Cary, I love you, brutha, but man, sometimes you're full of shit. The LW is straddling a midlife crisis and instead of breaking off some sound, practical advice you go all poetic and self-referential on the poor slob. This is supposed to be about the LW, not about you expressing your inner Pynchon or Chabon and emoting all over their angst. So, please get to the fucking point, offer some decent common sense advice and save the polysyllabic navel gazing for your journal, K?

By the way, LW, I'm 42 and the lead singer for a blues band that I got into at 40. Best fucking thing I ever did. My wife loves it, we play gigs in L.A. and have a blast, and nobody laughs at us. You have a passion. Express it in any way you can. You don't have to quit your job. Put all your passion into what you do and people will respond. They might even respond so strongly that you can make a living.

Enough non-binding blah-de-blah. Bush is not going to budge because he knows he doesn't have to, and he's not interested in what's best for the country or what the vast majority of the American people demand. He's not smart enough to think of alternatives, so his only stance is to stubbornly stick out his jaw and say, "Oh yeah? Make me!"

Let's fucking make him. The House MUST begin impeachment investigations against Bush and the Dark Prince. No other option is acceptable.

Richly, richly, richly deserved. Salon is my home page for a reason. It's brilliant, brave and smart as hell.

Someone needs to tell this self-assured gentleman that there HAVE been replications of Sheldrake's telephone telepathy experiment and they produced results that were very significant. Sheldrake had also done e-mail telepathy results that produced incredible results. Those are also in the process of being replicated.

In any case, Wolpert should read the literature before he dismisses psi and other phenomena out of hand. He comes off as another self-satisfied skeptic who doesn't want to hear about things that conflict with his comfortable world view.

Rakiha, with all due respect, the literature is full of countless people with no predisposition to belief in the paranormal who have had psychic or otherwise metanormal experiences. Read "Extraordinary Knowing" by Dr. Elisabeth Mayer for a wonderful look at this phenomenon from a die-hard skeptic-turned-reluctant believer.

To quote from the movie, "The Santa Clause" (a bastion of philosophical profundity if ever there was one):

KID: "Have you ever seen a million dollars?"

STEPFATHER: "No."

KID: "Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

And by the way, the word "skeptic" is defined as "One who instinctively or habitually doubts, questions, or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted conclusions." It stems from the Greek word "skeptikos," meaning "to examine."

A true skeptic is one who questions and seeks answers based on the evidence, and is willing to change his or her position if the evidence demands it. A dogmatic pseudo-skeptic is one whose mind is made up based on personal bias and the self-esteem-boosting need to feel "right." No amount of evidence will change it. Or in other words, someone "not predisposed to believe in these things."

"...It's all selected, but it's still very frustrating for those few of us who see through all that."

And with those words, had_enough, you again confirm my theory that this dogmatic materialism/skepticism/nihilism is, above all else, a self-esteem movement. This is the school of thought:

"I don't buy into any of this God business, and since God is crap, everything supernatural or paranormal must also be crap. How superior I am to all the rest of you poor deluded slugs! Not only am I able to see through the illusions of religion, but I am clear-headed and courageous enough to confront the fact that our existence is meaningless and that we are chemical/neurological automatons without free will, built only to spread our genes. How evolved I and the few like me are! I pity the rest of you."

I'm not a believer, but I'm also convinced enough by evidence of the paranormal (which is not paranormal at all but a barely-understood aspect of our reality) to see that there is much we don't understand. Human arrogance compels us to think we have the answers. True wisdom lies in knowing we do not.

Beautifully stated.

I've written for years about the fact that religion and the paranormal (or extranormal or transnormal or whatever neologism you want to cook up) have nothing whatsoever to do with one another. One is a completely human invention. The other is a relentlessly observed fact of human existence backed by an Everest of empirical and observational evidence, as well as the increasingly holistic thinking of many top quantum physicists.

Rejecting blind dogmatism of all kinds, not just the religious brand, is critical to getting at real understanding of the nature of reality, which increasingly appears to be unlike anything we have imagined.

Rakhia, read the book "Entangled Minds" by Dr. Dean Radin. It's a very rational, cogent survey of the extensive experimental evidence for things like telepathy and precognition, as well as a look at the quantum theory that may lie behind it all. No ghost chasers, no New Age weirdos. Just data. Promise.

Then why don't you support impeaching the motherf**cker????

Until some group of politicos has the guts to level with the American people that universal healthcare will mean raising taxes, nothing is going to change. We're so tax-phobic in this country that we can't even see the huge cost SAVINGS that state healthcare would provide, from improved productivity to reduced fraud.

I can't wait to see Moore's film. I'm sure I'll find it chilling and disturbing, as it should be.