I can't believe some of these letters. It's frightening to read that some of you think that just because this guy acted like a jerk on an airplane that he deserved to be incarcerated for weeks. That he acted like an irresponsible twerp from his own admission is obvious, but to conclude that he deserved what he got is outrageous. Americans, you people scare the crap out of me. It's just these kind of incidents, like the war on drugs, the war on terror, the war on whatever ridiculous thing you can declare war on reveals the little fascist you have in the doorways of you heart. That you could argue that bad behavior on on airplane rises to the level of weeks of incarceration, while starting a war in which thousands of innocent people have been killed garners not even a slap on the wrist is truly frightening. Just another indication of how fucked up, mixed up and absurd this country has become. And I'm an American.

Now that's journalism! What a moving, riveting, heartbreaking, inspiring, painful, loving story of the Hagel brothers. God bless them all, and Salon for publishing it!

The middle name. It was the use of our full name or first and middle name by our parents that was the tip off that some rule had been broken, some boundry breached. When we heard that, we knew our goose was cooked. It had to include the middle name though, that's what middle names were for, a signal that you were in trouble. Otherwise, they were never used. Odd really, my parents were not in any way French, but the angrier they got the more formal they became! The parents were not spare the rod types. No face slapping.

I don't have any further insight to add here but the obvious as Glenn points out...these people are bat shit insane!

I wonder how many students would NOT have died if even 10% of the faculty had been carrying guns, concealed or not. Maybe the shooter wouldn't even have tried. I have yet to see any anti-gunner admit such a possibility, let alone discuss it. - Felix

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Hmmm, not sure. Anybody got a bead on the per capita gunslinger statistics of the wild West?

Blech!

My sympathy goes out to everyone caught up in this who thinks that making Don Imus go away will “do something” or “send a message”. If you think this is doing any good in helping us see our collective denial or to help heal our suffering society, I say “good luck with that”.

--Anonymous

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I rather agree with Anon. My idea was to force Imus into a series of on-air conversations with leading African-American and female intellectuals, academics, writers, athletes, and other personalities about racism and sexism in American media and society. NBC and CBS could have insisted that he hold a 90 or 120 day cycle of such interviews and on-air discussions. He could have started with the Rugers' Female Basketball Team. They could have offered him a chance at salvation and the rest of us an opportunity to hear some enlightened speech. If he didn't want to do that then he would be fired.

I don't believe that NBC and CBS's motivation, at least their primary reason, was to "do the right thing." I don't say it was not at all their motivation just that their first and foremost concern was the bolting of their corporate sponsors. That's the hit that is most clearly and immediately understood and actionable by corporate elites. Too bad, an ugly on-air event was made worse and an opportunity was lost to engage in some relevant conversation about these social ills in a popular context that would have had the most impact.

Such as it is, this event will lead to nothing more than an increased sense of race and gender self-righteousness on the part of blacks and women and make Imus's supporters feel more sullen and misunderstood. Nothing much of any consequence will have been gained.

When and how did personal assault, attacking someone's physical or sexual nature, someone's ethnicity get equated with "free speech"? Why is it that people can't make their points without resorting to attacks on someone's gender or race or ethnicity or sexual orientation? It isn't just white, straight males who do this sort of thing either. Everyone does it. How is that that kind of speech has been raised to the bar of "free speech"? So that when someone wants to control or curtail the occurrences of such speech, they're attacked for attacking "free speech"? When did ignorant, hateful, disrespectful, ad hominen speech become equated with "free speech" rights?

I have no issue with speech that focuses on someone's opinion, ideas, beliefs (including religious ones), political affiliation, et. al., but speech that denigrates someone's physical features or race or sexual nature or gender is just good old fashioned bad manners. I think those of you defending those things as "free speech" are confused.

Human beings have been making erotic imagery for thousands of years. Every human artifice and many common utilitarian devices have at one time or another in every culture been turned to the erotic impulse.