You're right, we're not going to agree, but I am confident that despite your rhetoric before, you understand the difference between outlawing jokes about certain topics upon pain of death or whippings, and discouraging jokes about certain topics.

As for groups telling jokes about other groups, you didn't write anything I haven't already pondered. Why can I tell a joke about Jews to my fellow Jews and we all laugh about it, but if somebody else (let's say a German Protestant) told it, we'd be less than receptive? Hell, it's probably human nature and tribalism, but more to the point, we'd wonder where it's coming from. You get that too, I suspect.

And to Emily: I was a punk before you were a punk.

What they said. Knocked Up portrayed men as infantile gorillas. Heigl's character was inexplicably determined to partner with the lead gorilla. Go figure. As a comedy it was worthwhile. As serious drama, c'mon.

And as B. Howell noted, that Grey's Anatomy clip was designed to show off Ms. Heigl's wonderful body. The producers put a feminist mask on it, but really, couldn't she have made the big speech fully clothed?

Regardless, she's a good actress and hot as the sun. I don't hold a grudge against her or Apatow's gang of mooks, either. Except for the abortion thing. That bugged me.

I am pleased as hell that I will likely get a chance to vote for either a woman or a black man for President of the United States. If all other things were equal, gender and/or race would definitely tip the scale for me.

I don't know which would advance this nation more, a female President or a black President. This country needs to break those barriers, finally.

Considering how the neanderthal wing of the country, e.g., Republicans would never vote for a woman, I find their moaning about the gender vote to be as disingenuous as the rest of their fascist garbage.

"The end of slavery would mean the end of our way of life!" No matter how immoral or destructive we know slavery to be deep down in our hearts, our short-term interests must outweigh all. As for our children and their children's children: fuck 'em!"

"The end of slavery would mean the end of our way of life! No matter how immoral or destructive we know slavery to be deep down in our hearts, our short-term interests must outweigh all. As for our children and their children's children: fuck 'em!"

"Would it be totally neanderthalic of me to opine that the women of Salon all seem to be unusually attractive?"

Well, RT and TCF are rather fetching, based on their videos, but count me among the luddites who rage against the tyranny of pictures & sounds over print.

Anyway, the ad is not offensive (and neither are most PETA ads, bub), but I wonder who the target audience is. It's an elegant, understated ad, and the sensitive souls who are captured by it will nod and agree, if they already don't.

In the meantime the barbarians and ignoramuses who continue this despicable practice will likely never see the ad, nor be move by it if they do.

According to boxing promote Bob Arum, who knew Evel Knievel well: “He used to always say the three things he hated the most were New Yorkers, lawyers and Jews..."

Yeah, he'll be missed.

Funny, I always found JLH too skinny for my tastes (albeit with great boobs), but I guess like everyone else, she got a little older and a little fatter.

Imagine what the gossips of today would say if a woman who looked like Marilyn Monroe in her prime walked down the beach in a bikini. While we straight men and perhaps gay women would be drooling the eunuchs and misogynists at TMZ would be falling over each other in a mad scramble for the thesaurs to find synonyms for "fat."

Ladies, it's been said before and it needs saying again: I and the other straight men I know like our women fleshy.

Anyway, that pic (http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/11_04/hewittSPLASH2811_468x556.jpg) of JLH ain't the most flattering, but how many of us would like to have our asses photographed like that and splayed all over the internet. If Ms. Love and other sex objects appear on film in great lighting, with makeup hiding their imperfections, or in pictures where they are airbrushed, then they are only doing their jobs, and we the audience can either lust after them or critique them as we see fit. But really, actresses and models are people too, and when they're not working they deserve to have their privacy respected. However, I might pay good bucks to see a photo of a TMZ papparazzi getting eaten by a shark.

I didn't get a chance to say this before, because they closed the letters section there, but I really liked your response regarding the LW who asked if she should kill that yorkie.

I love cooking shows and cookbooks, but I've learned more by trial and error, and had more fun doing it, by cooking on my own rather than following instructions. Of course, there's nothing like a good instruction when you've cooked yourself into a dead-end.

And Mr. Koppelman, I completely disagree that vegetarian cookbooks are often first about "guilt" and then about "pleasure." I have nearly a dozen vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, and while most do include discussions of the ethics of not eating animals, their primary focus is on the sheer joy of cooking and eating. However, you really should rethink your stance on pork fat. Pigs are more intelligent than dogs, but suffer terrible pain and abuse in the meat industry (hey, what's wrong with a little guilt?).