No "If this doesn't change..." or "Starting in the next few weeks..." They will keep talking you into putting it off, you probably will, and then it will feel pointless to try again. Almost self-contradictory ("How can I have tolerated it this long and complain now?") It will have become an empty threat. Don't let that happen.

Be direct. "You've been here two weeks. You are a tenant as well as your daughter, so you must pay rent just as she does, for the time you've been here and the time you'll remain. Oh, you can't? Goodbye. Yes, you say you're daughter's sick. Are you writing that check? No? Okay, goodbye." Let them know mom will not be permitted to stay even that night until you get a check for back pay and a contract is signed for the length of her stay.

It isn't a charity home, it's an apartment. The roomate isn't even a roommate, she's a subletter. Don't get emotional. Don't let them drag you into an emotional argument. They can think you're crazy, cold, mean, or whatever they want. Their opinion is worthless to you. Mom pays to stay there, too, or mom leaves. And if mom won't leave, have her evicted (can't tell if subletting is okay by your landlord or if you're skirting that; call the police to report an intruder if the landlord can't know about this). Right then and there.

Not their best, but cute. And the savviest thing said about the iPhone on this site so far.

Your geneology is wasted on you, obviously. I don't support the war or the Bush administration. That's not what this is about.

You don't know how to evaluate thigns. That's obvious twice over, through your feelings about this country and through your response to me.

Somehow, you don't know what it is to be an American. I wonder if your ancestors would be ashamed of this country today...or of you? Were they ashamed of this country when it had slaves? Where they ashamed when it was ripped in half by a war? The leaders of our country, from the begining, have done things that are wrong, hugely morally wrong, but the idea of America is preserved and time and time defended (which is why there is no longer slavery, why that war had to be fought, why Nixon was forced to resign etc., etc.,) through a set of documents that make us unique, and that governments around the world still use as a model The idea and the working towards it still makes us greater than any county. We still, in spite of some of our leaders and their choices, have a reason to be proud.

We are also made greater by the American spirit, which I know you don't get. Sorry. Your loss. You don't even know what it is. That it's not just Lincoln but Thoreau, not just average Americans but also conscientious objectors. Not just the Bill or Rights but the ACLU. And sorry for you again, but your vision of world politics sounds like high school cliques rather than a real understanding of how we should or shouldn't evaluate ourselves on the world stage. Develop some independence of thought.

At any rate, there's no point in our discussing this anymore. Spend a while in America instead of travelling. Don't know if it will help, you sound like a lost cause. But who knows? Perhaps you can make your ancestors proud.

I find the intensity of the responses particularly odd. These videos come out about once a week, and if you haven't liked them in the past, why think you would now? Why waste your time by watching, and ours by commenting? I mean a news story, or a column you've never encountered, yes saying "I thought this sucked" makes sense. But here? Huh?

I like the fact that Rob misses the point. Not whether some people like his links or not, but that his (or anyone's) taste is so easily open to ridicule and that Video Dog does just what he does: pust something out there, to enjoy or ignore.

The voices appeal to me, but I do think a little modulation would help. Particularly with Chou, I often miss a line or two the first time I watch (yes, I rewatch them; I really enjoy some of these skits). I've never gotten why Buns is British (Chou does not seem to be, and at one point I think made an America-love-it-or-leave-it comment), but it's cute, and he's got the sland down pat.

that's slang he's got down pat

Good luck with that. I guess?

Roiphe is no feminist

Rophie is no feminist? Like there's only one feminism to which all people adhere if they want to be considered part of the club? She surely believes women are men's equals. That idea alone makes her a feminist (this is, in fact, the argument angry feminists of a certain stripe use when young girls say "I should have the right to vote and make as much as a man, but I'm no feminist": that to hold these ideas at all is to be one).

There are so many forms of feminism. Rophie's femisism may not appeal to you, that doesn't make it "not feminsim."