Joe Bell should violate his cardinal rules more often (The Bell
Curve, "Revisionist history that needs revisiting," Thursday). His
response to Tom Williams' letter is a timely reminder of the power of
reason over rant. The same theme was visited by Norah Vincent in
Thursday's Los Angeles Times.
Under the headline "The yelling drowns out the ideas," Vincent
writes: "We are polarized in the extreme and desperate for certainty,
even if it's only the kind of turgid, substanceless conviction that
comes of shouting louder and quipping meaner than the other guy."
Williams' March 6 letter is a case in point, but only the most
recent example (Readers Respond, "Conservatives in Orange County
should be proud"). In December 1999, he exploded over an earlier Bell
Curve, which the Pilot printed as a "Rebuttal" ("Joe Bell should
stick to local issues," Dec. 16, 1999). The paper didn't take a
position on what Williams said, but clearly defended his right to say
it. Voltaire would have approved, whereas Williams apparently denies
that right where "liberal" columnists are concerned.
Williams began his 1999 rebuttal by faulting Bell for toppling
Geraldo Rivera as the "all-time, world champion Bill Clinton
'behind-kisser.'" Then he offered this advice: Bell should limit
himself to (among other pursuits) "kissing Clinton's behind." A
curious contradiction, that. Williams must have been too preoccupied
with his fulminations to notice.
A final snippet: Williams advised Bell "to stick to something he
knows about." Likewise. Likewise.
DICK LEWIS
Balboa Peninsula
While our founding fathers were against a personal income tax,
they allowed slavery to flourish for 100 years. That doesn't make
them "nut cases," but I don't think it's something writer Williams
wants included when he identifies with the founding fathers and
claims pride as one of the "conservative Republican Orange
Countians."
Perhaps another civil war in 2014 will end the personal income tax
(2014 will be the hundred-year mark for the personal income tax
instigated by "liberal" President Wilson, according to Williams).
In the meantime, we've had several vociferously "conservative"
presidents -- Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George
H.W. Bush and George W. Bush -- and none of them have tried to end
the personal income tax.
Slavery was outlawed. Why not the personal income tax? Where is
Williams' anger at these men? If he is so against the personal income
tax, why does he proudly remain a "conservative Republican" when his
