Let's talk about the Billary Clinton experience: her vote on the Patriot act; her vote to authorize the Iraq disaster... Etc. Etc. Etc.

Yes, it is terribly important we get a woman into the White House, and I'd vote Hillary Clinton over McCain in a flash - but she has a past to overcome and it isn't a pretty one.

I am very hopeful. People (especially young people) now know what a meme is. The crap advertising that we, and a now very wise new generation has been bombarded with doesn't work anymore because a whole new generation now has the skill and insight to see this. EVERBODY'S B.S. METER IS BETTER, BETTER, BETTER!!!! OK?

And don't get me started on the presidential pardon given Marc Rich. What was the reason for this. I want Hillary Clinton to give me an answer now. Thank you.

English speakers tend to love it. Spanish speakers, for the most part, are completely appalled by it.

Example:

To vacuum your carpet - English

Apspirar su alfombra - Spanish

Vacunar su carpeta - Spanglish

Spanglish translation to English:

Vaccinate your *whatever the fuck*

And who is "Bubba"? (tee,hee,hee...Funny,huh?) Bill Clinton? We know it's not Osama Bin Laden? Of course we can't touch him. NOT NOW!!! We've stupidly (and I mean S-T-U-P-I-D-L-Y!!!) elevated this guy to messiah-hood.

Al Qaida are/were just a bunch of fanatical criminals financed by a rich guy with ju-ju eyes. Who was ultimately financed by America's insatiable appetite for oil fueled by our own rapacious greed, and complete disregard for the kind of people we were buying it from and doing business with. Shit, I'd rather buy my oil from Pablo Escobar. And don't get me going on the subject of Al-Zawahiri; a trained medical doctor!!

How does one untangle this mess and weave it back together into fabric is so beyond me I implode with despair.

Maybe it's time to cede our governance to the Scandinavians and diplomacy to the French and be done with it.

*sigh*

As always your logic is finely tuned and superbly impeccable (IMO).

The right wing is bankrupt because of their simpleton logic, as in: Osama Bin Laden is bad because he ordered a terrible deed. No, Bin laden is a bad person because he's a screw-up fanatic whacko who had way too much money; money that had a root in America’s insatiable appetite for a corrupt regime’s oil (Saudi Arabia).

Then what do (America) we do? Instead of treating him like the common yet murderous criminal that he is, we turn him into a holy messiah thus giving whacko's a purpose and moderate Muslims a bad name.

As Mr. Christ once was purported to have said: “He who is without sin cast the first stone” – something people like Joe Lieberman, et al, regardless of the religion fail to grasp.

I digress – to get back to your excellent point: the right wing conveniently breaks the world into goodies and badies, and that must end if our children are ever to see a better day on this planet.

I burn hotter about this every day!

Right-on!! Jane!! Anything to twist that assholes knickers, I say!!

I think we judge our youth pretty much they way our parents judged us, but one can over-hype hopelessness; I know I do it sometimes too.

It's definitely important to at least read one big, thick, over-sized novel; but why (IMO) read 'Gravity's Rainbow' when Pynchon did it sooooo much better in the short 'Crying of Lot 49'? At my age I simply don't have enough time left in my life to read 'War and Peace' - I did see the BBC's Masterpiece Theater version and my mother said it was just as good as the book... Who knows?

I used to be a heavy-duty rock 'n roll bunny (exclusively), and although I still like rocking my brains out every once in awhile, I have begun to develop a taste for classical music and (heaven forbid) poetry. Computers and the internet are changing us hominids as surely as sex, drug and rock 'n roll changed America, and the world too.

Dang! It's hard enough keeping up with *gush,gush* Salon.com - oh, and my spelling in this letter is actually passable thanks to Firefox.

Susan Sontag changed my life. 'The Benefactor', 'Death Kit' and most of all Sontag's collection of short stories 'I, etcetera' - which is one of my most favorite things ever - opened me up to the true strangeness of life. There is indeed a grain of truth (as grain runs through wood) in everything. Is everything true? Whew!! Staggering!! I read some of Sontag's non-fiction, and the only thing that actually communicated anything to me was 'Illness As A Metaphor'; a lot of the rest was just way over my head.

My dad was an intellectual (I never stop thinking about him) - and believe me, they're not easy people to be around, but I love him more with every passing day.

Losing a parent, especially the last one, is not easy regardless of your age. My heart goes out to Mr. Rieff.

We all just love you grrrrrrrl! But dear, please stop dragging Michel Foucault corpse around, 'cause it's YOU that's beginning to smell, OK? Long live Jean Baudrillard!

P.S. Depakote, I think, would be just the perfect little pill for you, hon. Cheers!

No doubt about it in my mind at this point: If it all came out how naughty our benevolent politicians have been behaving in "our behalf" with regards to our civil liberties (and just about everything else)... Whew!!!!

...Everybody would collectively and individually excrete elephants, and America would sink into the ocean - poor ocean.

...The caption should read: "I don't bake cookies, Chelsea, understand?"