allenantrim and others on the thread have got me thinking. Really, very little of any society and civilization remains for very long. For every Leonardo painting housed in a museum, there were hundreds of contemporary artworks lost in time. For every great novel which enters the canon as one of the best of a century, hundreds were published that year. For every Beatles album, a dozen bands released one record and were never heard of again.

And, as someone has mentioned, we have no control over it. If you wish to create, please do so! Creativity is a wonderful act and a unique form of communication. But understand that there are a vast amount of variables determining success and posterity with anything creative or created. Don't forget to enjoy your life and the lives around you. It's all a crapshoot.

Entropy is, after all, a fundamental law of the universe.

Had I performed at my job as poorly as they have at theirs, I'd be ushered out the front door with a cardboard box full of my stuff.

$500,000 is not a lot of money? Boo hoo. Welcome to real life. If I made $500,000 in ONE year I could manage it well enough to pay off my debts and have a rock solid plan for the remainder of my life. If they don't want the half million salary, I'll be more than happy to take it for them.

So, no he doesn't.

Expect much more of this in the future. Anything to the left of oligarchy based fascism is considered socialism by the Republican party, no matter how far from reality that is.

Let's not forget that the entire Republican party, as of right now, would rather drive this country into a depression over the stimulus package rather than fix the problems at hand.

Their pathetic acts know no bound. They are slime and fuck them all.

If you take the Truman Capote route of dishing on people's dark secrets, while never allowing yourself to be real and fallable, you're going to lose friends. If you write about people like a gossip columnist no one is going to be happy about that.

But, if you write about your life and are honest about yourself within your work and include your friends at the same time, I think this is fine. Many writers, like my personal favorite Raymond Carver, have used this to great effect. The reason Carver works so well is that he is never away from his humanity, even when he's writing about a drinking binge or cheating on his wife.

The reaction and media storm over something so innocuous is absurd.

Phelps has been training nonstop for years to achieve what he did. So what if he wants to blow off a little steam with some friends!

But, typical of our dyed in the wool Puritanical nature, the American media treats this non-issue like a disaster.

I really, really hope this country can actually grow up sometime soon, quit acting like a bunch of brown-nosing fifth graders, and realize that what a single individual does to themselves in the privacy of their home or that of others is their OWN CHOICE.

"Marijuana affects peoples ability to drive well, so can be the cause of unnecessary deaths. Would Salon readers object to flying an aircraft piloted by a toker? I thought so."

Well, I wouldn't want to be flown around by a drunk, either. You don't think they check for that sort of thing? Were pot legalized, the same restrictions against intoxicants that exist for professionals like pilots or heavy machine operators would still exist.

I agree that there is probably a small amount of profit drug cartels make in pot distribution, but their main source of income has always been the powders- cocaine and heroin. These are disgusting drugs that should be taken very seriously. No one has ever died from a pot overdose.

Which leads me to another question- How many people have you ever heard of who died of lung cancer from smoking pot?

Now- How many people do you know of who have died of lung cancer from smoking cigarettes? Personally, I can think of three.

Inhofe and Martinez:

If these banks and executives are taking taxpayer (read: my and your) money there should be strings put upon it.

If they are taking our money, then yes, we should have a say in how they run their business. I want this stimulus package to...stimulate the economy! Not re-decorate some fat cat's office.

Sorry, but the supply-slide party is over.

Cool!

The news media (surprise, surprise) still hasn't gotten over its slavish boot licking of the fascist right.

For the past week, all I've heard on the news, at CNN, or most any other news outlet is how Republicans are bashing Obama and telling him to shape up. The media, blind and stupid as ever, follows along with hand wringing stories, blatantly ignoring that we would be on our way to solving this crisis were the Republicans not acting like spoiled children and dragging their feet.

Remember who won this election? WE DID. Why the hell are we paying any mind to gasbags like this who fucked our country up in the first place?

Madonna is just old hat. She peaked in '93 and that's it.

I think there's something to be said for our excessive tendencies to "role model" celebrities, for good and for bad. Can't we seperate the artist from the art and live our own lives according to what works best for us?

I adore the music of Janis Joplin, but I'm not going to go shooting heroin just because she did.