Thanks for all the statistics. I knew the WOD was responsible for the huge number of prisoners in our country, but I didn't know the details.

Obama's story shows so much compassion, and I admire his work in inner-city Chicago.

The WOD has been such a costly failure. I am so tired of "wars" on abstractions -- War on Poverty, War on Drugs, War on Terror.

The WOD is not only responsible for America having the largest prison population in the world (what a record!), it is also responsible for the outrageous, deadly wars going on in Mexico. Here in San Diego, we are very aware of the violence and murders of the illegal drug trade just across the border. And they slop over into our city, too.

Legalize, license, and tax the drugs now on the illegal list. By "license," I mean if people want to take a recreational drug, they should take a training class in all the effects of the drug, then receive a license to buy it at the "drug store."

No, we never elected him even once. However, enough of us voted for him to allow him to steal both elections. As others have said, I wouldn't pay movie prices to see this. I'm so sick of him and his administration. I can wait till I can see it free on the Internets, or one of them, anyway.

I vote for senile. He shows clear signs of the early stages of Alzheimer's, just like his hero, Reagan.

Yeah, he's erratic, too, as so many others have pointed out. I can't decide which factor scares me more. What really scares me is that he's likely to die in the next four years. And I sure don't want to be stuck with "President Palin."

I'm sure I'm going to be disappointed with President Obama, but I'd be utterly distressed with President McShame and his continuing wars and economic disaster.

So right you are. Even though Obama's final appearance was not as inspirational as previous appearances, McCain's final appearance was barely coherent.

This "debate" displayed much more rancor than either of the two previous occasions. It seemed to be hard for McCain to contain his anger, while Obama was as unflappable as ever. Oh, how I long for a president who's intelligent, knowledgeable, and unflappable.

I forgot to mention that the Algerians all insisted that the left hand is for cleaning your waste. The right hand is for eating. I remember reading an article about the left-handed wife of an American diplomat, whose hosts felt insulted because she ate with her left hand.

Stories about using a waste hole without a toilet remind me of a similar experience while touring France. A friend of mine who's also a writer spent many years touring many different countries while working for the US government She has commented about the difficulties of figuring out how to flush the toilets in some of those countries, plus the difficulties of using devices such as waste holes.

This article gives me so much for comment. Early in my career, I worked on a project involving a lot of Algerians. One of the American engineers who went to Algeria told a story about visiting the home of one of the Algerian engineers. When the American needed to relieve himself, the Algerian took him into the bathroom and showed it off. The American was afraid the guy would never leave him alone. When he finally did, the American was shocked when he looked around and discovered the room really was a bath room, for bathing. The toilet was actually in a small adjoining room, and provided water for cleansing.

I'm so glad to hear about the system that requires men to sit down to pee. I hate, hate, hate, sitting on a toilet seat with pee on it. I had a husband who refused to lift the seat, and refused to clean it after himself. He thought it was funny that he left it with pee on it for me to sit on.

Where I live now, I love my apartment, but I hate the toilet because it has no lid on it. Like the author, I always used to close the lid of the toilet before I flushed it, because I wanted to prevent it from spraying anything around the room. A toilet with no lid is very bad feng shui.

Good questions, Cary. Thanks for asking them.

So many people seem to think that if they only had a million dollars, they'd be totally happy. I don't think so, if they have no idea of how they'd like to live life, and what they'd do if they had no financial worries -- all that money coming in, and nothing they have to do.

And yet, look at those who have won big Lotto prizes. After several years, very few of them have any money left. They don't know what to do with all that money. And they don't know how to live their lives.

The most important thing to remember is that you don't have to have a lot of money in order to be happy. For that, you have to do the inner work, and keep on keeping on.

And thanks, Joan Walsh, for sharing his political statements with us.

I want my country back, too. This is not the USA I grew up in, after WW II, and during the Fifties. In those days, Fascists were the bad guys. Now they're in charge.

I'm old, but I hope for the best for our country, and for my children and grandchildren, and so on.