Since God doesn't actually exist! it's really hard for me to tell "good Christians" from "bad Christians". Maybe these nuts are more closely following the Bible than the more liberal Christians who fell outrage at their actions. Thus, I humbly suggest, the problem is not so much who's the better Christian, whatever that means- but it's (at least partly) religion itself.

All the liberal Christians here seem to be faced with a quandary. How do they rationalize the fact that the Bible (and just about every other religious text) does appear to require the stoning and smiting of adulterers, apostates, homosexuals and especially atheists?

Someone's going to have to confront this recent slew of conspiracy theories about 9-11. If something's not done soon, there could be trouble. It's quite possible that there are tens of thousands of people in this country who genuinely believe that 9-11 was organized by a Jewish (neocon) conspiracy. This is dangerous.

Yes 1000's of people indoctrinated into a hateful philosophy with a large dose of anti-semitism on the march is frightening.

Sometimes I also think- well the Christian Right take-over isn't going to happen anytime soon- but then I remember who the president is.

So- letters that are typed all in capitals get the Salon editors choice star now? Must.... stop... writing in ... coherent... sentences.

Latest research seems to show that a parent can't mold the personalities of their kids anymore than they could change their spouse's personality. (e.g. read "The Blank Slate" by Stephen Pinker for a controversial overview.)

Parenting may well turn out to be one of the great myths of the 20th century. You can't turn your children into Einsteins or Mozarts or even necessarily good people. All you can do is to love them and keep them out of harm's way for as long as possible, which really isn't very long these days.

Also, mental illness is an illness, not a curse from above. If the letter writer had said that she suffered from poor hearing and that her son also suffered from poor hearing- then it would seem just perverse to even think of blaming that on parenting. (Read 'Crazy' by Pete Earley' for a good perspective on this.)

Finally, It should always be the parents' choice whether to have a child given their own mental history, though the parents should try and be as informed as possible of the risks and the sacrifices involved.

It's knowledge, not shame, which will help the parents and the children.

Thx.

FOLLOWING ON FROM THE LETTERS PAGE LAST WEEK, I THOUGHT I'D WRITE ALL IN CAPITALS IN THE HOPE OF RECEIVING THE COVETED "EDITORS' CHOICE" STARRED LETTER AND I'M ALSO GOING TO STOP WRITING IN COHERENT SENTENCES BECAUSE THAT DOESN'T SEEM TO GO DOWN TO WELL ALSO WITH SALON EDITORS AND IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY WHATEVER THE PILOT SAYS- HE'S JUST A PAWN AND THEY WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU TOO IF YOU HAD ACKNOWLEDGED THE TRUTH.

Oh, and by the way- it took me 10 seconds to find the screwloosechange site on Google which thoroughly debunks the "Loose Change" video. I will assume that letter posters who continue to rehash conspiracy arguments that have already been demolished by the Pilot and screwloosechange are not just misguided- they are stupid or liars.

That's great Steven. I admit- your letter was much funnier than mine. And they say that satire's dead!

Of course, some may say it's in bad taste to make fun of the retarded by so precisely emulating their language in your letter. There's also the danger that some readers might take your brilliantly constructed humorous missive for somebody's actual opinion. Howver, I beg to differ! True comedy knows no bounds and it should be 'dangerous'.

Others will claim that it's 'too-soon' to be making jokes (however brilliant) about 9-11. After all- thousands did die, so you could perhaps see that some people might choose not to 'get' your jokes. They might even pretend to be offended!

Not me! I love your kind of humor.

Hi John. You're an idiot.

Sorry I couldn't be more tactful. After all, Salon is a liberal site, and we're meant to be tolerant of other people's lifestyles and alternative ways of thinking.

It's just a pity- you're an idiot and I really can't think of any nicer way of putting it.

It simply doesn't matter how many pieces of evidence are debunked. The conspiracy theorists will keep coming up with new 'problems' to be solved.

Bill Owen thinks we who believe that a plane flying into a skyscraper might have caused its destruction are 'sheeple'.

Well Bill, you're an idiot, and an insulting dangerous idiot at that. I hope you never run into somebody who lost their loved one in 9-11.

I'm not sure if HH knows what 'Passive-Agressive' actually means.

As far as I'm aware- it means to delay and deliberately idle in order to not have to confront doing a task. I'm a past master at this, so I know whereof I speak.

This seems to have morphed into the current usage (and also as used by the Rabbit) to mean insulting behavior delivered in a calm cool manner so as to appear 'passive' whilst actually being 'aggressive'.

I've found the best way to respond when being accused of acting 'passive-aggressive' (in the modern sense) is to start acting 'aggressive-aggressive'. That way people know where you stand.

This is the mother who called her son (back when he was 13) a 'freeloader' in her defense of why she forced him to attend church against his will.

http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/col/lamott/2003/07/04/church/index.html

It feels a little cruel for all of us to be pointing out the very obvious faults of the mother- but then- most mothers don't have columns devoted to cataloguing their child's disobedience.

My advice for the son: Run, run as far as way as possible.