It isn't the source of this kind of bad conduct, but it sure acts as a focus for it and provides a forum where it can get popular exposure.

Cracking down on a nuisance bar won't stop people from being drunk, obnoxious, and violent, but it does remove a place where they can congregate, egg each other on, and cause trouble together. Cracking down on MySpace would probably have a similar effect. People would still post "beat 'em up" videos on other sites, but won't get the massive public exposure that gives them their Warholian 15 minutes on MySpace.

Have you considered marketing communications, public relations, or technical writing? They're all good fits for someone with a journalism background and good writing chops. There's quite a bit of freelance work available in these areas, too (not to mention permanent jobs) and they pay reasonably well. Plus, they can provide a pretty wide scope for creativity depending on the job.

If you really, really want to be a journalist, this is probably not the best path to go down. But if you want to work as a writer and are flexible about the context, these kinds of professional writing jobs are worth investigating.

After all, laws and responsibility are for the little people, not for the Masters of the Universe.

Let consumers eat cake -- with lead-sprinkled, pthalate-laced, pesticide-laden, high fructose corn syrup-based icing, of course.

Scum always floats to the top.

While Herbert Hoover's presidency is regarded as disastrous, he achieved quite a bit earlier in his career. He was a successful mining engineer, served as the head of the government's food administration during the First World War, and organized relief efforts in Europe during and immediately after the war. He was also an energetic secretary of commerce and was specifically asked to coordinate relief after the great 1927 floods along the Mississippi River. It's a pity he didn't quit while he was ahead.

Just wanted to second Catherine's recommendation to join your professional society -- especially if it has an active chapter in your area. They offer opportunities for socializing and networking with people in your field, doing some resume-building volunteer work, finding work opportunities, and keeping up with the latest developments in your field.

While we're on the subject of taxes, you can deduct professional society dues either as a charitable contribution or a business expense.

Lay off your poor dad. If he wants to pull the lever and vote a straight party ticket, it's his right to do so.

OK, so on the new electronic voting machines, you press a button to vote the straight party ticket. Pulling the lever went out with those monstrous mechanical voting machines, which are being replaced all over the country. But the old machines were mysterious. Their automatic polyester curtain veiled the voter in the inner sanctum of the voting booth. The little metal levers and gears were intricately designed and fabricated; companies just don't make those kinds of mechanical things any more. And the machines made such a satisfying whirr and chunk as they recorded your vote. The electronic ones lack that magic, but they still make it easy to vote the straight party ticket. A lot of people will pull the lever or press the button or darken in all of the circles next to their party's candidates. When you know their political party, you have some idea of what these candidates stand for, or purport to stand for. Your dad may simply have decided to take the short cut.

Could the source of your disapproval be that he's pulling the lever for the opposite party? In that case, you should just agree to disagree with your dad on political issues. Don't torpedo your relationship with him over a stupid political argument that you will never, ever be able to win.

Thou shalt establish a national energy policy for reducing dependence on foreign oil, developing renewable energy sources, and using thine own country's energy resources wisely.

I was talking about the "Bitter" flap with a friend who grew up in small-town Western Pennsylvania. For generations, the natural order of things in her town was that sons coasted through high school, got jobs with their dads and granddads in the mills, and worked till retirement; daughters got married early to the sons and raised the next generation of millworkers. When she was in high school, though, the mill closed. People didn't know what hit them. It was as if the world turned upside down. Some left town to find work, went to college or trade school, and otherwise adapted to the new way of things. But some are still waiting for the mill to be reopened and make everything right again.

We both think Obama is essentially correct, although he expressed it badly. Of course many small-town Pennsylvanians are bitter and angry. Nobody in power speaks for them or cares about what happens to them, except when it's time to express some faux outrage and scrape up their votes. They have been abandoned on the banks of the old industrial rivers, hands empty of hope. And in its absence, they've turned inward and cling to God and guns because that's what has always sustained them. But of course, politicians are not allowed to talk openly about this truth, that great swaths of our country have been essentially written off.

You can extend its useful life for quite a while by adding memory, adding hard drives, upgrading DVD drives, upgrading the OS, and so forth. Then, when the PC is finally too ancient and creaky to run Windows apps, you can install Linux on it. My 2000-vintage and 2004-vintage PCs are still going strong with memory, disk and DVD drive upgrades. We'll probably buy a new PC later this year and install Linux on the older one. Basically, we use them until their motherboards die. Can Macs be kept on the road like this?