I have known many Pentecostals over the years and some of them have been fine outstanding people who would literally take the shirts off their backs to help you. But supporting someone like Sarah Palin isn’t about backing kind and generous leaders. This is about putting a candidate in office that has the intellectual judgment to be able to handle an international crisis without being biased by a book that is a 2000 year old political tract written by ignorant, power hungry desert tribes. Being enamored by the trite bromides provided in the Bible is one thing but taking this book as the literal word of god and being willing to help shape history by being an accomplice to ushering in these silly and childish so called ‘prophecies’ is something else completely.

Screw the controversy over wolf killing (a particularly sensitive issue with me), her so called feminism or all the other crap that is coming out over her nomination as the Republican VP. There is only one thing that really matters here and that is Palin’s medieval worldview. There is no way to genuinely believe in this kind of trash and then not end up use policy as a means to help bring this ‘end time’ malarkey to fruition.

If American’s keep putting these evangelicals in office with their puerile vision of the ‘rapture’ and the ‘tribulation’ we will end up with an apocalypse that will make the bible’s look like a picnic. And it will have nothing to do with fulfilling biblical prophesy; just our own stupidity and a just reward for siding with ignorance and superstition over reason and intelligence.

Salon has published eight stories about Sarah Palin in just the last four days alone. With coverage like that someone might mistakenly get the impression that Palin is someone worth writing about.

Remember that movie 'Field of Dreams' where they said, "Build it and they will come". Well, try not writing about it and it might go away.

Just a thought, but I was hoping that maybe just one day this week you could feature a lead article that is not about Sarah Palin. Perhaps something about one of the other six billion people on the planet- or if your feeling real nutty and wanna really mix it up- even an issue!

Palin's just not important enough to give this much ink to and you're already preaching to the choir anyway.

Take a look at these letters and notice that the subscribers have pretty much called Camille for what she is; an irrelevant has been. The fawning fan letters are mostly from conservatives. I’ve got nothing against having a contrarian or even a thoughtful conservative voice on the site but Camille is no longer in touch with your readers —or reason for that matter.

Oh, and if you do get someone to replace her please find a writer that doesn’t have a creepy Madonna fetish.

I'm a little bit foggy on how you define a feminist Camille. Is it purely on the basis of genitalia and chromosomes or is there at least some component of philosophy or ideology involved?

I’m not really offended by the photo or the article but I find them both a bit hokey and off the mark. By comparing Palin to a dominatrix you are giving her way more power and panache’ than she deserves (she’s an insult to any real dominatrix). This is not a good strategy. Yesterday you had an excellent article on aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska that showed Palin for what she really is: a mindless evangelical, a vacuous shill for big business, an undemocratic authoritarian and a completely uncritical thinker with a vicious anti-science bent.

Let’s stick with those talking points and lay off the sex images—because seriously, she’s not that hot!

You said: "I would like to see Sarah Palin have to get down on the ground and minister to the wounded woves as they are in their death throes."

Not me. I'd rather sent Palin out on the tundra with a pair of snow shoes and then run her down in my Piper Cub until she's exhausted (see the attached video to see what I'm talking about). It would give the heartless haridan a taste of her own medicine.

You said: "She said her state has "managed its wildlife so that we still maintain abundant populations of all of our indigenous predators almost fifty years after statehood." This is something no other US state has accomplished."

No other state has a territory over twice the size of Texas with a total population that's less than Salt lake City.

Completely unfare comparison!

You said: "Is this particular article on this issue, vis a vis Palin, contributing anything to the national discourse?"

I would argue yes! It underscores her fundamentaly bankrupt views on both science and animal issues. I have family that is gung ho over McCain but are also animal lovers (especially dogs and their geneticaly identical cousins canis lupus). This article may not change their vote but it may get them to think just a little more about the consequences of their vote. Remeber that Rome was built one brick at a time.

On a personal note I also found the article informative and interesting and I got something out of it.

Though I can understand your sensitivity to the photo of the wolf dangling from the plane, I don't think the pic was either graphic or trying to be sensational. I thought the picture underscored the message of the article and gave it more impact. It may not be what you wanted to see while eating dinner but it's the 'way it is' and I think it's good for people to see that.