Hey, all you haters out there! Glenn is just tryin' ta esspress hisself in the bes' way he knows how! Don' be 'sparagin' the boy! He luv his country. 'n he cares about his fallow man. He cain't hep hisself if'n his thoughts get a bit garbled 'n confused! He even admit he ain't no 'edjucated man. His heart inna right place tho I garuntee you becuz he sez so alla the time on his program. And he writes gud too. I seen his books at the store once. It wuz about America.

..sorta sums up Glenn Beck.

You know, I think the conservatives have decided to forgo the embarrassment of pretending to have principles after having demogogued every make-believe issue they hold dear, by going straight to self-parody. Why bother with all of the posturing and phony moral outrage when you can have the same crap delivered by a friendly, drooling puppy dog? Do ya' feel let down by your government? Do you crave retaliation? Aww, gee whiz, doncha just love Uhmerika?

A lot has been written about this series but Laura pretty much nailed it as far as what made the series so enthralling and somewhat frustrating as well. I agree that attempting to wrap up everything seemed a little pat and simplistic for a series that spent so much time tracing the peripheries of moral/spiritual ambiguity, but along the way, we were treated to some wonderful writing that pitted tragically flawed characters against seemingly very real albeit conflicted individuals in situations that couldn't help mirror our own world where allegiances shift under our feet and political expediency is often the expected norm from people with whom we have placed great trust. The show's creators seemed to have suffered from wanting to saddle everything with "significance" which is a symptom to me of not trusting your initial story (or characters) enough. Much of the reoccurring dreams and borderline religious hysteria seemed needlessly tacked on and in the end gave the entire enterprise the sense of trying too hard be "meaningful", forgetting that meaning was derived from the interaction of the character's amidst circumstance and not bestowed by some "greater Power" from above. I would have appreciated the story whether or not in the end, Starbuck was an angel or a "harbinger of death", certainly without all the delirium relating to prophecy to/about/regarding the final 5 and the opera house etc. In the end, they all ended up wandering off somewhat aimlessly in different directions on earth anyway. I guess when your ambitions are so grandiose, you run the risk of lapsing into self-parody and at times BSG did seem a little silly, maudlin, self-serious and unleavened by anything like humor, (Joss Whedon, anyone?). I must admit that every time I heard mention that "this has all happened before", I would think, "...didn't Peter Pan start like that?"

Nonetheless I loved BSG, it's character's, storyline and wonderful production/art direction. I certainly don't want to fault a TV show for daring to be ambitious or wishing to assume that it's audience can handle myriad and sometimes conflicting story arcs and characters simultaneously. The great moments will stay with me and many times the series made me think in ways television has NEVER done before. I also think that it's long-range effect will be profound in terms of not necessarily culture but television itself (...which is the same thing I guess..).

Rachel was a good sport.

If you want to see the net worth of this article take a gander at the comments. It's inevitable that once a self-styled "librul" makes these kind of blanket statements, you're sure to get freepers and trolls screaming about free speech and, "atta Girl" comments along with people on the left crying "foul". In other words you get what's expected; namely polarization and predictable name-calling. What's the point? These are tremulous times that call for serious people with a real sense of where we are going and an ability to honestly access how we got here.

I have no problem with Camille wanting to write this self-obsessed crap masquerading as astute cultural commentary, and I'm not asking anyone to be fired or any of that, but I Do have to ask how this serves to develop/evolve the political discussion that so needs to take place amongst us or whether it simply adds more noise to the din. And I'm quite tired of opportunists of all stripes using the current miasma as a chance to add their braying to the chorus of opinionated nitwits. Just sayin... misinformation starts with poorly thought out concepts and lazy generalizing and Salon doesn't need to contribute to this. Unless you want Drudge linking to you for the sake of traffic...