If Video Dog could somehow be restored to its good, old days of three or four months ago. Remember when you could catch funny home videos, bits of late night monologues, and get a first look at Web video trends?

While Video Dog has been featuring Red State Update and that other stuff I am not interested in, I missed out on the George Washington video and no telling what else. Why did I not find out about it here? I leave the answer as an exercise for the editors.

For my fellow disheartened former Video Dog fans, I offer the following link. It is some funny shit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZCNrf0IH_U

So when you ask Why did I not find out about it here? I can only answer by saying Because you weren't paying attention.

Wow. I guess you put me in my place.

First off, I think the comments I see on Salon are, for the most part, much more literate and relevant to the issue at hand than those on other Web sites I visit regularly. So, I don't think the drive-bys and ad hominem attacks are that big a problem.

However, I think that the letters (or comments, really) could be improved. By improvement, I mean that the discussion could be broadened to include, not just discussion of the article to which the comments are posted, but to include the discussion itself.

This is what the Web offers us, most of all--a chance to engage in conversation among like-minded people whom time and distance separate. Television Without Pity preclude this and squelch the openness of discussion that might include criticism of their recappers. This has the effect of stifling conversation.

The best alternative would be a Slashdot-style moderation system. Registered readers at Slashdot can award or take away points from a given comment. Visitors to the site set a threshold (or use the default) so that comments with fewer points do not even get displayed in their browser.

This would allow readers to take part in the discussion about the discussion, and could result in some self-policing, or at least would allow an individual visitor to avoid reading certain posts.

It would be extra work, for sure, but it would encourage even more interaction among regular readers, which could enhance the feeling of community and responsibility for what gets posted.

There's a perverse disconnect between you - the Salon hand-wringers - and the true rest (or red) of the country. ...YOU somehow had it right each election, and the rest of the country had it so wrong?

Yes, we did. Thanks for noticing.

What someone needs to investigate is what Manjoo has on Joan Walsh that Salon keeps this guy around.

Wrong!

The student was subdued and under the control of four cops, at least.

They could have dragged him out of the room, secured him in plastic handcuffs, and transported him.

Four cops against one student.

The issue here is not whether he "deserved it", whatever the fuck that is supposed to mean. The issue is that the police overreacted in a situation against someone who posed no threat.

Was he disorderly? You bet.

Was his behavior inappropriate? I think so.

Were you tased the last time you acted inappropriately?

If a college student at a public forum cannot safely speak up, then neither can you. If you want to keep your freedom of speech, you must grant others the same right.

Let me paraphrase Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up their freedom in exchange for security deserve neither."

And let me add: "Those who would give up the freedom of a fellow citizen to act the fool give up their own."

...especially as I have been infatuated with Ms. Zacharek's mind ever since I started reading her reviews, and it would be nice to see what she looked like and sounded like.

And I would love to see for myself whether this video series is going downhill.

But, as a Linux/Firefox user, I get to see no more than the Pfizer ad. The video stops on the last frame of the commercial.

Damn it.

I may actually watch this, at least when it comes out on DVD.

Owen Wilson is one of a handful of actors working in Hollywood who I would pay to watch read a phone book. He is just a pleasure to watch and listen to. His "preternatural grooviness" (great phrase, Steph) is contagious. Watching Owen Wilson is like hanging out with that friend who is so laid back and cool that you always feel better afterward.

Yeah, when I was in high school in Texas in the 1970s, the cheerleaders were the popular girls in the social crowd.

Twenty years ago, working as a newspaper photographer, I happened to do a little story on the cheerleaders at the local high school--again, in Texas. Quite a difference. These girls did a lot of strenuous stuff, from tumbling to demanding dance routines.

One girl almost had to sit out the state finals because of back pain resulting from the strain of 100-pound girls having to hoist one another on their shoulders. Back pain, and the girl wasn't even 18.

So, while this concept of cheerleading as an athletic activity is hardly new, it certainly seems worth noting.