I agree that there are parallels to the attack on Kerry, but I think this is a deeper sign of the insanity and pathetic state of the GOP: having tried and exhausted every other attack line on Obama, they are now trying to demonize him for being popular. Let that sink in for a second. In an election that is decided by people voting for the candidate they like, Obama is being attacked for being too well-liked.

Of course, the McCain camp might say that people like him for his personality and not his policies. But wait - isn't that implying that the sacred "American People" are somehow shallow, superficial, or easily led astray, that they don't know what's good for them and need a grandpa McCain to give them some tough love? Someone should point this out and start a meme of "McCain hates the American people," post-haste.

Ultimately though, I can see what McCain is banking on. He wants the old people, the disgruntled blue collar workers, the conservative forum-dwellers, in short, the people who feel left behind by culture as a whole to come out in droves because they're angry angry about all those young people these days with their messy hair and fancy shoes and their newfangled "eye-pogs," and who's this Obama fellow they're all talking about? I don't like it, not one bit. By painting Obama as the captain of the football team, they're hoping that these others will take on the role of the freaks and nerds who try to sabotage the prom just to "show them."

Also, three cheers for quoting Mat Taibbi (you misspelled the name though). He was my favorite writer at the eXile, and I devoured his work voraciously. His piece on Bob Kerrey and our nation's perception of Vietnam is still the most penetrating insight into how Americans think about politics and the world that I've ever read.

"What does it say about you if you don't even blink when the society you live in tells you that murder is bravery and deceit is candor? There isn't much room for this stuff to get weirder."

http://www.swans.com/library/art7/zig065.html

No doubt she speaks from experience. From the interview you posted earlier, I gather that getting fucked in the ass while half-passed out in some loft is a regular night out for most of these girls, but don't worry, it's all liberating, and it's not date rape because the guy is from Williamsburg and is in a band.

Bravo to you, sirs (assuming you are sirs), for saving me the time and energy of writing out a lengthy letter by writing exactly what I was thinking and doing it better than I ever could have. Unfortunately, I fear that it will fall on deaf ears, as using words like "moral" and "noble" will makes you "some fundamentalist Christian who wants to oppress women" in the eyes of people who have long had no concern for such concepts.

Oblio's commodity argument pretty much nailed it. If you read the article with the question "what exactly was so wrong with (pre-marital) relationships?" you get the answer that they were too "time-consuming". That basically tells you all you need to know - that human interaction is now a market, with everyone seeing how much they can get with as little investment as possible. And this is somehow supposed to make you a better adult.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why you would want to let someone into your bedroom (or go alone into theirs), completely expose yourself to them, and let them into your most private regions without either knowing or liking them reasonably well. Conversely, I cannot understand why, if those criteria are met, you would not want to spend more time with that person and get to know them better and see if it would work out in the long run (it's okay if it doesn't!) But no, such thinking is quaint and old-fashioned, apparently.

American McGee's Alice is still one of my favorite games. At a time when the market is all but abandoning the PC for consoles, it's nice to still have someone like him around.

It's only confusing if you're an imbecilic troll with the brain of a five-year old who can only think in black and white. For the rest of us, there's no logical contradiction in saying "this is bad, and this is also bad." Seriously, go die in a ditch.

Thank you for being the only person I've found who shares this sentiment. I have been waiting since about 2003 for the all-consuming blues/folk/country trend sweeping the indie world to finally go the way of the dinosaurs, to no avail. I'm sorry, Pitchfork, that your readers and fans feel the need to constantly worship at the altar of the "rootsy" and the "down-to-earth" as they sip their PBR and strum on acoustic guitars in a pathetic attempt to transcend their upper-class white background towards some kind of imagined blue-collar "authenticity". I'll take Conor's ethereal gothic-tinged "Lover I Don't Have to Love" and "The Calendar Hung Itself" (and even the much-panned Digital Ash album) over his folksy guitar-and-harmonica stuff any day of the week, thanks.