Of course you are right, but then this whole thread is a kind of generalization, as is the deliberately catchy article title: Why your marriage sucks". There is no avoiding stereotypes, abstractions and generalizations in any article of this type. Everyone has their own experience and point of view. People who have goon through bitter divorces will have a very different view of marriage from people who have been happily married for 15 years. I often get the feeling from reading all these letters that no one is right and no one is wrong - each has a kind of truth, a part of the whole puzzle. So the person who says "I have no kids and am perfectly happy" is not wrong. I am simply saying that, for me, marriage and having a child have been very happy experiences. I lived alone for many years. I was completely free, and completely miserable. I have found it much better to go through life as a shared experience.

"What they (seemingly) fail to understand is that airlines insist on showing a 3D flight path on a 2D map"

The solution is obvious: issue every passenger a globe as they enter the plane. They will be grateful for the extra baggage.

The world needs journalists about as much as it needs elevator operators.

Just get a skill the world really needs - like teaching, assistant physician, nurse, optometrist, plumber, etc. There is no shortage of people wanted to spout off on any conceivable subject in print, as can be seen in these letters. Why expect to get paid for it?

"I am a writer of the first magnitude, just handicapped, as it were, by cynicism and apathy, or should it read, apathy and cynicism, maybe cynicism and apathy? Anyway, you get the picture: I don't know anyone worth writing for"

Who is this arrogant and pretentious twerp, Compassus, I thought to myself as I sipped my first but certainly not last cup of coffee for the day. Intrigued, I found myself reading more and then more and then still more of his letters. Now, although the style is a little florid for my taste, I find myself agreeing with most of what he has to say. Self-declared writers of the first magnitude are so rarely what they claim to be. This may be an exception.

Since it is obvious that "species" is nothing but a social construct, I am appalled that these parents continue to refer to their child as a member of the human species. This deeply insults all primates,not to mention mammals, vertebrates, animals and non-living things like rocks. Why should humans be "privileged" over all other living and non-living things in existence? For that matter, why should we privilege things that exist over things that, through no fault of their own, do not exist? Shame on the parents.

"religion is nothing but a scam to con the brainless"

As someone wrote, "Religion is a sugar-coated turd sold as a donut". I cannot improve upon that.

As for gays, as a heterosexual male I could not care less what other people do with their body parts, but I do draw the line at public bathroom sex, gay or straight. (Is there such a thing as straight bathroom sex? Difficult, but not impossible. To put it simply, I do not want humping from the next stall, and I especially do not want to send my young son into a bathroom with humping in the next stall. It's noisy, irritating and takes up a stall that someone may actually need for its legitimate purpose. In many New York parks, public toilets have been locked because they had virtually been taken over for sex and drugs, which is very inconvenient for families in the park. It is no different from the issue of camping in city parks - they are not designed to be campsites. It is just selfish and irresponsible behavior.

I think Mr. Garrison is trying to make the point that fresh food is better than stale crap from a store. Nothing wrong with that, though it's obviousness would seem to make it a poor candidate for the subject of an article. As for his postion on Bush, torture, etc, when it comes to U.S. war crimes, where do you start? With the genocide of millions of native Americans over centuries? The enslavement and murder of millions more Africans to enrich European plantation owners? The bombing of yet more millions of completely innocent civilans in IndoChina? Pass the potato salad, please.....

"We can't protect our world if citizens are so insulated from it that they have never seen a fish with the head and scales on"

In China, a fish with the head cut off is considered ugly. It is served intact looking exactly like what it is - a fish. People there are more comfortable with natural food than with the highly processed junk we buy here. Also, they know how to cook and are willing to do it.

What you forget is that that vacuum cleaner that is still going from the 1950s probably cost a month's wages at the time. People used to buy vacuums on installment plans. And it probably doesn't work very well. I bought a very well-designed vacuum that is powerful and light weight for about $30.00 That is less than 2 hours wages. And it has worked very well now for 3 years. It can be more efficient to design something that is cheap enough to replace rather than repair. And yes, of course it is made in China.

"They think that science and God cannot coexist. Therefore, science is evil"

They are half right. Science and God cannot coexist. Therefore, the idea of God is evil.