To me, Boyle is a bit like C.B. Sullenburger, the pilot who famously landed the plane in the Hudson. Sully gently told the media to go into the night, and returned to his private life none the worse for the pawing of the filthy media.

Every once in a long while somebody appears on the international stage and somehow manages to get back off it without being dragged into the degradation of celebrity. There was Sully, who did it with a quiet class I don't know if I've ever seen before, and now there is Susan Boyle, who didn't do it with the same quiet confidence, but did it nonetheless.

There ought to be a Hall of Fame for people who escape the clutches of fame with intact souls, except that such a Hall would be defeating the point.

Anyway, Susan, God speed ye.

Most of the Keillor critics miss the point of his homespun language. Its that Americans are becoming more and more disconnected from the world around them.

Think of any culture -- French, Mexican, Italian, Cajun, Chinese, Indian -- and doubtless the first thing that comes to mind is the food. Food is the linchpin of every culture. A culture that has no cuisine is in the process of going out of existence.

People don't cook anymore, and this is a serious problem. We don't know what goes into our mouths, so how can we relate to our environment, which needs us more than ever?

Go back and look at the Salon page. The lead story is about overfishing. Overfishing occurs because food processing is an industry, instead of an event in the home.

Did it bother me when Keillor talked about letting the torturers off? Sure it did. But give me choice between sending Bush to jail and teaching every American to make a mean potato salad and I will choose the latter. We can't protect our world if citizens are so insulated from it that they have never seen a fish with the head and scales on.

Good cooking makes a home. You can't build community and family in a restaurant. So stop carping about Bush and go home and cook for your family like caring Americans do.

Palin's arguments make sense on a certain level, but she leaves one thing out. A very large, humongous thing.

Global warming.

Palin bases her argument for energy reform on the concept of energy independence. Palin is also a famous climate change doubter. Sure, we can achieve energy independence by strip mining the Rockies, wrecking the Arctic tundra and using the Giant Redwoods to fire electric plants, but that's not the point of cap and trade. The entire point is to slow down carbon emissions. In her essay she acts as if she doesn't even understand this. There isn't a single mention of carbon emissions, climate control, or even plain old pollution control.

Sometimes we tolerate the stupidity of people who argue for "energy independence" because we think this is the only way to get conservatives to sign on to plans to curb carbon emissions. But the truth is, the energy independence doctrine usually ends

with half-baked plans like this. Energy independence is too limited a goal to succeed. It will not save the environment, because it does not see fossil fuel consumption as the root of the problem.

As far as Aunt Sarah is concerned, the plan should be (1) find more oil, then (2) PAR-TAY!

This is unacceptable given what we know about the environment. The only acceptable energy policy is one that directly confronts climate change.

We have to go hard line with people like this. People who are too narrow-minded to understand that we have to kick our fossil fuel habit ASAP have no place on the national stage. Or writing op-eds for a major newspaper.

Glad to see it on the list. I'd have made it number one. Silent films are usually critics-only domain, but I really wish everyone would see "City Lights." Funny and heartbreaking. I've watched the final scene probably a dozen times at least, and have never failed to tear up. I am definitely not the tearing type.

I've never seen a more transcendent movie. It's perfect in every way.

At first, I thought Todd would defend his position by saying he was simply restating the White House position. That he was a reporter, not a pundit.

And that's how it went, for five minutes or so, until Todd shocked me by making the argument that "law isn't clear cut" and that it would "damage our national reputation" if a new president put a previous one on trial. Then he started babbling about retribution from one party on another.

Well, if the Republicans are going to get revenge on Obama for prosecuting torturers, the gig is up. We might as well give ourselves back the England. We can't be afraid to put politicians in jail because we fear payback. That is not a workable system. It's not even a democracy.

At the beginning I thought Glenn was being too tough on Todd. In the end, Todd was everything Glenn said he was, and worse. Todd is obviously severely lacking in moral fortitude and has completely bought into Beltway thinking. I used to like Chuck Todd. Now I see how much a part of the problem he really is.