Every culture needs to have some kind of balancing mechanism to keep people from going off the deep end. What I remember as a kid about the 1950's were the narrowly defined boundaries of acceptable thought and behavior. Boys had to have hair so short it wouldn't hang down to their collars. Girls had to wear dresses to school no matter how bad the weather. In my community in Washington state, all the retail establishments except a few renegade mom-and-pop stores were closed on Sunday, so everyone would go to church. We were taught how great it was to be an American, free to fly the flag, guzzle soda pop, play baseball, and drive a Chevy. The evil in the world was concentrated in Moscow and Peking (as it was then called), where media spewed propaganda lies masquerading as news, the governments snooped on citizens and tortured prisoners, and the elections were phony.

So your typical 1950's kid would welcome any chance to be exposed to alternatives to the grim mono-culture of conformity the adult world constantly harped upon. Comic books with vigilante superheroes allowed kids to vicariously enjoy pursuing truth and justice while at the same time thumbing their noses at the solemn, self-appointed guardians of our morals. William Gaines' MAD magazine was even more subversive, spoofing the whole concept of enforced conformity. My dad, a WWII veteran, bought MAD "for the kids", but I think secretly enjoyed reading it. The generation gap was not so much about generations, but about the rejection of the black-white-and-gray social and ideological conformity of the 1950's. Comics contributed to undermining the culture of constrain, conformity, and self-righteousness, but I think it would have collapsed anyway as its underlying insincerity was discovered.

It's Ron Paul! Time and time again in the debates last winter he pointed out what every 5th grader should know: people don't get angry with you unless you have offended them. The American foreign policy over the last 60 years has in multiple ways offended the religious, cultural, and political sensibilities of Middle Eastern Muslims. Without any recognition of those grievances or provisions for settling them, resentment intensified and spread.

The neocons like Bush, Cheney, and soul-mate McCain want to settle the dispute in blood, Islamic blood. Ron Paul has advocated recognition of their grievances and the opening of a dialog leading to resolution. Of course, remember, according to the Mainstream Media, Ron Paul is some kind of whack-job, deserving to be denigrated and/or ignored. The fact is that the power elite in this country could not afford to have a president who was knowledgeable and humane. In John McCain they have the perfect brainwashed marionette for continuing their efforts to gain mastery over the world's resources and people through lies, intimidation, and violence.

You have stated the essentials of the Neocon attack on America in the most succinct form I have ever seen. You deserve 10 editorial stars! The pernicious subversion of our heritage of liberty under the rule of law has been accomplished under the cloak of patriotism through skillful propaganda, control of media, and skullduggery. A vigilant, skeptical, and enlightened people would never have fallen for their lies.

Is how so many of us will still accept the convoluted, twisted versions of events concocted by the Neocon propaganda machine, Faux News. How do you get a nation that is so credulous of stories coming from this source, with its verifiable bias and history of lies and distortions? And how do you get a media that is more than willing to spread these falsehoods?

I think it was mentioned on the History Channel's program "Crude" that there was originally about 2 1/2 times as much fossil fuel in the ground as would be needed to bring the Earth's climate to a "tipping point" if burned. We are fast approaching or have already reached that tipping point. However, with an infrastructure and mindset built around a cars-and-trucks economy and our political leaders constantly touting the advantages of "global trade", we are caught in a physical and mental trap of our own devising. The transition to a sustainable post-carbon future requires such a revolutionary turnabout in culture, values, ethics, economics, and sheer physical change that I don't think it can be managed within the time remaining to avoid catastrophe.

No, the trucks and SUVs will just keep rolling down the highways as the arctic warms and droughts grip the planet. How else can we feed a huge and mostly urban society without mechanized agriculture and delivery systems? I honestly don't foresee any political leader willing to take this problem by the horns and tell the people the sacrifices they will have to make to survive.

The Federal Reserve System is an unconstitutional cabal of big moneied interests dedicated to its own expanding wealth and power. The People have mandated in Article I, Section 8, Clause 5, of the United States Constitution that "Congress shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof and of any foreign coins." Nowhere does the Constitution authorize Congress to yield its powers and responsibilities to private subcontractors.

The Federal Reserve System has decided that its member banks can garner the most wealth by constantly inflating the currency and we have witlessly accepted this concept as being natural and right. However, what it really does is steal value from saved money, forcing it into the stream of investment capital the banks control.

Rather than reforming the Fed, we'd all be much better off liberating ourselves from it entirely.