Wow. From smug and senseless to straight-up stupid in eight episodes. The only suspense this is engendering is exactly how many installments of this crap has SALON commissioned--and is this one gonna be it (please _God_)? You Premium subscribers have my deepest sympathy--if any of my cash flow had gone to pay for this sorry-ass amateur hour, I'd be deeply pissed too...

...these are what _should_ be running instead of KOF:

Shooting War

http://shootingwar.com

Get Your War On by David Rees

http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war69.html

Bad Reporter by Don Asmussen

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/11/14/DDASMUSSENBR.DTL

SinFest

http://www.sinfest.net

Cat and Girl

http://www.catandgirl.com/

Dinosaur Comics

http://www.qwantz.com/

Cyanide and Happiness

http://www.explosm.net/comics/761/

Megaton Man

ttp://www.worldfamouscomics.com/megatonman/

8-Bit Theater

http://www.nuklearpower.com/latest.php

Apartment 3-D

http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/apt3g/aboutMaina.php

Mary Worth

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/mary.asp?date=20071125

Migraine Boy

http://www.gregfiering.com/migraineboy/Book/009.html

XKCD

http://xkcd.com/

Freefall

http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1500/fc01499.htm

Gunerkrigg Court

http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=7

Pibgorn

http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2007/11/07/?uc_full_date=&campid=0&

Order of the Stick

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0506.html

Goblins

http://www.goblinscomic.com/

I am so sorry this happened to you. Cary is quite correct--you need time and help to work through what that sorry bastard did to you--and it will be eminently worth it when you do. Please, _please_ don't hurt yourself or try suicide. I know what you are going through is agonzing--and that it seems that you are no good and nothing good will ever happen again. Depression caused by the trauma you've been through is good for distorting one's perceptions in just that way. But impressions caused by depression are a bunch of lies and you should no more believe them than you should someone telling you the sky is made of cotton candy. The kind of help Cary recommends will help you see through this crap and "maintain" long enough to get yourself and your life back on an even keel. Get the help you need ASAP--and please let us know how things work out for you. Good luck.

...as are colleges (which can also provide free/low-cost counseling).

>Practically speaking, you might try working somewhere just for the insurance. I know that Lowe's and UPS offer insurance (more like "insurance-lite") even for part-time people.<

God, between Flanagan and her "modern girls are sluts who are gonna reap what they sow" fellow conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, I don't know who's worse. They don't see girls as individuals with lives of their own--but as potential wives to the Flanagan/Parker sons. These two dis young women because they are afraid their future daughters-in-law aren't going to be sufficiently pure, wifely, or past-less enough for their precious boys. And trust me, mothers that obsessed with their sons finding the right kind of brood mare seldom if ever give younger women a break of any kind. Their standards are higher than most convents, and only someone like Tom Wolfe's ridiculously-sheltered herione Charlotte Simmons would be good enough daughter-in-law material--and maybe not even her.

"Is that what "Cashmere Mafia" is supposed to do, today, for us? I, personally, hate each and every one of the bitches and would rather watch livestock pooping on "Dirty Jobs", at least that's honest."

The problem with CM (and the upcoming LIPSTICK JUNGLE) is that we're being asked to sympathize with the kind of people who usually fire us or make our work lives hell. (It's not as bad as being asked to watch THE LIVES OF MIRANDA PRIESTLY every week, but it's near that ballpark. :)) And it's hard to get around the fact that these women have everything, end of story. No matter what losses they take, they are never going to fall so far that they won't wind up still more comfortable than most. A magazine executive loses her gig--big deal; she can start a mag. of her own or find another glittering media gig tomorrow. And it ain't like she's going to be moving to some rathole in a bad part of the Bronx, neither. She still has a feast of options and a world of opportunity at her feet. But if the barely-making-it clerk working several levels under her loses her job she has many less options--and could lose everything. The SEX AND THE CITY women were easier to sympathize with because they were still struggling, on some level--as well, their issues weren't relentlessly married-and-motherhood. You could say the difference between SATC's appeal and CM's is the same as what happened with Joan Crawford. People loved her when she was the struggling little shopgirl--or became rich and still struggled with class issues. But they didn't love her so much when her characters had everything. CM doesn't show us enough of the struggling-person behind its leads' chicness. That said, I have to give it props to a degree--any show that ranks on "I'm more mother than thou" uber-chic breeders deserves some credit.