The whole tone of the article smacks of sexual exploitation, as if these images are a source of American pride. There are very good reasons why DuBois, King, and Sharpton, as well as others on both sides of the aisle have denounced images and lyrics that exploit young black women and men--bell hooks had it right when she referred to this sort of consumption as "eating" black bodies. We are not for sale, and the ends do not justify the means.

In fact, I thought it was cruel to use the misery of the people of New Orleans to stage yet another political grandstand. Maybe these "Yes Men" should consider using their talent for real dialogue and change, rather than for parlor games and posing for the camera.

Those who bought or refinanced with option ARMS will, no doubt, bear the brunt of the exploding bubble, especially in so-called hot housing markets. Mortgage brokers who talk a good game convinced many families to play in a housing market that was already inaccessible to them. We've allowed the banking industry to mask the true state of our financial fitness, individually and collectively. The middle-class could disappear under the weight of carrying the burden of this legally-sanctioned fraud. There is a clear lack of corruption and accountability in the banking industry that is largely due to a long-festering problem of deregulation and a well-heeled banking lobby in Washington.

In short, many home owners are going to face foreclosure because they have been lulled into believing that they could live beyond the limits of their income and assets. What's worse, this coming tide of reality will hit every corner of our economy. If it sounds too good to be true...

The housing crash will be like a train collision with everyone asleep at the controls. We are seeing the unfolding of an economic disaster with all the elements of a Greek tragedy.

Nothing is more pathetic than the liar who believes his own lie.

Unfortunately, we are seeing a "turning back of the clock" with regard to the resurgence of hate groups and hate crimes. Racial intolerance and violence is on the rise in this country, and it does not help to see some of our politicians pandering to racist attitudes. I believe we must work together to break the grip of hatred plaguing our communities by teaching tolerance and acceptance of diversity. But I also think that we need to address the lack of support in our legal system regarding enforcement of the law. It's about justice--and human rights.

You really don’t get out much, do you? Try reading someone other than a right-wing hack before attempting to use history for your sound-bites.

I'm no fan of Condi Rice, especially with her latest soundbite misfire, but I find the tone of this article a bit troubling. Bush is surrounded by MEN who exactly the same thing as Rice, Hughes, and Miers. They appease Bush and get rewarded for their loyalty. Rice has apparently figured out how to prosper in the mire of an incompetent administration, and her solution is to be a good liar. I think Blumenthal would have been far more effective in making his point had he written an article that did not imply women as being more likely to enable--especially since men are just as likely to lie and enable in order to get along and get ahead. All the President's women AND men are spinning their boss just as hard as they are spinning the American people in order to keep their jobs and make political points. It's a team effort, Sidney.

Why would anyone, woman or man, subsume herself/himself in order to maintain the appearance of happiness and satisfaction in a marriage? It's a foregone conclusion that such attempts to feign happiness become divorce cases, so one would ask why Weldon would advise women to "fake it." I think you would need to look at her body of work in order to answer that question.

Most, if not all of Weldon's fiction centers on male/female relationships with quite a bit of cynicism towards traditional notions of romance. I like to call her the anti-romance novel writer. I'm not surprised at her latest "advice" to women, given the satiric tone of many of her works that focus on marriage and men's sexual appetites. I would balk at anyone purporting to give relationship advice that said, in effect, that "men are children to be tamed by women who should subsume their own desires and needs in order to keep happy marriages." In many of her novels, the opposite happens as a result of women "faking it" to keep their husbands.

Outside of dismissing her latest writing, the only way to interpret Weldon's "advice" is to see it for what it is--satire, with a tone that we would associate with "A Modest Proposal." One would hope that she was poking fun at these gender assumptions--and even if she is dead serious, her ideas cannot be seen as anything other than camp. I think feminists are right to be upset about this book, given our general audience's tendency to not recognize the "tongue-in-cheek," especially young women just starting out in their lives. But I think her writing would be a fascinating study of the impossibility of performing gender ideals in relationships.