You have to admire those Japanese blades all right. They lopped the heads off of our downed pilots in the Pacific with an effortless chop.

Between December 1937 and March 1938 at least 369,366 Chinese civilians and prisoners of war were slaughtered by the invading Japanese with their fantastic blades. -- Garry Owen

Beyond the annoyingly stupid, out-of-context nature of your post, the swords carried by Japanese officers, like all military weapons, were relatively cheap and mass-produced, and nothing like the blades carried by samurai up to the Meiji Restoration. These blades, still available today, take weeks to produce and cost thousands of dollars.

Furthermore, in no way are the knives hawked by Rachel Ray related to samurai katana or even Shun brand knives.

The finest slicer and steak knives I've used are manufactured by Chicago Cutlery.-- James Elliott

CC knives are crap compared to German or Japanese - low quality steel that won't hold an edge.

Is there any difference between being No.2 and working for Fox?

No.

The entirety of the American economy hinges on the price of oil. This morning it was announced that the last quarter saw the highest level of inflation in some time, led by food, fuel and pharmaceutical prices. Why not just simplify it by saying, as long a oil remains near or above $100/barrel, the economy will slow?

Until the U.S. decouples its economy from oil, things will continue to decline. There is no middle way.

Kristol has been proven over the years to pretty much have shit for brains or, at best, is about as dishonest as anyone spewing in the public sphere these days. Expect to point this out, nothing he says or writes is to be taken seriously and he should be otherwise ignored.

Obviously, that's because Starbucks IS a chain of stores which has caused any number of neighborhood coffee shops to go under when the Wal-Mart of coffee moved in across the street...and down the block...and down the block in the other direction. He's gotta puzzle this out? -- Ranson

As a matter of fact, a Starbucks opening adjacent to an independent coffee vendor often as not boosts the business of the local coffee shop.

As a Seattle native, I've been drinking Starbucks coffee since before Schultz bought the company and turned it into the McDonalds of espresso drinks. While I agree that it's laughable to think of any company with over 5,000 nearly identical outlets as having soul, all you critics need to step back from the counter and consider that no matter how much you dislike Starbucks now, the company did make American, Asia and even parts of Europe safe again for good coffee.

When I lived in NYC in the early 1990s there were less than a handful of "gourmet" coffee shops in Manhattan, and most Manhattanites were still slaking their coffee thirst with that push cart dreck in the Greek-themed blue and white cups.

Today, I make it a point of not buying Starbucks to support local vendors with more character (and because competition is generally a good thing) and, like Nike and Tiger Woods, Howard Schultz doesn't need my money. He's also become something of a persona non-grata in Seattle since selling the Sonics to a group of Oklahoma yahoos who intend to move the team, but that's a story for another thread.

But, again, thanks to Starbucks, I have a choice throughout the U.S. for good espresso drinks and a choice in our local grocery stores of anywhere from 3-6 vendors of whole bean coffee. If you think these are bad things, then you have problems that no amount of caffeine will help.

When you dig right down to the fundamentals, *all* authority is founded in the threat of violence.

Be that violence economic "do what I say or get fired" or physical "submit to my authority or go to jail", it is nevertheless violence. -- Aycharaych

Imagine that, having to do a job you were hired for and get paid for or you might lose that job. How the hell does that relate in any way to the deserved threat of going to jail if you commit a crime?

Hans Holbein would have given his left nut to capture the interplay of light and shadow on individual hairs of velvet the way McGuigan does.

Trying to be "one of the boys"? Supporting Clinton I imagine.

Don't you guys publish a piece like this about every three or four months? Aren't there literally shelves at bookstores and in libraries full of learned tomes that discuss this?

Leave this kind of "journalism" to Redbook, Family Circle or Ladies Home Journal. It does not belong at Salon, which is supposed to be, primarily, a site devoted to politics.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008 13:57 EST Bush, reluctant to give up the spotlight, endorses McCain

The difference being that Bush probably didn't blow McCain afterwards, as I'm sure McCain did for Bush in 2004.

Impeach now!

Someone I've never heard of, in spite being a literature major in college and having taken two European literature in translation classes, supposedly "ruined" the novel. Better alert John Updike, Phillip Roth, Ian McEwan, Pat Barker, Richard Russo, and Kingsley Amis (who's dead but would tell you to go fuck yourself if he heard such nonsense).

And, by the way. "experimental" writing (whatever that is) is more likely to "ruin" the novel that "conventional" writing. I mean, just how much magical realism or John Irving can one really read?

. . . the U.S., Africa and the Arab world wouldn't adopt this policy as well, though the real problem being that most cultures still think people need to get married and need to have children.