Mailbox

Ben Domenech’s article on the Capitol murders ("Capitol Shooter: Russell Weston, Three Years Later," 7/18) was riveting and poignant; I hadn’t known the details. Kudos.

Terry Ward, via Internet

Stupid and Illiterate

Are you paying Tim Hall to spew that swill in defense of illiterate teachers on the New York Press website ("Daily Billboard," 7/13 and 7/16)? I can deal with his carping that the New York Post’s take-down of Sunny Liang was unfair and cruel. Who doesn’t make mistakes in e-mail notes? But Hall’s clearly operating his word processor under the influence of stupidity when he goes on to claim that it doesn’t matter if Liang is illiterate because: 1) he’s a foreigner, 2) he teaches social studies, not English, and 3) Hall once had a teacher who couldn’t speak English very well and look how smart Hall turned out.

The first two points are pure fool’s drool. Being from a foreign land shouldn’t exempt you from being qualified to do your job. If there were any sense to Hall’s second point–the notion that writing grammatically is only important for English teachers–why would we bother having students take English classes at all? Most of them won’t be English teachers either.

It turns out that Hall’s third point is nothing more than a boring fact of his biography. A recent study by Harvard’s George Borjas demonstrated that students perform worse when they are taught by foreign-born teachers who have trouble with the English language. For God’s sake, MUGGER, keep Hall off of education and safely in the music columns.

Name Withheld, Manhattan

Nkomo Mon Amour

Maybe y’all should steer Nkomo Morris and her next "Nothing Happened" piece over Salon’s way ("First Person," 7/11). That’s why they’re going Chapter 11.

Jeff Gilchrist, via Internet

A Childs’ Love

John Strausbaugh: Reading your article on Komar & Melamid’s RBS Gazette ("Publishing," 7/11), I couldn’t believe you failed to mention the wonderful article by Josh Zeman regarding Jewish pirates. Jewish pirates! What a fascinating and original idea. To tell you the truth, I found the piece to be quite enchanting and extremely well-written. I think we’re going to be hearing a lot from this writer in the future. Best regards from Josh’s grandmother...

Ann Childs, Pittsburgh

Whiny Europeans

Andrey Slivka: There is one thing I would like to hear from Western Europeans ("Daily Billboard," 7/16): "Thanks, America, for the Marshall Plan." Maybe from the Germans a "thanks for the Berlin Airlift." We heard no whining about smog from all those C-54s landing food and coal at Tempelhof, did we? No sniveling about greenhouse gases from the tractors used to harvest that food, no finger-wagging superiority about the pollution generated by the machinery used to mine the coal to heat German homes in the winter.

I dare Europeans to actually ratify, rather than just sign, the Kyoto Protocol. Then they might have a point. But of course they won’t do it. I hope that next time those wine-besotted, soap-averse cowards in France scream for help we sit on our hands instead.

David Mann, Concord, CA

Jung and the FBI

I liked Alexander Cockburn’s article on the polygraph ("Wild Justice," 7/18). About two years ago I translated and synopsized 80 articles on the polygraph for the Pentagon. The manner of questioning that is used in conjunction with the polygraph goes back to Jung. (Other systems of measuring various reactions were also tried out.) Jung would compose a block of questions relating to the crime and person. Reaction times were also measured. If the person took a long time to answer, I think more than four seconds or so, the answer was considered invalid.

Based on the subconscious, Jung could tell if the person knew something of the crime. It was all very interesting, but Jung did not like using the method for criminal investigations. He also cautioned against abuse and pointed out that only a fully trained psychologist/psychiatrist could make the system work. It is worth noting that even Nazi Germany found the polygraph useless and deemed it illegal.

Name Withheld, Alexandria, VA

In Defense of Cal

MUGGER: Cal Ripken a mediocre athlete over the past decade? In 1991, Cal Ripken Jr. won the MVP award. His .323 average is the fourth highest of MVP winners in the past decade. It takes a pretty good athlete to take the field every day. As for Ripken being indifferent toward his teammates, if you had upstanding citizens such as Albert Belle, Roberto Alomar and Armando Benitez on your team, would you down beers with them after the game? Ripken’s best friend on the team is Brady Anderson, which is no surprise at all since Anderson has been an O since 1989.

All superstars get the first-class treatment, that’s just the way sports has evolved. It’s not a good thing, but Ripken can’t be faulted for it. Do you think the Sox treat Nomar, Pedro and Manny the same way they treat Troy O’Leary? Do you think they stay in the same hotel as Craig Grebeck? I’m not saying Ripken is still a great baseball player, far from it. He should have retired two or three years ago. He did revolutionize the position of shortstop, though. I can’t help feeling you’re knocking the man because you hate the O’s and Peter Angelos.

Gregory Joseph, via Interent

Russ Smith replies: A preposterous letter. Agreed, I do think Angelos and his fellow trial-lawyer pirates are a scourge on society. But having lived in Baltimore for 14 years, being a vendor in their old Memorial Stadium for three years while in college, a season ticketholder for many more, the Orioles were always my favorite team aside from the Sox. Ripken was an exciting player in the 80s, just as Jim Palmer, Boog Powell, Frank and Brooks Robinson, Mike Cuellar and Eddie Murray were in their days. But something snapped with Ripken, and as any Baltimore fan will tell you, it wasn’t good for the team.

Sam’s Champ Is