Fr. Ken Vavrina [STRSCHURCH@aol.com]from Omaha, NE. considers Individualism to be vastly more dangerous than Terrorism:

"We Americans pay rapt attention to the danger of Terrorism. But, we face a greater adversary than terrorism, which we generate from within and which negatively affects every aspect of our lives. This evil, individualism, has so successfully permeated our culture that we are oblivious to its presence.

"Over the past 40 years, Americans have twisted individuality into individualism. As a cultural evil, it sets conditions and boundaries for every personal choice. Individualism, resulting in subjective morality, owes no debt to society and reduces religion to therapy for losers.

"Commitment, such as marriage, becomes counterproductive when it interferes with personal happiness. Disconnected from everyone, life becomes empty and void of love. Boring. Sound like someone you know? Maybe yourself?

"Deep within us is a need to give of ourselves. Individualism is juxtaposed with a loving relationship. It is only with the heart that we can see clearly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."

Steve YATES [steve.yates@gmail.com] is enthusiastic about Skype:

"Skype has drastically reduced our phone bills, as ex-pat Brits in France we used get horrendous bi-monthly bills because of the need to keep in contact with people at home. Now using Skype and SkypeOut we have reduced the 'call' part of our bill by 2/3.

"Two positive things you didn't mention are Conference calls, for up to 4 people I believe, where you can actually mix Skype and SkypeOut contacts. Secondly the ability to send SMS messages direct from your PC, for me this is far easier than struggling with the keypad of my phone.

"One negative point is the relatively high costs of calling mobile phones using SkypeOut."

The always analytical Dan Greenberg [dangreenberg@hotmail.com] comments on our recent feature on the world Happiness survey:

"It's interesting that the Scandinavian countries led in happiness. Year after year, these same countries lead the world in suicide. There are many interpretations possible:
1. Happiness is the wrong metric, not measured properly, or not related to suicidal tendencies.
2. Sampling error on happiness: the unhappy people remove themselves from the sample.
3. They're so happy they could die. (Sorry - that's a bit glib.)
4. There's something in their genetics that leads to the more extreme. More happy people balanced by more unhappy people.
5. Suicide rates are not properly reported due to social stigma.
6. Happiness rates are over-reported due to some social status.

"Just some things to think about."