Registration is fine. I don't much like this weird new midget-letter font though. I don't understand all the debate about anonymous letters: this is the internet and you can't force anyone to use their real name. If you're so proud of your opinions you want to use your real name so everyone knows it's really your real-life you, fine. I'm not ashamed of my opinions but I certainly need an online persona: being so far to the left could get me in hot water with co-workers, employers, maybe even the government and the FBI in this day and age. Of course with a little National Security Letter or whatever they call it the FBI could get my email address from Salon and from there it's straight to Guantanamo. Guess I'm screwed no matter what.

Probably this little incident wasn't centrally coordinated by Iran. That just makes it all the more impressive that they pulled it off brilliantly, humiliating Britain and apparently even getting some concessions on the hostages the US has taken (not even mentioned in this article). By the way, those were real hostages: Iranian officials in Iraq by the leave of the Iraqi "government" (such as it is.) The British soldiers were just plain criminals: part of an illegal occupation of Iraq (just because the UN ratifies it after the fact doesn't make it all good), and in disputed waters. The Brits made fools of themselves by drawing lines on maps they have no right to draw (only Iraq and Iran can decide their border), then huffing and puffing, making a big deal out of a headscarf (that's how they dress in Iran! Last time I checked plastic handcuffs, goggles, bag over the head and orange jumpsuit weren't the latest fashion in the US). Then making a "gift" of the prisoners: what a genius move, proving to the Brits their absolute impotence and reliance on the US (which of course couldn't lift a finger).

I'm not sure the US/Zionist intention in arming Fatah is to "defeat" Hamas so much as to throw Gaza into civil war. That provides a convenient distraction in order to steal more of the West Bank and re-think how to take southern Lebanon. Of course, it's a fool's plan no matter what the intention, but what do you expect from Zionists these days? They're getting really desperate. The best they can do is bide their time, and hope some catastrophic event allows them to finish off the Palestinians for good. A Shia-Sunni war in the Middle East, or a nuclear attack on Iran, might be what they're looking for. Again a stupid plan, but one I've seen explicitly articulated by the zioncons: "Let's just shake things up in the Middle East (i.e. increase violence levels, destroy governments and infrastructures) and see what comes out of it." These people are mad.

I'm not sure there's any use in pointing out the ridiculousness of American mass media any more. Anyone with a brain realizes it and gets their information from foreign media and the internet; the rest of the country is probably a lost cause if they haven't figured out by now that US news is simply commercialism, gossip, and various strains of wacko zionist hysteria.

If one cares to look for an explanation, the interests of the owners of these huge media corporations and the sources of their advertising dollars are enough. There's also the several-decades long tradition of political imbecility and cultural vapidity in this country. Then the fact that the aforementioned 30% of the US or so really have drunk the "they're coming to get us and make us all wear burkas" kool-aid, and will probably go to the grave believing it. This is an audience that will not go away any time soon.

He's not mentally retarded. I doubt he really believes we're winning in Iraq, or that we're fighting al-Qaeda, or that we either win in Iraq or we'll all be praying to Mecca five times a day. This man has access to intelligence reports and scholarly analysis. He's not just getting his information from FOX News.

As Cole implies, he spouts his nonsense because he knows Republican primary voters have drunk the kool-aid and he can't be the one to say the Iraq War is lost; perhaps he even thinks we can keep some isolated military bases there and hang on until things stabilize. He knows the prize is control of Iraqi oil, making the Zionists happy, and getting a military grip on the Middle East/Central Asia. I doubt he's worried the terrorists are coming to make him give up ham sandwiches. If he is, he's even more psychotic than I thought.

The US political system rests on a festering mound of fraud, corruption, barbarism, cynicism, exploitation, racism, greed, paranoia and waste. If journalists started really exploring how far the rot goes, they would soon find themselves accused of being communists, terrorists, traitors or worse. Journalists understand very well what kind of writing furthers their careers and what kind will leave them without a job. Articles critical of government statements or policy (or big business interests) simply CAN'T see the light of day (excepting certain foreign media and internet sites).

OK, French intellectuals sometimes get carried away by their own pretentious prose. And it's annoying that people treat them like gurus (especially, I guess, when your book was a flash in the pan and you're reduced to blogging on Salon). But to say that not a single sentence of Derrida or Foucault interests you is to show that you are an incredibly ignorant philistine. People will be reading French poststructuralists with profit long, long after Paglia's name is erased from memory.