Hey Ann Romano,

I've always enjoyed your column. It's smart and funny. It's the best thing in the paper (yeah, I know, faint praise). Is that enough butt-kissing to insure that if you do ever realize your ambition to become Lindsay Lohan, you're gonna share your cocaine with me?

'Craig P' has it right. There has been a lot of whining about the recent increase in Officer Involved Shootings involving alleged “mentally unstable” suspects [e.g. “Shooting for a Diagnosis” by Denis C. Theriault]. First of all, someone menacingly waving a weapon around in the presence of a police officer (or anyone for that matter), is by definition “mentally unstable”, but this should in no way mitigate the perceived threat. Pulling the pity card of “mental instability” does not lessen the danger to police officers and bystanders. In fact, in cases where true “mental illness” is at work, it makes the situation even more dangerous and unpredictable as the suspect has a weapon *and* is fucking batshit crazy! Unfortunately, I have extensive experience with mental illness and addiction within my immediate family, and trust me, reason and rationality do not enter the picture once a situation escalates to a full-blown crisis. “Talk Therapy” is just not going to happen at that point, which is precisely when police are often called to the scene. It frustrates me that people keep putting the blame on the officers in these shootings, second-guessing them and insisting they should treat those poor “mentally ill” folk with kid gloves. Yeah, right. When these people (mentally ill or not) slip through the cracks and reach a point where they are brandishing a weapon in public, it is their community, their social matrix, that has failed, and it is incredibly naïve to blame the responding officers for reacting to a potentially lethal threat with potentially lethal violence. These officers are only doing their jobs, defending their lives and the lives of the public when presented with an immediate, armed threat. An armed confrontation often lasts only seconds, there is no time to contemplate the motivating factors behind a threat or the disturbed mental state of the suspect, the officer must respond within these few seconds and act, trusting in his or her training to take over and eliminate the threat, using lethal force if necessary. We should consider ourselves fortunate that one of these “mentally unstable” assailants did not assault, maim or kill any innocent civilians before the police arrived. Although if this had happened, I’m sure everyone would still be blaming the police – for not taking out the threat sooner.

Why is thinking that everyone should ride a bike 'delusional'? If everyone rode a bike, everyone would be a lot more fit. I've been cycling for 40 years and I do it because it's the best and most economical way to get around town. Health and sustainability have their place, but anyone who thinks a bike is merely a fashion statement doesn't use his bike enough to appreciate how much easier it makes transportation.

Dear Ken Fuckass,
That was a pretty lame "trash" that you compared to the lovely Ann Romano's brilliant and quick-witted trashing of LiLo and other train-wrecked celebrities, which is so consistently wonderful that it's entirely incomparable. NOBODY TRASHES ANN ROMANO (even if you're LAME enough to think your LAME-ASS TRASH was a TRASH at all.) Ann is the loveliest of the lovelies, the prettiest and bestest gossip columnist in the HISTORY OF THE WORLD, and she can write about whoever she damn well pleases. Li-Lo is a STRAIGHT-UP DUMMY and is pretty hilarious celebrity material to be molded into epicness by The Great Ann. I hope Kip doesn't mind that we'll be married and have babies someday and she'll get treated like the princess that she is. Suck it, swine. (Not you Kip, I'm talking to Ken.) Insulting TGA is like insulting the universe for providing you with life and stuff, or insulting puppy dogs and unicorns for being so wonderful and cute. I LOVE YOU ANN 4 EVER.