... is just that, a mere tradition or cultural habit, with no particularly compelling rationale behind it. At most it might be a proper custom for friends and family members, but when public figures die, their legacy should be assessed in an objective manner. (When Dubya dies, will we have to spend thirty days pretending he was an alright guy?)

Understand this: Tim Russert has blood on his hands. Not as much as Bush, Cheney, et al., but this criminal administration depended on a compliant press, and Meet the Press, as we know, was the Vice President's favorite means of disseminating propaganda. Think about that for a second: if the White House thinks that your show is the easiest way to peddle their bullshit to the American public, you have completely failed as a journalist. This is an irrefutable truth.

This "tradition" of holding our tongues when someone bad dies does our society a great disservice. It is because of this silly norm that repugnant figures like Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon have their reputations sanitized and are remembered as flawed but great men instead of vicious criminals. Again, if you want people to say upon your death that you were a good man, live your life in such a way that that will be the truth.

Tim Russert was bad for our country; that would not have been a controversial statement two days ago. The fact that he died yesterday doesn't change that fact. If you insist on a thirty-day moratorium on the truth, the truth will die forever. In a month no one will be talking about Russert. Now is the time that his legacy will be assessed. Do we want it to be assessed honestly, or not?

... you should earn it while you're alive.

The idea of a "grace period" is pure nonsense; no one will be talking about Tim Russert in a month, or whenever the sensitivity police deem it kosher to speak the truth about this sorry excuse for a journalist. (Memo to all those with their panties in a bunch: Russert's family members are not reading the comment section at Salon.com.)

"Russert was a natural establishmentarian, who was blessed with an optimistic faith in the long-term wisdom of the nation's political elites."

In other words, he was a dope and a shill for the status quo. The fact that he died a little early doesn't change that.

Cary's "advice" is often less than worthless, but this time out he was pretty good. The LW painted a portrait of a chaotic life, and it's hard to imagine her being able to think things through without paring things down a little first. Sometimes the best advice to give somebody concerns *how* they should make their decisions, rather than what decisions they should make.

If you have a six-year-old daughter, and you are already thinking about her sexual "purity," you are fucking creepy.

I would bet money that a not-insignificant number of these fathers take their daughters home after the purity ball and sexually abuse them.

Someone needs to demand that the horse racing apologists stop having it both ways. They talk about how much they love the animals etc. etc., but when something bad happens they want to be able to fall back on the "it's just an animal" attitude.

At least the Romans didn't pretend to care about the welfare of the gladiators.

As soon as LW used "Himself" as a pseudonym for her boyfriend, it was impossible to give a rat's ass about her stupid non-problem. Congrats, you've read Infinite Jest. Now go Cheney yourself.

And Cary is doing an enormous disservice to the people who write in for advice, at least the one in five or so who actually have a problem and are not just twits trying to talk themselves up or rationalize their selfishness. Cary uses his advice column as an excuse for his amateurish creative writing exercises that could have come straight from an undergrad creative-writing major's "freewriting" journal. Every once in a while, somebody writes in who actually has a real problem. They are asking for help. What do they get? An always interminable, never insightful, narcissistic stream of consciousness mess.

AND HE GETS PAID FOR IT.

I can only hope he doesn't get paid very much, but something tells me that's not the case.

How about a correction already? "Should this dress be illegal?" NO ONE GOT ARRESTED FOR WEARING A DRESS.

A girl got arrested because she wouldn't leave when they told her to. Wow. Happens at the mall every weekend. But that's not really a story, is it?

That wouldn't give Salon an excuse to run a picture of a half-naked teenage girl, would it?

Pathetic. I blame Joan Walsh.

but neither McCain nor Obama would do much to counter it. McCain, however, has vowed to continue the disastrous policies of the current administration, and when your enemy is going completely insane, the last thing you want if you are AQ is for cooler heads to prevail.

Still, Islam is a disease, and it would be nice if we could do something to stop its cancerous spread and even work towards eradicating it (the *religion*, not the people) entirely. But, note to politicians: the way to do this is NOT to depose secular governments in the ME so they can be replaced with Islamic ones.