Letters

--Remember when one of the popular battle cries of the '60s was, "Tell it like it is!"? We must have more of Roger Kimball ("Dr. West and Mr. Summers," Jan. 28) "telling it like it is." In his Harvard tale he constantly, unerringly, hit the nail on the head. This story of Harvard's hypocrisy and shame left no bent nails: Every one was hammered straight and true.

Mike Lostritto

Culebra Island, Puerto Rico

--Re Jay Nordlinger's piece, "Is There a Dr. in the House?" (Feb. 11): When I was in graduate school, one of my professors was a Ph.D. psychologist. He did some work at one of the local hospitals, where he always parked in spaces marked "Doctors' Parking Only." That is, until they changed the sign to read "Physicians' Parking Only."

Al Dubinsky

Pittsburgh, Pa.

--I recall that Darrell Royal, the highly successful football coach at the University of Texas, was granted the title "Professor." Faculty of course objected. Someone told a protester that if he developed the best department in the country, he might be granted the title "Coach."

Joseph G. Louderback

Seneca, S.C.

--With a doctorate in economics, I often remind people that I'm qualified only to write an appendix, not remove one.

David W. Riggs

Washington, D.C.

--I once saw a letter from an academic who actually began her longhand signature with "Dr." If I remember correctly, she was in English.

George E. Rennar

Seattle, Wash.

--Stanley Kurtz ("Veil of Fears," Jan. 28) defends the veiling of Muslim women as part of the kinship or tribal system, but while doing so exposes the custom of marriage between first cousins. He either misses or ignores the fact that in societies that are targets of Muslim terror, first-cousin marriage is generally disapproved.

However, this widespread inbreeding may explain another phenomenon -- the large number of idiot terrorists who are running around.

Charles K. Sergis

Calabasas, Calif.

--From The Week (Jan. 28): "Just as there is no compelling moral objection to owning, killing, or experimenting on pigs, there is none to manufacturing them." I am among those who believe that human beings and animals share a common ancestry, and that some animals may therefore possess a subjective awareness similar to our own. While the human race can and must look after its own interests, I believe there are limits to what we may conscionably do to other members of the animal kingdom. That the systematic cloning, mutation, and dismemberment of pigs for medical purposes falls within these limits is not as obvious as you suggest.

Bruce Larson

Seattle, Wash.

-- Ever since NR put Don Rumsfeld on the cover (Dec. 31) and proclaimed him a stud, my wife has been paying more attention to the SecDef. As we watched Bush's cabinet make its way down the aisle at the State of the Union, she said that Rummy was "kind of cute." Just wanted to let you all know, I blame you.

Eric Christ

Sun City, Ariz.

COPYRIGHT 2002 National Review, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group