Among its many flaws Social Security has a reverse Robin Hood effect: it takes FICA taxes from young struggling workers to pay benefits to affluent but no-longer-productive retirees like me who don't need the money. My solution? Give your SS payments to your children if you don't need the money.

Why does anyone buy or read the New York Times?

Our next POTUS candidate should review Reagan's speeches. No Mr. Nice Guy, Reagan pounded Carter personally and relentlessly. A presidential campaign is a no-holds-barred fight to the death, and is no place for the timid or fastidious. Utter destruction of the opponent must be the goal. But McCain and Romney had no stomach for the fight.

General Schwarzkopf may have been the greatest military leader in American history. His utter destruction of the world's fourth largest army in a mere four days of ground combat, with minimal casualties on our side, speaks for itself.

Many middle-class homes in coastal California still have a market value of a million dollars, or close to that, as a result of the housing bubble. Unless fixed, the estate tax law will steal 55% of everything over a million in those estates. When the estate tax law was passed 100 years ago it was intended to tax John D. Rockefeller; now it taxes John Doe. The federal beast is insatiable.

The Harding-Coolidge administrations cut taxes and also cut federal spending by almost 50%. Truman cut federal spending by almost 2/3's. But today's pols can't cut 1%. Ignorance, greed, and moral decline are killing the country. Blame the voters as much as the politicians.

Not necessarily rich. It depends on the cost of living in your area.

The price of gasoline is still twice as high here in San Diego as it was when Obozo took office; i.e., it has inflated by 100% in that time.

Schroeder is a pretty good spokesman. Try reading his book, The Science of God. He is both a physicist and a Biblical scholar. However, I have to warn you that after reading it you may feel pretty stupid and embarrassed about your superficial nonbelief system.

Misguided yes, traitors no. Men like McGovern, Inouye, and McCain must be respected for their courage in military service. At the same time we should reject their politics, but respectfully. McCain, for example, has an uncanny knack for taking the wrong position on almost every issue. I attribute his follies to low intelligence, not to any lack of patriotism. He is simply in over his head.

In the mid-1840's two Democrat senators, Calhoun and Benton, eloquently and fiercely debated each other over the war with Mexico, much to the discomfit of the Democrat president, Polk. Such statesmanship is not seen today, the Senate being composed of partisan lowlifes led by a malignant midget.