This is the INTERNET and the internet is accessible to people WORLDWIDE. I know it's shocking but reader responses come from many different countries.

The US has an oft diagnosed problem of mistaking itself for the world, and the world for itself. I'm sorry to see Salon writers and some readers doing it again here.

"The US has an oft diagnosed problem of mistaking itself for the world, and the world for itself. I'm sorry to see Salon writers and some readers doing it again here.

Ah, don't let it bother you, Anonymous. Every imperialist bully-empire in history has suffered from the same diagnosis. The prognosis is always death, and the rise of those they have been busy ignoring and mocking.

Thanks for proving my point, Stevie G. Perhaps your skin wouldn't be so thin if it wasn't stretched 'round such a girth. It's quality that matters, not quantity. I'd suggest you apply for a paying gig with Salon, but evidently they only hire one black at a time.

P.S.--Stevie: if "not acting like an asshole" is your sole criteria for being tossed from your lame site, well, thanks for an excellent example of "begging the question."

I wish we could get rid of "St Fuckwad" over here at Salon.

Just because you once gave me a "Dirty Sanchez" and I thought it was peanut butter doesn't mean I'm your be-atch, whut!

I may indeed be a bathhouse rim-shot cleanup boy, whut! But I've got feelings too. Gimmie a reach-around, whut!

Congratulations! You and Steve seem to have so much in common. You claim to be Liberals, yet you wish to squelch the free expression of opinions with which you disagree. You enjoy claiming the "other guy" is just obnoxious while gleefully engaging in personal attacks every bit as juvenile. You enjoy the opportunity to post as often as you wish about anything that strikes your fancy, yet bristle at the thought of others who post too frequently for yout tastes.

Perhaps you should simply invest the time and money to start your own blog, complete with the power to ban posters with whom you disagree. Title it something ironic, such as "Open Forum." "Salon" is already taken.

A take off on bilirubin no doubt. How fitting. Among its other functions, Bilirubin is secreted in the large intestine to lubricate the said passage and it's what gives feces its repellent odor.

Billy Rubin. Some name ya got there.

"You claim to be Liberals, yet you wish to squelch the free expression of opinions with which you disagree."

There is nothing in the liberal philosophy that says anyone has to put up with trolls. St. F'raud, yourself, and many others get thrown off "liberal" sites all the time because they really have nothing to say. You call it "opinion"? There is no opinion. You are just trolls. You come to wreck any discussion, not participate in one.

Locutus rocks. You (whoever you are) suck!

I have to admit that there is no way I have time to read all the response letters submitted to Salon. It is hard to imagine how anyone has time to read all these letters. And if you did read all the letters, what does that say about your life?

Right now, what it says about my life is that I have lupus, I'm suffering from severe (although hopefully temporary) circulatory problems caused by the lupus, I've run out of new books to read, and quilting, eating, and mucking about on the internet are the only things I can do that don't raise my heart rate. I'm bored with quilting, and I don't need to gain any more weight, thus... in other words, no I really don't have anything better to do right now, you're stuck with me for a while.

Um. Although in fairness I should add that I didn't read all the letters either.

As for the rest of the Salon letter writers, I'm assuming many of them have really boring jobs with a minimum of supervision.

Lupus is a tough one. You don't need to read all the letters on Salon. Just click "editor's choice" and you can wade through most of the trolls, and read 76 of my Red Star Award-winning letters.

Locutus sends you his most sincere wishes for the ease of your suffering. Amen.

Yeah, there's some truly deep Liberal commentary worthy of a red star, since that's what makes some of you get a little erection.

The only difference between Salon's subscribers and Freepers are that Salon's subscribers think they stand for free speech while Freepers admit they want to kill everyone they disagree with.

Congratulations!

I know my shit stinks. Hence the name Billy Rubin. I urge you to join the club and discover everyone's shit stinks. Even yours.

As someone who has been on the receiving end of Rebecca Traister's venom, I am really quite shocked to see her complaining about how reader email makes her feel. I was alerted a few days before Thanksgiving to Ms. Traister's article on calorie restriction for longevity, in which she went into great detail about how she wishes me personally and anyone else who consumes fewer calories than she does ill. I have never had any contact with Ms. Traister, nor did she contact me for comment. She just made up her mind about an issue she knows very little about and then proceeded to write about me, and my partner, by name, in a national magazine. In the wake of her article, I received nasty and even threatening comments on my blog and in my personal email. Her article ruined my holiday with my family and made me glad that my address is unlisted. I hope that her experience with reader hate mail might make her think twice about how her own work touches other people's lives, and not for the better. I don't think that she deserves nasty comments from readers (they can disagree with her respectfully, as I did in my blog, without resorting to personal attacks.) And I don't think that people she's never met and never bothers to speak with deserve her public, hate-filled attacks.

Sincerely,

April Smith