The Brokeback Mountain review was hilarious. I also recommend his brilliant interview last night with Peggy Noonan. Colbert's use of the blowhard persona allowed him to mock conservative ideas to her face. It was savage, but I'm not sure she even realized it was happening.

I confess I am on the fence about DeLappe's actions. On the one hand, as a gamer I'm not surprised to hear that other players are missing the point of his protest, since many of them probably just regard the game as a free FPS and ignore the Army's propaganda. I'd be annoyed if someone logged onto a game based on a fictional conflict and started complaining about violence in gaming. But of course, DeLappe isn't talking about a fictional conflict. I'm so disgusted by the Army's creation of the game that I heartily applaud any attempt to subvert it. (I'd love to see Salon do a more in-depth study of "America's Army" itself. Shades of Ender's Game indeed.)

I love first person shooters and other video games, but I never play games based on real military conflicts. I'm happy to engage in fantasy violence against zombies, space aliens, and fictional futuristic, totalitarian regimes. When I play Half-Life 2 or Tomb Raider, I enjoy solving puzzles, making the animations do interesting things, and blowing stuff up. I confess to enjoying the catharsis of imaginary violence, especially after a stressful day. I don't think it's any different than enjoying The Sopranos or a Stephen King novel.

Yet, as I said, I can't bring myself to play any game based on a real military conflict. For example, Call of Duty is supposed to be a terrific series, but I find it to be in poor taste to spend my afternoon playing at a war that killed 50 million people in real life. Of course by my own logic, I suppose it's not any different than the hundreds of movies set during WWII, but somehow I get squeamish imagining myself killing real people in a real war.

For the sake of demographics, I am a 40 year-old woman (really!) and a university history professor. Perhaps it's my background in history that makes it so difficult for me to enjoy those particular games.

You make a good point here about scale and context. What the Army is doing with this game is wretched enough that I can support your efforts to subvert it, to make players notice that this is not an ordinary video game, and of course to make them think about the war itself. It's not the same thing as a general opposition to video game violence, which was the implication of some of the earlier letters by gamers who suggested that you just don't understand gaming.

I wonder what to make of the gamers playing America's Army. Some surely are affected by the propagandistic elements of the game, but if the letters here are any indication, there seems to be a substantial number of players who ignore that element. One could think of them as also subverting the Army's intent by taking advantage of a free FPS and disregarding its political meaning. I'm very curious how many players would fall in that catgory.

I agree that the Vietnam sims are especially creepy, and I was horrified by JFK assassination shooter that came out a year or two ago. The perspective switch (US soldier vs terrorist) in AA is fascinating, I agree.

Also on the question of games and society, I'm very interested in issues of gender. Is a character like Lara Croft empowering for female gamers? Or does she represent the worst of male gamer fantasies? As a woman, I vote for the former, yet I recognize that may not be the case for all gamers. But that's a debate for another forum.

I've never understood the argument that having a period somehow creates a bond between all women. It is in no way beautiful, unique or defining of my identity as a woman. It's messy, painful and disruptive, at least for me.

I tolerated it until I was about 35, because I have severe migraines and can't take the pill. Then my irregular, painful periods became completely unmanageable. The flow became so heavy that I couldn't leave the house for the first three days. I had to keep extra clothes at work. I'll spare you the details of some very embarrassing incidents.

The Mirena IUD put an immediate end to all that, without the side effects of the pill. I was nervous about getting an IUD at first, but it turned out to be the best decision I ever made in that area. I only wish I had done it the day they came out on the market.

Your mileage may vary, of course. But for any woman whose period is problematic, I highly recommend talking to your doctor about Mirena or other methods of blocking it. There is no reason to feel guilty about getting rid of a difficult period.

Ever since the "compromise" was announced, I have been shaking with rage. Last year, at age 40, I donated money to the DCCC. It was my first political contribution, because for most of my life I've lived in red districts in red states, so there was no point in making local contributions. But this time I had to do something.

Now I'm writing Rahm Emmanuel and Nanci Pelosi to ask for my money back. Keith is right. They (incorrectly) think this will increase their chances of getting elected, and that's more important to them that ending the violence. From the moment they sign the bill, they take responsibility for every death that occurs in Iraq.