Where have you gone, dear Camille? Your silence has been maddening in this mad, mad, mad world. Unlike most commentary in print and broadcast media, your keen insight and crackling intelligence stimulates and educates the readership, opening minds, broadening viewpoints, and challenging narrow assumptions.

Of course, Dubya is woefully in over his head on matters of international engagement. Your hilarious lampoon of the plucky antics of the Bush administration is reminiscent of the old gag reels about the gang that couldn't shoot straight. He empowers hawk Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, who lacks any vision and plan for the reconstruction of Iraq, and diminishes dove Secretary of State Powell, who warned him against the long-term human and financial costs of waging war against rogue Arab nations. Dubya's short-term memory problems have erased the fact that he was elected because of his diverse pre-election appointments of certain administration officials with supernova appeal overshadowing his own shortcomings and weaknesses.

Presently, Dubya may be properly credited for expanding the ever-widening credibility gap between the executive branch and the electorate with his unilateralist style of leadership. He goaded the American people into war with ominous, falsified claims of hidden weapons of mass destruction in silos beneath the Iraq desert, while blithely ignoring intelligent debate concerning pressing domestic and economic crises. His pretext for war is captured in his stark, cryptic warnings concerning the specter of Saddam's dirty nukes triggering cataclysm. And the pretext for stifling protest and debate over the war is handily accomplished by offensively brain-numb conservative pundits smearing his critics as Socialistic, anti-American, and treasonous liberals.

Honestly, I have no great joy as America liberates Iraqis -- only heartache that we live in the dangerous world in which we will raise a new generation who must brace themselves for the greater uncertainty, and, sadly, the possible downfall of American prosperity stemming from fear, war and terrorism.

-- James Kelly

. . .

I want to offer my thanks to Camille Paglia for clearly recognizing the genius of Rush Limbaugh, calling Al Franken a cry-baby and Wes Clark a phony, and making a case for Irish-American right-wing gab as a modern art form. Perhaps next she could discuss her favorite hip-hop performers and NBA picks.

-- Robert Eason

Paglia says Bush is "well-meaning and sincere," but she should be required to do a bit of research into Bush's very shady history before making such statements. At the very least she ought to read "Bushwhacked" by Molly Ivins -- a well-documented horror story about the self-serving, dishonest president. I fear that Paglia's opinions are formed based on whether or not she likes the personality of her subject, and we all know that Bush excels at back-slapping. She has failed to notice that while he's slapping the back he plunges a knife into the gut.

-- Sally Raynes

In the Salon interview, Paglia starts out by railing against the New York Times for its lack of coverage about Iraq. In fact, a few weeks before the war, when it was clear the invasion was imminent, the Times did a big spread on Iraq's cultural and architectural treasures -- and the potential blow to civilization if they were destroyed. The mainstream media has been craven in the coverage of this war, but I thought that one piece was a great, if quixotic effort.

But much of the rest of Paglia's scorching criticism is right on the mark.

-- Scott Kuhlman