Aye, MUGGER, Nay, MUGGER; Good Piece on the Pope, Signorile, 'cept You're Going Straight to Hell; The Lord Has Surely Blessed Taki; Knipfel Likes Anti-Semites; Cockburn's Stuck in the Wrong Century; More

MUGGER: In an otherwise fine column I think you were wrong about the fate, or deservability, of baseball in DC (11/21). Though it certainly did fail twice there, the last time was more than 30 years ago. DC was a different place then, a government town filled with people almost entirely from out of town whose loyalties were to teams from somewhere else (and, of course, the Senators were horrific).

The area has changed a lot since then. The suburbs are full of business unrelated to the government (AOL, Exxon-Mobil) and at least a generation has grown up whose loyalties are to that area. So baseball could work (it's also now the fourth-largest metro area in the country?a large market). But Peter Angelos doesn't want the competition so it won't happen.

Donald Gordon, Los Angeles

Like Due Process?

MUGGER: On decriminalizing prostitution, etc. (11/21): What is it that makes you think the U.S. Attorney General could decriminalize offenses that are essentially established in the criminal laws of the individual states?

Harold Vick, Ft. Thomas, KY

The Pope as Swinger

Michelangelo Signorile: Great piece on the Pope ("The Gist," 11/21). I, too, feel strongly that anyone who attempts to project his morality on me is inherently evil. We each need to come to an understanding of what constitutes right and wrong in our lives, at our own pace. So what if the Pope says "love the sinner, but not the sin." I think he's probably a homosexual himself, he just isn't brave enough to shout it out to the world like you.

So...any group or individual who attempts to project an absolute that happens to conflict with the lifestyle I choose is, simply, bad. The fact that the Catholic Church is so sympathetic to the plight of HIV/AIDS patients, and assists with sheltering and giving succor to those dying of AIDS around the world, is irrelevant. Pope bad, moral relativists good. Great article, sound logic. Keep it coming. The more articles like this, I can guarantee you, the less you will need to worry about the Pope being your real enemy.

Richard Aylward, Kansas City, MO

As Opposed to Furthering Someone Else's?

Michelangelo Signorile: Your column on the Pope and his religious views was pure hate speech, printed and distributed only to further your own viewpoint. The word hypocrite truly describes you.

Diane Schwartz, San Diego

Disappointing, Not Surprising

Michelangelo Signorile: Thank you for your recent article, "The Gay-Bashing Pope." While not surprising, it is very disappointing that this religious leader, instead of calling for love, understanding and peace, is validating those who would seek to destroy an entire group of people based solely on whom they love.

Mychal Judge, from what I understand, was an incredible, brave, loving mentor. What a tremendous loss to the community and to the world. Thanks again for your insightful article.

Heather Champagne, Beverly Hills

Acid Fumes

Jim Knipfel's cockroach theory ("e-Slackjaw," 11/21) reminds me of my old roommate's theory, which he passed on to me while we were on acid, somewhere back in the mid-80s. It went something like this: Okay, what if there were these two whirring vibrations of consciousness in outer space, and as they were chatting our entire solar system, from the very beginning of its existence to the end of time, went whooshing past them. Whoosh! Then one of the whirring vibrations says to the other, "Hey! What was that?" And the other one says, "I don't know. I think it was a space fart."

Jeff Houchins, Minneapolis

Texas-Sized Fan

Taki: I laughed my ass off reading "Warrior Scribes" (11/21). You are, without a doubt, one of the best writers of this century. God! I love everything you write and only wish I had the ability to skewer my enemies (and friends) with half the aplomb.

The good Lord gives talents to everyone; he gave us "Texicans" the fine art of bullshitting, he gave Taki all the rest of the good things.

Earl H. Bell, Powderly, TX

Where's that Famous Sense of Humor?

I've enjoyed Prof. Corey's monologues on tv for years. However, his political ideas, as presented in Jim Knipfel's piece ("Who Am the World's Foremost Authority?" 11/7) are zanier than his stage patter. As an American, he's entitled to express them; as am I to critique them.

For primo-quality, head-scratching nonsequiturs, his query, "If God wanted the Jews to have Palestine, why'd he give the Chinese a whole continent?" matches any that sprinkle his act. Truly comic, except perhaps to hundreds of thousands who survived the death camps, is the idea of giving East Prussia to the Jews as a national homeland. Danke schoen, nein danke. It's even more hilarious than the notion (not the Professor's but one bruited about during the early days of Zionism) of Uganda as a homeland. Yes, the country ruled not long ago by Idi Amin, that most benevolent and tolerant fellow.

Corey supports Mumia, who has never denied coldly gunning down a police officer. He donates money to the Communist Party, which for years shilled for Stalinist Russia, which subjected millions of people to crushing totalitarian rule. Well?at least the Professor was a good union man. Stick to your double-dutch monologues?they're more fun and they make more sense.

Oh, and about George Washington, whom it has become fashionable to denounce as a slave-owner. Few today realize that while as a young man Washington did not give much thought to a system he was born into, he grew increasingly disturbed by a realization of its evils. This was reflected in many ways, including measures he took to better the lot of his own bondsmen and -women?measures unusual in his time and at variance with the practice of his peers, such as refusing to break up families or use corporal punishment. He also freed his slaves at his death. For a fuller treatment I recommend James Thomas Flexner's outstanding biography, Washington: The Indispensable Man.

Louis Klein, Manhattan

Or I'll Show You the Dark Side Of My Moon

MUGGER: "...that awful 70s band Pink Floyd" (11/21)? Go fuck yourself! Stick to political commentary, you smug twat.

Scott Cross, Long Island City

Allah Invented It

I was wondering if Alexander Cockburn could explain how he can be so sure "chess comes out of Islam" ("Wild Justice," 11/21) if, in his own words, the game was "invented in India somewhere in the sixth or seventh century." Islam was founded in 622 (seventh century) and first entered India in the eighth century.

Okay, Alex, you love Islam and think it's contributed (past tense) great stuff to our culture. Fair enough. But no need to bend over backwards to laud it. By the way, your comments on the Green Party or Parties in "The Mail" (11/14) was one of the funniest things I've ever read. Good to see such mishegas isn't confined to the right.

Nathan Lamm, Flushing

Checkmate

Alexander Cockburn claims that chess was originally "in fact" invented by the Muslims in India "somewhere in the sixth or seventh century." I am sure I am not the only one eager to know what new evidence places an Islamic state in India before Mohammed was born and some 900-odd years, at the latest, before the Mughals began to create one of the first known Islamic states there. As usual, Cockburn's facts on anything relating to the Middle East are random figments of his lazy mind's imagination. Nothing is worse than someone with a lot of opinions but no knowledge. Proper editing will leave a blank page, and it will be about time.

Carmi Turchick, Long Island City

A Hero's Jeers

I haven't picked up a New York Press in more than a year, and when I do I'm personally insulted by your moron Jim Knipfel and the illustration for his painfully stupid article ("New York City," 11/14). I've been a New York City firefighter for almost six years and I'd be insulted anyway. The past two months I've been to more than 20 funerals and missed three funerals of men I not only respected but had considered friends. Why? Not because I was out getting drunk and laid, but because I was working. I was working through these funerals because there was no choice. We are understaffed by our losses.

This bullshit article insinuates that firefighters are out enjoying the fruits of our dead friends. Jim Knipfel seems to think we're out to "get drunk and laid" (the caption) while every day there are firefighters being put to rest. Or worse, most are being memorialized because their bodies are yet to be found, if they ever will be. Does anyone in this city realize that we (firefighters) have another month of funerals to attend? (God only knows how many civilian funerals there are and when they will end.) We attend these funerals on our days off. If we can, we try to go to more than one on the days we are able to. We still need days off, or rather away, from all this madness for our mental and spiritual health. What does that leave us with but guilt for not being at more funerals.

I am also a painter and have taken my artwork seriously for many years. I don't have the focus to work and don't know when I will be able to after so much loss and so much, well, just so much. Most of us have other lives that are put off or simply do not exist right now. Most of our membership work a second job to support their family. Nobody with a wife and children can afford raising a family on what we make.

Knipfel's pathetic article seems to want to be about people who are taking advantage of the hero worship that we don't even feel worthy of. Ask any firefighters in New York City and you will hear that we don't consider ourselves heroes. Our heroes are the men we knew who died saving thousands of lives on that horrible day. The majority of firefighters that you witness in bars and restaurants in our town are wearing the colors of other cities. If someone buys them a drink, they deserve it. These people have come here on their vacation time to attend our funerals. Without them, most of our 343 funerals wouldn't appear to have many firefighters there at all. I respect them and appreciate them. They have come to our city to support our families in their grief.

As for getting laid, well, Jim Knipfel, you are a crass being for insinuating that this is about getting laid. Even your choice of wording is foul. Maybe you yourself need to get drunk and get laid. Obviously you haven't lost anyone in this tragedy and don't seem to know what it's about. Your supposed intended subject, of people taking advantage, is obvious?there will always be those people out there taking advantage of a good or bad situation. I happen to think you are someone who has also taken advantage of a bad situation. I don't think you're any better than the people you are supposedly writing about. Maybe you should leave New York and move to a suburb or country that would appreciate your foul and putrid sensibility. I as one New Yorker do not appreciate a word out of your mouth.

James Austin Murray, Ladder 29 Detailed to Squad 18

Whack Job

MUGGER: "Peggy Noonan wrote a splendid op-ed in last Friday's Wall Street Journal comparing President Bush to Harry Truman" (11/21)? Spacewoman Noonan's columns should come with a barf bag. Bush should be compared with Pee-Wee Herman.

Wil Burns, Mentor, OH

Flying, Turkey

MUGGER: The Flight 587 investigation critique is right on (11/21): it's too big of a coincidence. Keep up the good work. Happy holidays to you and your family.

Bill Harmon, Denver

Crash Course

MUGGER: Like you, I have questions surrounding the cause of the AA Fight 587 crash, but recent news does indicate possible structural failure, manifested by the vertical stabilizer or "tail fin" separating from the fuselage. While this is unlikely, it is conceivable: most aircraft flight manuals do caution the pilots against over-controlling with rudder. If the A300 had gotten into the wake turbulence of a preceding B747, it is possible that the pilot used excessive rudder to counteract the roll induced by the turbulence. The opportunity for over-control may have been increased if the wing flaps were still down (an interconnect between flaps and rudder allows greater movement either side of center when at low airspeed, i.e., when the flaps are down). But this hypothesis brings up the next question: Was the A300 given sufficient spacing behind the preceding jumbo jet?

Regarding George Will, computers, video games and baseball, Will is a terrific writer, but can be a bit of a scold at times. My father, who is 81 years old, loves the Internet and uses it all the time. Years ago, when he was dating my mom in Boston, he took her to Braves games, not the Red Sox. I believe that the wrong team left Beantown in 1953. And getting another team there is the only way there'll ever be a new baseball park in Boston, the city where time stands still. Oh, I can imagine a team in El Jefe's Havana?no away games for fear of defections (except maybe in Peter Angelos' Baltimore), and all player salaries confiscated by the state to support "the revolution."

Paul DeSisto, Cedar Grove, NJ

Dignity, But No Sex

Michelangelo Signorile: I must take issue with your article about Pope John Paul II ("The Gist," 11/21). You write, "According to the New York magazine article, Judge helped gay men come out of the closet and accept their homosexuality, the complete opposite of the Vatican's decrees that one must lead a heterosexual life regardless of one's inclinations." If by "accepting their homosexuality" you meant "have gay sex," you would be correct in saying this is completely opposite from Catholic Church teachings. However, it is not clear what was meant.

I would also like to point out that the Vatican does not decree that a man who has homosexual tendencies must lead a heterosexual life. I believe it would be more fair to state that the homosexual man could choose to live a celibate life. Even unmarried heterosexuals are called to live a celibate life. In fact, the Church has taken great pains to show that homosexuals share the same dignity that all persons have. The Church teaches in the Catechism 2358: "The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition." It is okay to disagree with another point of view, but we should not abuse our freedom of speech by distorting the views of others. After all, we are all seeking the truth. Right?

David Wendell, Ann Arbor, MI

You Don't Know John Paul Like I Know John Paul

Michelangelo Signorile: A friend (a Catholic) e-mailed me your item about the Pope and homosexuals. What you offer is a diatribe and it's very hard to take you seriously. You provide little sound argumentation and show a vast, incredible ignorance of the Catholic religion in general, not to mention the mind of this pope. For instance, when you say, "Perhaps it's too much for anyone to hope that an 81-year-old church leader who's locked himself away in a basilica all these years will ever change," this shows you just want to spout off and know nothing about the man you're criticizing. The last thing this pope has done is "lock himself away in a basilica."

When you probably weren't even born yet, this man was fighting the Nazis in the Polish underground and as pope he helped overthrow communism. To equate John Paul II with the Taliban is just plain stupid. You may wish to become more acquainted with the target of your hatred by reading George Weigel's biography of the pope, Witness to Hope.

Whatever you say about Father Judge, the Pope accepted the helmet because of Judge's selfless act when others needed him to do what a priest is called to do?give the sacraments?even in a time of danger. For this Judge is honored?whatever his beliefs were on homosexuality.

Go to confession, to a good priest. It'll do you some good.

Monica Miller, via Internet

Shame on the Pontiff

Michelangelo Signorile was right on the mark when he called the Pope to task for his comments on gay men and lesbians. How dare the Pope receive the helmet of deceased New York City Fire Dept. chaplain Mychal Judge? What happened in New York and Washington, DC, on Sept. 11 was the result of years of fermented hate. Comments from Jerry Falwell just a day or two later, blaming gay men and lesbians for causing the wrath of God to be unleashed on America, were based upon hate.

The Pope's continued condemnation of homosexuality empowers people to hate gays. Such hate results in gay-bashing and even murder. I have heard the story of Matthew Shepard directly from his mother Judy. I have consoled gay students who have had guns pulled on them in school, who have then turned to guidance counselors who told them they are damned to hell. I have seen a room full of gay teens, 80 percent of whom admitted having attempted suicide because family, educators and religious leaders had given them the message that they were worthless.

Is it a coincidence that the mainstream media left out the fact that Father Judge was gay, that the copilot of one of the four planes that crashed on Sept. 11 was gay, that one of the heroes who confronted the United flight that crashed in Pennsylvania was gay? Is it pure happenstance that gay people who suffered the deaths of their partners in the World Trade Center are having difficulty receiving death benefits?

The bigotry preached by the Pope and other religious leaders who continue to verbally attack gays are the root of the hate and discrimination visited upon gays and lesbians. Shame on the Pope for being a hypocrite in accepting Judge's helmet.

John R. Selig, Dallas

Indubitably Lock-Step

In reading Michelangelo Signorile's "The Gay-Bashing Pope," I can only wonder if Signorile has become thoroughly unhinged as a direct result of his unquenchable loathing of the church, of the papacy in general and of the Holy Father in particular. How else can one even hope to explain his grotesque and bizarre comparison of the Vicar of Christ to the indubitably Satanic Osama bin Laden?

Pope John Paul II has never explicitly or implicitly directed the faithful to commit acts of violence against homosexuals?or, for that matter, against any individual or group. Indeed, the Holy Father preaches only peace and love. Does His Holiness condemn homosexual conduct as being "intrinsically disordered"? Indeed he does. This teaching shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who recognizes that the church is mankind's most rock-solid bastion of moral law and of absolute truth, rejecting utterly the anti-intellectual moral relativism (really nothing more than gussied-up immorality) so dear to Signorile's heart. The immutable teachings of Jesus and the Apostles and the authority to interpret Scripture correctly constitute the living teaching authority of the church. Signorile's "authority" to be an ignoble Catholic-basher derives from nothing more than his aridity of mind.

I could continue to rail against this ugly, fatuous and bigoted article. Instead, I'll simply point out that heresy (what Signorile calls "revolution") isn't "happening": it's petering out (forgive the Petrine pun) and a return to orthodoxy is well under way. If Signorile thinks otherwise, he's in desperate need of a reality check.

Clarence George, Manhattan

He's Older than He Looks

MUGGER: Clinton's speech was a disgrace (11/14). That's the only way to put it. The best, though, was his comment, "I will just give you one example from my childhood," and him going on to describe Sherman's march to Atlanta. Huh? What's wrong with this picture?

Worse yet, why was "the speech" ignored by the mainstream press? They should have had a field day with it. By the way, I do enjoy your column, I read it via Drudge.

Bob Montrose, Ft. Lee, NJ

But the Conspiracy's Vast

MUGGER: It's a little misleading?okay, dishonest?to circumscribe negative reaction to Bush's drumhead tribunals as "media outcry" (11/21). The latter suggests the usual liberal suspects, when the truth is more interesting. Just ask Bill Safire. And as for "courageous," well, it's now official. War fever, no matter how well-intentioned, has officially emptied your mind. (And to think that Ashcroft will or can distinguish between the drumhead tribunals and pot-smokers is wishful thinking. He is, like all mullahs, remarkably consistent in thought and deed.)

Harley Peyton, Santa Monica

Flight Status

MUGGER: I remember hearing during the tv reporting immediately following the Rockaway crash (11/21) that an airline pilot at JFK was reported to have stated that said flight was trailing black smoke on takeoff. It was apparently more than the normal exhaust type or amount, as he reported it over the radio. This fact tends to point more toward pure mechanical failure as a cause, and away from the typical sabotage footprint. It would also explain officials' early comments discounting sabotage. It also markedly differs from observations and government comments immediately following the crash off Long Island a few years ago in which qualified observers reported streaks of fire from the ground to the aircraft nanoseconds prior to the crash, followed by strident denials by federal types. That one still stinks. The latest one only smells a little gamy. Keep up the good work?I look forward to Tuesdays because of your writing.

John Lindley, Long Beach, CA

Bud's Not For You

MUGGER: Bud Selig is an idiot. Too bad the baseball billionaires don't enjoy baseball. Pohlad could fund the stadium and up the payroll and still have a billion dollars. I guess he would rather have the family name linked with Steinbrenner. Pohlad should sell to baseball people?not despots. Cal Griffith is crying, somewhere.

Tim Pfister, Billings, MT

Security Blank

MUGGER: I always enjoy your columns, and this was no exception (11/21). I do note that some Dems, particularly Bobby Kennedy's family, are trying desperately to separate the reality of Robert Kennedy, attorney general, from the myth that they have created and fostered. Of special note was the hyperbole from daughter Kerrey Kennedy Cuomo who, as reported by AP: "criticized the Bush administration for giving broad new powers to police and prosecutors to fight terrorism, saying her father would not have approved of such moves because they undermine civil liberties." No report included therein of the onlookers collapsing in laughter! Talk about closed minds and revisionist history?this about the man who as attorney general authorized wiretaps and FBI surveillance on Dr. Martin L. King Jr. on the grounds of "national security." I guess I do believe that "national security" was closer to the mark than the alternative, that the purpose was to provide sources for LBJ's frequent jokes to his old Senate colleagues and assorted close friends! But I digress!

Jerry Dunn, Greenville, SC

Kangaroo Court

MUGGER: As usual, excellent media coverage (11/21). The casual description of the administration's push for military tribunals as "Bush's courageous decision," however, demands some reconsideration. Unless, of course, you meant that it was courageous because it entailed violating the Bill of Rights, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1992).

Vice President Cheney erred blatantly when he attempted to justify the order by saying that someone who does what these terrorists did "is not a lawful combatant...they don't deserve to be treated as a prisoner of war." (Quoted on CNN.com after the address at Chamber of Commerce on 11/14.) Wait a minute. I thought the whole justification for the retaliatory strikes, and the general line in the days following 9/11, was that this was "an act of war," that "they have declared war on America" and even "this is a new kind of war."

The administration's thinking here is not confusing, it is confused. The disappointing mistake is that Bush needn't rashly appropriate the powers of judgment over whoever emerges from this, because there is already a functioning World Court to prosecute war criminals. Surely the administration doesn't fear that an international tribunal would acquit anyone duly responsible at this point.

Bush's "courageous decision" will, rightly, provoke outrage when it is seen as just another useless, unilateral move by America. It is a pity that you, too, don't see this as anything significant. As you observe, all scores must be settled, and I would suggest that all our allies need, and deserve, to participate.

Daric Desautel, El Paso

Anonymous Diallo Writer Strikes Again!

Alexander Cockburn's column on torture ("Wild Justice," 11/21) was of great interest to geezers like me who remember the days before World War II. It should be noted that back then most northern cities had small black populations and the rough stuff was meted out mostly by white cops to white citizens.

Fast-forward to today. In Washington, DC, where many cops and citizens are black, the per-capita police shooting rate is four times that of New York City cops. So much for racism being the big cause of police violence. In fact, a survey in Miami-Dade County conducted last year found that police officers there used force against members of their own race more often than against those of different races. Today's so-called mainstream media appears to be slightly out of the mainstream on the whole subject.

Name Withheld, Manhattan