OK, this is all really very simple...

Any commercial entertainment enterprise will keep whatever talent they need to ensure a regular and attentive audience for their advertisers. If said enterprise also happens to be owned by disparate commercial interests, the talent is also expected to be friendly to those commercial interests, and to not cause embarrassment to the parent company, or whoever is controlling the purse strings. At this point in time, decisions concerning whether a particular talent stays or goes are made entirely on that level.

Now, when entertainment providers peddle their wares over publicly-owned airwaves (yes, the airwaves really do belong to the public- at least on paper. Right now.) that significantly complicates things.

I don't believe in censorship. For me, bad speech is best countered by more speech. If some jerk is using up my piece of publicly-owned bandwith for whatever brand of foolishness-du-jour there might be, (take your pick) then hey, I want access to the same microphone.

All the puerile crapola that gets out onto the radio is there because a medium held in check strictly by market forces will quickly sink to the lowest common denominator to secure their share of the ratings pie. Look- this is human nature. Listening to Shock-Jocks is just like rubbernecked gawking at a car wreck. You know you're not supposed to do it, but most folks can't help but to sneak a peek at the carnage and suffering unfolding before their very eyes.

So I say, bring back the Fairness Doctrine. Or at the very least, if the FCC isn't willing to do that, than they should just be honest with us all, and finally admit what we all know to be true in practice, anyway- that the airwaves are, in fact, NOT public, and will be sold to the highest bidder for their exclusive pleasure.

It's not about the band, brother.

I find it hard to believe that forming a band will suddenly improve your life when you come across as a desperately unhappy and judgemental person- who wears your contempt for others by using dismissive terms like "mindless drones," and believing that you are just too special to work for a living.

Guess what, you're not.

I lived up close and personal with someone who shares many of your apparent traits. They were perpetually miserable and hell to just be around. Don't kid yourself by thinking the reason why nobody connects to you is that you are somehow superior. If you are at all like the person to whom I refer, your particular set of personality traits would be profoundly repellent to most well-adjusted people.

Blunt, yes. Unkind, no- because you are what you are, right now. You have to explore how you got there, and whether or not staying there is still working for you. Do a reality check. Force yourself to mix with various groups of people. Listen to what goes through your head as you do this, and then ask yourself, "If I met me, would I admire that person and want to know them?"

People here are doing you a kindness by calling you on your bullshit and self-delusions. Please look at this as a gift and start a discipline of self-reflection. Look inside yourself- that's where the solution lies- not in external trappings.

I think a competant therapist could help you in your journey. While you do this, seek out some kind of real community of real people. Club, liberal religious congregation, etc. Make regular contact. You can lurk at first, and then take a few small steps at a time.

If you do this- prepare to have your world, as you now know it, shatter before your very eyes. It's hard, hard work, and very few have the stomach to see it through, because you literally have to commit mental suicide and rebirth yourself. But the benefits can be dramatic.

Do you have the guts to admit to yourself that a good many people commenting on your letter just might be right... even for one microsecond? If so, then copy your letter and this entire thread and bring it with you to your therapy intake, and tell the doctor, "You know- these folks might be onto something here."

I think the better question for you is, "At 45, am I too old to jettison the baggage that I carry in order to become a whole, loving and happy person?

You deserve no less.

Good luck, and do be well.

P.S. You can form the band later.

Indeed.

What's to like?

... would simply to apply the parable of Dr. Suess's "Yertle the Turtle" and hope that Everything Falwell will be ignored and forgotten in the very near future, and for all time.

...Just because you own half this town doesn't mean you own the rest of us! For twenty-three years, I have been wanting to tell you exactly what I think of you, but..but... being a good Christian Woman, I just can't do it!

Lordy-

What a lame article.

Stones vs. The Beatles?

C'mon.

Of course, lately this seems to be by design. I can't help thinking that the geniuses at Salon have finally discovered that one way to make their magazine interesting (while doing as little work as possible) is to ensure that their features contain just enough inanity to incite a flurry of reader comments.

Seems like the perfect deceit. The letters are always much more illuminating.