Letters

Contact us via e-mail (le*****@oc******.com">le*****@oc******.com), regular mail (Letters to the Editor, OC Weekly, P.O. Box 10788, Costa Mesa, CA 92627) or fax (714-708-8410). Letters will be edited for clarity and length. All correspondence must include your home city and a daytime phone number.

HEAD BUTT

Re: Daniel C. Tsang's article about the large protest against the racist, misogynistic, homophobic, fundamentalist Christian group Reclaim America (“Marxist Pinkos!” May 4): Tsang must have either (A) attended the event for a short period of time or not at all, (B) relied on the Newport Beach Police Department and Reclaim America attendees for his information regarding the protest, or (C) been rendered incapable of accurately reporting the demonstration since his head was up his ass. Note to Tsang: colon exams should be rendered by the trained finger and instruments of a physician!

Speakers at the event were represented by the following classifications: straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, black, Latino, Asian, Native American, women, homeless, ex-Boy Scouts, and every religious and political affiliation under the sun. What Tsang missed was the fact that “Reclaim America” was in Newport Beach to recruit for their cause that cause being to take away the rights of people who don't fit their narrow view of the world. Please note that the groups that participated in the protest do not all fit nicely under the “Marxist” umbrella that you inferred in your article. They have varied views and beliefs. Fighting united for one another's diversity is the common thread that brought them together.

Kelly Wine
Santa Monica

Daniel C. Tsang responds: I've stuck a few things up my butt, but never my head. Yet. Maybe Kelly can demonstrate. I attended the anti-hate rally the whole two hours except for a brief foray into the conference exhibit area—so my information didn't come from anyone else and definitely not the very butch cops.

HAIL THIS!

Anthony Pignataro's story “Cab Tab” (April 20) should be posted in every cab. Your report emphasizes that American Taxi promised the county $3.4 million in exchange for the monopoly at John Wayne Airport. I'd rather make my own choice of which cab company to use from tried-and-true word of mouth, the media, and free-market competition. It would be more prudent than relying on the government's safety measure: legal extortion. If the county would just put me in charge of the committee, I would get the government out of the taxi business. Consumers would be responsible for choosing their taxi companies just as they choose any of their other modes of travel. One more corruption-in-government problem solved.

Linda Lee Grau
Irvine

ARMY BRAT

Matt Coker's review of X and Tiger Army at the House of Blues (“Still Desperate,” April 13) was obviously fueled by a lack of self-esteem on the author's part WEAK! If this self-proclaimed Jesus of the music scene has to put down anything that he feels his vanity calls for, I am gonna stand my punk rock ass up and exercise my right and ask who cares how long he has been cooped up in Orange County, attending backyard parties, and say that nobody cares to witness him airing his conceit. Good for you, sir, that you have been a card-holding member of the local music-scene organization of Orange Count since 1950, I suppose? I heard comments like yours at backyard keggers BEFORE YOU WERE EVER BORN! By the way: “moshing”? I think you meant to say “slamming.” Why don't you set an example and try to support the scene instead of just feeding your vanity with that trash you called a review. By the way, how old are you?

G. Munselle
Santa Ana

Matt Coker responds: Old. But not as old as Jesus.

BAKERSFUCKINGFIELD!

Chris Ziegler is full of shit (“Don't Come Back Dead,” May 4). He distorted the facts to make Bakersfield seem like some hick mecca. This town has come a long way from what it used to be, and I would appreciate it if Chris would not stereotype something he knows nothing about. I would also like to know what makes OC so much better than Bakersfield? In my experience, kids are all the same whatever town you are in.

Darren
via e-mail

WE'RE BASICALLY CONSERVATIVES

The OC Weekly aspires to some truly interesting though the two recent articles questioning the arrests and incarceration of two young men while flirting with PC schmaltz were ultimately rather courageous. But I was surprised to see Rebecca Schoenkopf's pedestrian and banal review of Robert Stivers' “Figure 3” (“We'll All Be Ugly Then,” May 4). One of the purposes of art is to push against mainstream values, and of course, serious art criticism would work as an accomplice. Why go to such lengths to assure us that Stivers' art doesn't delve into “inappropriate allure”? This is the same mindset of any would-be censor; it's just a matter of where you place the bar.

It's disappointing to see a paper that bills itself as an “alternative” publication going through such contortions to say, “None of our thoughts question current societal beliefs!”

Jeff Allen Maehre via e-mail

Rebecca Schoenkopf responds: We question plenty of “societal beliefs,” but if Maehre wants me to say the North American Man/Boy Love Association and its ilk are okay, I'm not going to agree. Just because conservatives say something is bad doesn't make it good. That's a retarded way to think.