"But Canadians are not swimming across Lake Erie to escape socialized medicine and sane mortgage-lending laws." How nice to be grokked!

P.S. - As many people have said, you're only inconvenienced crossing the border legitimately. There are miles of unprotected (and unprotectable) miles of border thru prairie and mountain available for those who are up to no good...

PPS - My daughter, a long-time resident and tax-payer of the U.S., can't get citizenship and her husband can't work, and annually they have to submit to a gruelling enter-the-U.S. ritual. They're looking forward to moving a few miles back to, yes, socialized medicine...and an annoying but essentially peaceful government (except for that trying-to-please-the-U.S. thing that has us into Gaffanistan. We declined an invitation to participate in Iraq.)

PPPS - No hassle moving around in Europe. Many of its young people are working for a few years here, a few years there, learning multiple languages, becoming citizens of a new way of managing things. Yes, it's a different scene, a cozy smaller area, unburdened any longer with imperialist "responsibilities"...but a model for a U.S. future ...

...for continuing this thankless job. Which involves being insulted on a daily basis because you and your staff cover what's going on Out There rather than what some readers think SHOULD be going on out there. It would be nice if people could discuss the issues, realizing that not everyone is in lockstep, and not be nasty to each other and to the people who provide this forum. Salon - a civilized place for discussion, not Saloon where the beer bottles fly.

I was going to say to the LW, "Consult the loas" (or whatever they're called in Ifa). But on second thought - no. This superiority and detached-from-lesser-beings air that the LW projects (sorry, LW, if you're for real, and are sincere) is really rather common among the grand poo-bahs of alternative religions. Well, probably among the ministers, etc. of mainstream religions too, but I swim in alternative waters and more familiar with the strange fish there. A spiritual practice "should", one supposes, help one be a Good Person, but it often seems only to feed the ego. "Self-actualization" is not a place to stay, but a peak from which to see what you need to do as you take that *expanded consciousness* (or whatever) back down with you as you re-enter and attempt to live in what is laughingly called the real world.

While checking the archive of your letters, to see if your letter about Santeria had indeed been removed, I saw an excellent letter of yours about narcissists. Learning about narcissists should be mandatory in school (or something).

But back to the matter of the moment - it's outrageous that your letter was censored. You talked about your experience and mentioned a well-known fact, that Santeria and related practices involve animal sacrifice. Considering the nastiness that prevails in the Salon letter columns on a regular basis, personal attacks, etc., it seems strange to remove this particular missive.

...to excise letters that mention the Santerian practice of sacrificing chickens - how about a response to that?

How can Salon let a post like the following stand and remove non-judgmental posts merely mentioning that Santeria does chicken sacrifices? (But, note, I questions the editorial decisions without, from the safety of anonymity, insulting the editors and writers.)

Is it a dog whistle Ms Walsh or am I just not happy to see you. Is there no dark moist Freudian mist you will not explore? This follows Hillary with balls? I am hearing your whistle blowing half black with nigger wife pussy whipped? .. congratulations white Irish Catholic don't want anyone uppity moving in next door to the Whitehouse posturing as fair and balanced .. come to think of it maybe give Bill O'Reilly a call I hear he does good phone. A perfect union.

-- rnostbakken

How interesting to see how many people here describe themselves as introverts - especially if that figure of 75% for extroverts in the population is right. (I'd guess it at higher myself.) But I suppose it's no surprise - we're here with our heads in our computers (and I imagine Salon is only one of our virtual stops), while the extroverts are OUT THERE doing whatever it is extroverts do. (Talk a lot.) We should have a big party, for all of us from all the various points of the continent. Cary could host. But don't spend too much on the caterers, Cary, because nobody will actually show...

Cary, if you invite that Ifa priest and sacrifice a chicken, I'll show up. Chicken, shmicken, but most of those Afro-diaspora cults do cool drumming and dancing... (Or is that as objectionable a comment as the chicken reference?)

No excuse. Forget all the novels & movies that glorify the artistic schmuck - this is real life.

And we're ALL *artists* (someone special), even those annoying spouses and relatives.

A glass of wine with supper mellows one out a bit. Beyond that, booze is bad nooze.

We're all crazy (and *special*) and life is hard - kids and making a living and dealing with people. Timbuktu has words of wisdom - hang in there till you're 50 and it'll be much better. (Or much worse - as the person who warned about being a crazy drunk at 48 said.) Meanwhile, try to have a little compassion for everyone - including but not exclusively yourself.

(If all else fails, consult an Ifa priest and sacrifice a chicken.)

I thought Christians believed that Jesus came with a whole new template and the Old Testament was yesterday's news. (Stoning? Avoiding shrimp? Not mixing fabrics? Love-thy-neighbor needs to replace that nonsense.)