I'm not a Christian, but I have several friends who are part of what I call the Christian Left: progressive, tolerant, open-minded people who live their faith rather than doing what Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed and these other scoundrels do: mouth piety while quietly committing the very acts they rail against. And as my of my very good Christian friends, who I respect deeply, said when I asked him how it feels to be tarred with the same brush as these criminals, said, "They are not Christians. Being a Christian means acting as Jesus did, not saying one thing and doing another. These people are a disgrace to the faith, and they shame the rest of us with their vile hypocrisy."

What more needs to be said, except when are is the flock of the Christian Right going to wake up and decide that deeds are more important than words?

I'm thrilled about Pat Robertson's latest comments about Prime Minster Sharon. Every ignorant, intolerant, insane word that issues forth from this idiot's piehole just makes the wacko Christian Right look more and more ridiculous. Keep Pat talking long enough and he might just wake up the conservative Christian rank and file to the fact that their shepherd are a bunch of corrupt, delusional, power-mad hypocrites.

Despite the fact that I hold great respect for John McCain, I would hate to see the GOP take back the White House. Is there any sort of concerted campaign to convince Al Gore to run?

At this stage, if you simply throw up your hands in despair, or rant about secession, or assume things will only get worse until we live in an Orwellian, corporate-controlled autocracy where we're all treated like Gitmo "detainees," then you're part of the problem, no more useful to the cause than those peak oil wingnuts who dance on the grave of civilization with such glee and seem to look forward to the supposed starvation of billions.

It's my experience that a small but vocal group of people always despairs, assumes nothing can be done, and resigns itself to conditions getting worse. This type of thinking is really such people absolving themselves of responsibility for taking action; "If things are going to get worse no matter what I do, then I don't have to do anything to stop them." Such thinking becomes self-fulfilling.

Yes, we face substantial challenges, not the least of which is the increasing presence of corrupt companies like Diebold in the electoral process (as is happening in my state of California), but we also hold considerable advantages: a more aware, angry electorate, a few brave members of Congress are beginning to speak out, a strong cadre of progressive NGOs like MoveOn who can rally the troops and apply pressure, and most important, an election in November where we can throw out the festering power structure that is running our nation into its grave.

But before we can do that, we must stop thinking of the Bushies, GOP operatives and their corporate paymasters as invulnerable and omniscient. An earlier poster made the wise point that some folks always see the current situation as unchanging and set in stone, but the fact is that things do change. Walls fall. Governments are overthrown. In the same way, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney Grover Norquist and their vile like are not all-knowing geniuses; they are men who make mistakes, fall victim to ego and hubris, and have no idea of all the forces arrayed against them.

If the GOP was so all-powerful (and it's the entire GOP power cabal that's the problem, not just the Bush administration), do you think the Abramoff scandal would have broken and be in the process of bringing down Tom De Lay, Bob Ney and who knows how many other members of the GOP leadership? Yes, this is an uphill battle to be fought, in large part, against the apathy of our fellow Americans. But it's being fought against men, not gods. If we treat the Nov. elections and the fight for impeachment as what it is--a war for our nation--and prosecute it with the unflagging aggression, energy and passion that it deserves, we can take the government back.

Then, we start reforming the Democrats. Oy, there's another letter.

Argh, yet another quickie prophylactic approach to self-improvement from our "spend $1000 on a seminar and change your life" culture. I won't even get into the absurdity of trying to remedy a lifetime of bad relationship judgment in a 10-day course, but these classes always ignore the two issues that are at the core of most troubled romantic lives:

1) People treat marriage as some sort of exalted state, where you somehow change after you say "I do" and everything is sunshine and roses, instead of seeing it for what it really is: a formal commitment that requires a lifetime of communication, honesty, adaptation and the discovery of new things to love about your spouse and your life, and...

2) The fact that until people value themselves highly enough to take care of their own needs first--until they are so comfortable in their own skin that they do not NEED anyone else, but are comfortable with WANTING someone else in their lives--they will never have a long-term relationship where someone is not dependent or feels trapped.

If these well-meaning people really wanted to improve marriages, they would teach their students how to love themselves, develop a sense of "enlightened selfishness," and take a hard, sometimes painful look at their reasons for wanting companionship. Only with honest self-awareness does a truly fulfilling relationship with another person become possible.

Sorry, but the girl's 18, old enough to take responsibility for the ignorant, racist trash emerging from her piehole. I say, keep it up, missy: every word just confirms what most of us already believe about conservative red state so-called Christians.