Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________LINDA TRIPP, THE WHITE HOUSE'S GHOULISH BAD CONSCIENCE BY CAMILLE PAGLIA (07/07/98)

As an armchair moralist, Camille Paglia is, well, as reliable as anyone, I suppose, who feels free to judge without facts. Calling the administration apparently "slack and corrupt," Paglia, as usual, fails to cite supporting evidence or facts -- content, as many seem to be, to make assumptions based on rumor and hearsay. Shades of Maureen Dowd! (Dowd: "Everyone knows the Clintons did something illegal in Arkansas." Really? What, pray tell?)
Even granting the unproven -- that Clinton got a blow job -- Paglia expands on this to imply corruption of the first water. Please. Paglia thinks the "talking points" are a smoking gun? For whom? They seem clearly NOT to have been written by anyone working in the administration -- unless that person was already aware that Tripp was feeding the Jones lawyers and nonetheless decided to hand the opposition a written record of witness tampering.
Paglia's familiarity with the "talking points" is woefully inadequate. As the ever-leaking Starr has failed to push this particular chestnut, one can infer that even he knows there's no probative or incriminatory value to the document. Unless one is looking to charge Tripp with tampering with evidence, since she is as likely an author as anyone.
Paglia should stick to writing about what she knows. Which is ... what, exactly?
-- Jeff Ryan
Breckenridge, Colo.
Camille Paglia's Freudian explanations about how gay men are formed by distant fathers and doting mothers are utter nonsense. Of course she is horrified by the scientists she has met; they contradict her ossified, intolerant, self-serving orthodoxy.
Her statement that "male homosexuality is ultimately about human freedom from nature's power" is more of this silliness. Male homosexuality is a manifestation of nature, not a rejection of it. Male homosexuality is very simple: It is about men being attracted to other men. If anything it represents human freedom from society's (not nature's) power. Paglia professes that any sexual indifference to women is some sort of pathological disorder, and ascribes it all to vaginal-induced repulsion. One can be indifferent to someone sexually without being repulsed by them.
-- John Kirk
St. Louis

_______________THE BIG CHILLY BY JULIE CANIGLIA (07/02/98)

Every summer, it seems, Southerners must suffer the ill-conceived rants of Yankees who think they know best. Air-conditioning must clearly be a bad thing. We must rid ourselves of this bane. Society will be better off. After all, it's not that hot -- all this written, of course, in New York or San Francisco or some other city in the elusive temperate band across the top of the weatherman's map. Almost none of these writers, of course, have actually lived in the kind of heat the Deep South can produce.
The phrase "Julie Caniglia is a freelance writer in New York" may well say it all. She dismisses the notion of air-conditioning more or less out of hand, yet lives thousands of miles from the climates that pushed us to create it. This, of course, does not stop her from pooh-poohing those of us in the modern South who, rightly, dismiss her Luddite rants against comfortable air. Sure, Houstonians lived for years without air-conditioning. But we also lived without sulfa drugs, cars, airplanes and computers, too; is there any reason we should abandon those?
Contrarian essays are all well and good, but to be quite frank Caniglia knows not what she suggests. While it is certainly true that climate control is difficult to keep "even," and that inevitably some are cold while some are comfy (and some, no doubt, hot), I defy her to worship the "sun-kissed air" when the humidity and temperature both top 95 -- as is often the case in the Deep South. There's a substantial argument to be made that Houston would not have grown as it has without widespread air-conditioning, just as easy heating has made it easier to live in more northern climes.
Much of Caniglia's rant is concerned with the accelerated pace of business and competition today. I work in technology; I find it difficult to believe that any client would understand should we elect not to work because it's "too hot." Unless such foolishness is universal -- and it cannot be, as some climates never reach this point -- firms based in harsher places will fall behind the curve and fail to keep pace with competition. If Caniglia wants an excuse not to work, she may certainly find one. But railing against air-conditioning so she can get some time off is self-serving at best -- and a specious argument no matter what. Surely Salon can do better.
-- Chet Farmer
I enjoyed the piece on air-conditioning. A shame it focused purely on AC's impact on the workplace and not the home. While many like to blame television for the decline of the "neighborhood," I think AC has much more to do with it. No more sitting out in the yard or on the porch in the cool of the evening, seeing your neighbors and even, just imagine, chatting with them.
-- Jeff Keezel
I'd like to invite Julie Caniglia to spend a summer in Texas without air-conditioning. All the iced tea in the world could not help to make the experience anything even remotely resembling "languid" or "sensual." There's nothing romantic about it, believe me.
-- Jenny Muscarella

_______________ TRUE BELIEVER BY BRUCE SHAPIRO (07/03/98)

The article written by Bruce Shapiro on the brethren, Starr, Rehnquist, et al., is so well written that I felt like I was at a fine restaurant dining on exquisite cuisine. The truth as outlined so clearly by Mr. Shapiro and others writing for Salon has become a reliable source of sanity assurance.
Keep it up. The future of media needs this kind of direct, concise observation in order to rescue the profession from its downward spiral, a direction accelerated by all the smug, dead-weight pricks and prima donnas so prevalent in the "mainstream," traditional news organizations.
-- Gregory Daries
SALON | July 13, 1998

R E C E N T L Y+| A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEAN BY PETER KURTH

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_______________LINDA TRIPP, THE WHITE HOUSE'S GHOULISH BAD CONSCIENCE BY CAMILLE PAGLIA (07/07/98)
	As an armchair moralist, Camille Paglia is, well, as reliable as anyone, I suppose, who feels free to judge without facts. Calling the administration apparently "slack and corrupt," Paglia, as usual, fails to cite supporting evidence or facts -- content, as many seem to be, to make assumptions based on rumor and hearsay. Shades of Maureen Dowd! (Dowd: "Everyone knows the Clintons did something illegal in Arkansas." Really? What, pray tell?) Even granting the unproven -- that Clinton got a blow job -- Paglia expands on this to imply corruption of the first water. Please. Paglia thinks the "talking points" are a smoking gun? For whom? They seem clearly NOT to have been written by anyone working in the administration -- unless that person was already aware that Tripp was feeding the Jones lawyers and nonetheless decided to hand the opposition a written record of witness tampering. Paglia's familiarity with the "talking points" is woefully inadequate. As the ever-leaking Starr has failed to push this particular chestnut, one can infer that even he knows there's no probative or incriminatory value to the document. Unless one is looking to charge Tripp with tampering with evidence, since she is as likely an author as anyone. Paglia should stick to writing about what she knows. Which is ... what, exactly? -- Jeff Ryan Breckenridge, Colo. Camille Paglia's Freudian explanations about how gay men are formed by distant fathers and doting mothers are utter nonsense. Of course she is horrified by the scientists she has met; they contradict her ossified, intolerant, self-serving orthodoxy. Her statement that "male homosexuality is ultimately about human freedom from nature's power" is more of this silliness. Male homosexuality is a manifestation of nature, not a rejection of it. Male homosexuality is very simple: It is about men being attracted to other men. If anything it represents human freedom from society's (not nature's) power. Paglia professes that any sexual indifference to women is some sort of pathological disorder, and ascribes it all to vaginal-induced repulsion. One can be indifferent to someone sexually without being repulsed by them. -- John Kirk St. Louis
_______________THE BIG CHILLY BY JULIE CANIGLIA (07/02/98)
	Every summer, it seems, Southerners must suffer the ill-conceived rants of Yankees who think they know best. Air-conditioning must clearly be a bad thing. We must rid ourselves of this bane. Society will be better off. After all, it's not that hot -- all this written, of course, in New York or San Francisco or some other city in the elusive temperate band across the top of the weatherman's map. Almost none of these writers, of course, have actually lived in the kind of heat the Deep South can produce. The phrase "Julie Caniglia is a freelance writer in New York" may well say it all. She dismisses the notion of air-conditioning more or less out of hand, yet lives thousands of miles from the climates that pushed us to create it. This, of course, does not stop her from pooh-poohing those of us in the modern South who, rightly, dismiss her Luddite rants against comfortable air. Sure, Houstonians lived for years without air-conditioning. But we also lived without sulfa drugs, cars, airplanes and computers, too; is there any reason we should abandon those? Contrarian essays are all well and good, but to be quite frank Caniglia knows not what she suggests. While it is certainly true that climate control is difficult to keep "even," and that inevitably some are cold while some are comfy (and some, no doubt, hot), I defy her to worship the "sun-kissed air" when the humidity and temperature both top 95 -- as is often the case in the Deep South. There's a substantial argument to be made that Houston would not have grown as it has without widespread air-conditioning, just as easy heating has made it easier to live in more northern climes. Much of Caniglia's rant is concerned with the accelerated pace of business and competition today. I work in technology; I find it difficult to believe that any client would understand should we elect not to work because it's "too hot." Unless such foolishness is universal -- and it cannot be, as some climates never reach this point -- firms based in harsher places will fall behind the curve and fail to keep pace with competition. If Caniglia wants an excuse not to work, she may certainly find one. But railing against air-conditioning so she can get some time off is self-serving at best -- and a specious argument no matter what. Surely Salon can do better. -- Chet Farmer I enjoyed the piece on air-conditioning. A shame it focused purely on AC's impact on the workplace and not the home. While many like to blame television for the decline of the "neighborhood," I think AC has much more to do with it. No more sitting out in the yard or on the porch in the cool of the evening, seeing your neighbors and even, just imagine, chatting with them. -- Jeff Keezel I'd like to invite Julie Caniglia to spend a summer in Texas without air-conditioning. All the iced tea in the world could not help to make the experience anything even remotely resembling "languid" or "sensual." There's nothing romantic about it, believe me. -- Jenny Muscarella
_______________ TRUE BELIEVER BY BRUCE SHAPIRO (07/03/98)
	The article written by Bruce Shapiro on the brethren, Starr, Rehnquist, et al., is so well written that I felt like I was at a fine restaurant dining on exquisite cuisine. The truth as outlined so clearly by Mr. Shapiro and others writing for Salon has become a reliable source of sanity assurance. Keep it up. The future of media needs this kind of direct, concise observation in order to rescue the profession from its downward spiral, a direction accelerated by all the smug, dead-weight pricks and prima donnas so prevalent in the "mainstream," traditional news organizations. -- Gregory Daries SALON \| July 13, 1998