When I first heard that Steve Earle opening, I was like, what the crap, this is seriously jankety-sounding. But now it's my favorite of all the versions since the first one. To me it sounds like some kind of malfunctioning machine caught in a self-destructive loop that's breaking it apart, but it can't do anything but play that same loop over and over until the bitter end. In other words, a great aural representation of the season itself. Genius!

Christians believe God calls them to live a particular way.

Theocrats believe God calls the entire nation to live a particular way, preferably but not necessarily voluntarily.

Obama is a Christian. Huckabee gives every indication of being a theocrat. We shouldn't make the mistake of confusing the two simply because they claim to worship the same God.

That mind is called "corporate ownership."

When the obviously-guilty abusive father punched out Canterbury during questioning on the stand, my eyes rolled in their sockets with such violence that they actually popped out of my head. It took fifteen minutes of feeling around on the carpet before I found them quivering behind the entertainment center. By that time I was so fatigued by my exertions and the steady stream of tedious courtroom drama jabber emanating from the television that I barely had time to jam my eyeballs back into place before collapsing into a deep sleep. While I was asleep, I had this unbelievable nightmare where I was watching some ridiculous show about an immortal cop.

Some of us have all of our regular politics or other reads in a single bookmark folder that we open all at once in separate tabs, so when video/audio starts playing automatically, it's a frantic rush to find which page it is and stop it.

For his shitty aim.

I'm delighted to see a movie returning to classic, old-fashioned comedy. Remember in His Girl Friday, when Cary Grant beat Rosalind Russell unconscious and then came in her hair? Hilarious! They just don't make 'em like they used to. Another thing I'm pleased to see is mall cop jokes. Finally! Someone has the balls to expose the mall security profession as a refuge for losers unable to function in normal society. I just feel fortunate to be able to witness originality of this magnitude unfolding before my awestruck eyes.

Actually, I'm so glad to have read this article, if only to be reassured that I'm not the only nitwit out there who can't sit through a movie at home without looking it up on IMDb every time I idly wonder who that familiar-looking actor is.

I think I may have finally hit bottom today. I was watching an old episode of The Sopranos and looked up that episode on Wikipedia to find the name of an actress. Then I started reading episode information. At some point I realized that I had stopped watching the show entirely and was just reading the Wikipedia synopsis of the episode while the episode was still playing.

help pls thx

I found this article entertaining -- and my wife felt vindicated by the anointing of her beloved Wendy's Double Stack as the best of the value menu offerings -- but I'm less interested in reviews of the food than in the question that always occurs to me when I see something as improbable as a $1 double cheeseburger: how are they selling this stuff for so cheap?

Most likely it's either (a) they're loss leaders, bringing people in who will end up buying more expensive menu items, or "stocking stuffer" items that people tack onto their combo meals; (b) the food is messed with and extended to seem like more than it is; (c) all of the above. But I would have liked more detailed investigation into how these fast food joints come up with these menus and what exactly goes on with the food. Maybe a followup article is in order?

I love people who come into letters sections of articles solely to berate Salon and/or other commenters for wasting their time on the subject at hand. I truly envy these folks and their acute wisdom regarding how one's time is best spent. I certainly can't think of any activity more meaningful and world-changing than going into comment threads on articles I have no interest in, merely to complain about how people are spending their time.

Hey, guys? You know those people who are actually out there writing and doing important things that help people? They're not reading this. You are.

It doesn't say much for Baron's argument that he misses his own irony in saying that we only remember Plato's words because they're written down. Wasn't that in fact his (or rather, Socrates') point? That the written word would degrade our capacity for memory? Without writing, perhaps this information would be passed down via oral tradition. And more accurately. Irony indeed.