I have never read a more valuable discussion of our future energy problems. It should be very widely disseminated, especially to schools.

It is often forgotten that oil is the main feedstock for fertilizer, fibers, pharmaceuticals, rubber, plastics, paints and thousands of other necessities. A $150 barrel of offshore or ANWR oil will be worth $2000 in 20 or 30 years. It is a form of fatal insanity to produce this oil today and burn it in Hummers, rather than leave in the ground for absolute necessities in 50 years. (Correction: Oil cannot be produced, pineapples and paper clips are produced. Oil is mined, and every mine or oil field is eventually exhausted.)

Alaska is thousands of miles from any important US city. It has untold areas of virgin wilderness. It has citizens that are willing, and in fact eager, to sacrifice their environment for money. And so we conclude that it is the ideal place to store the nuclear waste now accumulating in the body of the US. It would also be an excellent site for scores of huge nuclear power plants, from which power would be transmitted safely and cleanly to cities far to the south.

The only way for the Repubs to regain political power is to clearly define their fundamental principles, and then conceal them. These principles are quite simple: more power to the powerful, more wealth to the wealthy, and absolute contempt for the intelligence of the American voter.

I really like Caroline Kennedy, and I would rate her as 1.2, maybe even 1.3, Palins.

Nobody fits the ideal Republican profile as well as Rush: white, male, fat, rich, ignorant, multiple wives, prone to substance abuse, prejudiced, and willing at all times to sacrifice the interests of his own country for personal gain.

Rush is perfectly suited as the spokesman for the Republicans: white, fat, rich and ignorant, multiple wives, prone to substance abuse, loves to attack the weak but terrified of armed combat, deeply prejudiced and misogynistic, and above all willing at any moment to put personal gain ahead of the interests of his own country. Truly, here is a leader for party that can't wait for America to fail.

The unfortunate Pittsburgh and Binghamton incidents must not be allowed to infringe on the rights of all residents, both aliens and citizens, to express their grievances by the use of semi-automatic handguns and assault rifles. Once the level of personal armament reaches that of Baghdad, we will all feel safer. And I agree with the NRA that the Constitution must be read, not as originally written, but as we now know the founders must have intended. Certainly all citizens and aliens should be allowed concealed carry of weapons, including fully automatic machine pistols and nerve gas grenades.

Re Glenn Beck: Some people are grossly fat, others are terminally stupid. To characterize those unfortunates who are both, the Limbaugh number has been devised. This number is the body weight in pounds divided by the IQ. A Limbaugh number over 4 is a predictor of future of serious problems, and the subject should be restrained in order to protect himself and others. We need to watch Beck's Limbaugh number very carefully.

As irrational extremists are more and more heavily armed, so are they increasingly dangerous. The agencies aimed at defeating terrorism would be well advised to compile, and monitor closely, the full membership of the NRA.

The Republicans, desperate to regain power and the profits that accrue to power, and faced with the disastrous results of decades of Reganomics (the technical term is Voodoo economics), have only two basic strategies. One is fear, the other hate. While fear is a powerful emotion, its power tends to disappear as the object of fear (e.g. Saddam Hussein and his invisible MWDs) vanishes. As same-sex marriage is shown to be innocuous, fear of gays diminishes. Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez are seen to be impotent. But hate never fails. The GOP (Greed Before Patriotism) can always gin up hate against immigrants, gays, eastern middle and western intellectuals, liberals, lawyers, those who favor common-sense gun laws, socialists, and supporters of the Constitution. So we will continue to see old, fat, white, rich, drug-addicted, ignorant, multiply-divorced, males talk about nothing but hate, and rejoice in the damage that that hate inflicts on their (beloved) country.

The full name of the GOP is - Greed Over Patriotism.

In this case the conservatives are correct - no Muslim voting official should be required to assist a Christian in voting. And certainly no atheist emergency services technician should be required to assist a believer in supernatural beings to survive an accident.

If you allow the cool wind of reason to blow away the smoke, the single conservative solution to every problem is - MORE POWER TO THE POWERFUL, MORE WEALTH TO THE WEALTHY. If enormous tax cuts for billionaires have driven the economy to a disaster, the conservative solution is - MORE TAX CUTS FOR BILLIONAIRES.

I am deeply offended by Keillor's absolute refusal to address how we educate kindergartners. They must be given a chance to choose between Creationism, Evolutionism, and Planar Planetism.

I can easily supply irrefutable photographic evidence, which I myself have produced, that Planar Planetism is, in its fundamental assumption, entirely correct.

If more intense surveillance of armed domestic extremists is warranted (and it is), then the membership of the NRA should be high on the list of targets.

There will never be a better time to launch the Republican Family Values Tour. After opening hymns by the Promise Keepers Presumably Male Chorus, Giuliani, Gingrich, Ensign, Limbaugh and Sanford will discuss the sanctitty of marriage. Senator Craig will advocate the virtues of the Big Tent philosophy, concentrating on sexual orientation. To cap off this evening of spiritual uplift, Sarah Palin will speak directly to teenagers and instruct them on the virtues of abstinence. Carrying a wooden gun and dressed in a fitted flight suit, George Bush will lead the group off stage, while protected by the Secret Service.