I was expressing opinion, not stating fact. There's a difference between editorial and fact-based reporting. Learn it. However, the hard facts about the Bush years are vast and easily accessible; I don't think I need to cite them.

What saddens me is that the dominant paradigm in spaces like this is, "Look how much smarter I am than all the rest of you sad, deluded dupes! Hahahahaha!" We spend so much energy trying to prove each other wrong that we don't have anything left to try to make things right, which I think is the point. We also don't try to understand other points of view. I've spent years interviewing extremists on the right for a book I'm working on. Believe me, I know whereof I speak.

Think what you like; I'm no one's "indoctrinaire", though I dig the word. It's yet another method of demonization to accuse someone who holds strong opinions different from your own of being a brainwashed dupe of THEM. Personally, I respect the idea of anyone on this thread who can express them with clarity, intelligence and reciprocated respect for others' ideas. Doesn't matter whether I agree with them or not.

Imagine what the minds at Salon could accomplish if they came together to try to solve some of our problems instead of engaging in pissing contests over who's dick swings lower or who can do the fastest online research?

...we could edit our posts. Typos like the ones I made undermine the message.

"...with obama, so far, they are attacking his policies."

Really?

Because I would welcome a conversation with anyone, and I mean anyone, about substantive policy issues. Instead, we get Glenn Beck calling him a racist who hates white people. We get Birther insanity about his legitimacy as president being thrown out of court. We get ridiculous attacks on the mean giving a "stay in school" speech. We get this:

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/politics/Death-to-Obama-Sign-Holder-Detained-53134147.html<;a>

And this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3yMPWmeaBs

And this:

http://www.aim.org/aim-column/obamas-international-socialist-connections/

Let's see, socialist, Nazi, racist, secret Muslim, black man who should be lynched...and that's just in about 5 minutes. So what were you saying about noble folks on the right just attacking Obama's POLICIES?

First of all, Cary, kudos. Some of your most subtle and lyrical advice yet.

Second, I'm in awe at the hideous callousness and brutality of some of you people. Everyone's pain and fear is gargantuan and very, very real to them; how DARE you mock it and say, "Oh, just get over it you pathetic bastard"?

And finally, Unabannable Bastard, you have achieved a marvelous honor. You are officially the biggest, most wretched prick on the Salon comment threads. Your trophy made of stinking, rotting meat is in the mail, you sad, sorry excuse for a human being.

I'm a ghostwriter by profession, and if it's illegal that's the first I've heard of it. Non-story.

This just shows that a smart liberal can con the pants off just about any conservative by telling them things they want to believe about the people they hate: everyone who's not exactly like them.

I think your post contained more words than Sarah-bellum personally contributed to her entire manuscript.

Your fingers are typing, but nothing is coming out. What the hell were you trying to say?

Where are the screams of Obama Derangement Syndrome? Because I see more signs of genuine mental illness, temporary or otherwise, in the behavior of many conservatives than I ever did in the angry yet coherent and lucid rantings of anti-Bush liberals during the darkest years of that administration.

Buffy's vampire relationships were, especially with Angel, metaphors for the high school/teen experience. Don't forget, the whole show was about a young woman coming of age. The Angel plot line was pretty direct: lust is OK, but sex turns guys into jerks who treat you like dirt (or lose their souls and start killing your friends).

Spike had less of a point, but that was when the show had lost a lot of its tang and direction. Still, Joss Whedon and company did the vampire lust thing with acres more elan, humor and heart than the lameness that is Twilight.

By the way, just to do informal poll, was not Robia La Morte, who played Jenny Calendar, the friend that Angel killed, not the hottest female of any age to ever appear on Buffy? Inquiring minds...

When will we get edit capability? 'Scuse the double negative about Robia La Morte. The point was, she left all other Sunnydale women in the dust.

Looks like the pres had better get ready for another confirmation fight. Maybe it's time to give the Republican crazies (read: 80% of them) a wave of strokes by nominating the first openly gay Supreme Court justice.

Don't Ask, Don't Rule, perhaps?

Seriously, Obama should be dusting off that list of vetted judges, and this time, we want a brilliant, reliably liberal scholar. The left side of the court needs a champion.