Is no one allowed to be even a little bit different in your teeny little world?

He holds the cereal bowl when he eats? He carries a water bottle in a baggy pants pocket? CALL THE COPS, there's a deviant on the loose!

You sound a lot crazier than he does, LW, obsessing about this kind of crap. An now along comes Cary with an online diagnosis of a mental illness to pour fuel on your fire! That'll help!

Look, contrary to the TV series stereotypes, most Aspies are so out of touch that they are marginalized and many are not gainfully employed. Your brother is educated, he's married, he's working, he owns his house. He's very functional. So what, exactly, is your problem? He doesn't eat and dress the way you have told him to? GOOD FOR HIM.

I think the only problem here is the pikestaff stuck up the LW's spine. Her brother probably screams "AARGH" because of her judgemental, narrow minded attitude. Like she says, she has her own baggage. For that matter, if her parents are so all fired important to her, why isn't she living in the States in her birthplace to be near them?

I can understand to your accusation of "cultural condescension". I sort of cringe when people sit around and talk about "the African problem". Since cultural condescension is real and widespread and even well meaning people do it, I can get that you are sensitive.

But man, you have some other problems too, you know? You completely ignored the point I was trying to make. Gee, how dare anyone imply that Africans are different than Americans and that they have (often) tribal and family values intact! The outrage! Really? But where exactly is the insult in that?

I may, by the way, know more about Africa than you think. But I don't really have to go into all of it. Get the chip off your shoulder. You've been educated in and spent all your life in the States and you aren't the last word on Africa either, just because of your genetic background.

really I can see where your buttons would be pushed by my first letter, and I appreciate your speaking up although I don't see the call for the aggression. And yes even old Ryzard had his racket going with describing "the exotic other" but he made some very pertinent observations. Maybe we could agree that more than one viewpoint is necessary when approaching this complex-as you rightly pointed out--topic?

isn't a very interesting interview subject, however pleasant and witty his cartoon may be. I was really disappointed with his responses.

"I like turtles"--nice to know you don't think your readers deserve any better than that, BB. Thanks fur nothin'.

I would argue that J.K. Rowlings and the Google twins are obscenely overcompensated for their skills, which are not any greater than many other people's (esp. in the case of the not-very-inventive Rowlings). Such individuals are extreme exceptions in any case and it's a fallacy to build your argument on bizarre one-offs, as these people are.

Most people are not nearly so fortunate as these few, and we need a set of rules that benefit everyone, not just the Google twins of the world.

So yeah, the grotesquely rich should be very, very heavily taxed. That's no crime and it's no violation of their rights and they will still have plenty of dough to go as tourists to the Moon is they want.

And Brightstar--you want to attack and beat up others over this topic? Even though you are not "inclined" to violence? Well, there's something wrong with you then, something very typical of people who fetishize money. Money turns people into monsters but think about it--no amount of money is worth one human life. It's just money, goddamn it, so get your head screwed on straight.