It is a great show, and I'm sorry that many of the critics in the letters section here don't seem to like it very much. I'm also disturbed that there are still people who are upset that Starbuck is a woman. Criminy, I guess sexism is alive and well. I also think it's interesting that so many people seem to have a problem with Starbuck being a woman, but I don't think I've ever read a single complaint about Boomer also being a woman in the new version. Does this have something to do with the fact that the original Boomer was an African-American, and so maybe it doesn't really matter what happens to his character? Is this just a slight hint of racism, or am I reading too much into it?

Anyway, the Moore/Eik version of Battlestar is light years ahead (sorry for the sci-fi pun) of the original goofy one, and makes what was primarily a kooky kid's show something that thinking adults can appreciate on many levels. So, if there is still someone out there who prefers the 70s version, I think they really ought to get out of their own childhood and join the rest of us here in the 21st century.

Although all of the characters are great, in this latest season premiere, I found myself most compelled by Baltar's predicament. How he is able to survive, how he constantly finds himself in these absurd situations which start out as controlling him, but which he usually finds a way to turn to his advantage, is smart and funny and interesting.

But what really struck me about this episode was the similarity between fictional President Baltar and the real President Bush. Both started out winning an election on a platform of change, with a good amount of public approval, and both have ended up being reviled by the masses. Also, both have ended up with a kind of loyal cult that worships them separate from reality.

And, just like the American public supporting the Iraq invasion in 2003, the fictional masses on Battlestar wanted to settle on that planet. So, just like in real life, where the masses are now against the Iraq invasion which most of them enthusiastically supported, the masses on Battlestar are now upset at Baltar for how things went down on that planet, even though they all wanted to live there so much that they voted Roslin out of office.

To the fictional human race on Battlestar, and to the real humans who voted for Bush in 2000 (and again in 2004), I'd simply say this: you voted for the guy for all the wrong reasons, you were happy that he won, and you were wrong. To hate Baltar now, in the same way that everyone hates Bush now, smacks just a bit of a not too self-aware hypocrisy.

But seriously, that scene with Baltar and his verrrry adoring fan? And that scene with him in the bathroom? Those scenes had the best acting and the most compelling storyline on the whole show. Yeah, we'll eventually discover who the last Cylon is, and what the deal with Starbuck is, and it'll all be worth finding out. But I'll be much more interested to see what, exactly, will happen to Baltar. Will he survive, as he always seems to, or will he finally get a comeuppance from which he cannot recover?

I think it's going to be a fun final season.

The only thing I really take issue with in this article is his assertion that the relationship of the religious fundamentalists to the 9/11 truthers is a Right/Left comparison.

I think not. There are plenty of conservative/libertarian types in the 9/11 truth movement and there are plenty of lefty religious people who are adamant about mixing up politics with religion.

Delusion and idiocy are non-partisan issues.

Yes, you could note this as just another instance of how the liberal media isn't really liberal. But what is the solution? To get them to focus on Hagee just as much as they have on Wright?

For the love of Zeus, no.

It is insane that, when millions of people are poor, underfed, underinsured and underemployed, the discussion is focused on he said/he said Magical Sky God theology.

Religion offers no tangible solutions to earthly problems; manna only comes from heaven in fictional stories. Until all Americans, whether they be on the left or right, wake up, realize this, and demand that politicians check their religion at the door, we will continue to suffer through this insane political process of our own making.

They aren't journalists, so stop calling them that. They are overpaid script readers. In fact, just ignore them and maybe they'll go away. Someday.

Ahhemmm.

"No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

Why is anyone talking about what church Barack Obama goes to? In a country of religious freedom, he can go where he wants or go to no church at all. The choice is his, not ours, and frankly it really shouldn't have anything to do with how he would serve in the secular office of the Presidency.

And while we're at it, why is anyone at all surprised when religious people say or do stupid crap? Why do we treat as news the fact that people with irrational, un-factual beliefs say irrational, un-factual things in public? The news should be that they were even thinking it in the first place, not that they had the stupidity to say it out loud.

A true separation of religion from politics is clearly spelled out in two amendments of the Constitution. Yet religion has clearly hijacked our electoral process and our entire system of governance.

And the only way out of it, at this point, is for all of the religious people, no matter their belief or political party, to wake up and realize that this is detrimental to them and their freedom.

I really hope that happens soon.