-- Paul Robichaux

Customer rage is becoming more prevalent in both the service and retail industries. In my four years as an employee of a well-known national bookstore chain, I and my co-workers have been threatened physically, sexually harassed and called unprintable names, and have had dictionary-sized books thrown at us. Service and retail workers stand on the last frontier of people you can be legally abusive to. Hurray to those airlines adopting "zero tolerance" policies on incidents of rage. Companies and citizens should know that the customer is not always right.

-- Kimberly Bojanowski

I am shocked that in your examination of the "air rage" phenomenon, you use as your first and longest example the behavior of a mentally ill person. Yes, he was violent, and, yes, flight attendants and passengers were injured. But that man was not disgruntled at having to turn off his cell phone, being refused a drink or waiting in the long line while first-class passengers got in the short one at the ticket counter! That was not "air rage." The author's tone, including his use of quotation marks for "mentally ill" and "psychotic episode," indicate a disbelief in the reality of mental illness. Why else would he group together a man who was experiencing a traumatic event that he has no control over with those boorish people who violently attack others due to a minor irritation?

-- Mary Shillue
Somerville, Mass.

Real Life Rock Top 10
BY GREIL MARCUS
(09/07/99)

I have to say that I found Greil Marcus' recent dig at Chris Barron, in which he declares the best news of the week to be that Barron is suffering from paralysis of the vocal cords, to be unnecessarily cruel and in bad taste. While I personally will lose no sleep at the prospect of never hearing the Spin Doctors again, the real-life misfortune of an artist losing the tools of his trade, and a fellow human being the use of his voice, is a tragic event. Should Marcus' arms become paralyzed, I would hope that the recipients of his negative reviews would not publicly rejoice in his inability to type further columns.

-- Travis Hartnett
Austin, Texas

Dear Mr. Blue: Still tempted
BY GARRISON KEILLOR
(09/07/99)

Mr. Blue's response to "Struggling Mama" was off the mark. Her decision to have a child was just that: her decision. Her lover had no options, and no say in the matter. She had the child over his objections. Why should he pay for her decision? To haul this man into court and wring a monthly payment out of him will just cause conflict and heartache. She and her son are happy the way things are. Leave them be.

-- John Klingle
Merrimack, N.H.

"For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today"
BY CALEB CRAIN
(09/07/99)

Caleb Crain's review of that shameless collection of pieties, "For Common Things" by Jedidiah Purdy, was inspiring. He illuminated the banal essence of the book, and he did it with humor. Crain's line about the benefits Purdy would have gained from a public education where "children who suck up to adults too cravenly are methodically cornered and beaten by their peers" is brilliant. I'm quite sure the humor-impaired, Purdy and his fans, won't get the joke. They'll probably accuse Crain of advocating "storm trooper tactics" or some such nonsense.

-- Larry Specht

Commentary's scurrilous attack on Edward Said
BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
(09/07/99)

I consider Edward Said as a voice of sanity in a sometimes insane world. The positions he has advocated were not rebutted. Instead, an oblique and cowardly approach was taken; instead of trying to counter his positions with logic, the approach is to attack him personally in order to prove that he couldn't possibly be saying anything worthwhile or true. The unfortunate fact is that the idealistic phrases tossed about when the state of Israel was being considered -- a light to the world, a socialist and democratic paradise, a community based not on the material but the spiritual -- died aborning. The Israeli Supreme Court just outlawed torture of prisoners (read: Arabs), to the dismay of the (Jewish) majority of the population. Perhaps the author of that article might compare the high-flown phrases before Israel independence with the reality of today.

-- Sol Cohen
Vallejo, Calif.

While I am not an Israeli, I would, as a Jew, like to take this opportunity to apologize to Christopher Hitchens for the chutzpah my Israeli brothers and sisters showed by laying down their lives in the defense of their country and their people in 1948, and, pushy arrogant bastards that they are, actually winning a war that everyone was sure they were going to lose.

It is really a shame that the Israelis were prepared militarily in 1948; had they not been, perhaps Hitchens would now be feeling sorry for us instead of the Arabs. All things being equal, I will take his bile over his sympathy any day.

It is only in hindsight and under the influence of pernicious political bias that victory in war can, by itself, be taken as proof of aggression or even military superiority. Revisionists like Hitchens falsify history by putting Israel on one side and only the Palestinians on the other, thereby endeavoring to show that Israel, even in 1948, was the aggressor against an obviously weaker foe.

However, the war against Israel has always been a pan-Arab effort. In 1948 Israel was invaded by the combined regular and irregular forces of all of the surrounding Arab countries (including the Arab Legion of Transjordan, which was armed, trained and officered by the British), whose express purpose was the destruction of Israel and the extirpation of its Jewish population. Israel need apologize to no one for winning a war they were forced to fight and upon which their survival depended.

It is a sad fact that wars create refugees. The War of Independence resulted in Jewish refugees as well as Arab ones, but no one mentions the Jewish refugees anymore, because, after all, the Jews won. The pan Arab leadership, which enlisted the Palestinian Arabs in their war against the Jews and then abandoned them when they lost that war, must bear the blame.

-- Earl Hartman

Get over it, David!
BY JOE CONASON
(09/07/99)

Conason is wrong: Horowitz was defamed by Time. While Matt Drudge immediately offered a retraction with respect to Sidney's wife-beating allegation, Time Magazine has not offered a retraction to the "racist" allegation In addition, there is a significant difference between weekly print media and the instant electronic gossip column. Time Magazine is supposed to be more measured and more accurate.

Conason is a hypocrite, who decries privilege while demanding it for himself. He is a member of the quintessential breed of new journalist, who whines of his rights while seeking to silence all dissenting views with a stream of invective that typically includes "hate" as the central theme.

-- Jason Stewart
Bozeman, Mont.

Rarely do I read something that I covet so much as Joe Conason's point of view on the childish spat between David Horowitz and Time. I found myself saying, "Exactly!" so many times that a co-worker had to yell at me to "shut up."

Horowitz's own hypocrisy reeked before he even got through the third sentence of his initial column, not to mention his reaction/protest piece. Only conservative Christians have such hubris in their "humility" to claim Christianity is the "last acceptable prejudice" and then confidently and eternally damn homosexuals, not to mention having backed decades of racist beliefs and acts.

Horowitz fits right in with that kind of pathetic hypocrisy, and it's both embarrassing and humiliating.

-- Billy Faires
Chattanooga, Tenn.

Dark Hotel
(09/03/99)

I discovered Dark Hotel a week ago. Read all the back issues. This is one great "comix." I was in Kosovo recently and, soon after returning to San Francisco, saw the film "Cabaret Balkan." Drago's story brings back the reality of the place and the mystery of the film. The art is fantastic. I hope this has a long run.

-- David Butterfield