OF HIPSTERS AND NAZIS

TO THE MERCURY: So that guy who wrote the mean letter about Julianne is obviously jealous ["Letters," Dec 6]. "Hipster" is the catchall term amongst the insecure for "person who doesn't jump through hoops to be my bestest friend."

On to more important things: That Tom Metzger interview chilled me to the bone [News, "Straight from the Neo-Nazi's Mouth," Dec 6]. The way he shaped his rhetoric to appeal to the "sitting on the fence" white liberal mindset that seems to be the norm in our oh-so-accepting city (run by our "leftist" mayor) was truly horrifying, not to mention the suggestion that WAR members are in hiding everywhere. Just goes to show that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist.

Alex Integratron

NATIVE AMERICANS WERE HERE FIRST!

TO THE EDITOR: Tom Metzger sounds like a pretty smart guy for a white supremacist, but his goal of a "white North America" is shit. Okay, all the other races can have other countries as far as he's concerned, but Mr. Metzger seems to forget Native Americans were here long before his race and he needs to take his ignorance somewhere else--anywhere else. He says, "we just want them out of ours [country]." Well, try Europe for domination. This country was never his to begin with.

Kimberly Linhart

THE MERCURY: FEEDING ALL KINDS OF RATS

TO THE EDITOR: The Dec. 6 interview of Tom Metzger by Katia Dunn totally blew my mind. Let me see if I have this correct: 1) Metzger claims to be a "racist" calling for something like "separate, but equal" between whites and people of color, and 2) he claims to be something of a "libertarian" and 3) thinks he is in the vanguard of both the "racist" and "environmental struggles." And 4) he "would eliminate the drug war" so as to prevent a "police state." He correctly notes that in so doing it would empty prisons.

It seems to me Metzger is a racist who has lost his way. After all, the drug war--from its inception and still--is government-sanctioned racism. Don't forget it was the drug warriors who invented racial profiling, otherwise known as "driving while black."

So what's this good ole Tom really getting at? Is this an attempt to link antiprohibition efforts, like re-legalizing cannabis, with this sick man's agenda? Or perhaps to taint that effort, and the environmental movement along with it?

Not on my watch.

Deep counter-propaganda or not, let me make it perfectly clear that true libertarians are colorblind, and those of us working to end the drug war and legalize pot have no relationship whatsoever with any racist agenda, e.g. Metzger's vision of a North America only for whites.

What remains then is why Dunn, and the Mercury, would even have the slightest interest in this mad man's rant, much less give him most of a page to lay his sick-shit out before us? Stop feeding the rats, it only encourages them.

Floyd Ferris Landrath, Dir.
American Antiprohibition League

I LOVE EMERSON, LAKE AND PALMER

TO THE MERCURY: Now you've gone and done it. You insulted the Grandfathers of Techno, Emerson, Lake and Palmer ["Naming Your Crappy Band," Dec 6]. The name may not be the greatest, but they make any piss-ant drunken little punk band you guys champion look really sick. I grew up playing drums to Carl Palmer's riffs, and was amazed by a stand-up single bass pedal solo before that drummer from Hella was even born. If you wanna make fun of their name, go ahead. I'm sure rat's ass back alley bands like Martyrium, Zebrahead, and the Kung Pao Chickens will be grateful you didn't see their names first. After all, none of them set a record for highest-paid band for a single concert, as ELP did while you guys were still in diapers and breathlessly awaiting the next BeeGees album. I doubt that any band appearing at Satyricon or Roseland has a five- time Drummer of the Year, or synth god like Keith Emerson on board. Get Real! Your music choices SUCK!

Johnny Tapp

DEPARTMENT OF CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to the ELP-lovin' Johnny Tapp for winning the Mercury's "Letter of the Week!" Johnny will receive two free passes to the Laurelhurst Theater for his bilious, yet well thought out essay. If you'd like to be the next winner, send in your letter to the address above and remember ELP rulez!!

Also! A hearty congratulations goes out to Mercury staffer Aaron Beam's dad Kurt, who has been given the "K.S. Cole Award," which we think is a big fancy award for Biophysics. Way to go, Kurt!