I was quite gratified to read this article. Sometimes if you listen to the MSM and even alternative outlets (like this one), you get the idea that things are really, really bad for people of a liberal stripe. You have the right bashing us for our so-called "anything goes" values, which is a total misstatement, or you have us liberals whining about how it's all going to hell in a handbag because of those goddamned conservatives and their (ironically!) "anything goes" values, and their Savior, George W. Bush. But as I've been saying, thankfully, in some regards anyway, the culture has moved on from such ridiculous things as carping about interracial relations. By some measures the country was obsessed about this a mere 40 years ago. Now...not so much. Or at least, not quite as much. Now before someone hands me my head over this, I am NOT suggesting that racism is dead. IT'S NOT. The Jena Six incident is proof. Katrina is proof. But more people see the unfairness of the system as it currently stands and are seeking change. This is why the Republican Party is dead in the water, with no new ideas, and nothing but the old standby, intolerance (of race and ethnicity and sexual orientation) to rely on, and rally around. They have nothing to rally around but that hyper-macho swagger while some of them furtively look for same-sex gratification in airport bathrooms. Or tempt teen-age male pages. The GOP has the stench of rot and death on it. The rest of us are fleeing the wreckage. The game has shifted. Mr. Krugman is correct. The country is LESS racist, LESS homophobic, and maybe even LESS sexist. We're not nearly in the clear yet, but this clearly is progress.

I've been calling the GOP the HOP, the Hysterical Old Party because they seem to be the party that best represents the over-reactive and hysterical adolescent strain in our national psyche. The part of us that imagines that there was a simpler, easier time in America and the world was black and white and we had more of a defined sense of "good and evil". Except the truth is that the American Experiment was never quite so simple nor its course so clearly traveled. One thing that remains a constant however is the ability and willingness to ask the really hard questions of ourselves. We do it not willingly, by any means, but we do it. That's what's saved us in the past. The Party of Intolerance and Militant Religiosity is having its own day of reckoning right now. They have Bush to thank for that, and if I had to call it, I'd say the future of the Republican Party, the Religious Right and this nasty, pugnacious, and ugly strain of Id Conservatism is obscurity and the hangover that follows a really bad night of excess. That should effectively leave people like Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O'Reilly unemployed and Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham with a pile of books that they can't even sell on eBay, and that's fine with me. The problems we face now are going to be solved by clear-minded, rational adults. Not 2 year-olds who think the world should revolve around them and fixate on the latest toys they have and not teen-agers who divide into cliques and shut out everyone who isn't like the "in crowd". Time for the grown-ups to take charge and clean up the mess. We're going to be busy for a while.

I note that the People's list also made mention of Damon's partner-in-crime, Ben Affleck who looks slimmer, more toned, and seems more settled than I've seen him in years. Marriage and family seem to very much agree with him. But marriage to Jennifer Garner would agree with just about any man! Yet he fails to make your list. Por Que?

Seriously though, living in MA, you have to love these guys. They never let you forget where they come from and, in Matt's case in particular, they never seem to stop being in awe of what they get to do for a living. It's so refreshing to see Ben Affleck so grounded again after that horrible misadventure with that other Jenny from the Block. He looked really sharp in "Hollywoodland" and reminded us that he's much smarter than his past film roles. The shift to directing seemed natural and fitting. I wasn't surprised at all by the reviews, all of which say that his sure-handedness behind the camera served "Gone Baby Gone" as well as the performances. Matt continues to be this regular guy who knows his craft and takes it seriously. If you thought his quote at being named Sexiest Man Alive by People was something, you should have read his interview in GQ this past summer. Smart guy. Hell of a nice guy, too.

This is good stuff. Good on the Salon staff for such thoughtful choices. But, if I may point one other obvious mistake, why is Ed Harris not on your list? How can you not notice how he keeps turning up in these great movies, including the aforementioned Affleck debut? Or did you think his turn as director/star in "Pollock" was all he had in him? If you do this list again, you must correct this criminal oversight post haste. I can almost forgive the Ben Affleck snub. His come-to-Jesus has been rather recent. But to pass on Ed Harris almost warrants congressional review.