and you can say what you please, it's a free country, you certainly don't have to check in with the likes of me, and I imagine most of the Salon readers will be giving you and each other high fives when they read what you wrote, but *please* can't you just put a sock in it from time to time?

The worst thing about your writing of late is it has become so predictable.

Give us a break, wouldja?

A wonderful, evocative, and quite-moving piece as always, GK. Thank you.

As the previous letter writer clearly demonstrated, the problem with the new brand of conservative is really a deeply pathological one. The DSM IV calls it "dissocial personality disorder" and it has well defined characteristics.

From Wikipedia via the WHO:

1. Callous unconcern for the feelings of others and lack of the capacity for empathy.

2. Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules, and obligations.

3. Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships.

4. Very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence.

5. Incapacity to experience guilt and to profit from experience, particularly punishment.

6. Marked proneness to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior bringing the subject into conflict.

7. Persistent irritability.

The problem is that we've had a country run by these idiots, and it's given the ones who were just lurking in the background the anonymous temerity to act like it's normal.

It's not. I just got done listening to a piece on NPR that made the point that compassion didn't show up in religion until around 500 BC, and until it did, no major city lasted through it. Compassion and empathy are necessary things for societal persistence. It's not just a nicety for folks at Lake Woebegon.

It's too bad we can't get around to calling a kook a kook, or at least appropriately pitying them, and offering them the mental health care they need. But Ronald Reagan got rid of non-criminal health care in 1982 for a reason. He realized that of the percentage of people released, the sociopaths that would be out on the streets supporting him and all his friends.

Heaven help us all.

as long as you elect temporary kings, you're gonna get good ones, bad ones, and the occasional monster whose crimes are irreparable. if you really care about your kids, stop voting for kings, dictators, leaders, or presidents.

america has sufficient general education to be a democracy, and they come very close to democracy in several states. extend it to the federal system.

a nation with democracy will make mistakes, but they will be mistakes, not the working out of some one person's fantasies of power. mistakes can be corrected by citizens, while the madness of presidents can only be endured.

in short, stop complaining about bad luck or the short comings of politicians- you have in your hands the means to become masters of your nation. complaining while refusing to act is a weakness of character that dubya should have cured you of.

Our t-ball team just finished the season. My wife and I don't have children, our neighbors do and I was asked to help coach. I was the batting coach and focused on some very fundamental things: posture, position, tempo. The bigger focus was on teamwork, mechanics of the game, sportsmanship. Our kids improved over the season, all hit from a pitch, didn't even need the tee. Some developed a beautiful graceful arc, pouncing on the pitch eagerly. These children enjoyed practice and especially games. Yes, baseball provides the perfect interlude for sidebar conversation and in these hard times, we should be direct.

These kids are our future. The current occupant has dug these kids a hole; for shame. The inheritance that could have been theirs is gone, worse, they inherit a despicable debt, squandered for a stupid war and greedy profiteers. Please press on G.K., vigilant indeed.

Here's something about people who were 10 years old in 2000: they are now old enough to vote for the first time. The only thing they know about the presidency, since they were old enough to pay much attention, is the reign of the Current Occupant. How wonderful that they, as a significant demographic rallying behind Obama, are in a position to change history. Today's 10-year-olds may well get a better president courtesy of today's 18-year-olds, and that's a better deal than I've seen anywhere for a long time! Thanks, Garrison, I always enjoy the columns and Prairie.

And the thing that scares me for the girl with the beautiful swing is that the incompetent in the White House still has seven months to go. We can't yet say, "Whew! I'm glad that's over with." As president, he can foul up even more -- big time.

I keep reading that the present incumbent is bent on bombing Iran before he leaves office. If that happens, the life ahead for the girl with the beautiful swing and for all of us, will be pretty miserable.

I find it interesting that Obama's central slogan is "hope." When you think about it, that should be the slogan for a presidential candidate of some third-world candidate and not the country that is the "last super-power." How could we have fallen so far that "hope" sounds so appealing here?

Our choice (and it has been our choice for awhile now) is between the Democrats, who believe that the Bushies are destroying this country, and the Republicans, who believe that 10-year-old girls who play Little League baseball are destroying this country.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Just like half of everyone else.

Whatever country is next at being the Grand Poobah of Imperialism will be just as foolhardy and sometimes evil as we've been and as Japan was in the 30s when it ran out of raw materials, but at least it won't be us. It won't be us.

However, it will be our children who will pay for our long unfettered appetites.

So true, but I've lost all hope for this election. Once a supporter of Obama, albiet reluctantly, I cannot in good moral conscience continue that support. I disagreed with him on several points (most prominantly immigration and his weak offering on universal healthcare)but his support of FISA and now expanding Bushs faith-based initiatives, including hiring and firing based on religion... no sir. I don't know if even John Edwards as VP can bring me back. I could waste my vote on 3rd party but instead I don't think I'll waste my time. The move is complete, the Republocrats are a single party system enacting full totalitarian control over a sonambulant public that can't be bothered away from Dancing with the Stars to even pay attention tot he fact that "the most liberal senator in congress" is now wanting to tap their phones and emails.