The backlash isn't dying down so fast over the passage of Proposition 8, which gives signs of being one of those events that transform a group into a force. Proposition 8 has brought gays and their many supporters to a new level of anger and determination that the initiative's backers probably hadn't foreseen.

There are the ongoing protests, the legal challenges. There are the calls to boycott all things Mormon because the church strongly and successfully called on its members to donate and work for the Yes on 8 campaign, and even the movement to boycott all things Utah (including the Sundance Festival, hardly a bastion of social conservativism). And now a gay-rights group in Utah (not quite the oxymoron you might think) plans to use the words of the church itself to launch legislation there that would expand civil rights for gays.

In an apparent effort to soothe scorched feelings after the vote, Mormon Elder L. Whitney Clayton  said that in general, the church does not oppose civil unions and domestic partnerships created to extend equal benefits such as health insurance and property rights to gays and lesbians. Taking him at his word, Equality Utah says it will help draft five bills for the Utah Legislature seeking these as well as equal rights in employment, housing and probate. The idea is that the church, a powerful force in the state, is faced with a choice of either favoring these rights or coming off as less than honest.

Church spokesmen are mum on this issue so far.

Mormons have been beset this week by news that tends to cast their community in a negative light. A Holocaust survivors' group stopped all discussions with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, saying that despite a 13-year-old agreement to stop the practice, Mormons continue to posthumously "baptize by proxy" Jewish Holocaust victims as Mormons, a practice that deeply offends most Jews. And a judge has ordered the University of Phoenix and its parent company to pay $1.88 million to settle accusations that it discriminated against its non-Mormon employees.

Photo by Chris Detrick/AP

Rescuing homeowners who ventured into their own unwise and unaffordable mortgages isn't a popular  idea, the Times editorial board acknowledges, but it holds real value for all of us:

Such aid also is consistent with the principle of intervening when the market can't help itself. Despite the banking industry's voluntary efforts to help borrowers, statistics compiled by the industry show that the number of loan modifications only recently has caught up to the number of borrowers starting the foreclosure process.

The board also advises the state drop its hasty decision requiring all eighth graders to take algebra by 2011, and begins a series of handy endorsement recaps to help you figure out all those names and issues on the Tuesday ballot.

On the other side of the fold, op-ed writer Jenny Price tells the story of her brother's murder and why this is no reason to approve the "victim's rights" promised by the Proposition 9 campaign.

Punishment for murder should not depend on how angry and bereft survivors are, or how beloved the victim was. It should not be proportional to the size of the victim's family, or to how many family members are willing to go to court or a parole hearing, or to how long they are willing to keep going to hearings.

A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute is pleased that no one seems to be talking any more about paying reparations to the descendants of slaves in this country, and Joel Stein asserts that he's an erudite kinda guy even if he doesn't know at what temperature water boils, what language they speak in Iraq or--well, a bunch of other things.

Photo by Damian Dovarganes/AP

In Friday's Letters to the editor, thoughts on Wednesday night's presidential debate.

Linda Bowling, of Studio City, found Obama's manner off-putting:

All we saw was a smirking arrogance and a condescending grin that did nothing to show he had the presence to lead, or even come up with a plausible plan or idea.

Carole Platz, of Arcadia, thought the same of McCain:

If McCain were to be elected president and faced a foreign leader with whom he seriously disagreed, could the American people expect that he would resort to sarcasm and mockery?

The only person who might emerge from all of this (relatively) unscathed, it seems, is Joe the Plumber, to whom Tom McKimmey, of Van Nuys, offers this rhyming bit of advice:

McCain knows a plumber named Joe,

Who needs to make great piles of dough.

Joe should move to L.A.

Where all plumbers make hay,

Their accountants keep all taxes low.

Obama and the NRA, a tragic death in Pasadena, and slurs against Muslims, too.

*Joe Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. Joe the Plumber, photographed Thursday by Madalyn Ruggiero/AP Photo.

Drop that pencil! Before you fill out your absentee ballot, you should know about what's in Saturday's pages--a handy election recap that provides you with a quick, user-friendly guide to the major issues, state and in L.A. county, city and school district, on the November ballot. You'll get the Times editorial board's recommendations on how to vote, and why. Confused by the two alt-energy propositions? Wondering about the gamut of bonds, state and local? All will be made crystal clear, sort of. And if you prefer voting the old-fashioned way, this is a great editorial to clip and store in your wallet for your date with the voting booth.

Today's editorial page leads you to that recap with the last two endorsements on L.A. ballot measures. The editorial board registered a regretful No on Measure A, the tax to fund gang-diversion programs. Much as the money is needed, the city has yet to operate and effectively evaluate gang-diversion programs. Once we know the money will actually keep kids out of gangs, the board argues, it will be time to pass the tax. In contrast, the board gives thumbs-up to Measure B ...

It's no big surprise that letters commenting on Sarah Palin once again dominated our inbox last week.  But barring new bombshells, reaction to the vice-presidential nominee appears to be tapering off. 

Each week, Letters to the Editor receives thousands of e-mails, dozens of letters through the good old U.S. postal service, and even a few faxes here and there.

After we cut out spam, obscene mail, letters addressed to more than one recipient, letters that seem to be the fruit of letter-writing campaigns and letters with attachments (which gum up our computer systems,) we usually are left with several hundred eligible items, from which we select the somewhere around 100 that get published in the newspaper.

Last week we received 572 usable letters, 332 of which were in our Top Five Topics:

Sarah Palin: 151 letters, still the most of any subject, but nothing like last week when she generated 71% of our mail;

Other presidential election: 86 letters, including responses to The Times’ Republican National Convention coverage;

California's budget, or lack thereof: 35 letters, including responses to columns by George Skelton and this Op-Ed by Joe Mathews;

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: 33 letters;

Refusing medical treatment: 27 letters, reacting to an Op-Ed by Crispin Sartwell arguing that doctors should be able to refuse medical treatment to patients on moral or religious grounds.

In Thursday's letters, more musings on Sarah Palin; on columnist Tim Rutten's take on California's anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8; and on Steve Lopez' column about fighting his sister's cancer (and what it can teach all of us about the American health care system.)

And hackers, Uncle Sam Wants You: James F. Carter, a senior programmer in UCLA's mathematics department, thinks that the Armed Forces' plans for a National Military Strategy for Cyberspace Operations may put too much emphasis on offense maneuvers and too little on defending our country's networks. He writes:

Prudent system administrators assume that all traffic is monitored by undergraduate pranksters, Al Qaeda agents and the Justice Department

...If an army, navy, or air force fails to use...encryption software for mission-related conmunication of any kind, it is incompetent.

We should not expect or rely on our enemies to remain vulnerable.

*Classic 1941 poster by James Montgomery Flagg.  Photographer unknown.

Lots in letters over the Labor Day weekend: Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, medical marijuana, the plight of the gay Republican, India's kids...and cows.

Catherine McCallum, of Monrovia, responds Saturday to the Paul Roberts op-ed "The cost of steak."  Higher prices for meat, she argues, would only benefit American consumers:

[Roberts] expresses concern about the rising meat prices that will accompany the return to more traditional methods of raising meat animals, but he neglects to mention the benefit: with higher prices, people will eat less meat.

...I say, let those prices soar and pass the hummus. We'll all be better off.

And on Sunday, Los Angeles' Allan Hatch can't resist riffing on the discovery that cows, like compasses, point north:

Did the scientists ever consider that the cows may lay down facing north because they don't want the sun in their eyes?  If they did the study below the equator, would the cows be facing south?

*Photo: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

In Sunday's Letters to the editor, readers respond to stories about crime scene paparazzi and textbooks, as well as to Chris Ayres' op-ed about why he loves his house, which he purchased at the height of the real estate bubble.

Allan Coie, of South Pasadena, comments on Bill Plaschke's column about gold medalist (and son of undocumented immigrants) Henry Cejudo, noting that we shouldn't pat the U.S. on the back:

...to even the most casual observer, the story was about the triumph of grit, determination and personal talent against the odds stacked against him by a country and its institutions doing their darnedest to keep him out.

*Photo: Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune

Tuesday's Letters takes a look at the Saddleback Church campaign forum, which readers regarded with mixed emotions.  Each candidate has fans, but writers bemoan the campaign's religious turn.  Writes Tom Rossi, of Irvine:

Rick Warren's questions frame the race in an evangelical context--to the detriment of citizens who don't share those beliefs...As U.S. senators, neither Obama nor McCain should be promoting any particular religion.

Thoughts on sweet mortgage deals for Rep. Laura Richardson and former late-night sidekick Ed McMahon, Jerome Corsi's Obama book, and an appreciation of Engineer Bill.

*Photo: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg News

In Monday's letters, readers riff on subprime solutions (for lenders and for borrowers,) on the battle over the MTA transit tax, on animal shelter budget cuts and on a onetime-nuclear-site-turned-tourist-attraction.

Sue Talbot, of Los Angeles, offers this retort to a story about a new Los Angeles program to recycle table scraps:

I was surprised and dismayed by the snarky tone on the city's experimental food waste pickup program.... What better ideas does The Times have for getting rid of the detritus of our excessive consumerism?... Quit dissing the program before it's even started.

*Photo: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times