New York Yankees fan. When I was a kid growing up in the Bay State, I didn't know what a Yankee was apart from the maker of bean soup. But then I went to school in New York and saw pinstripes everywhere. The Yankees were popular and I was in enemy territory. It wasn't easy to be loyal amidst that sea of strident opposition. I felt that "coming out" as a Red Sox fan might be unwise.

These days, coming out on foreign soil can be similarly daunting in the realm of politics. Indeed, I can't decide which is more intimidating--to come out as a Red Sox fan in Manhattan, or to come out as a Republican. In our ultra-partisan climate, the culture wars feature all the red-hot intensity of a Yankees-Red Sox series.

Abe Novick
Baltimore, MD