Patrick,

The reason the airlines do not print your articles is that they would not reduce passenger anxiety, but increase it. For example, in explaining how the go-around is to avoid a near miss, most people would think that the air traffic control system must be pretty messed up if they can't even space the planes correctly. And they would have a point. And do you really think most people want to know that the pilot in buffalo hit the gas when approaching a brick wall instead of the brake? I, for one, do not. This is not to say that your articles increase anxiety for salon readers, who are known to be among the best informed, most sophisticated, incredibly intelligent and highly educated people on the planet.

Intead of a maximum wage, investment bankers should get maximum time.

Mrs. Monkey,

You are right about the disgusting mouthfeel and aftertaste of fast food, but you forgot to mention the sick feeling in your stomach an hour later. Your body knows when it's eaten garbage.

I disagree. It is much cheaper to buy good fresh food and cook at home than to eat at fast food places. They charge a lot for what they provide.

It's fast, but it's not food.

Before long, dark and brooding becomes dark and boring. Better to find a man, not an adolescent.

The LW is a depressed person who has yet to figure out his/her life at the ripe age of 25. Big deal. Let's leave the word "parasite" to describe members of the royal family and investment bankers who are professional life long obligate parasites.

Certainly, you can go to a psychiatrist if you wish and it may help. But you don't want to become dependent on drugs or therapy. The main thing is to get your ass into a professional program and stick to it like a barnacle.

By the way, forget all those people calling you a lazy s.o.b. The fact that you are confused at 25 only means that things can get much better in your thirties, forties and on. In my experience, the older you get, the better it gets. Don't worry. Just take positive steps. You can easily grow out of depression.

I was exactly the same as you at 25 except that I had not completely my degree. You are lucky that you have already done that. The reader who advised you to get an easy job in order to socialize into the routine of work gave good advice. Since you already have a degree, I would advise you to pick a professional school in a field you could learn to like and complete the program. You will then have real job skills in a real profession. It could be library science, physician's assistant, paralegal, occupational therapy - anything that will get you started in a real career and out of the door each day to be a part of the normal working world. Get job training, get a job, get an apartment, get a car and get a girlfriend. Got it? Good luck.

China has many problems to deal with - rural poverty, unemployment, pollution, corruption, health care and a continuing lack of respect for human rights. Nevertheless, China has raised more people from poverty to the middle class in the past 30 years than any other country in history. I don't think China wants to be the world's next "superpower", but it does resent U.S. hegemony. In fact, the age of U.S. dominance is already over since the government is highly dependent on Chinese loans. A debtor cannot dictate terms to a creditor, and the U.S. has become a debtor. If you visit China, you will see an extraordinary level of energy, optimism and confidence. The airports and highways are new and well-designed and it is shocking to come back to La Guardia and crumbling roads and bridges. The infrastructure alone tells you the U.S. is in decline. The Chinese actually believe in the "family values" that is nothing more than an empty phrase in this country. They don't need evangelical relgions; family is their religion. They will take their place not as the world's next superpower, but as one of the world's most important countries, as they always were in the past. I welcome it.

Happiness at another's misfortune is schadenfreude. Unhappiness at another's good fortune is envy. Unhappiness at another's misfortune is compassion. And happiness at another's good fortune is mudita. Of these four, the first two are bad, the second two are good. Patrick, I have mudita for your extensive travels and compassion for your tiny apartment. Except on the days when I have schadenfreude for your tiny apartment and envy for your extensive travels.

"Give me the right to issue and control a nation's money and I care not who governs the country.”

Meyer Amschal Rothschild, International banker.

I worked in a public library in an area that had a low income black population and an orthodox Jewish community. At 3:30 the kids would start coming in. I remember some of the black kids asking for books on "fighting dogs", drugs and sports. A Jewish girl, about ten, asked for books on podiatry. These kids had very different expectations of the future.

I was addicted to Salon. I quit.

Feminism should die, to be replaced by humanism and socialism. Men are not the enemy; capitalism is. Men can be as oppressed by it as women. Men will benefit from universal health insurance, affordable child care, excellent education, a liveable minimum wage just as women will. Let's get our priorities straight.

"Why bother saving people when 99% of them aren't worth saving?"

Of course, you and I are in the other 1%, the 1% that is worth saving. Too bad the ones most worth saving are usually the first to go.

He's a pretty good song writer and a third rate poet. But much, much better than Bobby Zimmerman.