If you do your research and buy top quality LCD, it's better than any comparable CRT on the market IMO. Some really high-end CRT's of course cannot yet be beat by LCD's quite yet, but that's fine.
For normal every day long-exposure NOTHING at ALL beats a *good* LCD. Expect to pay at least $700 though, for a 19" LCD. Dollar for dollar, CRT's are "sharper" in that you can buy a $350 CRT and probably be fairly happy with it. If you buy a $350 LCD though, you're begging for problems.
Bad LCD's like the old 15" monitors that were all blurry and only did 60hz refresh rates.
I do about 12-16 hours/day staring at text/web/etc. I switched to LCD about 6 months ago, and will NEVER go back to CRT. The difference in clarity and contrast of text is simply amazing, and I have very bad eyes. My eyes actually seem to have been getting better slowly, in terms of hurting and being able to focus after working.
I also paid $850. The Samsung t line can not be beat, as far as I know. I currently have a 191t, and am looking forwards to picking up a second 19" of their slightly newer model to replace this one, and then do dual monitor.
Caveats: Use DVI. Period. Also use native res. Period.
peace,
-Phil