I wrote a long letter, but I guess I timed out or something. I pushed "publish" and it all went away.

It doesn't matter, though. Turns out Ashley, from Eastern Oregon, has perfectly said many of the things I had in my letter. I grew up in Southern California, and moved to the Willamette Valley in Western Oregon about 20 years ago. It's nowhere near as rugged as Southern Oregon, but there are several places within a relatively short drive from my house where a traveler could get in serious trouble at the wrong time of year. The things I didn't know about driving in these new conditions was amazing. In Los Angeles, such considerations simply are not an issue, and I doubt that they were much of an issue for the Kim family. It could have been a case of simply not knowing how much they didn't know.

I have no intention of trying to recreate my whole letter. I apparently blundered into a technological limitation I had no way of knowing about, much the same way James Kim blundered into a situation that was out of his ken. For most of what I wanted to say, please re-read ashley's excellent letter, especially to the parts about the unduly harsh language. Calling Kim a moron, fool or idiot does not reflect well on you.

Machademia's letter is pretty good, too.

Ahab, for all his lunacy, was able to get most of his crew complicit in the chase. Even Ishmael admits that he was almost swayed.

Bush has the power to sway no one, and yet we're all going to go down with him. Whatever that is, that insanity which prevents us from throwing Ahab overboard, is one of the most fascinating aspects of our current situation.

Call us all Fish meal.

For years now, when I've tried to point out the many ways that America has definitely and substantively screwed around with the Muslim world, and the many gripes the Muslims could legitimately have with us without even trying, I've been told, as I'm sure others have, that I'm part of the "Blame America first" crowd. "Oh there you go again, hating the hell out of America, etc."

D'Souza, I'm sure, would lay the same charge at my feet. Don't blame America, the mantra always goes, America is not the problem, the left is. Liberals. Fuzzy headed moonbats.

Silly liberal, blaming America when you only need to look in the mirror. Don't you know that America is saintly in all things, utterly removed in its actions from all ulterior motives?

Blame America first, or assign it any blame at all, and you get shot down quickly according to the standard playbook. But that playbook will easily substitute the 'Blame Liberals First' label in any and all situations.

D'Souza is joke. As others have pointed out, his arguments almost instantly circle around and eat themselves. If you have seen him on Colbert, he is easily checkmated within a couple of moves, and that by a guy who's act in part is to try and make his case for him! He's really incompetent, and yet he makes his living at this! How can that be possible? Shouldn't such hardcore imcompetence, especially by the Darwinian edicts so revered by the right, assure his descent into the lower echelons of income?How do books like this see the light of day?

I guess you can count me in on the side of "why give him play?" In spite of his "credentials" you could easily walk into any saloon and find some barstool philosopher willing to belch out the same basic argument to anyone willing to stand him/her the price of a beer.

With each passing year I increasingly couldn't care less about the Academy's choices. This year, I have to raise the biggest "Huh, what?" to the nomination of "Little Miss Sunshine." I won't engage in the Sunshine bashing of other letter writers here. It's an entertaining enough little film, but holy cow, a little perspective please? LMS bettter than any of a dozen other films I can name? Here's just one: "Casino Royale" for it's audacious and stunning reinvention of an ancient franchise, was better than LMS.

And here's another one: "Children of Men." I just got back from seeing this film, and I already know that it is one of those films that will be on my mind for at least the next couple of weeks. If you haven't seen it, you must. There are scenes in it, well, I literally couldn't believe what I was seeing. I have rarely been placed so solidly and believeably inside a film maker's vision. The final act was so suspenseful I had to conciously keep myself from getting up and walking around in the theater.

LMS was entertaining, but it simply is not in the same league thematically, or in craft, skill and execution as Children of Men.

Sadly, I feel that the art of motion pictures has outgrown the little academy that has gradually lost any real relevance. There are too many talented film makers all over the world, and the academy has no clue how to incorporate them into its little Beverly Hills worldview.

I urge Salon here and now to avoid the upcoming cliched handicapping of who takes what home on Oscar night. Popular as such articles are, they really are rather pointless. Time to start letting the Academy fade into history.

This is so very sad on so many levels.