"What are we fighting for over there? Why are we fighting to keep Iraq together?"

Bill Maher accepts at face value the official line that the US is trying to unify Iraq. What if the opposite is the case? What if the Bush administration wants Iraq in a state of civil war, the better to control the oil resources and also to reduce the military threat to Israel. If that is the case, then the war in Iraq has been a huge success. It has had the further benefit of enriching the military industrial oligarchy while "starving the beast" of money for health and education.

Bill Maher lost all credibility for me the night he said something to the effect that "maybe Bush is right in Iraq". With liberals this feeble, the neo-cons have nothing to fear.

JetBlue allowed passengers to be held captive in a sealed tube for 10 hours for only one reason - money. It failed to cancel flights that should have been cancelled in the hope of reducing revenue loss. Sadly, Patrick has become a shill for the airline industry.

Envy is a childish emotion. If, for a moment, I ever feel envious of someone's bigger house I only have to think of a neighbor's autistic son to realise how lucky I am.

"Why is The Departed so great again? I have yet to hear a valid defense of this movie other than that it was very well put together."

If it is half as good as Mou Gaan Dou (Infernal Affairs) it will be well worth watching. As for Ellen, it was painfully obvious that she belongs on daytime TV and is not ready for prime time. Gore was dignified, but he could have said more. He is a decent man cheated out of the presidency by a corrupt system - where is the outrage? The vacuum cleaner stunt was stupid, and you could tell the stars who had to move their feet resented it. In general, award shows are mindlessly boring exercises in mutual masturbation. I would much rather watch a good variety show, like the Chinese spring festival, than listen to "stars" go down endless lists of people to thank.

"By the way, all women and men, only in extremely rare anatomical cases, are technically fuckable."

So are sheep, dogs, horses, etc. It is the (low)level of discourse that is at issue.

Have you never heard the phrase "living well is the best revenge"? Move to a better house in a better neighborhood and buy a better car than the idiot who did that. What could be better?

"Any well-trained pilot is essentially a reliable follower of rules and is disinclined to question authority."

Now I understand Mr. Smith's inability to question the official version of the events of 9/11. Perhaps he is more of the unthinking herd than he imagines.

This is such a red herring. I recently took many internal flights in China to smaller airports. We would land, park and wait for the stair truck to come to us. Just like the sixties. It felt great to go down those stairs in the fresh air and sunshine. Then we would either walk to the terminal or get on a bus. No gate required. Simple. Amazing. Why can't it be done at JFK when necessary?

Even an 89 year old man can find true love. J. Howard Marshall did.

Dick Cheney and other neoconservatives planned the attacks of 9/11 to implement the neocon agenda of global hegenomy for the United States as outlined in the Project for a New American Century documents. The evidence for this, as David Ray Griffin writes, is overwhelming.

A letter writer writes that the current administration has perpetrated a "massive fraud in terms of reinventing this country in an image that best benefits them financially and politically … one big criminal heist on a county-wide level."

I agree.

"She and the Democrats are every bit as much all-American imperialists and patriots as Dick Cheney!"

Of course they are. They are all owned by the oligarchy - the multinational banks, oil companies, weapons makers that own and run the world. They call it democracy. If so, we have the best democracy money can buy.

I agree. Very good.

How about this - if a plane is delayed more than 3 hours, a vote is taken whether to return to the gate (or disembark by stair truck) Majority wins. No one will be held up by a single elitist prick. Legislation is passed to require this vote. Legislation is also passed, for safety and comfort, to regulate seat pitch so passengers can be treated like human beings again. All airlines would have to provide more room and the price of tickets would go up up for all airlines by 10 or 20 percent. Good. It is worth it. Finally, I think no apology is better than a grudging one. I would rather see you say "screw you, readers, I am an elitist, Nietsche-reading prick and am far above you unwashed masses, literally and figuratively". That, at least, would be fun.

" No one wants to pay for anything these days, particularly service. They all want everything for the absolute cheapest price."

May I suggest that the truth is the exact opposite. Exxon made nearly 40 BILLION dollars in the last quarter and they expect you to pump the gas. When you phone customer service you get a computer phone tree. Corporations want to charge the highest possible prices for no service at all. JetBlue could have cancelled those flights, but they were afraid of losing money, so the passengers were held hostage. That is the truth. It boils down to seeing everything through a right wing ideological filter, one which is more sympathetic to corporations than to ordinary people.

Of course not; he can't afford them on a pilot's salary. (Or a writer's)