Don't form a band even though you want to. I think you're too old. Don't form a band because it's possible that some people will laugh at you. They will think you're too old, too.

There. You let someone else tell you what to do with your life. Happy now?

Incidentally, open your mind and your heart: those "mindless robots" you work with have dreams and aspirations, too.

Before all the vegan haters descend upon this thread, and lord knows they will, I just want to say that it is one thing to eat animals, and another to eat animals raised in factory farm conditions. The former is understandable, given human history, though still in the end not necessary to survive. The latter cannot be justified. Maybe factory farming results in cheaper meat and eggs, etc., but forced child labor in sweatshops results in cheaper goods, and that is not a good enough reason to support it.

There's a reason that the world's first humane society was the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Children. Both animals and children are frequent victims of horrendous cruelty by adults, and neither animals nor children are capable of giving truly informed and competent consent to sex acts with adults. Men who have sex with non-human animals are twisted criminals, period.

Penomee, I admire your sympathy, but I disagree with your remedy. The problem with cruelty to animals is that it is hidden. People hear about the occasional abused dog or cat, and they tut tut while eating their hamburgers. Salon should expose, with pictures and videos, the hellish lives of animals in the food industry, cosmetics industry, fur industry, and elsewhere.

Too often Salon uses a snarky headline when writing about animal advocates or vegetarianism. Or they run stories about animal advocates who act like jerks, i.e., sensationalism. I'd like to see stories about animal advocates who work quietly and with dignity trying to stop the torture of animals -- torture which is paid for anyone who eats meat or eggs, or who buys a damn fur coat.

Show the cruelty behind the curtain, Salon.

From the torturer-loving Ronald Reagan, through the thoroughly corrupt and religiously insane GOP congressional class of 1994, and up to the torture-loving George W. Bush, America has been led by political fanatics and their soulless media puppets through a period of dark national shame. The comfortable were comforted, the oppressed were further oppressed, and what was once vice was considered virtue, and virtue vice.

We've had enough of this gang of creeps. It's too bad that J.K. Rowling already coined it, because "Death Eaters" is a perfect description of today's Republicans and conservatives in general. "Brownshirts" and "plutocrats" fit nicely, too.

The pendulum is swinging back, thankfully. That, or perhaps America is growing up. We're shedding our arrogance and finding humility. We might even, finally, become a good world neighbor instead of imperial bully.

The Presidential election of 2008 will let us know if we're making a U-turn towards national greatness, or continuing on our present dark path to ruin.

Tom Payne, you're full of shit.

Don Imus, at least on his radio show, was a bully and a bigot who regularly used slurs and hateful language against groups of people who are historically the victims of hate crimes. Yes, you can hear the same crap he spewed in any seedy bar, just like you could hear the same hateful crap in seedy bars in Rwanda while hatemongers preached on the radio, or seedy beer halls in Germany while the professional hatemongers rallied the people.

In other words, Garrison, this shit is harmful to society. The more "respectable" it is, e.g., a radio show hosted by a major network, the more validated it is. Do we really need to validate hatred of each other in this country, right now, when our politics are already poisoned by partisan fury?

Don Imus is free to drag his sorry ass into any dive bar and rant against the Jews, the gays, the blacks, women -- take your pick. He and the other losers can cry in their beers about it all. But let us not give men like him a prominent platform to make their bigotry acceptable. Don't forget, Garrison, people were lynched in this country during your lifetime because of hate and bigotry.

I agree with the other writers here: I'd love to bike to work, but I live in Washington, D.C., and because I value my pitiful life, I take the Metro instead.

First, the drivers here will kill you, and then back up over you to prevent your reanimation. If the driver's don't intend to kill you, the terrible lack of bike lanes, combined with very heavy traffic, will result in collisions anyway.

Second, there are stretches of road which bike commuters love and hate: love them because they are relatively flat, hate them because they run past housing projects where the local urchins take great sport in throwing bottles and bricks at you. No thanks.

Add in aggressive bikers, insane bike messengers, and various other hazards, and, at least in D.C., you're better off Metro-ing or driving to work, and getting your exercise elsewhere.