between Ben Nelson and a predecessor, Bob Kerrey. Sen. Kerrey proposed that farm subsidies needed to end, to the horror of all who assumed he was out of touch with the farmers. On the contrary, Ben Nelson is out of touch with the farmers and very much in touch with Con Agra and the like. That's where this is coming from, not from the stereotypical family farmer.

are getting blocked by Union Pacific, who fears disaster to their freight from zooming 200mph passenger trains. One of the odder aspects of US passenger rail is that passenger trains are required to yield to freight, which contributes a lot to the perpetual tardiness of AMTRAK trains. Now it appears the freight companies won't let the high speed trains even share track.

it's interesting to speculate upon why there is speculation rather than taking for granted that it reflects concern about peak oil, dwindling supplies, and so forth. I believe the speculators are worried about something much more short-term - namely that Cheney will get his war with Iran and that Iran will close the straits as part of that, reducing immediate oil supplies considerably.

I have all my loans through my credit union, mortgage included, and they treat me very well indeed.

However, to those of you who think mom&pop community banks have vanished, I'll correct you a bit. My wife has an account at a fairly new, one-building-only Korean bank (she's Korean) right in downtown Los Angeles near her office. We found out about the place because they sponsored an art exhibit for an elderly Korean friend of ours. Went to the exhibit, and ended up having a long, friendly and interesting chat with one of the men who started and run the bank (a 60-something physician), about why they did this, what their vision is and so forth. Idealistic, helping the community with a local, community-owned bank, and so on, but maybe in these times that will work. So, anyway, check out your local ethnic communities - who knows what you might find.

In the concern about insulting the developmentally disabled, the author suggests this "So now that we don't use it for the developmentally disabled, can we please use it to mean lame, stupid, way stupid? "

so it's ok to insult the mobility disabled?

TO add further to the general tin ear ambiance, one of the letters, while talking about the phrase "That's so gay" comments that one never hears "That's so African-American" or "That's so Black". Has the writer never heard the phrase "That's so ghetto"???

In any event, I agree heartily with those wishing for the reincarnation of George Carlin.

I think the term is being used just as as scare word, devoid of meaning. There is a more accurate term for operating a government this way, though, and while I don't want to let it loose here, this page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism

lays it out pretty thoroughly.

but I don't suppose either of these teams' games are broadcast anywhere, are they?

this isn't "mobile phone dermatitis", it's plain old nickle dermatitis. Clearly someone's hoping to sell newspapers, so to speak, by calling it "mobile phone dermatitis". Nickle is the commonest cause of allergic dermatitis - second commonest are fragrances in soaps, shampoos, detergent, and such.

As an Angeleno who's watched the rapid deterioration of the LA times under Trib ownership, I'm not sure that's accurate.

for this statement: "only a small minority is actually affected by DOMA's injustices"

We in California have deprived a group of people of their rights. That is a horrifying action for all of us.

Also, Glenn, an action I'd like to see is the entire group you refer to as "Beltway World", flushed out of there in disgrace and ridicule. They have been so wrong for so many years; it astounds me that they still have such credibility even in DC.

There must needs be a way of preventing the return of these scoundrels. In addition, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is very appealing. Not only South Africa, but South Korea used the device to address the appalling actions of its leaders during the 1980s in particular. Torture was rife, citizens were repressed and jailed for dissent, and there was the infamous Kwangju massacres. During ex-President Noh's administration, the commission turned over all those rocks, including ex-dictators Roh and Chun especially, and from my viewpoint as something of an outsider, it was very effective. Full testimony and truth in exchange for no prosecution. But certainly complete disgrace and loss of any reputation. South Korea has a much more group-oriented, Confucian society, as opposed to our highly individualistic culture, so group opprobrium is much more effective there. Therefore we would need additional mechanisms to ensure that those disgraced individuals could not return to power, but beyond that, I think the commission idea would work well.

have ever even sat up front in a plane. I used to be on faculty for a medical center in a state that was 500 miles across. I was on the graduation committee, so when one of our campuses across the state had graduation, we would pack up myself and assorted deans into one of the state planes, usually a 6 or 8 seater twin jet prop named after some Indian tribe or other. Sitting up front is not everybody's cup of tea, and we usually filled the plane, so I usually rode up front on the right. Things are very different from that perspective. I wore headphones because it's noisy and because it's interesting listening in on what's going on. Now, if I mentally scale those experiences up to a large passenger jet, I'm really impressed.

given that about 30,000 acres of Orange County spent the weekend on fire.