Reader's Choice

*Doug Burr wrote last week: "I have not watched a moment of the Demo convention. I'll probably skip the Republican one as well. My mind is made up for this race and that won't change. It seems funny how little it takes to make "news" during the political season. In fact, it's hard to differentiate the political drama from all the made-up, reality-show drama that passes for TV these days. Did you see the Democratic Convention Schedule Highlights at politicalhumor.com? What a gas..."

DFO: remember to check out that nifty bumpersnicker site Doug e-mailed in last week here, too.

*supern1987@aol.com sends along a link to columnist Jeff Jacoby, the token conservative on the Boston Globe, who zeroed in on J. Flipflop Kerry's buzzwords and cheap shots at the Demo national convention here.

*Nobody, but nobody, can rant like David Bond, my old S-R colleague, who in his recent on-line column advocated writing in U.S. Rep. Ron Paul's name for president here.

*Bond -- David Bond -- also sent along a column from Sean Rakhimov, an individual investor and market analyst who writes for RussiaNY.com, a Russian internet Web site, and gives the Silver Valley two thumbs up here.