Oh fine, I can't help but quote this one Times reader's letter responding to a David Brooks column:

"Are those in authority always right, in Mr. Brooks's opinion? If we cannot question authority when our leaders are lying to us � as they did in the 1960's and 70's, as they do today � when can we do it?"

Clifford Thompson

Dear DMI:
Just finished reading Andrew Friedman's piece on asthma in the five boros. Been there and lived that. I must however, criticize Mr. Friedman for not putting forth a solution to the problem. This is true of all LIBERALS. I am just as guilty. Here is what I am getting from Mr. Friedman's piece. Bloomberg IS NOT going to put the necessary monies up to do the job and then bill the slumlords. Why should he? This is his base of neo-cons that he needs to maintain control of NYC politics. Therefore, Mr. Friedman, who obviously cares for the asthmatics, should come up with a program that INVOLVES the tenants. Rent strike maybe? Bllomberg's digestion would take a nosedive if he had to confront wholesale evictions. Just a thought. I am an emigre from Spanish Harlem and during the civil rights struggle, rent strikes were constantly threatened to the then mayor of NY. As I said just a thought.

Ray Ocasio

Dear Mr. Ciaccio

Yes, Yes,
we must forbid Bush to speak of Coretta King.

Then we must forbid him to speak of Bill Clinton, Mahatma Gandhi, Kofi Annan,Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, Vladmir Lenin, Jesus Christ, and Gautama Buddha.

Then we must forbid him to appear on television to lie to us.Then we must forbid him to leave the oval office.Then we must forbid him to remain in office in such an offending manner. Then we should deny him his government pension. Then we should confine him to his Crawford Texas ranch,
like Napoleon Bonaparte on St. Helena.

You are daft, my friend.
find a new hate-icon.
Mindless anti-Bush posturing offends many of us.

Having been duped and controlled, I urge you to
enjoy your ideational slavery.

Dear Harry,

Is it just me or are you off your rocker?
Why are your comments in rhyme?
That's a diagnosable mental illness. No one reading this blog is even remotely interested in your ranting. Please devote your time to something productive. You're bizare juvenile ramblings are a waste of bandwith and nobody cares about your shoes.

Listen to yourself!
You are seriously ranting and random! Why oh why did you comment about your SHOES the other day?!

Just go back to posting on Little Green Footballs, or Free Republic, or Lunatics Unlimmited.

In response to Mr. Ocasio:

There are concrete policy solutions to NYC's asthma epidemic: Increase funding for asthma education and treatment, re-classify asthma triggers as Class C housing code violations, create real accountability for negligent slumlords by passing the Healthy Homes Act to name a few.

That said, Ray Ocasio is right that we shouldn't hold our breathe waiting for Bloomberg to side with tenants over slumlords. Tenants must take action on their own behalf. Rent strikes are great and often effective, but tenants must know that if they are not well-organized and not keeping their rent $ carefully guarded, they can risk eviction. The strategy raises the cost for Bloomberg, but also for the tenants.

Organizing affected tenants, withholding rent when appropriate, and engaging in policy advocacy are all important, mutually complimentary ways to confront this problem.

Bravo Mr. Friedman, you are quite right. Organization is the key. My first thought is to find another Geraldo Rivera(he made his bones as a storefront lawyer for PR's and other Latin American emigre's). I don't live in NY, so I can only imagine what the present occupants are going thru. I moved from NY as fast as the jobs took me. My heart now works thru my church and Interfaith Council. We are a pain in the city council's u-know-what when issues of Code Compliance is brought to their attention. If rent strikes are the only answer, then agitate the apartment dwellers to act or slowly die. I have seen the horrors of asthma in my own family.

Ray Ocasio

To "Ann"

Why can I not write in a way that expresses my outlook?

Would you silence others?

Is there a name for one who would silence another?

Why must Mr. Ciaccio join the ineffective bushophobe ranks
in reaction to a boilerplate formality, a mere set of official remarks?

I myself doubt the sanity of those who innefectively bash a lameduck president, without having any solution to a host of national problems.

Actually, I accuse those johnny-come-lately B-bashers of mistaking a social clique (the B-bash experience) with true commentary...which it is not.

Wishing to limit comment only to bona fide clique applicants (whose B-bash prose is their club membership application), you are actually behaving in a dictatorial and undemocratic way, in regarding my commentary as unworthy, when it is done in a socratic effort to expose the shallowness of some threads.

Got it now?

Ann.....

ANNN....

(Poor Ann-she fell asleep).

Hey, I just looked at the post which our offended "Ann" says is in rhyme.

It most definitely does NOT rhyme.

So who IS it around here,
seeing delusionary things?

(Certainly not ANN)