Dear LW,

If you feel about California the way you wrote about it in your letter, please, please, find somewhere you will be happy and go live there!

I love California, love it with a passion. I moved here 21 years ago and I have no intention of leaving, ever. I marvel at the number of people I meet here who carp all day long about how California isn't this, that, or the other. That it doesn't have NY bagels, or that you can't leave your doors unlocked. And to all those people I say, wholeheartedly, go where you are happy! Go to Montana, go to New York, go to Wisconsin, just GO!

And, ahem, leave California to those of us who love it.

Amen, Brother Maher! We cannot afford this political "strategy" of making up bogeymen to distract us from dealing with genuine dangers.

Global warming is truly scary. Or, if you don't believe in that, take a look at the growing chasm between rich and poor in this country. The credit crisis is tossing what is left of our middle class into that not-so-grand canyon.

Look at the emergency rooms in hospitals in our major cities. Look at the state of our health care system as a whole. Look at our emergency systems: have you listened to how thin Southern California's resources were spread this past week?

We've got more guns than pets, but our systems for taking care of the mentally ill serve no one well. Small wonder that periodically we hear that a deranged person has shot up a school or business full of people.

Face it: it's EASIER to worry about some guy with a name we can't pronounce than to deal with the fact that there are messes right here at home that need attention.

Let's toss the bums out, and get some candidates who can deal with reality.

Joan, thanks for staying after the waterboarding issue. It's important.

I'd hate to be Bush Sr. these days.

I wish that there was a way to draft him.

Every time I see a woman past 50 in the public eye without botox, tucks, or other "work," I want to cheer.

I've always been amazed by the whole "ethanol is green" schtick -- have none of these people noticed that artificial fertilizer is a petroleum product? Ethanol made from plants that have sucked up artificial fertilizer is really just a form of expensively-processed fossil fuel. Only it's worse, because it has consumed water and land and driven up the price of food!

Glad to see an article that makes all of this so clear. Now would someone please listen, up there on the Hill?

I understand the tension between being a sports fan and a journalist but I'm glad you've chosen to speak up periodically about the double standard that has been applied to Barry Bonds. I don't like what I've seen of him, and I'm not a Giants fan, but the treatment he's gotten from sportswriters seems glaringly unfair.

What is this American obsession with punishment? Seems to me that baseball management and the fans have their own share of responsibility in this steroids mess, and I don't see what anyone stands to gain by going back and punishing players. Best just to put rules with teeth in place and then move on.

In a world where "electability" didn't matter, I'd pick Gov. Bill Richardson in a heartbeat. He's the candidate with the most experience in the Middle East *and* the executive experience of actually governing something. The trouble is, much as I like him on paper, he seems to have the charisma of Al Gore in 2000.

My second choice -- and the person I will vote for as long as he's on the ticket -- is John Edwards. The guy has made a lot of money, yes. He's made it working the system for the sort of folks he came from, the kind of people who get shafted coming and going. He's smart, he's eloquent, and he gets and takes good advice. Most people who oppose him seem only to be able to talk about a haircut and his house. I wish he'd gotten more attention from the media on the issues, but they seem much more interested in reporting on the "race" as a sporting event -- who's in front?

By the way, Salon seems as bad as anyone in that dept. What's up with you folks?

As an engaged citizen, I'd like to be reading analysis of the political positions and the political behavior of the candidates. I do not care who is "out front" today -- that's way premature. I NEED to know what they think, how often they say one thing and do another, and above all else, who's pocket they're in. I need to know if they are going to be so distasteful to some part of the voting citizenry that there's an ice cube's chance of electing them. Please tell me that stuff and lay off the sports reporting and the actors' opinions!

More substance and fewer celebrities, please.

Oh, golly, Joe, I usually like your insights. Why are you studiously ignoring John Edwards? He's smart, he's a dogged fighter, and he is the only one out there stumping for the forgotten Americans on the wrong side of the class divide.

Amazing, the day after the election, you ignore the guy in second place. He's having his best fund raising day ever, did you know that? There are a LOT of us out here who think he's the person for the job, even if he is a white guy from the South.

If you think he's a jerk, fine, say so. Just don't ignore him. Please.