The fallacies inherent in David Brooks' smug points are so numerous as to be laughable. Thank you to Rebecca Traister for puncturing his self-righteous balloons.

As a recent widow, I am grateful that I have always been a "career woman" and therefore can support myself and my children now that we've lost my husband's support. Surrendering my autonomy to another human was never on my list, and fortunately my husband, who was proud of my professional accomplishments, would never have dreamed of suggesting that I be a stay-at-home mom against my will. I hope my sons follow in his footsteps, appreciating self-sufficient women who will love their children but believe there is more to life than wiping snotty noses and cleaning sinks and toilets.

Karen Kasper

One of the things I read years ago when global warming was first being discussed was that it would not just make weather warmer, it would make weather more extreme. So, warmer AND colder, more rain AND more drought, and especially, higher winds. Why don't we see that in more reports on climate change? I think it would help people understand the repercussions of global warming better.

Everyone in the northern half of the US thinks warmer is fine, heck, we don't really like the snow that much anyway, right? But when you look at the high variability we're seeing, the floods in Hawaii and drought in Arizona, stronger and more frequent Atlantic hurricanes, more frequent and more numerous tornados in the Midwest, more rain and mudslides in California, you can see that it's not just warmer weather, it's more severe weather, and that's a threat everyone can understand.

I'm with the people who say bug the landlord and the police, but avoid confrontations with this dangerous jerk and, for crying out loud, don't do anything illegal like torch his car.

You can't be the only one in the neighborhood bothered by the Dude. Walk around and talk to your neighbors about it. See how many have enough backbone to join you in complaints. Heck, maybe you can start a block association.

10 years ago my city neighborhood was plagued with a gang. They didn't even live there, they just hung out there because one of the thugs had a girlfriend on our block. After a driveby shooting, our block full of families with small kids had had enough. The neighbors got together and agreed that every time one of these buggers so much as blew his nose, we would call the cops. ALL of us. The first one to call would then call the neighbors and ask them to call, and they did. The police may blow off one person's complaints, but they won't blow off a whole block, especially when their switchboard lights up like a Christmas tree every day. Eventually the police made our block part of their standard route back to the station (which was only 5 blocks from our neighborhood!) so cop cars came down the street multiple times a day. The gang was gone in less than a month.

Nothing beats neighborhood cooperation. Oh, and when the cops do talk to the Dude, they won't say "your neighbor xxx at xxx address complained," they'll say "we've had a dozen calls about your behavior today, and it's got to stop."

I was never a fan of Carol Lay, but at least amid her creepy weirdness there was occasional humor. This is badly drawn, hard to read, trite and boring. C'mon Salon, you can do much, much better. How about xkcd? OK, I'm a computer geek, but almost anything would be better than this drivel.

I read Salon for a lot of reasons: Joan Walsh, Gary Kamiya, Keith Knight, Garrison Keillor, Sidney Blumenthal (I'll miss him!) and just generally getting a liberal slant on the news. The comics are icing (well, except for Keith Knight, who's frequently brilliant). But this icing is rancid.

98% of the commenters so far today range from disliking to outright hating this comic. They've been saying so for weeks. C'mon Salon. Even if you've already paid for more strips, we'd all be happier if you returned to the old schedule of WayLay on Tuesday and no comic on Friday than if you keep on publishing this dreck. And I don't even like WayLay much.

I know breaking up is hard to do, but really, just rip that band-aid off quick instead of torturing us slowly.

Yeah, you bastard, just like everyone else I bought it hook, line and sinker - then spit it out in the last panel.

Forget all the warnings about what to tell your kid about weed and homeless people - for now. You've got at least 2 or 3 years before you have to worry about that. The true test comes when your kid is about 4 or 5 and very loudly asks embarassing questions or makes embarrassing statements in public. That goes on for a long time - heck, just this weekend at the Christmas tree lot, my 8-1/2 year old shouted "What do you mean, too expensive?!"

Get ready, man - it's coming. :-)

I spent a good portion of today debating with a friend who believes in conspiracy theories and thought HRC had some nefarious scheme to undermine Obama and wreck the convention.

She sure showed him.

I thought it was an astounding and powerful speech. She hit all the right notes. I especially loved the line about "Were you here just for me?" obviously aimed at the PUMAs. If they were open-minded enough to listen, they should have clearly understood that she wants them to stop being selfish and support Obama, so we don't end up with McCain taking the White House in November.

It was the best speech of the convention so far, even better than Ted Kennedy's, which I thought was elevated more by sentimental value than content.