It is often remarked how in places like Italy and Morocco there is a lot more male-to-male affection than you see in America. This is not necessarily a sign of those countries being more open.

It is mainly a sign of how in places like Morocco and Italy, homosexuality is seen as something so foreign and bizarre that the men walking down the street holding hands know that nobody is going to think they are gay -- because "nobody" is gay in those countries.

Since gay people can hold hands in America without fearing a death sentence from the church authorities, we tend to conclude that when two men are holding hands walking down the street, they are gay. The very fact that we think it is possible that two gay men might feel open enough to publicly display their affection is a healthy sign for our society.

However, it also means that non-gay men will not hold hands, because of the high likelihood that other people will think they are a gay couple.

Obviously we have problems in America. But we shouldn't be so quick to think that Morocco is some sort of world capital of social liberation just because men in that country walk down the street holding hands.

Hello? These daily downloads aren't exactly the production of Salon's journalistic team. These are freebies handed out to us to make us interested in buying the CD's they come from.

The fact that a part was omitted most likely means that the media company handing out these free samples maybe didn't want to include the 'best bits'.

Anyways, I thought it was funny and it makes me a little more interested in the movie than I was previously.

You know what would be a really great idea? How about let these women work on the editorial boards of the already existing newspapers, so that these "women's" issues are covered by the mainstream press.

Giving women their own paper only serves to legitimize the claim that women's issues are not as important as the other issues in society. Considering that women are more than 50% of the population, I think it is safe to say that "women's" issues are HUMAN issues, and therefore should have a prominent place in all mainstream publications covering general issues.

Since she comes from a family of yellers, she associates yelling as something you do with those who are closest to you -- ie. family.

In his experience, yelling precedes dramatic emotional upheavals such as divorce.

Solution?

She needs to realize that there are other ways to affirm a relationship other than yelling and could learn to tone it down.

He needs to learn that when she yells at him it doesn't mean she is about to walk out the door on him. In fact, it probably means just the opposite. Her raised voice is a sign that she considers him so close that he is like her own family.

This was a mediocre film filled with flaws. The greatest problem was how weakly it worked in the Christian allegory stuff.

In the film, Aslan is given almost no backstory or even given anything to do to make us understand why so many people respect him so much.

Basically his character is reduced to a tough guy who can kick major ass -- the Christ-enator? Through what amounts to a legal loophole, he is able to sacrifice himself knowing that he will come back to life, so he can whoop ass again.

That is such a complete bastardization of the Jesus myth, it mystifies me that so many Christians get giddy about this story.

Except that maybe this Christ as Rambo is the type of Jesus that Prez. Bush worships. That would explain a lot.

I agree with the person above who pointed out how much fuel trucks use up. Another MASSIVE fuel consumer are those container ships that carry cheap crap across the Pacific.

It all reminds me of the California water crisis we had about 15 years ago during 3-4 years of drought.

Everyone I knew was doing the whole "if it's yellow let it mellow" thing to conserve water. Then the news stories came out about how agriculture was using water in obscenely inefficient amounts and that residential usage was such a literal drop in the bucket that it was a waste of time for us to even do anything until agricultural water usage was reformed.

With fuel we are almost in the same situation. While the Prius -- and I might add Turbo Diesel compacts -- are nice, the real celebrations can start happening, when we address the fuel usage of trailer trucks and supertankers.

I cannot believe there are 15 pages of debate over whether human babies are meant to breast feed.

The primary defining trait of being a mammal is the existence of mammary glands which are meant for the nursing of young. Humans babies, calves, tiger cubs, blue whale babies ... we are all just animals who are meant to breast feed after being born.

I could imagine debate if the billboard said "Babies must be breastfed" or "Bottle feeding is child abuse". The billboard did not say either of those things, however. It simply stated an indisputable fact of nature -- a fact that an alarming number of people seem to want to dispute.

Before you go making grand conclusions about the generosity of men vs. women, you might want to figure out who this group of people are...

The survey looked at men and women UNDER the age of 35 who made more than $10 million last year.

In all likelihood, this group is dominated by sports and entertainment figures and an elite group of trust fund kids like Paris Hilton.

In other words, we are comparing the charitable giving habits of Kobe Bryant and Shaq, with the giving habits of someone like Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton.

Sorry, I mis-read the article.

Still, I have to think that of the 902 working age people who earned $10 million in 2003, a good portion were in the entertainment industry.