You'd have to be a sucker to still be buying corporate music at all. For every genre there's a better alternative that doesn't involve paying $20 a record or shopping at Wal-Mart. Anyone who really cares about and appreciates music should know this already. What amazes me is that the majors have managed to alienate even the masses of casual music fans who used to be willing to shell out big bucks for radio-hit garbage. The film industry is next to topple- I just hope someday people (and this includes performers as well as fans) realize that once a work becomes product it ceases to be art.

...and I do hate what America has become. I am that boogeyman that all Bushistas fear, an honest to god black bloc, brick-throwin', riot-startin' anarchist. I hate America and if I weren't so poor I'd move to a better country with national health care and no crazy Evangelical assholes deciding what women can do with their bodies, who can marry who and so on. WHEN they go to war with Iran, I'll be on the streets blockading military bases, barricading recruitment centers and putting my freedom and my life on the line yet again. I hope that at least a few of you typists will do the same.

Wow, who let that Catholic get on our e-mail list?! You are totally right Mr. Chris W, the last twenty years of well-documented lawsuits against the Catholic church for aiding and abetting pedophile priests was actually a carefully orchestrated scam by us athiests because we hate your freedom. I can't believe you found us out! Damn, after you guys we were going to go after the Hindus (I hear Vishnu has busy hands). Seriously though, it never ceases to amaze me that people can divorce themselves so dramatically from the "reality-based world" when it suits their purposes. As a victim of (non-Catholic) childhood sexual abuse, I'd like to extend a hearty up yours to you, pal.

Believe me, I marched. Must've lost 10 pounds marching in '03 and where did it get us? Got me arrested multiple times. A million people on the streets of New York got about 3 paragraphs on A10 in the Times, and that's about it. Sure, let's march again and then we can all call our representatives and beg them to maybe fucking represent us for once...

I don't want to sound like a hater, but I don't see how "standing up" again is going to change a damn thing. We the people are just along for the ride at this point. How many more messages can we send to our elected representatives before they act? Honestly and truly, they won't.

There is nothing we can do as private citizens to stop the Bush administration from doing whatever they want short of armed revolution (which I am not advocating, don't get me wrong). Until the corporations get sick of the status quo, no amount of people power can bring this corrupt regime down.

Thanks for the article. I hadn't seen any coverage at all of the event with the rabbis, and getting the insider's view of this trip is a valuable insight for all of us. I also agree entirely that the American reaction to the Ahmadinejad visit played out almost entirely to his satisfaction. Just when I thought the American people couldn't appear more foolish on the world stage, one man's visit elicits more terror than Godzilla's last stop in Tokyo. Pathetic.

It seems like there's an elephant in the room here. Sure, the Turks don't like the genocide resolution but I think the larger issue in American-Turkish relations is the fact that we are harboring a terrorist organization in Iraqui Kurdistan that is actively launching attacks against the Turkish police and military. I know the Kurds are supposed to be the "good guys" among the people of Iraq, but I think that the Turks have been more than patient up to this point. This entire genocide debate really seems to be a marginal issue compared to the fact that we're arming both sides in yet another regional ethnic conflict.

Forgive me if someone has already brought this up, as 16 pages is a lot of letters to cover.

It seems to me that the policies of Mutts & Moms (and a number of other agencies mentioned in other letters) would prevent anyone who isn't quite wealthy from being able to adopt. I live in San Francisco, where the only people with yards are millionaires many times over. Yet my pup (a 10-year-old malamute/chow mix) gets three walks a day in a beautiful pet-friendly off-leash park and a long hike in the Presidio on weekends. I have loved and cared for her since the moment we met, and yet clearly I would be turned down by any of these agencies simply on the grounds that I don't make enough money to qualify. Isn't this kind of the same thing as the Republicans smearing the Wilkersons (of S-CHIP fame) because poor people shouldn't breed?

Are you serious? By your criteria, Glenn shouldn't cover the law because he's a lawyer, and certainly no one cares about the law but lawyers right?

I may be a straight white male, but I still feel free to criticize any candidate of any race who embraces known and outspoken homophobic hate-mongers. I'm sorry the notion of compassion seems to alien to you.

Pam, thanks for the interesting piece. I'm sure this will play out here in SF, and I'd love to see it.