Sports is entertainment. And entertainers are always worth whatever the audience will pay to watch.

If someone is willing to pay an athlete 27 million dollars a year to play with a ball, then by definition the athlete is worth it. Regardless of your personal opinion of the merits of that athlete's skills or value to society.

From what I have seen with the modicum of attention I have paid to this strip, it has a continuing story.

So I was just wondering: Is anyone actually following it?

I ask merely for information.

I think you are misinterpreting the pilot's statement.

You seem to be reading it as:

The DC-10 is designed to fly on one engine, so there is no cause for alarm since we still have one engine.

I read it as:

The DC-10 is designed to fly on one engine, so there is no cause for alarm since we still have two engines.

That is the kind of thing I would expect a pilot to say, reassuring the passengers that they could lose another engine and still fly. I read it that way the first time, and thinking about it more reaffirms that reading.

In many ways, women in the west are a commodity. But in Khamenei's culture women are property. At least in our culture women have the option of selling themselves as a commodity.

I don't often quote the Christian holy book, but sometimes it is quite apt, especially when addressing a holy man:

Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye.

But once I found out what it was actually about, I saw that there was no other decision possible.

As a high school teacher, I see the lack of interest in the actual facts of the situation every day. Not only that, I see the failure to understand that the information is there for the finding, if people would only look.

In Geometry there are often new terms introduced in a lesson. Even now, halfway throught the school year, students stare blankly into space when they see a new term. Every one of these terms is clearly defined in the Glossary. Every time there is a question of a term's definition I emphasize that the answer is right there, in alphabetical order, in the back of the book. All they need to do is to look it up.

Less than half of the students ever look it up though. In some classes it is less than ten percent. It is not surprising that the vast majority of people choose to react without knowledge of the facts.

This is a problem that is endemic to our society. The cries of "judicial activism" are as reflective of this disinterest as they are of the any decision I don't like must be wrong mindset of right wing political pundits.

This is the Right Thing to Do because that is exactly what the framers of the Constitution had in mind.

Yes, it was satire.

I have been having more trouble than usual lately being misinterpreted 180 degrees from my intended message. When it happens this often, it must be my fault. *serious sentiment, I need to be less obscure*

He is still blaming it all on women.

All evil feminists, powerful and destructive, crushing all before them. Including poor helpless brightstar.

Also, there is the creepy use of the term "lib." He spells out "conservative," a twelve letter word, but can't be bothered to use the "-eral" at the end of the seven letter work "liberal."

As if we needed another reason not to take him seriously.

Yes, yes, bad farnsworth, responded to the resident ranter. Sometimes you just give in to your impulses, even when you know better.

There were dozens of zebras among the denizens of the the zoo in Tanzania.

Danvers Lunatic Asylym is a name. It is therefore conceivable that the spelling "Asylym" is ironic, rather than inept. However, the perception of ineptitude has pervaded the audience so strongly that we lose the ability to give the authors the benefit of the doubt.

On the off chance that the authors see this, please take note:

We need to have a lot more faith in you before we will trust the irony of such a spelling rather than assume it is in error.

Thanks so very much for the Amy Winehouse link.

I prefer that version of Winehouse to the staggering tattooed wasted mess she has become. Maybe she can recover.

Controllers lost contact with that satellite shortly after it reached orbit; since then, it's been decaying in space.

What I think Mr. Manjoo is trying to say is that the satellite's orbit has been decaying since launch.

The satellite itself probably has not been decaying.

What does Salon care about? Advertising revenue, maybe?

What generates advertising revenue? Page views?

As long as you keep reading this comic, or reading the letters it generates, it will continue to generate revenue for Salon. As long as it generates revenue, why would Salon stop publishing it?

If you want it to go away, stop viewing the page (including the letters about it). If you want to be proactive about making it go away, contact the advertisers.

Continuing to read it, or continuing to post and read letters about it, is only going to guarantee its advertising revenue, thereby assuring its presence every Tuesday.

He Really Is Not Evil

He is a hollow tube through which evil flows.

-- Trainman

That has to be the best explanation of George W. Bush that I have ever heard.

Well done!