Havrilesky creates a vision sure to warm the hearts of the average Salon reader.

America is a little stressed these days, a little anxious. On the surface, everything is fine. Under our devoutly Christian leader, we are all highly moral. We have right and God on our side as we fight the evildoers.

Are we really to believe that anyone who reads Salon accepts that vision, or in their lifetime ever had? “Our devoutly Christian leader” is a phrase that only comes to mind for most people here when the subject is Jimmy Carter. And no one much bought that when he was in office. Those are the sentiments of, not even WWII, but WWII era propaganda and popular entertainment.

Except that, well, we've been feeling kind of weird. And, to tell the truth, we have a few skeletons in our closet.

This implies people are working their way towards a realization of what the world, or let’s be specific, Bush and the Republicans, have done. I think long before The Sopranos started, Salon readers knew how they felt about both. Hell, before 9-11 they already knew how they felt about both.

Somebody whacked some of our crew, and we were scared, so we whacked Iraq. Just like Tony ordered the hit on Adriana. Steps were taken, as Sil would say. Except it turned out there were some unexpected consequences. We basically killed an entire country, and a whole lot of Americans, and people are dying all the time. And what are we doing? Nothing. We're going to the Bada Bing. We're having dinner at Artie's. Same old same old. Everything's fine. It's just fine.

Does anyone here have their heads in the sand this way? Does anyone in America? Even people who support the war and the president, don’t think everything is fine, just fine. They realize the complications and the disasters that this war involves, they know that America itself is a country that that contains criminals and liars as well as people who embrace (and often struggle with) a moral life. Havirlesky's depiction is a cheesy simplification of the national identity, and to foist it off on The Sopranos is, I think, patently ludicrous.

A letter writer made the very good point in another column that he or she was not a saint and could not constantly pay attention to the atrocities of war. Paying attention to the news is important, but it can't be the focal point of our 24 hours each day. We need fluff, but that's only a small part of it. We need good times. We need hope and a belief in something (that something is not celebrity gossip). And I think that is what people who support the world, as well as those who don't, are turning towards when they turn away from the body count in Iraq, or the various other tragedies that go on in the world.

And that's very, very far away from the psyche of Tony Soprano.

It condemns someone like Paris, but writes and writes and writes about her, all the while bemoaning her media omnipresence. She isn't everywhere. She doesn't have to grad anyone's attention. We don't have to look, and Salon doesn't have to write about it. There's no news in this story, and no entertainment. Do the writers and editors of Salon not realize they have a choice?

It is the nature of drama that it challenges us to redefine our attitude towards characters outside accepted moral types. Richard III is an obvious example. He's a rat bastard, but boy are we intrigued by him. Same goes for Heathcliff. If The Sopranos failed to make us care about Tony, that would not be a sign that we were less of a coporate, evil America. It would be a sign that the show was poorly written.

evil, coporate types are not the ones who seem to be writing those letters in praise of the show.

but I admit I knew the book (hadn't read it, but knew the subject) long before seeing the movie. I thought it was really good, but it was going for a very different effect than Knocked Up.

Anonymous below gets it wrong. It wasn't about living "happily ever after." It wasn't remotely that callous or shallow. Stacy was stuck with no options, and she sadly had to take care of both getting to the clinic and paying for the thing on her own because the guy who knocked her up couldn't handle adult responsibility. But life did go on. He brother cared and came to pick her up. Her life didn't end, but that didn't mean she hadn't gone through a serious experience, either.

Who/where is there anyone in American "grovelling for their leaders"?

No. Never. Sorry, but that's really misinformation. No such thing, except maybe in some weird cult somewhere that almost no one has ever heard of. That is not remotely where pro-Bush or pro-War on Terror minds are at.

the legend that poor Argentinians worshipped Eva Peron as a saint was also false.

What do the letters columnn of every Paris story say? "Stop covering Paris." What is Salon's response? A brand new Paris story.

Way to go.