So we've got Cary Tennis giving advice to Ms. Maenad....one adolescent advising another adolescent on growing up, with Cary waxing enthusiastic about the self-help book he's currently reading....

Isn't that just perfect?

Dear LW: You'll remain a perpetual adolescent as long as you are living primarily for yourself and making yourself the center of the universe.

But since you're probably not ready to re-adjust your role in the cosmos by joining a convent or becoming a mendicant Buddhist, another good way to transcend the narcissism that we all fall prey to during our adolescence is to get married and have children.

Now there's a reality sandwich for ya. Getting married is kinda like enlisting in the Army. It may not work out for you, and you may hate it, but there's nothing like it for crystallizing what you really want to do in life.

And speaking of the Army, have you thought of enlisting?

Uncle Sam wants you.......

Nothing good can come of focusing on race and racial issues in contemporary America. All is does is keep alive the animosities of the past and divide us as Americans along racial lines (black vs. white) and along political lines (liberal vs. conservative).

And it plays into the hands of irresponsible demagogues like Rush Limbaugh, who love this racial stuff because it stirs people up, causes controversy, and keeps his army of dittohead morons in an uproar. And when dittoheads are in an uproar, they naturally turn to El Rushbo for guidance and leadership.

Barack Obama is a gifted leader, period. (Not a gifted black leader.) He has the potential to be one of our greatest presidents, period.

Jimmy Carter, on the other hand, was a poor leader, and a second-rate president.

And he ought to keep his mouth shut. We are all Americans, facing common problems. Let's forget this racial shit, okay?

Serena Williams is at a crucial point in a US Open semifinal match, and some chickenshit little line judge calls a foot fault?

• A foot fault is a rare occurrence. Most matches never have a foot fault.
• Unless the server steps a foot over the line, a foot fault, where the server steps a little bit on the line, doesn't make any difference in the serve.
• While it may have been technically correct to call a foot fault at that point in Serena's match, tennis people will all tell you that you don't decide a match because of a foot fault. If the foot fault isn't called and Serena wins that point, it's 30-30. If she holds serve, it's 5-5 in the second set and it's anybody's match. It really doesn't matter whether Serena's foot touched the line on that serve. If you're the line judge, you just keep your damn mouth shut.
• That prissy, priggish little Asian line judge is the one who should apologize.

Serena lost the match because of a bad call. She also had to pay a $10,000 fine.

Apologize? (Allow me to speak for you here, Serena) Kiss my ass.

Race is a horseshit issue when we're talking about Obama. He's a natural leader, and a very bright, engaged and personable president. I haven't seen his equal in terms of effective leadership since JFK's presidency. That's why we elected him last year. Obama just happens to be a black man who is bright, articulate, personable and a born leader.

I don't understand why his popularity has slipped with white voters, but I would think it has nothing to do with race. It's probably because Rush Limbaugh and the current sorry-ass crop of GOP leaders have successfully clogged the political climate with disinformation and partisan bullshit.

The American people need to recognize that the right-wing element of the GOP cares nothing about getting the country back to economic health and reforming our health care system. They care only about discrediting Barack Obama.

Immunity and Impunity

Garrison Keillor who has recently argued for immunity and impunity for those Bushies who orered torture and those who obeyed the orders is just, well-full of shit.

You and your gans, Mr. Keillor, are enablers of the torurers. You are either for torture or against it.

-- Prosecute Bush

Here's a suggestion....

We outlaw torture for everybody....

Except the letter writer known as Prosecute Bush.

Him we waterboard on a daily basis.

How's that sound?

I would be happy to pay more taxes for guaranteed health care for everyone--after all, it would benefit me as well. But what I choose to spend on my dogs is my business--I am not asking other people to subsidize it either directly or indirectly.

Well said.

Totally agree. I'm also willing to pay higher taxes to have guaranteed health care for everyone. I suspect a single payer system would actually cost individual Americans less in the long run than the unwieldy system we currently have. We all pay in the form of higher insurance premiums for all the unnecessary procedures that doctors order because they are afraid of lawsuits by predatory, ambulance-chasing attorneys.

Here's GW's plan for health care. It applies to both humans and pets.....

1. Provide health care insurance for all humans. Do whatever you have to do....single payer plan....increase taxes...put a leash on all those ambulance-chasing, malpractice-loving attorneys....whatever. Nobody should be without health care insurance in this country, regardless of their income.

2. Pets are on their own for health care. The level of care is up to their human family members.

3. When humans get above 80 years old, or when dogs and cats get above 12 years old, we stop taking extraordinary measures to keep them alive. We let nature take its course. Everybody dies, people. But there's no point in bankrupting the whole country, and diverting precious healthcare $dollars away from younger, healthier people in order to give Grandma a few more years of painful, feeble existence. Take a lesson from the Eskimos, who revere their elders, but put them on an ice floe at a certain point, to float peacefully toward the next life.