Fusion Box Fusion Box MATT BIVENS wrote an ...

MATT BIVENS wrote an excellent article ("Escape from New York," 7/9), but it misses several points.

The Achilles heel of any nuclear reactor is not the cooling pond, but the people running the reactor. It's similar to how automotive problems are caused by the loose nut behind the wheel.

Second, it astounds me that after all these years, we are still burying radioactive chemicals, some of which have a half-life of more than half a million years. The only solution-which is far from perfect-is to aim the stuff at the sun.

Third, you guys should touch upon why nuclear fusion, a hundred times more powerful and clean than fission, has not been developed.

Nathan F. Weiner, The Bronx

Viva! Zappa-tista!

MATTHEW CALLAN wrote a nice story ("Music," 7/9) that covered everything great about the performance (except maybe the Van Halen interlude). Aside from having been the organizer of the show, I, too, was completely blown away by the kids, I wanted to say thanks for coming, thanks for the article, and thanks for letting people know to watch out for the littlest rockers.

Kendra Gaeta, Programming Director, New York Underground Film Festival, Manhattan

Rove Star Is Operational

THANKS FOR the deserved cock-slapping that Anis Shivani gave to Karl Rove ("Books," 7/9). How come there isn't more written about that joyless, evil corpse? He reminds me of the Emperor from the Star Wars movies-if blue lightning ever shot from Rove's fingers I wouldn't bat an eyelash. The only problem I have with this metaphor is that Bush would be Rove's Padwan learner-and I don't think that's at all fair to Darth Vader.

Bob Dale, Brooklyn

Don't Bug Him

MICHAEL SIGNORILE: I have been reading your stuff on and off for years. I was inspired by your work back in the mid-90s when I was a younger queer activist at the University of Kentucky. The president of student government was gay, but in the closet. However, he was openly conservative. So I wrote an opinion piece for the student newspaper about the need for gay leaders to be out. They refused to publish it. Ho hum. Anyway, thanks for your work. I've been inspired.

Just one thing-I think it's generally a bad idea to use animal and bug metaphors for people ("The Gist," 7/9), regardless of how disgusting they can be. We ought to leave such roach comparisons to the right-wing fascists.

David Waggoner, SAN FRANCISCO

Comic Conundrum

I MISS all the comics! Particularly Campfire Stories. Jeff Roysdon is one of the most under-rated cartoonists working today and getting a chance to read him weekly was super fantastic. Sometimes funny, sometimes political and sometimes just crappy and off the mark (which I'm sure is clever ploy just to keep the readers guessing) Campfire Stories was a crazy drunken dice toss. I'm sure there's room in a big paper like yours for both his comic and the tranny escort service ads that replaced it. Come on guys, I'm trying to avoid getting a job here! Soon I won't even be able to afford my beloved tranny escorts.

Jeff Roysdon, San Francisco

Har Har Har

ALEXANDER ZAITCHIK reports in your Billboard ("Online Billboard," 7/3) on the search for Saddam Hussein and his sons: "That's $55 million just to find three powerless men on the lamb." And sheep really don't run very fast.

Kathleen Warnock, Astoria

What Other Thing?

I FULLY understand the quandary Mark Gauvreau Judge faces as a conservative smitten with Hillary Rodham Clinton ("Rotation," 7/2). I am decidedly left of center and yet I find myself enchanted with that graying wrangler cowgirl, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton. Okay, granted, she's an evil environmental plunderer, and my cohorts find my intoxication with her appalling and unconscionable. For many of us private citizens, it's not public policy that drives our personal lives. It's that other thing. At opposite ends of the political spectrum though we may be, Mark Judge and I grok this fully.

Dominick Ferrara, Mamaroneck, NY

Holy Shit! Koyen's Right?

ONE THING you failed to mention about the L magazine ("Billboard," 7/2): It sucks. You could compile a best of New York City from what's not in L.

Jeffrey Lohn, Manhattan

MUGGER Down the Memory Hole

MUGGER'S MEMORY seems to be slipping, as evidenced by his recollection of the 2000 campaign for the New York Senate (MUGGER, 7/9). Mugger conveniently forgot that Rick Lazio was not the original Republican candidate for that race. That honor went to none other than Rudolph Giuliani, who ran a disastrous aborted campaign.

Mugger may wish to recall how Giuliani reluctantly campaigned upstate only in day-trip excursions and how he refused to stay overnight at any location north of the Bronx. Upstate Republican leaders were confused and angry with Giuliani's apathy to their regions, and upstate voters were not impressed that Giuliani showed more interest in attending Yankee baseball games than selling himself in Syracuse or Utica.

Giuliani abruptly dropped out of the campaign when it was obvious that Hillary Clinton had the stronger poll numbers and that minority voters were prepared to come out en masse against Giuliani. Giuliani's excuse that his withdrawal was based on his health was fairly bogus, given that he was apparently well enough to stay in City Hall and even demand an extension of his term after the 9/11 attacks. If the 2000 campaign was any indication, a Giuliani-Senate candidacy in 2006 will guarantee a second term for Hillary Clinton.

Phil Hall, Manhattan

Like That's Your Real Name

WHY IS RUSS SMITH so stupid and dishonest (MUGGER, 7/2)? He still believes the myth that the American media is "liberal"? That's ridiculous. Even the New York Times is a wimpy conservative paper, as witnessed by their refusal to switch their clumsy broadsheet to a more customer-friendly tabloid cut. And how many editorials of theirs demanded W. Bush be tried by the World Court for his blatantly false invasion of Iraq? That's the easy way to spot a liberal paper: They refuse to call Bush "President" and they demand his arrest for lots of different crimes. This alone proves that our entire media is conservative and not progressive or liberal. Of course, pointing out that Bush lied to the world isn't a progressive view but rather an obvious one. Maybe that's what Smith is upset about.

Noah Hornbuckle, Manhattan

Rush Limbaugh: Serious Intellectual

WHAT'S MICHELANGELO SIGNORILE been smoking these days to say the American press is dominated not by liberals but by conservative right-wing pundits ("The Gist," 7/9)?

Yes, conservatives are making dramatic strides on television and radio thanks to the efforts of Rush Limbaugh, whom liberals continue to refer to as "an entertainer" rather than a serious political intellectual, but in no apparent way are they dominating the medium.

Watching liberals squirm has become a pastime for me. The simple fact is that conservatives are not afraid to stand up for conservative ideals, which are at the heart of Middle America. Liberal pundits are bland-from your liberal talk show hosts on NPR to Pacifica Radio to CNN.

The cheap shot at Jonah Goldberg is typical of leftists who think that a guy like Jonah can't be successful unless he has a high-profile "sleazoid" mother at his side. It's the same sleazy routine the liberals go about when describing that if not for his father, George W. Bush would not be president. Or that the president is stupid or aloof. Kind of reminds me of all the nasty liberal jokes about President Reagan allowing others to run the country while he took his afternoon naps.

Mikey, get over it. It's going to be a very long time before the American left-as represented by Bill Clinton, Howard Dean, Al Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich and the rest of the Democratic cabal-wins a seat on the nation's highest office. Now let me go watch Hannity & Colmes.

Lee Anthony Nieves, The Bronx

Moby Goldberg

I ENJOYED Signorile's takedown of Jonah Goldberg and his mom ("The Gist," 7/9). I almost admire Lucianne. She is a deliciously evil woman who would have been at home with the Borgias. Jonah is a different kettle of fish. No whale could swallow his ego. His need for self-aggrandizement coupled with his almost total lack of empathy cries out for a diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Considering what he grew up with, we're lucky we didn't get a full-fledged sociopath.

Daniel A. Deadwyler, Charlotte, NC

Just Stay in Jersey, Barry

EVER SINCE Arab terrorists caused me to lose my job and made me retreat back to NJ, I have not been the regular reader of New York Press I used to be.

So I come to NYC and see the fat Suicide Jew ("Suicide Jews," 6/18) on the cover, and I try to laugh it off. And then I read the article.

Have you ever heard of the term "fact-checker"? Any 12-year-old yeshiva student could have pointed out that nearly every single paragraph held an untruth. It was not just exaggeration. It was lie upon lie. To be generous, there were a couple of half-truths, but overall just totally false; way too many to cite.

You permitted this Jew idiot to write a fictitious study of Jewish history and culture. This is not a question of disagreeing over history. It is the journalistic equivalent of saying that the Press was founded by Cherokee Indians in the late 19th century and that Russ Smith is a nom de plume for Pauly Shore.

When my formerly reliable New York Press allows this miserable, self-obsessed self-hater to write such horrifying crap, it makes me miss NYC a little less. Your ability to tell the truth was one of my favorite things about the city. But then again, so was my view from the 40th floor of 7 WTC.

Both are shattered in my eyes.

Barry Schechter, East Brunswick, NJ