"It's tough to admit that we've turned into a Third World country, but that's the way the Flat Earth lies."

Look no further than our airports which have come to resemble Chinese train stations. Chinese airports, on the other hand, resemble US airports of the 1960's - new, clean, courteous service - in fact quite luxerious. Can it be long before we start paying snakeheads to smuggle us into China?

"Shop the asian markets: cheap, cheap, cheap"

Mrsbug

You are so right. My wife is Chinese and we save an enormous amount of money by shopping in the Chinese grocery stores. Also, the food is fresher and more varied. Many of the vegetables are unkown to westerners and are delicious. $200.00 will feed 4 people for 2 weeks, and I'm talking pork, fish, shrimp - not beans! To hell with beans!

Many people in New York City live in co-ops, which seem to combine the worst aspects of home ownership with the worst aspects of apartment living. You have to buy the apartment with a mortgage. You also pay a "maintenance fee". This pays taxes, heat and maintains common areas, but you are still responsible for all repairs to your apartment - plumbing, wiring, appliances, cabinets, etc. And the maintenance fee can easily be $800.00 a month. So you have a mortgage payment plus the maintenance fee to live in a cramped apartment that was originally a rental, with all that implies - footsteps above you, neighbor's stereos, etc. I am glad to own a house in the suburbs.

In theory, it is great that women should become plumbers and car mechanics. I have never, ever seen a woman car mechanic or plumber in my life. Why? It can't just be snobbery. Could it be that these jobs frequently require a lot of sheer muscle power? Not everything can be done with power tools. Try lifting a toilet and putting it precisely in the right place. Takes strength. Some women could do it, but not many, and a lot of men couldn't either.

The two women engineers I know are really hot. Brains are the greatest aphrodisiac.

"the usual cockamamie theorizing about 9/11)

Whatever respect I had for Louis Bayard was lost right there. Mr. Vidal, along with many other researchers like David Ray Griffin, is right about 9/11, and has the guts to say it.

Bill, I agree completely. Salon's position on 9/11 Truth is shamefully smug. "Don't bother us with the facts" sums it up. And this coming from a so-called liberal publication. This is precisely what makes Mr. Vidal admirable. A truly independent thinker.

"Like their witless journalistic counterparts to the proto-despotisms of the past past--for example, the press in Weimar Germany--their blinkered refusal to see plots when they appear (JFK, MLK, RFK, and, yes, 911) are of a piece with their coping accommodation of the massive evils that their perpetrators hardly bother to conceal (say, the Iraqi death toll and the truly epochal financial fraud in which it is wrapped"

Well said, very well said. Journalists have become nothing more than cheerleaders, like Bush himself.

Coffee's important, people!

Coffee is important, which is why I do not go to Starbucks. A very mediocre coffee at best. I make my own from freshly ground high quality beans. Can you smell it? Lovely!

Just as the Chinese and Indians are abandoning bikes for cars, Americans are abandoning cars for bikes. Our transformation into a third world country is progressing well.

"All the lonely people, where do they all come from"

I've read all the letters and the best was the one that mentioned the light that just went out in the sex workers eyes. The common denominator between the prostitutes and the johns is lonliness and unhappiness. My suggestions: A single man or woman is naturally lonely - they should forget about going to prostitutes and find a good wife or husband. A married man who needs a prostitute is not in a happy marriage - he should admit it, get a divorce and find the right woman. A woman who works as a prostitute is in a degrading line of work, no matter how much it pays - it is true that there are many degrading kinds of work that do not involve sex. The only answer is to find work that is not degrading, but is enjoyable and fulfilling even though it may not be high paying. Do a good job teaching 3rd graders and they will remember you all their lives. The world needs good teachers more than it needs more hookers. In short, find a good spouse and a good career and you will see hookers and johns as the sad and pathetic people they really are.

Anyone who does anything they hate doing for money is a prostitute. If you really love being a sex worker then you are not a prostitute. The lawyer who hates his job buts likes the money goes to a sex worker who loves her job; he is the prostitute and she the fulfilled worker. But are there really sex workers who love servicing Johns apart from the money? I doubt it very much. So we remain in the realm of alienation and degradation. Lonely Johns and alienated sex workers. Where are the happy marriages? The fulfilling careers? Not here. Looking at "sex work" I see only alienation, frustration,lonliness, degradation and disease.

"Finally, it seems that nearly all paint schemes these days are primarily white (except Southwest), adding to the boring-ness. Patrick, is there a reason for this?"

Last Monday I did the tour of the Boeing factory in Everett, WA. The tour guide told us that airliners are mainly white because white paint is lighter than dark paint, and saves on fuel. As for airplane livery, the planes in production at Everett were all coated in a kind of lime green plastic coating to protect the aluminum. I thought they looked better that way than any paint job I have seen.

Let's not forget that bus drivers are skilled professionals too.