He's not here yet, but I'm fairly certain he'll show up, so I'll say this: please do not respond to Shawn WM. I don't know about lolcait or some of the others, but if you haven't been able to figure out by this point that he's a Republican troll carrying out Operation Chaos, you've been way too caught up in the primary fever. His posts and replies always come in a single flurry, probably during the time he's at the call center at the county party office or someplace like that. Furthermore, they always read like they're prescripted, and some of them are basically copy-pasted from previous posts with some changes. He will basically go down the page and reply to every single post with something that sounds like a political ad, even if it's barely relevant. His artificial tone is glaringly obvious: someone will get fed up with him and make a one-line post telling him to fuck off, and he'll respond with something like "____ AS DISINGENUOUS AS HIS CANDIDATE". But on a more general level, it's pretty hard to believe that any Clinton supporter as knowledgeable and political junkie-ish as he presents himself to be would have that level of vitriol for Obama when their platforms are 95% identical. If that all doesn't convince you, remember that you can always spot an Operation Chaos troll by some variation of the following line: "I've been a lifelong democrat, but the rabidness/cultlike behavior/meanness of Obama supporters really makes me wanna vote for McCain, and that's saying a lot!" Bullshit. If you're even considering voting for McCain, you are no Democrat.

So please, just ignore him. Don't let him distort the image of the campaign. I'd like to think that Hilary supporters are a bit more human than this scumbag. If he replies to this post in his third-person tabloid format it will just make my day.

Since when are we supposed to be "professional" in every single aspect of our lives? I am sure that no sane person would argue that drinking or attending a party is a thing that in itself should disqualify you professionally. So we're left with the tired argument that "you should be careful what you make public". The people who make this argument are undoubtedly living in the past, unaware of the fact that, like you said, people of our generation are living a large part of their lives on the Internet through posting photos and interacting with friends. So to expect someone to keep all 'unprofessional' things strictly under wraps is the equivalent of expecting them not to have a social life.

As a caveat, I have several friends who teach, and they are aware of and concerned about their students finding their profiles. In general, the ones who teach younger grades make sure to either keep their profile private or not use their real name (so that students can't find them through the search), while the ones who teach high school are generally more relaxed about it and let their students add them (though they still make sure not to post anything too incriminating).

The thing is that even though older generations have learned to use the internet for practical means, they seem unable to conceive of the way it has reshaped the lives of younger people. So basically we will continue to have these types of conflict and the misguided grumbling from the dinosaurs for another decade or two, until the entire population (including professors and politicians) consists of the post-internet generations and the "series of tubes" folks have been sent on their merry way. It can't come soon enough.

Aaaand cue the bitter aging boomers unable to string together an argument. Far be it from me to suggest that someone like you, who is clearly much too cultured and intelligent than the rest of us, lacks the basic reading comprehension to note that raping and killing prostitutes is a POSSIBILITY depending on CHOICES made by THE PLAYER rather than "the defining characteristic" of the game. Why bother? I hope you feel better having expressed your outrage. Go back to watching American Idol. You will go the way of the dinosaurs soon enough.