"this level of ginned up intolerance says more about the critics than the subject of the critique?"

First; Salon readers sharpen their poison *pencils* before criticizing Camille Paglia. The poison pens, OTOH, are *filled*.

But it does say a lot.

It says that the readers identify Paglia's nonsense as identical to MSM nonsense, and they don't want Salon, a relative beacon of good sense for > 10 years, to become another Time magazine.

It says that they hate being talked down to by someone who has such shallow thoughts.

On the other hand, have you considered that you sound remarkably like a "concern troll?"

Hint: to make liberals feel guilty about their outrage, you would do better to not call it "ginned-up intolerance." Try something more like "misplaced anger." It works for David Brooks.

first sign of a troll; ad hominum insults.

"You come across like petulant, hypersensitive teenagers threatening to run away from home"

Here's the deal: we want Salon to be not like the mainstream media. That's why we support it.

Voting with your dollars is considered normal and sane. Are you saying there's something wrong with threatening to take your business somewhere else?

The fury you sense is not just at Camille, it's directed at the entire mainstream media's dumbing down of political discourse. The problem with Paglia isn't so much what she says, it's that she says it here, our little island of relative sanity.

Anger and fury is perfectly rational and normal, in the right circumstances, and these are definitely the right circumstances.

"I've kinda always suspected folks were more iffy about God then they let on"

The penguin nails it!

my favorite kind to read letters to.

To those who say about the rich "they only want money," I would add that in high enough concentrations, money is nothing but power.

If you're not going to spend it on things for yourself, it's just power.

a

The only way to judge a record is in the context of it's time. To judge Sgt. Pepper in 2007 is silly.

If you were alive then and remember what music was like at the time, you remember how revolutionary, fresh and unexpected that record was.

These kids nowadays gots no perspective!

And does anyone even care about Mozart anymore? Why don't these pop music mavens have anything to say about him?

Could it be that the corporate model isn't a good match for music? Is it possible that consolidation, homogenization, branding and mass production doesn't improve everything in life?

Hell, even thinking of music as a product demeans it.

Flat pieces of plastic that cost $25, that's what the record industry sells. No surprise that people eventually don't want to pay that kind of money for a piece of plastic.

Yeah, there is a limited supply of oil and there exists something like a market, athough it's hardly a free market.

But the international price of oil is more a reflection of international power politics then of any "invisible hand" of markets. The leaping price says a lot about the wonderful effect of the Bush Presidency on the world stage.

China will never start a real war against the United States, bit they do play a strong game of economic power politics. The volume of U.S. debt they own is essentially an economic nuclear button, with no missiles required.

If the U.S. ever does have a war with China, the U.S. will surely be the initiator.

Hey, let's try to keep that from happening, OK?

Since at least 45% voted for Bush, it's essential they believe that Saddam did 9/11. If they admitted the truth, they would have to face their responsibility for the disaster.

Rule: People lie to pollsters as often as they lie to themselves.

Never forget to add "Nixon's Hatchet Man" to Judge Robert Bork's list of accomplishments. After two principled resignations, it fell to Bork to execute the infamous "Saturday night Massacre," and he happily stepped up to the plate and swung the axe.

Bork has no honour and no principles. It's all just image.

"Microsoft basically has the attitude that if we didn't invent it, it is not worth knowing."

Given how little they've actually invented, that could present quite a problem.

I would suffocate if forced to use Visual Studio instead of Eclipse.

aaaaaaaaaaaaghhh..............

Irrespective of Booker, the first paragraph is first-rate writing and is going to get passed around the office.

It makes me so angry! :)

Dickerson's writing is one of the best reasons to get Salon. ( not to sound like an ad, but it's true.. )

"Prisons are the new plantations." - original? whether or not, it's a great talking point that makes connections most people would prefer to avoid. This is the kind of language needed to combat the "three strikes and you're out" nonsense.

"Let no one say that he didn't try to work within the system" - great reference to that tired 70's trope, preached to angry young radicals by less angry young insiders.

More Dickerson.

Any scientist who says that life could not have evolved if one factor were different because then X, should be ridiculed and ignored.

Without the ability to actually observe and experiment with that different universe, no one can know what would or wouldn't happen there. The laws of physics only describe *this* world, and tweaking individual factors might well change much more then expected. Even thinking about tweaking factors is scientifically silly.

Our knowledge is *still* pitiful.