For all of your complaints about assumptions, let me throw some back at you:

"You smear without thinking, or knowing, which hardly makes you a good person."

"If Eastern thought was so smart, they'd take better care of their people in all the thousands of years they've been around. That's my take, from our country that's only been around for 250+ years."

"But you just can't seem to stop yourself. . . who may not have ever had to endure such a life."

I rest my case. Yes, I have travelled--I spent 2 years in China. And for the record, I prefer life here.

Dude, your posts are full of so many half-assed assumptions that you're forced to clarify later that it's hilarious that you'd call me a bad person based on few comments in a thread.

"And that, my friend, is the truth."

No, it's a bunch of hot air.

An earlier poster wrote:

"That's void we could really use a mythos to fill -- which I think is why people hesitate to condemn Castaneda. Whatever else you can say about him, he took a step in the right direction."

No he didn't. He was con artist, pure and simple, just like L. Ron Hubbard (or Frater H as he used to be known). Why do we need a mythos that is passed off as reality? A great story that's presented as fiction can serve the same purpose. A fiction that's presented as non-fiction is just a con and a lie.

Blynche:

"Obviously there's nothing rotten at the heart of the US, nothing that repeatedly causes these atrocities, everything is wonderful, and just because these atrocities occur with more regularity in the US means nothing....."

Did you skip the paragraphs where Cary talks about the screeching meaningless of internet chatter? I didn't read the whole letter thread, but your comment is incoherent at best--I can't tell if you're pointing fingers from the Left, Right, Center, or wherever.

The world is full of mentally ill individuals. Every culture has its own cross to bear, it's own neuroses. When I lived in China, everyone blabbed on and on about the Little Prince syndrom, spoiled rotten kids who were treated like royalty because of the one child policy. At least one chopped up his parents with a cleaver for not making his dumplings right.

The US doesn't have a monopoly on sociopaths.

We simply have more guns.

Fountains of Wayne's "Prom Theme!" This is a cheat because I was long out of high school when I first heard this song, but it made me remember prom night with such vivid colors and sounds and smells, it almost made me cry.

Maybe it could be Best Song for Nostalgic and Self Deprecating Prom Night Reminiscing.

"Journey didn't suck, it was simply the music you pretended to like because you thought some girl in history class might go out with you if you took her to a Journey/Styx/Triumph concert."

In my 80's teenhood, it was the opposite. I had a shoebox filled with J. Geils Band, Iron Maiden, Rush, Michael Jackson and Madonna under my bed--you can bet it stayed hidden when my cool Echo & the Bunnymen-Suicidal Tendencies-Bauhaus listening friends came over.

"It certainly didn't help that after Nirvana and Pearl Jam there was a long trail of even worse bands (Mudhoney, Stone Temple Pilots, Screaming Trees, and a few others come to mind)."

Okay, you're just plain factually wrong. Mudhoney and Screaming Trees were around WAY before Nirvana. And they were better. About half of Green River ended up in Mudhoney, the other half picked up Vedder and became Pearl Jam. There's more rock and roll in Mark Arm's little finger than Eddie Vedder's entire body. And let's not forget Mark Lanegan, a singer songwriter who at least equals if not exceeds Cobain's ability.

If you're going to mock something, at least get your facts right. It's not the NW's fault that the rest of country enabled Starbucks and grunge to drain all the fun from Seattle rock.

Pure Joy forever!!

Anon: "Rock was; rock is no more. Rock died and heavy metal dressed up in the skin of its decaying corpse and made a mockery of it."

Jeez, the Rock is Dead meme is what's really dead. I know plenty of teenagers who still listen to rock in one form or another. Rock is old enough to be a tradition, just like blues or jazz--a legacy to be passed on to future generations.

The worst you can say about it is that it's no longer the vanguard of new ideas or shiny new trends. But really, that doesn't mean much: being obsessed with finding new innovations in music is a kind of prison I freed myself from a long time ago.

Even if you're right, I'm genuinely curious: what qualifies as music that's "alive?" Hip Hop? It's past 30 years old, well into a bloated middle aged phase. Electronica? Noise? What?

There are plenty of people who still listen to swing bands and classical music--they're just not gracing the covers of People Magazine, and they should be happy about that. If rock has reached that stage, so be it.

Grubert: "The only way to judge a record is in the context of it's time. To judge Sgt. Pepper in 2007 is silly."

No it's not! What a silly idea. We still judge Van Gogh, Shakespeare, and other artists of past ages. Time gives you a new perspective on things, lets you see things that weren't clear at the time something was created.