Dear god, Martha...you haven't failed.

We failed. Our country, our culture, our species we've all failed the countless people like Felicia and her family. From what I read, you have done everything you can.

You've done everything possible.

My wife has been a big sister for a number of years, and I've watched as (like you) her expectations were lowered by the numbing attrition of a poisonious environment and an apathetic culture.

There are no easy answers. For all I know, there may well be no answers, but I don't want you to feel blame.

That's all of ours.

Great article. Thanks. God bless.

I feel you Wil.

It's tough having Republicans in the family.

At least my family has managed to move beyond the anger and suspicion. We just mess with each other now...I had a "Another Democrat for Bush" bumper sticker placed on my car. It was answered with a generous donation in that person's name to the ACLU, which was answered with an Ann Coulter poster (she's hot, in an Eva Braun kinda way), which was very recently answered with a copy of Al Franken's latest...ad infinitum; I would suppose.

The point is, we've all come to the understanding that you can't change a person's beliefs no matter how stupid and counter to their own interests they appear to be.

Really great piece. Happy Holidays!

As dinner is at my house this year, I'm trying to come up with an alternative to the Catholic before-dinner grace. A poem maybe, something vaguely spiritual, or about winter, or family being together...

How 'bout:

"God is great, God is good. By his grace, George W Bush and the rest of the Christian Taliban will end next year in jail. Amen."

Come on BrightStar, admit it. Somewhere, sometime, some mean, strong woman broke your little heart; leaving you with your friends O'Reilly and Limbaugh to assauge your fears and keep your fragile ego safe from the 'femi-Nazis'.

We are all friends here.

Did some mean woman in the "real world" get promoted over you? Did she rebuff your advances? You can admit it, it's okay. Did you read about the "Ellen James Society" in "The World According to Garp" and think that it was nonfiction?

It does sound like reality and fiction are having a tussle in your little head. Maybe you should talk to someone (not a radio personaility) or you can write a note to Cary Tennis.

But come on. The girls and women you describe: hounding and abusing men, hollering anti male sentiments every chance they get, neglecting and drugging boys, killing babies in the eighth month of childbearing, trying in vain to keep their men limited and bottled up in an imaginary and narrow macho charicature really don't exist, do they? Did Papa O'Reilly or Uncle Limbaugh tell you that? You should look out a window occasionally man. Things aren't what they tell ya...

BrightStar, I suspect that you find the world to be a scary place, full of big nasty social movements that your 18th century brain cannot comprehend, and to be honest, I feel very sorry for you.

By the way, you spelled caricature wrong. Don't you have spellcheck in your cave?

Good luck dude.

Significantly, you moron.

You've received too much attention already.

Your intention (and mine) was not to initiate dialogue.

It is really time. Nice article Cary.

Thanks Salon. You've done your journalistic duty, in a time when too many have been scared and too many have been intimidated. There will be a tussle here today, between the passionate defenders of the Bush junta and those of us who feel that he is a dangerous despot. The same things will be said, the same ideas expressed, the same battles fought...

Looking at those pictures though, I thought of a quote from Martin Luther King, shared with me recently:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

I'm not looking for some hippy dippy love your enemy and put a flower in their gun thing; but we can only vanquish terrorists and terror as a tactic when we refuse to stoop to medieval tactics.

Why do they need to spell out Caffeine Free Sprite?

Per the Coca Cola website, all Sprite is Caffeine Free...actually, there isn't a product called Caffeine Free Sprite.

How can they run a war if they can't manage a simple soda order???

I will remember the Hammer as the tool of the Christian Taliban that he is...what a complete dick.

He's become a lapdog of the right. Whether it has to do with any actual convictions of his own, his fear of losing viewers to Fox, or his brother's House candidacy in PA is immaterial. Matthews is as much a tool of the administration as O'Reilly.

He sucks.

[And this hurts, because in general I don't like to rip on folks from PA (who aren't Santorium)].

Was anyone else offended by W and his doppleganger pretending to be stupid? This man is the leader of the "free" world and while I question his competetancy on a daily basis, to see him playing straight man for an lousy impersonator was galling.

When Clinton got a BJ the wingnut Right got apoplectic about the "honor of the office" (or some shitty soundbite like that); where are we now?

How much honor has this Nazi Frat boy left in the office?

Woe is us. Good job Colbert.