Sunday, July 03, 2005

To: The Lady in the Flower Print Dress Behind Me in Line at the Giant Eagle

From: Pho

Re: Your recent purchase.

I am assuming from your sour expression that you read my sour expression. And you probably guessed the reason. It was my disgust at seeing that you had taken time out of your Saturday evening to stop at a supermarket for the apparent sole purpose of purchasing The Truth About Hillary.

I was sorely tempted to say something. I didn't, partly because I had my 3-year-old with me, partly to avoid a public spectacle, but mostly because at first blush it seemed fruitless. Really, what are the odds that my speaking could change your mind about anything. You are proposing to devote several hours to a book whose sole purpose is to fling poo on its subject. A book that makes the collected works of Kitty Kelly look like hagiography and the journalism of the National Enquirer like Woodward and Bernstein. A book that has been roundly denounced by journalists, historians and several responsible conservatives.

As I completed my transaction, I realized what really needed to be said, though again I held my tongue. Here it is: You are being suckered. A hack writer has shaken the dust off a collection of old rumors, cobbled together a few new anonymous sources, synthesized some misrepresentations of his own and put a hard cover on it for the apparent purpose of separating you from $18.81 (list price minus GE's 25% discount) of your money.

Surely you must have heard the criticisms. (If you haven't, check out here, here, here and here.) And surely the book itself isn't important to your ultimate opinion. Would you really vote for her if convinced that she isn't a lesbian?

So I am left with the conclusion that you shell out the money to buy a pestilent book that confirms your darkest fears about your liberal boogeymen. The Ed Klein's of the world are happy to take your money and give you a shoddy product that reinforces your paranoia about the left and forestalls any possibilty of real debate. How very sad that you so freely give it to them.

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