I don't know who you are either, but can you help my right-wing nutjob of a husband onto the same path? I don't need him to agree with me, but I'd love him to stop frothing at the mouth, or as you so eloquently say "think with questions marks and not exclamation points". [paraphrase] Even his fellow Conservatives tell me he's gone off the deep end! You give me a sliver of hope!

I am 100% behind health care reform and I'm even happy to pay more taxes to help out my fellow citizens (and heaven forbid myself when I need it), but the line ends there. There's no way in HELL that you'll convince me I have to pay for every desperate person in the world.

I feel for illegal immigrants. I sincerely do. And they deserve to be treated with a humane heart. But the last thing we need is to promise them everything they need if they'll just break the law and cross the border. And if health care reform leads to coverage for illegals, then the Republican conspiracy machine will have scored a whopper that I'll never forgive the Dems for.

You're right - the health crises that illegal immigrants help spread, they don't discriminate. Not against Mexican immigrants either. Every LEGAL foreigner that passes through America, every American that travels abroad, can spread swine flu (or whatever) just as well.

If it's in our best interest to pay for illegal immigrants' health care, than isn't it in our interest to pay for that of everyone in the world? The only difference between a starving child from Nigeria and from Mexico is that the Mexican's mother broke our law and had the luck to scramble through the desert. That Nigerian child? He may have gone into the city and begged money of an American tourist, passing the virus to this generous passer-by, who then got on a plane and brought the it home. How do you think swine flu got from Mexico to all over the map - NOT just America. Or Mexico.

The only thing this article accomplished was make me realize that the Repubs didn't make this one up - there ARE actually people out there who believe we should cover illegals. Wow.

Until I hear someone come forward and say they were pressured to have sex with Letterman, we have no reason to believe otherwise.

Given the (so-far) lack of any such accuser, I am currently outraged at the insinuation that a grown woman can't have made her own sexual decisions. That SURELY, these women were victims. Any such idea, without a shred of evidence, is BS.

Not that it's unfeasible that Letterman could have done something unsavory. (Although he is not known as the type of to throw his celebrity around, to a notable degree.) But it seems very plausible that young women would find him attractive. Not me, per say, cause I'm not into the celebrity/older/"daddy" thing. But many many women are into one or several of those power situations. And even if these women DID sleep with Letterman to get ahead, it was in that case STILL their CHOICE to use their sexuality that way - not Letterman who was doing so.

So until we have any evidence that these women were anything but mature, consensual adults, why doesn't everyone stop thinking they must've been some sort of victim just because they're women?

I won't claim that in the examples of what is said about air quality and control on an aircraft, there's not some mischaracterization/understanding. But don't blame Fight Attendants or the Economist. Do you think they just simultaneously made that stuff up out of thin air?

No they didn't. They got it straight from pilots. As I Flight Attendant I can tell you that I would also say that pilots have some control over the air mixture. Why? BECAUSE MY PILOTS TELL ME SO. If this isn't true, why are they saying it? I don't know. But take it up with them.

It was only 3 weeks ago that one of my pilots - in our pre-flight briefing - clearly said "the company says we're always supposed to keep fresh air flow to a 50/50 mixture. But with swine flu out there, I don't care. I keep the fresh air open all night long. Just so you know. The way I figure it, the less recirculated air in here, the better, in terms of not recirculating germs."

So - is that pilot crazy? You tell me. I also know that on flights when we've had a number of people fainting, the pilots have said they would "put more fresh air into the cabin".

Maybe it is wrong/all a crazy lie. But if you wonder where these supposedly tall tails come from, perhaps you should ask your own.