William Kristol The Weekly Standard

August 14, 2010

William Kristol
The Weekly Standard
1150 17th Street, NW #505
Washington, DC 20036

RE: Tours, Lepanto, Omdurman…Manhattan?

Mr. Kristol,

I enclose a copy of my letter to Mayor Bloomberg about the mosque. There is another reason for the note and the stamp.

I congratulate you on your great good sense in picking your parents.

Your father’s essays in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s were both a beacon and a bugle. A beacon because the truth is always the truth; a bugle because they summoned good men to renew our society.

It sounds a bit off plumb to say that I am a big fan of your mother. Suffice to say that I have given one of her books, The Moral Imagination, to 7 of my friends.

[Wikipedia lists your religion as Zionist. Is that the more radical wing of Reform Judaism or one the more moderate forms of Conservative Judaism? Would the cantor be an apostate Lubavitcher? Are the Israeli bonds sold at the breakfasts convertible?]

If we can’t get the Village People and the second string of La Cage aux Folles to put on one of their unforgettable rarees perhaps a “shovel ready” barbecue joint with 24 hour pole dance competitions can be arranged.






Kevin Smith