This problem goes beyond music. There seems to be a certain attitude people have towards everything (music,movies,sports) which is: I personally don't like it therefore it sucks, and anyone who likes it sucks and is shallow, brainwashed, immature, etc etc etc.

I don't specifically care much for ABBA, but I know my day is brightened if I happen to hear the Cars "Just What I Needed" on the radio. But normally I listen to . -- HughAnderson

Hugh, ABBA's was hardly the same kind of music as the the Cars. Was that just a trial balloon to see if it's still okay to like the Cars? Any other skeletons lurking - Culture Club? Duran Duran?

The answer is yes. Listen to Eliot Easton's great appropriation of the guitar lead in the Beatle's "I Will" for "Best Friend's Girlfriend" or his quasi-Frippotronics on "Since She's Gone."

For next time, please read chapter 6 of Jonny Green's Passion is a Fashion, and be prepared to discuss how Topper Headon's drug addition affected Sandinista, if at all.

Class dismissed.

. . . Mike Love has always been a dick.

McCain has already expressed his love for the Beach Boys, and Mike Love at least is a Republican. Maybe McCain can have a Beach Boys song (he'd probably choose one that Charlie Manson wrote).

-- Sally the Werewolf

How did a cheesy Scandinavian pop group in jumpsuits and blue eye shadow become as seriously beloved as the Beatles?

They aren't, for anyone with any taste. They rank right up there with K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Steve Miller, the Captain and Tennille and Neil Sedaka.

. . . think global warming is overblown.

Some scientist think oil is an abiotic product of the Earth that is constantly produced and renewed. -- ChillyDogg

Ethanol is a joke, regardless of what is used to make it. Furthermore, sugar cane does more to deplete soil of nutrients than possibly any other crop.

She should have called them idiots.

. . . still a hot item.

. . . is of great concern to its rank and file employees (ownership made out, as always, like bandits with the sale), and I know there is concern in St. Louis as to whether the new owners will be the same corporate citizens, but otherwise who cares? Bud is shitty beer and is probably something of a metaphor for America - poor products that relied on advertising to maintain market share. The sale is, unfortunately, unlikely to affect this.

I don't like the politics of either, Obama because I think he's a phony and race-baiting . . .-- jebldmm

"Race-baiting." What a joke you are.

...McCain has a long history of standing up to far right Republicans, including Bush and Cheney. -- jebldmm

That's why McCain caved to Shrub and the Dark Lord over using torture. Yep! He's got some back bone that McCain.

Fucking weasel will say or do anything to be elected president.

It just was. It was in the Seattle PI this morning and has been on the web site since last night. Furthermore, David Horsey won a Pulitzer, primarily for work lampooning the Bush administration. Before this cover, I'd never heard of the artist who drew the New Yorker cover.

Um. The difference is (t)hat the Obama cartoon was an actual cover of the New Yorker, and cover as envisioned by the political cartoonist will never ever be published. -- Greg Hanigan

Half of my route to work is along a stretch of limited access highway. As soon as I get to this section, I engage the cruise control. Same is true whenever I am traveling on an interstate with moderate to light traffic. It amazes me the number of people who seem to have forgotten that they have this - we all encounter them, following you at 58MPH one minute and tail gating you then next at 63MPH.

. . . and the bad habits engendered by the low editing standards in British publishing.

. . . LeVine, who is both a professor of Middle Eastern history at the University of California, Irvine, and a profession (sic) rock musician, . . .

I believe in the argot of the street, this is one of the those "Go fuck yourself" moments.

. . . and the bad habits engendered by the low editing standards in British publishing.

Hollywood does not now nor will ever understand that quirkiness of British humor. While Monty Python, Mr. Bean, Absolutely Fabulous and Gervais' The Office all have their fans, Hollywood "comedy" movies will probably suck the soul out of him.

The same it pretty much true for British drama - too subtle and "realistic." "Why do all those actors look so normal?"

As a member of the religious left... I am dismayed that sex has become so politicized. It seems to me that both the "religious right" and the "secular left" are off their collective rockers. -- pastorhorace

Because an article in Salon quoting an article somewhere else says so? And just how many hundreds of millions of people, religious and non-, conservative and liberal world-wide, actually read Salon? Sex may be politicized for you. Me (and probably the vast majority of people), I have more pressing matters of real political import to attend to.

. . . the orgasm so large an imperative that we can no longer consider ourselves complete without one -- which has naturally resulted in making us less likely to achieve one.

One of the dumbest articles in Salon, ever. And that's saying a lot.