Gentle Readers, My Dear Ms. West, People aren't allowed to yell obscenities in subways here in the U.S., either. Mr. Bozell has written extensively on this topic. He takes the view that the public airwaves are a public space and generally accepted standards of conduct should be enforced on the airwaves as they are in public parks, courthouses, subways or any other public place. Agree or not, this is the common practice everywhere: Canada, Chile, Brazil and the U.K. And here, in the U.S. Sincerely, John Lepant Brighton CO

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Gentle Readers, My Dear Mr. Buchanan, My Dear Fellow, have you forgotten the Reagan Administration in which you served? In 1980, U.S. annual GDP was 3 trillion dollars. By 1989, thanks to the economic growth policies of the Reagan Administration ( despite opposition from Congressional Democrats ) U.S. GDP had nearly doubled to 5.9 trillion a year, and 18 million jobs were added to the economy. Moreover, we went from double-digit interest rates, inflation and unemployment to single digits in all of those economic indicators. With a growing economy and job creation, the government gains an avalanche of new revenues allowing for a generous social safety net and a powerful national defense. Kindest Regards, John Lepant Brighton CO

While I disagree with Sen. Bidens opposition to the raid, he did at least understand the policy implications. I am very sorry to have to say that it appears that Pres. Obama really has no idea as to the policy implications of his decision. May I recommend: ON THERMONUCLEAR WAR by Herman Kahn. Sincerely, John Lepant Brighton CO

Gentle Readers, Dear Mr. Gerson, While I rarely defend Sen. Biden, I will take a major point of digression from your column. Sen. Biden served many years in the U.S. Senate, and has some foreign policy acumen, unlike too many working today in the White House. He understood the very serious policy change that the Bin Laden raid created. Prior to that action, it was always assumed that the possesion of thermonuclear weapons precluded conventional military action by another nuclear state. When the U.S. used conventional forces in Pakistan, we changed this assumption. I have seen nothing to indicate that Pres. Obama or most of his staff realized the very serious policy implications of this decision. Joe Biden did.

Gentle Readers, My Dear Mr. Potrykus, Thank you, Sir, for an excellent column. One minor point of digression would be with your statement that 25% of adult men lack basic reading skills. This may be true nominally, but fails to consider factors such as multiple disabilities or age. The percentage isn't nearly so high when these normal cognitive factors are considered. Thank you again. Sincerely, John Lepant Brighton CO

Gentle Readers, Dear Mr. Tucker, Excellent column, Thank you, Sir! However, one small point of digression: When the ' food pyramid ' was developed in the 1950s, a very large portion of the American population worked in hard physical labor - for those people, eating more cereals is good advice. They need the colories - so do children and pregnant women. In THE HUNGER GAMES, Katniss would be a good candidate for that advice. Even today many Americans spend hours every day in physical labor and they should get more calories. Those fortunate enough to have jobs which are less physically demanding should adjust the colorie consumption accordingly. Kindest Regards, John Lepant Brighton CO

That borrowed money will be repaid with future tax increases if no changes are made to fiscal policy. We know that the Bush Tax Cuts are set to expire, the AMT is increasingly falling on larger numbers of Americans, and that all sorts of ' wonderful new ' taxes are being considered, such as a VAT and a Carbon Tax. As we have jobs and work for a living, we don't follow the day-to-day legislative process. That is your job. However, despite your condescending attitude and opinion, most Americans actually do understand policies fairly well. Your real complaint is that we don't agree with your personal policy preferences. Sincerely, John Lepant Brighton CO

Gentle Readers, Dear Mr. Chapman, Your thesis is based on flawed presumptions, i.e, #1: Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9-11 attacks: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-05-07-911-judge-awards_x.htm #2: Foreign aid is huge: the U.S. spends hundreds of billions of dollars supporting military outposts overseas to defend countries perfectly capable of meeting their own needs, the World Bank, and the IMF, only to name a few. Your definition of foreign aid is more restricted than most Americans consider. You only consider direct foreign aid, which is small. 3. Americans understand that government spending has increased dramatically, which is being funded currently by deficits, borrowing.

Gentle Readers, Here is the full-text: Mr. West stated, " It’s a good question. I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus. " Progressive-Socialists are Marxists, and thus subscribe to the tenets of Communism, although they may not be members of the Communist Party of America. Many years ago, when I was growing up, a family in my neighborhood had a shrine in their basement with an oil-portrait of Adolf Hitler, and Nazi Party emblems and flags. Everyone called them Nazi's, although weren't actually members of any Nazi Party. I think it was a fair description. Sincerely, John Lepant Brighton C