Coleman (Coolman) Young single-handedly destroyed Detroit. He was vulgar (he would curse so much at reporters that the evening news would have to just discontinue most interviews), he was criminal, "lending" city money to friends and relatives so they could start businesses to bid on city contracts, and he hated white people with a passion (perhaps he just hated everyone). I grew up in Taylor, a suburb, then moved to Five Mile road and Outer Drive. By the time I left, never to return, you had to kill a bunch of people at once just to make the news.

Who's to blame? Who put him in office (repeatedly)? The same folks that put Marion, Ray, and Willie in office, that's who. Some people will vote for anybody, as long as they are the "right" color.

Detroit has been a dump for years, is still a dump, and will be a dump for years to come. It's not like we don't visit our relatives. Think Fort Street near Wayne State and for hundreds of blocks surrounding. A burned-out crack-house wasteland. So they got a casino. Big deal.

From where Fort meets Woodward it is only about 20 blocks from Wayne State, and I just did a Google Street View of that area. It's still a dump. Whole blocks of empty sand, scrub, bums, and ugly all the way to the Ren Cen. Defend it if you want, but it is obvious your idea of "lovely, and mine is vastly different

Poco

Is this ALL YOU GOT on Palin? Cuz if this is all the "dirt" you can dish up on Palin, you are just doing her a favor. In essence, you are saying "uh, were desperate people. We've got to find something to disparage her..." And so you come up with THIS?!? How many people do you really think give a crap about predator control? You even admit that only wolves in certain areas are targets. Yeah, areas like the local grade school, or DAY CARE CENTER. Get a grip. If you can't say anything really nasty, just don't say anything at all.

Ha ha. Sounds like a good idea for a movie.

Yes, your kid is a dick. Now please get him out of my restaurant. Remember too, that your dickish two year old will eventually become society's dickish 20 year old. Now there's utopia.

"It's also silly to say that no one will care. Did you read the letters?"

Silly?

Delusional: thinking that these Salon letters represent the opinions of even 1/10 of 1% of American voters. Man, some of you have a very inflated view of your importance.

Techinally speaking, NO ONE WILL CARE. It only makes the left look desperate. It's pretty apparent by the low volume of the responses to this article, that not even many Saloners care. 134 @12:00 noon.

Keep it up Salon, you are guaranteeing a GOP win. Man, what a pack of retards.

You are gaining real ground. Palin is looking more like Hitler all the time through the efforts of this deep and troubling analysis. Pathetic.

Don't you realize that you are affirming the properties that make her appealing to so many? Do you really think that the majority of Americans are religion hating atheists? Do you? You people are so self important and blind. Here's what the majority of Americans are disgusted by: egocentric psuedointellectuals.

Not only that, the headline is an error in print. A Muslim theocrat is simply not the equivalent of a Christian theocrat. You are declaring a profound ignorance of both religions.

attack on Palin. Keep it up Salon, she's about to lose an eyelash.

Guns kill. That's all there is to it. You occupy the same room as a gun long enough, and you WILL be dead.

Since when hasn't the US been engaged in imperialism, resource wars, torture, etc.? Remember those people called "Indians"? Yeah, well the US killed most of them and took ALL THEIR LAND. How nice. Remember those folks called Mexicans? Well, the US killed a bunch of them and took TEXAS and CALIFORINIA. Ever wonder how Japan became westernized?

Resource wars? Ha Ha. War is ALWAYS about money. Never forget it. Every war the US has ever engaged in can be traced back to the universal resource: Money.

Torture? Please see WWII, Korea, VietNam, just to name a few. Plenty of instances of torture are documented on both sides of those conflicts. You think Gitmo is bad? Puh-lease!! Talk to an Amercian Japanese sometime about internment and losing everything they own.

How stupid of you to think that the "good ol days" were any better than today. How about this: In the "good ole days" homosexuality did not "exist", blacks drank from separate water fountains, and women didn't vote. Sounds great, no?

Dear Canadian,

You are pathetically uninformed.

You need to bone up on your history. You think the US is in such terrible shape, what with the evil republicans ruining everything...

"But then came the 1970s, when that self-image took a real beating. Vietnam, Watergate, stagflation, OPEC, pollution, Three Mile Island, Iran hostages, urban decay and other events showed some of the ugly realities."

How about:

But then came the 1920s, when that self image took a real beating. The Great Depression, the religious loonies and their Prohibition, the resulting crime wave driven by bootlegged liquor, Bonnie and Clyde, Dillinger, the dust bowl, starvation, Railroad Barons running the government, atrocious working conditions in the coal mines, commonplace legal racial discrimination, and other events showed some of the ugly realities.

Oh, yeah. We are so much worse off today. Why them was the good ole days before the great satan, aka Ronald Reagan came along. Oh, I almost forgot the slaughter of the great plains bison, and native Americans. He did that too.

Liberals today. Truly the result of the public school system.