...to one of the STUPIDEST sitcoms ever broadcast. I mean, really, the fucking "Bickersons" - a 60+ year old radio comedy - was and is funnier than this dreck. Why in the hell is Salon celebrating it not once but TWICE??

And I have three words for the bunnies:

Pets, or meat??

I've always read that she has a wry sense of humor. And this proves it.

But I expected better of Bugliosi, who did this nation proud in his (almost literal) indictment of the five-member voting bloc on the Supreme Court that handed George W. Bush the Presidency in 2000. In that book he made it perfectly clear that what had happened was a legal coup d'etat, an actual crime requiring indictments and trials. It was bracing stuff.

But then, when one goes into a project of this scope with pre-conceived notions (i.e., Oswald acted alone), this is what one gets.

Paul Wolfowitz is not one of my favorite people, but if the reason he is being forced out is because of his "favoritism" to his girlfriend, then this whole thing has been the reddest of herrings. I'm not going to parse every pertinent detail in Hitchens's Slate essay A Brave Woman Scorned. But I will write this much: The woman in question had been in a relationship with Wolfowitz before he was made President of the World Bank. Likewise, she had been a highly-rated employee of the World Bank before Wolfowitz arrived. When he did, they both immediately took steps to ensure that there was not even the appearance of improproprieties.

In other words, this was a world-class frame-up from the get-go. We on the left ill serve ourselves by taking up the same sort of stiletto used by our enemies on the right.

vidor1,

That's just what most in the press said about Posner's book, until leading researchers into the assassination started poking very large holes in his reasoning and evidence. And then there was what he left out. So please, by all means, continue marching with the head-in-the-sand (or is that head-up-the-ass?) brigade.

Saintperle,

You're kidding, right?? Bugliosi did not create a case out of whole cloth, he took what evidence he had - including the devastating, eyewitness testimony of Linda Kasabian - and proved beyond all doubt that Manson and some of his followers murdered those poor people on Cielo Drive, and that he ordered the murder of the Lobiancos too. Talk about "case closed."

The simplest, most elegant proof of conspiracy is the rifle Oswald used (yes, I'm of those who accepts he was one of the shooters). The Maanlicher-Carcano is one of the worst rifles ever manufactured, and the ammunition it fires - the 6.5mm "Jap-Norman" round - is one of the worst types of rifle ammunition every manufactured. Furthermore, the scope on Oswald's rifle was so poorly installed that it broke off not long after the assassination. All of this does not equal three shots, with two hits and a kill. Solly, Cholly.

Salon has to stop displaying Bill Maher's lamest jokes.

I mean, seriously, you guys are getting ripped off.

From Curmudgeon2:

I suffer from aortic valve stenosis. The docs strongly urged various forms of intervention. I rejected all of them and took up marathon running, and a high fat diet instead.

Clearly, this man is insane. That, or he's a highly skilled propagandist betting on the fact that most people won't know what "aortic valve stenosis" is, and that choosing to "treat" it by running marathons would be instantly lethal.

Having slogged through all these letters, it's my opinion that those who understand the necessity for government provided insurance are vastly more sane, intelligent and decent than those who don't. They're just better people, all the way around. But then I've found that to be the case with most issues of national, public importance. Public transportation, for example. Every person I have known who was against public transportation owned a vehicle that was obviously a stand-in for some perceived (or real) physical defect. The better the car, the smaller the penis or breasts. This is not rocket science. In addition, the people in question believed their perceived needs or wants trumped everybody else's. That a sure sign of assholery, and renders whatever rhetoric they might deploy absolutely useless.

If you are against socialized medicine, you are an indecent motherfucker. Period. No ifs, ands or buts about it, schmuck-O, you're a piece of walking filth. Because it's ok with you that nearly 50 million Americans can't see a doctor when they need to, can't afford medication, can't afford pre- or neo-natal care, can't afford to live, in other words. That indifference is dangerously close to Naziland; in fact, it only lacks the aggression.

Our current system is laughable. Last year I had to get a full MRI of my brain. There is a radiologist at every facility that has an MRI. It is their job to supervise the MRI, and upon its conclusion write up a brief, preliminary report of what they think the MRI did or did not show. In my case, the highly expensive neurologist declined to look at the MRI, stating that the radiologist's report was conclusive. Is that outrageous, or what? That would be like going into a restaurant, ordering a meal and then being told by the chef that the bus boy would be preparing it. You didn't pay for a bus boy-prepared meal, and I and my insurer were not paying for a fucking radiologist's diagnosis of my brain, we were paying for the fucking neurologist's opinion. But if I wanted to get it, that would mean getting another appointment AND PAYING FOR IT MYSELF.

So yeah, I think American medicinal practice could do with a bit of tweaking. Definitely.