Much as I deplore indiscriminate gun sales, the problem here was a very disturbed mind. Cho's teachers reported they were afraid of him, and students dropped out of classes because of him. Yet the university was unable to do anything to control him, or remove him from campus.

Our country has a lot of dangerously disturbed individuals, who are protected by law from mandatory treatment or being locked up. That needs to change. Mental institutions can be humane and helpful, and we need more of them.

Peace.

Desalination and nuclear plants may both have a role in future water supply, but where can they be located to have a long life?

System operator members of the American Water Works association (AWWA)-no bastion of liberal thinking – have accepted a future of global warming (no matter what the causes).

They expect it to include disastrous coastal storms and flooding and are budgeting billions of dollars to build new treatment facilities—some of them on coasts.

In March, the AWWA presented a webcast for its members. Speakers included system managers from Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle, Colorado and Calgary--all of them preparing to serve areas which they expect to be devastated within a few decades. It's reported at http://lakeconews.com/content/view/438/

It looks to this observer as if the planning would make more sense if it included massive tree planting and pest control inland, and preparation for mass migrations away from the coasts.

Calling Mrs. Riza his girlfriend is ridiculous. Whatever their other faults or virtues, this couple has a long-time live-in relationship (although perhaps not for much longer). Try common law wife, lover, paramour, mistress.

Girlfriend, boyfriend--that's so high school. It trivializes the nature and intentions of this power couple.

Regards from a sometimes cranky retired copy editor.

The Greeks had their pantheon of gods and goddesses to illustrate human foibles. We've replaced them with celebrities, too many of them without talent and only famous for being famous. But they do serve to make hard-working folks feel better about their own anonymous lives.

It's amazing that PH wasn't sentenced to six months or so in a no-nonsense treatment facility for substance abuse, which appears to be what she needs.

it doesn't look as if Portis much wants the kind of fame and attention some of us think he deserves. That's fine -- the readers who deserve him will discover him. my 2001 effort to drag him into the mainstream is still online at

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/01.18.01/portis-0103.html

and there's a nice unofficial website at

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~wvest/

To start with, you put somebody besides the foxes in charge of the hen house.

The Bush administration has consistently done just that and looked the other way when corporations were given a pass on obeying the law.

And that's not to suggest that all corporations are bad, but sometimes they need to be reminded to work within the law.

And sometimes the law needs to be changed. Right now, we have both domestic and foreign corporations in control of some of the nation's water resources. Not a good idea, with all the predictions we've seen of increasing drought and shortages.

Sen. Clinton wants more money in the highway fund, encouraging more private vehicle use, and never suggested improving public transportation, which is terrible in much of the country. That's one reason the higher gasoline prices in other nations aren't much of an issue. Why didn't Charlie and George home in on this?

I'm more fed up with the shallow, personal, nature of our lazy media's questions than with the candidates' answers. Do all the media folks want to star on Entertainment Tonight?

Clinton shill Stephanopoulos' dictation from Fox? Nash McCabe's inane lapel pin issue? Charlie Gibson's worry about his capital gains taxes?

It was 50 minutes of insulting fluff which seemed designed to irritate Obama, who wants to talk about the serious issues facing the nation and the world.

You "media stars" are dragging the campaign to kindergarten level.

Steven Pressland's brief and witty "War of Art" deals with this very nicely--worth reading.

Preview at

http://books.google.com/books?id=whvYxmkxwB0C&dq=%22war+of+art%22&pg=PP1&ots=d3tcxbGDn1&sig=gyXblpnprQzSeRv9Zi7n0IBh6qQ&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result

maybe they think this will squelch all the blogger reports that Bristol is actually he mother of Sarah's fifth child.

start asking those tough questions, checking the contradictions in her statements.

Scandinavian countries, like Canada, have very restrictive immigration laws. It would be more useful to spend your time getting out the vote for Obama and working in your own community.

That said, I admire those countries and have lived in Denmark. Maybe one reason they are so humane is that they've had their empires and lost them a long time ago. A little humility is a wonderful thing :-)

cable companies get to charge us for this mindless, offensive, crap. PBS excluded.

"inhabitants of a corrupt third-world country who have utterly lost faith in their government and in politics itself"

to shoot in Miami, because this sounds just like LA.