Judging from the—ahem—thoughts of jack and jill and EddieD_ Boston, the meds just wore off on the right side of the aisle and the orderlies haven't made their rounds yet.

The difference I've seen over the last 8 years in the hate-speech from the left and right is this: when liberals were Bush-bashing, they were slamming on policy and ideology--the let's-invade-Iraq-for-no-reason-and-torture-and-crap-on-the-Constitution actions of a rogue administration and it's neocon backers. When Righties blast away at the Left and Obama, it's personal. Not what they/we do but who we are: racists, black butt-kissers, America-haters, freedom-haters, closet homosexuals (like that's such a terrible thing, minus the closeted part), and so on.

When you have nothing else, make shit up about those you hate. That's the Right's only weapon. Spew away, thugs. It's fun to watch your desperate, frothing, increasingly incoherent rantings. I can't wait until 2010 to see you get permanently buried in the Senate and House.

EddieD from Boston, I grew up in Compton. Yes, that Compton, back when white people still lived there, which most don't anymore. My white grandparents lived there and I played with the black kids on their block, as well as the Latino kids. So don't tell me about black people or how they hate us white liberals. Unless you grew up in Dorchester or Southie, you're talking out of your ass. I still talk to some of the black folks I grew up with years later and we're friends all doing the same thing: trying to hang onto the life raft in the economic tsunami.

I agree with the LWs who are counseling you not to quit. I don't think many people understand how thrashingly brutal the job market is right now. I have several friends who are incredibly qualified in design, web development, business, finance—none of them can find work. Looking for it is a grinding, punishing horror show of humiliation and disappointment for them, and the ones who have families and mortgages are starting to panic. Now is not the time to give up your security.

But I do agree also with the concept of leveraging what you have. You are a go-to person. Others rely on you to be the Type-A workaholic and get done what they can't. Use that. Don't engage your superiors in a "these are my needs" chat. They don't care, obviously. Instead, tell them how it's gonna be (as Buddy Holly sang): you're maxed, you're burnt, and you either need to get some help or a more realistic schedule, or you're walking. Odds are they will panic and freak out and end up kissing your ass.

You have power. Work it. And if you have no other choice, spend 3 months setting up a home-based freelance business and take some clients with you when you quit. But don't just walk into the abbatoir that is today's economy. Best of luck.

...Obama's recent greenlighting of stem cell research means work can finally begin to grow Steele a spine. One can't have a working spinal column and do all that desperate, fawning backpedaling.

I am LOVING every second of the GOP implosion. 2010 is going to be a freak show. Maybe by 2012 they'll begin to realize that their political model is obsolete and that the public wants more than shrill fundamentalists who scream "Socialism" every fifteen minutes.

I don't use it. I don't use Facebook. Somehow, I manage to survive and thrive without a billion strangers, most of whom I wouldn't want to know in meatspace, knowing my every move.

Blogging is the new journalism? Horseshit. As an investigative journalist and author, I can say with authority that repeating someone else's rumor on your blog does not a journalist make. Journalism is a skill and a craft that rests on four pillars: the instincts to recognize and develop a complex, multi-layed story, the knowledge and resourcefulness to locate corroborative sources of fact, the ability to elicit trust and get the key interviews, and of course the gift of writing well. Those don't suddenly rain down on you because you start a Blogger account.

As to newspapers, their fate is a classic branding blunder. When you're trying to build a brand, you always focus on the unique value that you can provide. You don't imitate others, especially those with more resources than you. You offer something no one else can. With newspapers, that was intense local stories and multi-part, in depth investigative reporting of stories like the Iraq debacle, torture, Bernie Madoff and so on. If we'd seen the papers going in those directions, rather than becoming print versions of "The Beltway Boys" and "Entertainment Tonight," many of them would still around.

I have this idea; see if you can get behind it. You quit running articles that clearly have as their primary goal to charge up the comments board, like Atoms and Eden and this strange little feature, and go back to more hard-hitting progressive journalism. Or if you want to have political columns, how about hearing from members of third parties, a different one each time? That could be interesting.

I think I speak for many Salonistas when I ask, "Who the fuck cares?"

Michele Bachmann attractive? Um...OK. Because nothing is hotter than being absolutely batshit insane. Mmm, baby.

Too bad it won't take long for the angry anti-religion/mysticism crowd that lurks on Salon to come out and shit all over this amazing woman and her very personal worldview in the most condescending manner possible.

I'm not a huge fan of Citizen Al; he's frequently been a pompous, rude ass to people I know. But anything that jams one more nail into the coffin of the supposed Republican "permanent majority" is cause for celebration.

Bill O, Mr. Beck, TrAnn Coulter, Sean H. and Rush "Oxycontin Blossom" Limbaugh, you may commence foaming about the oral cavity.