Hell in a Handbasket

When Kentucky Representative Kathy Stein spoke at UK's Catholic Newman Center last summer I wrote in Septuagint, a local Catholic paper, that her appearance as a militant pro-abort inside a Catholic church was comparable to last year's performance of The Vagina Monologues at two national Catholic campuses. No surprise then that Stein and the play came together in Lexington like a pair of star-crossed lovers. Stein's keynote address at a Catholic women's conference and The Vagina Monologues enactment at Catholic colleges have two things in common: (1) destabilizing Christianity, and (2) showing the extent to which Nietzche's transvaluation of all values has been achieved.

Rhonda Reeves' salutary portrayal of the play is, of course, vintage ACE [A&E lead, Feb 8]. So long as the play subverts the moral order it was assured a good rating. Ah, Ace. What looks like freedom to you- sexual liberation- is really oppression. What looks like oppression to you-the law of God's love- is really freedom. Troubled consciences explains why people disparage religious authority and rationalize away traditional morality.

There always have been and always will be two options to choosing evil: one can repent, and this involves turning away from wrongdoing, or onecan rationalize his misbehavior. Those who choose the latter, more oftenthan not, resort to political activism like (of all things!) promoting the sexual "liberation" that creates the pangs of guilt often driving them in the first place. Of course, if your conscience is dead you can get away with murder which, unfortunately, is sometimes the case today literally through abortion and certain contraceptives (none of these thoughts are original, but I was sure you'd be overjoyed to hear them).

At the level of politics the transvaluation of all values you preachspells political control. After coming to power and then manipulating obscenity laws, the Bill and Hillary Regime enabled Hollywood to produce not one thousand porno flicks a year, but ten thousand! Get it? Those who gain financially from the smut industry do so by facilitating people's spiritual bondage, and at the expense of families whose lives and marriages are destroyed by this insidious form of political control. As Edmund Burke once wrote Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

We are now at the breaking point. Which means ultimately, since good always triumph over evil, that the Culture of Death's days are numbered.

Matthew V.V. Haltom

Back When Less Was More

congratulations on your new ownership of Ace. although i never really understood why everyone was so threatened by the Village Voice, of all things. oh well. we can't all feign liberal beliefs, can we. but that is bygone era, and so, all that really matters is, you own it, and no matter who owns it, as long as it is doing as it has done, and reaching for more, then all is well.

i left lexington for college two and a half years ago. Ace was still biweekly at that point. I don't know when it changed, but did it not coincide w/ VVM's purchase? in any event, i remember, in the grand old days of my Henry Clayish youth, Ace seeming a might bit thicker than i now find it on my returns home. god love it, but Ace has, i think, suffered from the weekly crunch. not that thickness denotes quality. quality alone denotes quality, of course, and that is what i'm saying, that the quality of the articles seemed much higher "back in the day." Now, perhaps I was just not then so extraordinarily bright as i am now, and perhaps i'm just a blowhard, forming an opinion based on the few issues i've caught since my exit, or perhaps one issue a week actually does compromise quality. for no other reason, lexington doesn't even have enough happening in a week to necessitate a weekly paper (let alone the herald leader). not that i'm crapping on lexington with newly acquired big city attitudes, only that lexington, for all it aspires to, has not attained some level of activity equal to the task you wish to take on.

on another note, i noticed a couple letters about submissions. why do you not accept/print fiction? is it just a time issue? it seems Ace would be a wonderful venue for fiction. i don't even understand why the village voice doesn't have fiction. some things remain beyond my comprehension. somehow. but yes, is it that you don't have time to read through all they tripe you'd recieve? or do you not see it as a part of the paper's vision? or is it a space thing? i don't know. seems like you could accept poems and short short stories, like page or so, and ace would then carry one more asset. creating the community lexington claims it wants ("needs") can be aided with literary expression and the establishment of a literary community, however small (or shitty), based around local writers and their readers. it would spark discussion, and it would, concisely, add worthy content to your (our) paper.

sorry for the blathering length, and do keep up the good work. lexington strives for many things, and some people actually do something about it. i am not one of them. most of lexington is not either. but then there are others (ross compton, Keith @ Magic Bean, and yourself, amongst others) who do.

david schankula

via email

Ace does see a tremendous need to support the local literary community, which was part of the motivation behind the inception of V Magazine (formerly known as Voice), a quarterly literary magazine - featuring art, fiction, and poetry. The next edition will be on stands March 1.

Party Girl

Rhonda,

I certainly enjoyed your last Reality Truck. Yes, you are indeed a true Partyphobic. You exhibit all the classic signs. Your type can always be found hanging/hiding out with the caterer in the kitchen!! How come we haven't met? Look forward to it.

Kate Savage

[caterer]

Yeeee-hah!!! It's great to see Reality Truck back in the pages of Ace; the perfect complement to a box of doughnuts and a pot of coffee! The only bummer was the note that it would "occasionally" appear. Well, I guess occasionally is better than never. Can't your new owner be persuaded to let you write more often? Maybe if she was plied with doughnuts?

Matt Simpson

Here's what's required to appease the Beast (i.e., Owner). Dougnuts. Six packs of Coke in 10 oz. bottles. Offerings can be left at the front desk. Reality Trucks may ensue.