I can corroborate that the tent cities aren't new to California, at least from 1995 on when I lived there. Heck, if you went to certain parts of Berkeley, or SF(try Golden Gate park any given day) and took that as a microcosm, you'd think we were Bangladesh.

Can't say anything about the ones here in Seattle, though that they call it "Nickelsville" implies it might be recent.

I like this article, and would add my own two cents. I would call myself a Christian, having been raised with it (Anglican, thank whomever--could have been worse in the South)and having always taken its ethics very seriously--and having always been attracted to Jesus' hatred of pointless ritual and the trappings of organized religion.

I would, except that the word has been taken over by idolators.

What do I mean? I mean the ones who only follow Jesus because they believe he was the son of god. I mean the ones that know nothing of his ethics or true words, who think of his word as inerrant only because they never read it in context, who don't think of Jesus as part of a group of ethical figures trying to teach us not to hate others or ourselves so much as we do. Who use Jesus as a stick to beat others with(and with those nails, that's got to hurt). For whom his words would mean nothing without god being his father.

These people, I always ask, to their faces, "If these words were not said by Jesus the son of god, but rather, just Jesus the carpenter, would they matter as much?"

To which they say, "They wouldn't matter at all."

So it's not enough that they're good precepts to live by. And their only concern is not their fellow man, but assuring their real estate plot in Heaven after they die.

I'm neutral on the subject of God and consider myself an agnostic. I'm not sure enough either way to have an opinion, so I table it and leave it there, because I think time wasted witnessing for, or denouncing, God is just about the same and I have other priorities. I resent even having to consider the question--why is it even to be bothered with when it cannot be proven or disproven rationally?

But on Jesus, I would have to say that I resent a bunch of simple-minded bigoted dolts obscuring what he said and wanted with only more of exactly what he despised. Religion, like medicine, should first do no harm. If in religion you only find justification for your hatred, maybe you're better off not believing. It's not about magic and pleasing gods. It's about making this a decent world to live in and realizing you cannot stand as judge over others' morals.

I remember when I first moved to Chicago in 1987. I was just starting college, and was thrilled to see a video store nearby with a whole bunch of foreign films I'd read about where I grew up but couldn't get. Here they were--Bergman, Antonioni, Eisenstein, and bunches of others. Old ones, recent ones. And the clerk knew his shit and I loved talking to him for hours.

Then it died because a Blockbuster moved in. And did it have any of these? No, but here, watch a Kevin Costner film! Did it have LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST? No no, but they sure stocked CALIGULA.

I copied anything I rented from them on VHS so I would not have to give them another dime. I also started calling them "Blockfucker."

I never liked them, and most times what I rented from them wasn't anything I'd really wanted, but just the best I could find, so I wouldn't leave empty-handed, as I'd gone to the trouble of coming there. And that was it. When Netflix came along, I wondered why I'd put up with this.

And that's not even counting how hard Blockbuster made it even to get one of their fucking cards, like it was a club or something.

Fuck 'em. They can die. Should've happened long ago.

However, if it still exists: the best store I was ever in was Five Star Video in Berkeley, on University & California. Check it out if it's still extant. BEST video clerks ever.

No? Then why are you talking about her?

Seriously, what in god's name makes her worth remarking on?

The presumption that the excess male population will turn into rape gangs...highly unlikely. I'm not even going to go into your misandry(this column does often read like you think men don't look here), which is disgusting and which I attribute to ignorance and I'll leave it there. Nor will I go after the Yellow Peril imagery that you conjure up. I'll just leave it at: you sound like Lou Dobbs with lipstick.

To take down your point of threat here: do you know why most people in the world are Chinese? Not just in China. I mean all over the world. Did they spontaneously pop out of the ground?

No, they IMMIGRATED. Which the Chinese have done historically just as much as Europeans ever did. If, like much of Salon's staff, you live in San Francisco, you may have seen signs of this. There were right-wing riots about that, one rather famous and deadly one here once in Seattle.

This is what happens when your prospects are nil in your home country--you leave for another. (well, except Americans for some reason) That's one way excess population gets remedied: it shifts around.

I hope all jobless yuppies use their last money for vacations. There's something beautifully poetic about the inevitable result.