I am a registered Republican, but only until I can get to my county courthouse and change my registration. Once upon a time I thought Republicans stood for fiscal responsibility and equal opportunity, but they are not my people any more. The rabid, racist crowds of Knownothings that turned out for Sarah Palin, and defend that racist reactionary pig Rush Limbaugh have destroyed the party I once joined. I don't know who, or what, will replace them as the voice of fiscal restraint, but Rush is a demagogue in the worst sense of the word, and I've given up on replacing the Bush crowd with rational people. The party is dead.

I don't consider the state of Israel to be an ally of the United States. The only thing I know they've done is strafe a U.S. ship during the 1967 war. Israel is an albatross around our neck, if not a mill stone. I know Hamas may never make peace, but Israel's continued expansion of into territory gained through war is blatant aggression. I know Palestinians who are perfectly willing to accept Israel's existence if they'd just quit expanding the settlements. A pox on Israel!

Political correctness has gone totally rampant. I feel sorry for any politician, right or left, whose every offhand comment can become such blog-fodder.

So, who's going to lead the charge? What political party do I join to bring an end to this?

I am a professor at a large state university, and can point to several reasons tuition has gone up so fast, and it isn't professor's salaries. You can start with the sheer number of administrators and other non-teaching employees at most universities. When I was a college student way back in the late sixties, my college had a president, a vice president, and a couple of deans. Now universities have a president, three or four vice-presidents, and a raft of associate-vice-presidents and assistant-vice-presidents for this and that, all of whom make far more than all but the highest paid superstar professors. College presidents' salaries now rival corporate executive salaries. And all of those administrators have large staffs. At least some of this expansion of administration has been to manage government mandated programs such as disability services, affirmative action, and counselling. None of these offices existed years ago, and rarely do these people teach classes, but they have to be paid somehow.

Another expansion in costs is the push by many colleges and universities to become "research-intensive". Among other things that means building expensive research facilities, buying incredibly expensive instrumentation, and hiring faculty who teach fewer classes so they have time for research. All of these increase costs with little or no contribution to teaching.

Finally, there is a facitities war amongst universities to appeal to students with new dorms that are more like apartments than my back-in-the-day dorm with a community bathroom down the hall, and magnificent recreation buildings with several swimming pools, indoor tracks, and exercise equipment out the wazoo. All of these increase costs, contribute nothing to teaching, but make life more fun.

And finally, at least at state institutions, the proportion of state college budgets paid by the state has steadily fallen from 50-60% thirty years ago, to more like 30% today.

Both families in this low budget soap opera are white trash. I know white trash when I see it. Palin is just better looking than most. So quit writing about them and maybe they'll just go away.

What airlines should really do is charge by the pound for what they are transporting - the person and their luggage. That would truly reflect the cost of transportation and be truly fair to everyone.

If Israelis don't like U.S. interference in their politics, fine, in fact - great! Just stop all aid to Israel and leave them alone. Take them off the national welfare roles and let them go their own way alone. Very alone. Frankly I'm sick of the way U.S. politicians let Israel lead them around by the nose. Israel is an important ally? Bull! Israel is a millstone around our neck.

Mine are grown and out of the house, but that sure brought back some fond memories (and maybe a couple not so fond). Loved it!

Frankly, I thought the article was hilarious, and so clearly over-the-top that the letter writers who were offfended need to get a sense of humor. But there is one thing not mentioned by all those defending the sexy-ness of Italians and Italian cars: Italians aren't making enough baby Italians to maintain the population. SOMETHING has happened over there. Is it the cars?

No matter what you think/feel/believe, if you have a penis and testicles - use the damn men's room! God, don't we have better things to worry about?

For crying out loud - don't argue with cops...ever! I'm as white as can be, but I was taught since I was a little boy to never argue with cops. Even with my "white priviledge", I never argue with cops. It's dangerous! Be quiet, compliant, and later bitch and complain if you were done wrong. Gates doesn't live in 1950's Mississippi, he lives in figgin Cambridge. The cops aren't going to lynch him. Be calm, be quite, THEN scream about it. Anyone, black or white, should no better than to piss off a cop.