Inbox

And the Best Invention Is ... ?
In naming the iphone the best invention of 2007, you forgot about Windows-based PDA phones [Nov. 12]. They've been out for years. Touch interface? Big deal. As you noted, it's been done before. A miniaturized operating system? Done. Windows-based phones are everything the iPhone is and more. The phones can text, MMS, email (through POP, IMAP and Exchange), surf the Web at broadband speed on EVDO networks and open, edit and save documents. The iPhone is for kids. Windows Mobile PDA phones are for adults who need to do real hard work.
Eagle Bear Morgan,
Seattle

What a brilliant piece of writing from Lev Grossman. I don't yet own an iPhone, but I plan to in the near future. Like Grossman, I'm sick of the sour grapes from naysayers who moan about what the iPhone doesn't do and ignore what it does do and just how well it does it. I hate my conventional cell phone with its 100-page, four-language manual that I can't begin to understand. I've used the iPhone without having to look at the manual. And the only language required is intuition.
Brad Cathey,
Wheaton, Illinois

Let me get this straight: TIME passed up inventions that save energy, produce energy, make us safer, make our commutes easier, protect us from diseases, reduce our impact on our finite resources and bring knowledge to the Third World to name a cool new cell phone as Invention of the Year?
Steve Jordan,
Germantown, Maryland

I was disappointed to see that none of the inventions you listed was either useful or affordable for people like me. I wish inventors would stop bypassing average people and make things for us.
Suraj Banjade,
Palmerston North, New Zealand

The iphone isn't an invention. It's a pretty nifty design based on a lot of inventions. There are true inventions out there that are more noteworthy than the iPhone. Just look around some more.
Thomas St. Pierre,
Englewood, Florida

Defining the Clinton Doctrine
I am a proud, loyal Democrat who is opposed to the candidacy of Senator Hillary Clinton for President [Nov. 19]. I have no problem with her positions on the issues or her little sashay to the right in anticipation of the general election. And my opposition certainly does not rise to the level of hatred. But the voters (with a little help from the Supreme Court) have already passed the presidency from a Bush to a Clinton to another Bush. Now it could be passed back to another Clinton. Alternating the presidency between two political dynasties seems fundamentally undemocratic. There is a full slate of highly capable candidates with names other than Clinton who are vying for the Democratic nomination. I hope one of them wins.
Craig Cranston,
Williamsburg, Virginia

Clinton's credentials are far superior to those of anyone else in the pack. I consider her the U.S.'s best female public figure since Eleanor Roosevelt. If she does not win her party's nomination, it will be a clear sign to the world that women's equality is yet another cause America preaches but does not practice.
David L. Enderle,
Freeburg, Illinois

I'm still waiting for the answer to what she believes. I'd be inspired and excited to vote for Clinton if she would just answer a question instead of letting sheep like Klein explain her ambiguous responses. Everybody gets that she can be as politically savvy as any former President — Democrat or Republican — but by continuing to avoid taking and presenting a position, she'll eventually deal herself out of the big card game.
Brian Ahern,
Sandwich, Massachusetts

Dueling Taboos
The Muslim and western codes indeed clash, as Carla Power noted [Nov. 19]. Question any religious people about public displays of flesh, and they will tell you they abhor it. Muslims may take concealing skin a bit too far, but having witnessed what its exposure has done to Western societies, I prefer to wear my head scarf and long dress. Besides, I like to receive recognition because of the faith I display, not the skin I expose. And in the private realm, sex should be discussed with decency.
Belqis Ahmed,
Yonkers, New York

It wasn't that long ago that U.S. citizens held views similar to those of today's Muslims. Fifty years ago, most Americans considered public breast-feeding indecent, the comedy of Lenny Bruce criminal, George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" punishable and Henry Miller's now classic Tropic of Cancer obscene. Likewise, prior to the 1960s most people openly prayed. In my travels to Muslim countries, I found the younger generation to be just as hip as most of our teenagers. Once they come to power in 30 years, their idea of what's indecent will be closer to ours.
Jeffrey Sears,
Weston, Connecticut

Real-Life Enemies
Re "The Don Quixote of Darfur" [Nov. 12]: Luis Moreno-Ocampo helped prosecute the worst criminals in the history of my native Argentina, an unimaginable task that would have cost him his life only a few months earlier. But the title of your article seemed to imply that Moreno-Ocampo, now prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, is engaged in acts of futility. Don Quixote fought imaginary enemies represented by windmills, while Moreno-Ocampo is fighting the world's worst real enemies: those who commit crimes against humanity. We should cherish the unparalleled moral clarity of Moreno-Ocampo, who provides stark contrast to other officials, like the recently appointed U.S. Attorney General, who refused to say whether waterboarding is torture.
Ricardo J. Galarza,
Guilderland, New York

Pakistan's Emergency
Re Simon Robinson's "Pakistan's state of Emergency" [Nov. 19]: President Pervez Musharraf shut down news channels on the pretext that they incite Pakistanis against the government. Militancy, suicide attacks and other forms of terrorism have increased under his rule. Will Pakistan end up like Iraq?
Amer Azam,
Lahore, Pakistan

Musharraf's declaration of a state of emergency must have made Pakistan's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, turn over in his grave. Many people are demonstrating against the tyrant Musharraf. It is time that all Pakistanis stand for a democratic Pakistan and work hand in hand to fight the evils that are keeping them apart.
Cajetan Peter D'Souza,
Mumbai

All dictators must come face to face with their fate: they last a few years, and then their power unravels. Musharraf is no exception. He would be foolish not to see that it's the beginning of the end. It would be better for him to go into exile now. Shame on dictators around the world, and shame on those who prop up these mean-spirited men with a supply of wealth and weapons.
Charles Puthota,
San Francisco

the U.S.'s grudging acceptance of Pakistan's military rule is an embrace of the doctrine that expediency trumps conviction. Telling foreign governments what to do and what not to do is dangerous meddling in other states' affairs, fraught with many dangers and not enough rewards.
John M. Massey,
Katy, Texas

War: What It's Been Good For
In the discussion with Meryl Streep, Robert Redford and TIME's Richard Corliss, Tom Cruise said, "Wars never solved anything" [Nov. 12]. Such a shockingly wrongheaded statement makes one wonder why anyone would want to hear his opinion on anything. One war should be enough in itself to refute his statement: the American Revolutionary War. It took years of fighting and the deprivation of American troops to defeat King George III and his minions. Negotiations could not have persuaded the English government to give up its colonies. In addition, the efforts needed to win the war helped form the American character — a character that Cruise often portrays in his successful movies.
Frank Jerome,
Columbus, Indiana

Cruise is entitled to his personal opinions, but if he is going to express them publicly, he might care to do so with a bit more clarity. Was he implying that chattel slavery in his own country in the 1860s and the fascism that engulfed Europe in the 1930s were things not worth being "solved" with a war?
James Lehmann,
Nyon, Switzerland

In the snooty triple interview, Hollywood's current intellectual superstars generously heap their unique, self-promoting wisdom on us. Never had I seen a more self-absorbed, pretentious and detached-from-reality list of irrelevant observations and pseudointellectual blather. To top it, the interview spanned two pages and included its own laugh track ("Others laugh" ... "More laughing" ... "Everyone laughs") for this once-in-a-lifetime cultural event.
Miklos Magyar,
Crystal Lake, Illinois

A picture is worth a thousand words, and so it was in the photograph of Cruise, Streep and Redford. Cruise's cocky smile and arms thrown chummily around their shoulders said it all. Cruise looks like he's thinking, Hey, if TIME thinks I belong in their presence, maybe the public at large will also buy it. Dream on!
Maarten Reuchlin,
Rio De Janeiro