Letters posted here are associated with the following Salon Premium Member:

DurianJoe

Published Letters: 2644
Editor's Choice: 75

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 06:24 AM

On that UFO nonsense

The facts of this UFO nonsense are this: Kucinich stated that while he was at Shirley MacLaine's house, he saw three objects in the sky and did not know what they were. He did not say they are aliens or anything like that. He said simply that he did not know what they were. I.e., unidentified flying objects.

Dennis Miller is a has-been and an asshole.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 07:20 AM

Creepy, but the real villain is Wal-Mart

Kids will be kids, and that means that when they get old enough they purposely try to shock and dismay the adults. I don't like those vulgar panties for kids, but then, I'm an adult.

The real villain in this story is Wal-Mart, the oh-so family values, staunchly Republican conglomerate. They're villains not because they sell this stuff, but because of their disgusting hypocrisy. Not surprising, though: scratch a holier-than-thou wealthy Republican and you'll find a greedy hypocrite underneath, every freakin' time.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 07:27 AM

Brightstar

You're never going to get laid until you stop hating women. Do you think they don't notice it?

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 09:34 AM

And that's why I'm a feminist.

Jeebus, that's a sickening story. It is very similar to the story of the rape victim in Saudi Arabia who has been sentenced to 200 lashes.

Both stories, and so many like them, involve societies where women are treated like second class citizens, or even property. When you've got that kind of mentality -- really, a master-slave mentality -- these kinds of atrocities will occur over and over again. Whether its religiously based male dominance or plain old braindead machismo, the outcome is the same.

This is why I'm a feminist. Women need to be treated as equals under the law, and in society, everywhere.

Thursday, December 13, 2007 05:15 PM
Original article: Quote of the day

Slow day, eh Broadsheet?

There must be more vital stories about there.

Saturday, December 15, 2007 09:49 AM

Huckabee's teenage son tortured and killed a dog.

Huckabee's teenage son and another boy confessed to killing a stray dog that wandered into their boyscout camp. They hung it up, slit its throat, and stoned it to death. Huckabee blamed the ensuing scandal on politics.

Here is one source for the story, but if you Google it you will find plenty more: http://blog.showmeprogress.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=528

This same son was recently arrested trying to bring a gun onto a plane.

While it may not be fair to ascribe a son's guilt to the father, you wonder about the kind of man who would raise a son who tortures animals. Worse was Huckabee's attempt to dismiss the terrible crime as mere politics.

I don't want this religious psycho within 100 miles of the Oval Office.

Saturday, December 15, 2007 10:33 AM
Original article: "I Am Legend"

Spoilers in trailers are still spoilers

Having read early reviews of I am Legend (great novel, by the way) I'm not going to see this movie, despite the fact that I love horror movies. Thus, I read SZ's review in full, including her spoiler about the dog dying. Not that the dog's death would have come as a surprise, anyway, but this did qualify as a spoiler, and I'm glad SZ said so up front.

Some letter writers here argue that this wasn't a spoiler because TV and cinema trailers reveal that the dog dies. Sorry, that's still a spoiler, and that's the reason why I rarely watch trailers for films I plan to see. I cannot be the only one who has noticed that modern trailers give away almost the entire movie. When I watch trailers for films I don't plan to see, I'm always amazed; it's like seeing the whole movie in only a few minutes.

Here's a prime example from the trailer of the lousy remake of, "When a Stranger Calls"): Warning, this is the spoiler to end all spoilers. The set-up at the beginning of the film is a teenage girl babysitting in a house. She gets creepy phone calls from a sicko who keeps asking her to check on the children (who are upstairs). Finally, she calls the police about the calls, and they tap the phone. The creep calls again. Seconds later the phone rings. It's the cops. They tell the girl to get out of the house as soon as possible because those creepy calls are coming from inside the house!

The trailer gave that away! For anyone who saw the original version with Carol Kane, that revelation was scary as hell. Anyone who saw the remake after seeing its trailer was deprived of one of the all-time scary twists in a horror movie. Why would the studios ruin it that way? Their contempt for the audience is glaring.

Saturday, December 15, 2007 03:29 PM
Original article: Generation XXX?

48 percent of college boys watch porn

51 percent lie about watching it, and the remaining 1 percent lock themselves in their rooms and obsessively clean their assault rifles while muttering strange prayers.

I'm not sure how I feel about the easy accessibility of all this porn. I'm not anti-porn at all, but I don't think it's the greatest thing for young people, especially young men, to see too much of. Porn definitely exaggerates women's roles in sexual relationships; how many women really want to have a circle of guys simultaneously cum on their face, for example? And obviously, most women do not look like porn actresses.

Porn is fine for adults, though if you watch enough of it, it definitely gets boring.

One last word why porn probably isn't so good for young people: all I know for sure is that if they had internet porn back when I was in high school and college, I probably would never have graduated from either place! (In my day, you were lucky if a late-night diet informercial featuring a babe in a bikini came on).

Most Active Letters Threads

530

Do Obama officials know what his Afghanistan plan is?

What explains the completely contradictory statements from key aides on a central plank of the war strategy?
175

I live in a van down by Duke University

How do I afford grad school without going into debt? A '94 Econoline, bulk food and creative civil disobedience
128

Is my kids making me not smart?

Stay-at-home fatherhood dulls my intellect to a nub. Excuse me while I ponder the subtext of "Hippos Go Berserk"
126

Trig, the anti-abortion straw baby

Sarah Palin's son is being used to demonize pro-choicers
119

A new report questions "suicides" at Guantanamo

Why is the Obama DOJ attempting to block judicial review of three highly suspicious deaths?

View all »

Letters Help

Currently in Salon