I find him hard to read these days, not because his writing has declined, but because he spoke out for ignoring the crimes of the previous government.

I'm a forgiving person and I certainly feel that sometimes the past is best left alone. But this isn't something minor like Clinton's sexual transgressions or Nixon's spying on his opponents (which he absolutely deserved to get thrown out of office for!) - this is death camps, this is thousands of Americans killed in a war created by lies, this is an entire country, Iraq, turned upside down with at least one person in eight killed, seriously injured or displaced from their homes.

When you write "[r]etribution is not smart politics," you fail to understand that murder isn't politics at all, it's the failure of politics. We don't want to try these people for political reasons, we want to try them for ethical and moral reasons, for humanitarian reasons, to reclaim the good name of these United States, so that this country is not a place where you can publicly commit murder and get away with it.

So when you write a column like this, I look at it and say, "Isn't this the 'torture camps, no big deal' guy? So isn't this all a big fraud?"

Please, Mr. Keillor. Reconsider your ill-considered stance. If you or I committed crimes a tenth as bad, we'd be locked up for a hundred years - why should the rich and powerful be free to commit terrible crimes against innocent humans?

Really well-written, compassionate and practical. No need to read any of the comments (including this one)!

While the rest of the column is the usual tripe (how dare this moron imply that Republicans own "hard work" or "families"), the United States is actually "center-right" - or even basically right-wing, let's be realistic here.

Compare Obama's policies - pro-war, pro-big-business - with those of the leaders of, say, other NATO countries.

There is no room for the centrist in America - let alone the left. Every year, there is a big argument over whether to increase defense spending a lot, or a huge amount. The actual "left" has been completely cut out of the dialog.

Nothing wrong with peeing onto your compost pile, but urine is basically water.

It's the feces which is the huge loss of bio-solids. And I think you're a) somewhat unsafe b) definitely against most Western health codes if you defecate into your compost.

(I say only "somewhat" because in the West, pretty well all the diseases that are spread by fecal contact are quite rare, but more, we certainly have the ability and knowledge to effectively prevent the spread of such diseases, most of which come from eating food or water that are fecally contaminate...)

I loved this story, I was very moved.

But I wanted to point out that these things definitely happen in the real world. I had a lawn party in Brooklyn last week, and three people showed up with guitars, one with a cello, a propos of nothing at all, and various combinations played popular songs, or simply jammed.

Humans love music. Give 'em a chance, implied permission to do it and perhaps fail, and they'll be all over your lawn with it.

"Organic means carbon-based, folks. It has been mis-appropriated by dipshits to mean something else."

You might want to check a "dictionary", a book that actually lists meanings of words.

Organic means a carbon compound - to chemists and scientists.

Perhaps it wasn't a good choice of word but the fact is that hundreds of millions of people use organic to mean "grown without chemical pesticides" (etc).

In Europe, the word tends to be "biologique" which is just as irrational (almost all food is biological).

But the people decide what a word means - not you. Get over it.

I've definitely had my differences with Senator Kennedy but any human beating death has my support.

don't get me started!

But the fact is that modern medicine works well despite the fact that there are a lot of incompetent doctors because overall the scientific method works extremely well.

I'm very sympathetic to you reporting here that your ignorant, lazy or arrogant doctors gave you wrong treatment. But the fact is that medicine as a whole is extremely effective whereas folk medicine is not.

We had folk medicine based on anecdotes for thousands of years - but it was only when modern scientific medicine started to take over less than a century ago that we suddenly saw diseases and conditions that had been feared killers for all of time suddenly become easily-treated nuisances.

So, yes! Continue to be skeptical of your doctors. Continue to avoid medicines and treatments - *unless scientific medicine indicates that you must take them*. Find a doctor who's not pill- and procedure-happy - then when they recommend a pill, take it! You're a fool if you aren't wary of people who have your life in your hands.

But you're twice the fool if you believe some talking head on the idiot box.

and I hate all that ultra-violence. At least twice in my life I was watching a movie with someone and demanded it be shut off - because it was so horrible. (So I'm worse than the letter-writer.)

What's interesting to me is that there are "violent" things like Hong Kong action movies that don't bother me at all - because they're so theatrical that I find it impossible to convince myself that people are being hurt. (I can see not liking them either, mind you!)

I really do think that the horribly violent movies and TV programs are a symptom of something wrong. Stick to your guns - or rather, to your lack of them.

I answered this question last year in this space. I said that these people were sociopaths; in your response, you felt this was too extreme and that I was demonizing the opposition. I'm curious as to whether you still believe this...