Goodnight dear friend, good night. My eyes are wet tonight as I bid you a fond farewell. You've been with me since Bloom County and will forever live in my imagination. Thanks Berkeley for sharing him with us.

Glenn's Question: "Does anyone on TV other than Keith Olbermann care that the Attorney General of the United States just invented a critical episode about 9/11 that never actually happened -- tearing up as he did it -- in order to scare Americans into supporting the administration's desired elimination of spying restrictions and blame FISA supporters for the 9/11 attacks?"

My Answer: "NO".

As Atrios would say, this has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

I live in Senator McConnell's neighborhood, by far Louisville's most liberal zip code, and oftentimes see him in the local grocery store or at a restaurant. While I've been tempted to speak to him, I've generally refrained for fear of saying something that might get me in trouble. Anyways, he's as sneaky and shifty as they come and yet you almost have to admire him. He has played Senator Reid from day one and gotten the best of him on nearly every occassion. I would argue that short of himself being Majority Leader, he couldn't in his wildest imagination dream of a better advocate for his cause and that of President Bush than Reid himself.

I read what you say, listen to people on the street and keep up on the latest polling and it's clear that Bush and the Republican agenda are extremely unpopular, if not despised by a very sizeable majority of the American public. Yet this does not appear to register inside the Village and they go on beding over backwards to appease Mr. 24%. I've never missed an election, primary or general, since I became eligible to vote in 1988, but I'm to the point where I wonder if I should simply throw up my arms and say "that's it, I'm done".

I have no representation in the Senate and while I'm lucky to have John Yarmuth as my Representative, who else is there to vote for? If they are only going to act like Republican Squared, why should I donate my time, money and energy to getting these clowns elected? I've yet to hear an answer and come November, I might just sit at home.

I'm very pleased to see the wonderful "World Without Us" on your list of the years 10 best. I devoured it in one sitting and found the idea of a world free of humans to be both intriguing and frightening. We are capable of so much wonder and such imaginiative thinking and yet we do so many stupid things. Despite our visions of grandeur, it's clear that the world would little miss us nor long mourn us. Perhaps we can find some way to change that in the decades ahead.