I agree with various letters that BASIC is a terrible language to learn programming from, and no one should be encouraged to do so. But trying out a 5-line math algorithm isn't really "programming," and command-line interpreted BASIC allows a student to get an initial exposure to algorithms with essentially no training. I'm sure some will say that this will poison the student's mind. Actually math algorithms in books are rarely "structured" like a modern computer language but are full of "if a < b, then go to step 7." Look at the classic in the field, Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, for example. BASIC often can let the student see clearly the relationship between the book's algorithm and the code, which might be obscured with a structured, object-oriented language.

There are simple BASIC interpreters written in JavaScript which you can run in your browser, for simple "Try this in BASIC" problems in textbooks. I don't endorse any specific one, but the first Google hit was http://www.eder.us/projects/jbasic/ and there are probably others. No downloads, no installation - just go to the site and start typing!

Since the progressives anticipated this, I can only assume that they converted all of their mutual funds, stocks, and 401Ks to cash prior to the crash. So they must be in pretty good shape financially, right?

Xanthro: "Already in 2009, Salon has had people post about Jews, [offensive phrases omitted]"

The combined total on salon.com for any of these phrases is 47 hits in Google (not including your post, which should show up soon). Most are pre-2009, dating back to 1999, and virtually all of them are from pro-Israel posters who are complaining that critics of Israel say these things. I don't have the time or interest to analyze this in more detail, perhaps someone else may want to do that, but skimming through them I didn't see a single hit from a critic who wasn't an obvious childish troll. This kind of slander doesn't really help your viewpoint.