If there's one thing that comes across in these comments, it's that the "Battle of the Sexes" is lately taking a turn for the literal. We have posts both by women who clearly hate men, and men who clearly hate women, and comments by people who resent the opposite gender having any control or any power over them, as if it were all a zero-sum game.

Do you really think an issue as complex as prostitution has a simple answer? If high-end prostitutes (who were or were not abused as children) find it to be lucrative and choose to do it, how is that different from any number of other things that the majority of our society frowns at (drug abuse leaps to mind) that have been deemed illegal, but where the criminalization of the activity has led to serious social ramifications?

I don't pretend for one moment that being a call girl is a romantic or glamorous job. But neither does it need all the moral grandstanding going on here. There's an element of snide smugness to the men who claim that there's no harm in "high end" prostitution (as if they could know) and an element of hysteria in the protests of victimization in the other direction from women who say they know better, when the group in question hasn't really claimed any such thing, either.

So how about everyone stop talking at each other, and actually listen to what they have to say?

Because if we leave, the bloodletting will commence?

How is that news?

...not a lot of hope.

If so many people are so aware of the corruption that is rampant on both sides of the aisle, and in both houses of Congress, why then the serious and overarching sense of pessimism?

Representative democracies only change when the constituents themselves change. Or is the task of talking to people whose viewpoints differ drastically from your own so daunting as to encourage fatalism?

Nothing I've seen described in the article or witnessed in the real political world could be described as "irreversible," provided there's sufficient political willpower for the change we seek. And no, this is not some kind of Obama-supporter-ish screed. I simply mean that if so many people believe so strongly that things are not right, surely we could come to some sort of accord on what to address and how to address it?

Surely this is an issue that transcends party lines!

I'm sleeping on my hammock on the balcony tonight. A summer is a terrible thing to waste, alright.

The studios themselves inadvertently invite blockbuster fatigue. Go to see a summer action movie, and you'll be walloped beforehand with at least three trailers -- all featuring the usual assortment of generic explosions, car chases and unshaven tough guys -- for forthcoming action movies that you're supposed to be looking forward to. These trailers all look the same (how exciting is that?), and they're usually so nonsensical and assaultive that they grind you down even before the nonsensical, assaultive movie you've paid to see has begun.

Three trailers? Try TWELVE! My friends and I have a game where basically we count trailers and start timing from the moment the projector fires up to the beginning of the actual feature. Typically, in any multiplex, you're looking at 15-25 minutes of trailers!

And the trailers themselves are so stupid, so inane, and so spoilerific that they almost seem calculated to suck the joy out of seeing movies. Trailers are no longer teasers for movies, with mysterious or interesting images and dialogue that compel you to watch the movie just so you understand what they were showing you. Nope, now they're synopses. The people who make trailers apparently think that if you provide the choicest / most violent / loudest / fastest punchline bits of a movie, that people will come to see it.

I think they have the exact opposite effect now. I get so turned off watching the trailers that I feel no urge to see movies that later on, if I watch them on DVD or cable, I actually enjoy.

Take a deep breath people, even Evengelicals understand that McCain is old and Palin is vastly unqualified. They are not all going to vote for that ticket. She can't run on nasty one-liners the entire campaign.

Um...I'd disagree strongly with you. Evangelicals love her, and now they love McCain, too. And also, yes, she can. In fact, I bet that's how they plan to win.

Pamela Anderson, Lindsay Lohan, and now Wonder Woman??? How do they keep from floating away?

I dunno. Probably the same way Palin does: with the combined weight of all the male fantasies that have climbed into her no-doubt tiny little pants.

Leave poor Sarah alone! She's just a hockey-mom! You want to see bad stuff? LIBERALS ARE BAD! Sarah Palin is nice. I like her glasses! Liberals are elitist. This is mean! Salon, why do you insist on focusing on poor Sarah? She's so hot. She's not like Obama, who is bla--wishy-washy. Seriously, what does he know? HE DOES NOT LOVE JESUS. But Jesus says Palin will save McCain's soul. So stop questioning her policies! She's just misunderstood!

You don't need to look further than the comments here at Salon for evidence. There are people whose job it is to pounce on the top of any article's commentary, and immediately go on the offensive with attacks on Obama, etc.

They must hate themselves a great deal, working in the heart of enemy territory, unloved by all. But they must also be true believers. They're the letter-writing equivalent of suicide-bombers. They'd be the first to be thrown under the bus should they ever be exposed for what they are.