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.

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.

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?

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.......

Good article. We want the Olympics in Chicago for all the wrong reasons:

• To bolster Daley's flagging popularity.
• To enable Obama to repay political debts.

The people of Chicago don't even want the Olympics, whereas Rio de Janeiro really wants to host them. Rio deserves the Olympics (they've never been held in South America); Chicago doesn't.

Dear Nothing to Look Forward To.....

Forget Cary Tennis's sappy, crappy, "well intentioned" advice.

I can feel your existential pain through your writing. I wouldn't try to sugar coat things for you. Sometimes, our lives just suck and there's no relief in sight if we continue down our present path.

If I were you, I'd look my situation squarely in the face, screw up my courage and decide I'd rather have a couple of happy, fulfilling years followed by an assisted suicide than a long, slow mediocre slide into sickness, unhappiness, resentment and eventual death.

Resolve to quit your boring job. Get all your assets together. Dump your unfulfilling partner, and do what you've always wanted to do......whatever that is.....

Travel? Exploration? Dangerous liaisons? Did you always want to start smoking? Or quit smoking? Start drinking? Purchase the services of highly competent sexual partners?

Or maybe you've always wanted to search for inner fulfillment? Travel to India? Learn meditation and the Four Noble Truths? Find a guru?

Or have you always wanted to write a novel? Write poetry? Learn to play the guitar? Sit on a beach in Mexico with a Pina Colada as the sun sinks slowly over the Pacific Ocean....?

Instead of suffering through an unhappy, unfulfilled life, why not just say "Fuck it!" to life and go out in a blaze of glory?

Just a suggestion......

Love your class warfare, Garrison.

Love your sarcasm.

And dammit, love those Minnesota Twins. May they break the flinty hearts of all New York Yankee fans and go all the way, prolonging the life of that monumental edifice, the Metrodome.