I can't speak for anyone else, but I know why I didn't go into medicine. Aside from disliking blood and needles, the thought of going through 4 years of college (and being required to get an exemplary grade to get into a good domestic medical school), followed by medical school, followed by an internship, followed by a residency. When I was, oh, 20, it wasn't the cost that bothered me so much (although it did concern me); it was the fact that I was staring at another decade or so of training before I could start being anyone's doctor. And as someone who is just old enough to remember a family doctor--with a rolltop desk no less--that was the type of doctor I wanted to be.

Now don't get me wrong; I'm not suggesting making the requirements to being a doctor less stringent, necessarily. All I'm saying is, the tales of internship and residency 12-16 hour days are well-known, and another 10 years to a 20 year-old is half your life. That puts it in the same category as "priest" or "musician". And when you can pop out of school after 4 years with a C.S. degree and start programming right away? Well, it's not much of a contest, is it?

Perhaps just have him pre-record a speech from an unspecified location, and then the convention planners can redact it before they show it? And then it can be shown at a time when there are no network TV cameras anywhere about.

Unfortunately, "cold politics" do not generate the heat necessary to get a million people to donate 50 bucks each for a campaign. And if one feels a sense of "resignation" rather than excitement, if one feels that you can't influence the candidate, you're a lot less likely to donate money, a lot less likely to help organize, a lot less likely to make phone calls.

Now Obama's camp is worried about the slowed pace of donation. You turn your back on an issue of great importance to some of your most enthusiastic supporters, that's the kind of thing that happens.

You know, when I saw the title of that show, God was the last thing I was thinking since "the cleaner" is Harvey Keitel's character that cleans up after hits-gone-wrong in Point of No Return.

Hey now, that would make for an interesting show, wouldn't it? High concept: stoic freelance button man raises young kid while going out regularly to make high-priced and dangerous hits! Yeah, The Professional, but the TV version! That would be a good antidote to all the TV characters talking to God all the time!

How about Margaret Cho instead? I've personally never found Wanda Sykes all that funny.

(And of course that "Opus" was mean-spirited; after 8 years of Bush/Cheney, if you're not a little mean-spirited--or even a lot--you obviously haven't been paying attention. Steven Colbert's monologue for the Press Club mavens was mean-spirited, too, but it was also a thing of beauty.)

I am right there with you, Joe. I had been hoping that eReader, given that they already had their software running on the Mac, would do a quick port; I was sorry it took a year. But yes, it's great, and I was as happy as you. The two things that I missed most with the first version of the iPhone--games and eBooks--are now in place. I'm a happy camper.

I wish it was easier to read one-handed--flicking a finger across a page to turn it is tricky one-handed. I also wish we had different backgrounds available; the one thing I preferred about the Windows Mobile version of eReader was the backgrounds. And finally, having a version of the book-making software create iPhone-viewable copy would be great.

But all that is minor kvetching; I'm a happy guy.

In all honestly, I simply don't know how these guys can continue to spout such abject nonsense and still be able to face themselves in the mirror every morning. What kind of personal, internal cognitive dissonance and "doublethink" must these lying jerks go through to spout this baloney day after day?

You'd think they'd get ulcers, or something. I know I would.

I know that, supposedly, "One can never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public," but that ad? It was so ridiculous, so over-the-top, I found it funny. "I am The Obama! I will part the Red Seas for you!" Oh, please. Is the public really stupid enough to fall for that? Seems unlikely to me.

Thomas, you missed one other thing: NBC, CBS, and PBS (twice!) have their people moderating debates; ABC has no one. I don't have any theories; just wanted to point it out.