I forced myself to read your chaotic, run-on posts and they're hard to parse. You're more like Hunter Thompson then Hunter Thompson.

I agree with the core of your perspective. The military mindset is toxic. Patriotic feelings are a tool to manipulate dumb, macho suckers. Gung-ho military types usually have a huge insecure streak and a chip on the shoulder, and America's ignorance, hypocrisy and double-standards are disgusting.

Bravo for seeing things as they are, no rose coloured glasses.

But don't ever expect people to accept such hard truths, or thank you for saying them. Expect hatred, misunderstanding and threats.

Maybe even a cup of hemlock.

Good day, sir.

Misusing the phrase like this gives wing-nuts ammo. They can say, "look, liberals do it too!"

Besides, lies work well on Republican voters, but liberals expect a higher standard.

Here's what a liberal swiftboating would be like:

"Rudy went for a facial and a massage at an East village gay latte house on the afternoon of 9/11! Here's the manager of the latte house to tell you about it."

"I worked with Rudy and, while his buttocks are firm, he definitly turned his back on New York on that horrible day. He even ordered a triple Ameretto latte! Is that sacrifice? I think not!"

See? Swiftboating just doesn't work on "our side."

Camille Paglia, Maureen Dowd, what's the difference?

Both deliver cynical high-school-level gossip and cute snark.

Camille uses bigger words and writes a bit better, but she's still vapid and empty.

Just what I *don't* come to Salon for.

Salon, if you can break the David Horowitz addiction, perhaps you can free yourself from Camille Paglia.

The Clueless Camille Award goes to Camille! for the phrase ->

:".. wildly overblown Valerie Plame (case)."

*This* is supposed to be worth reading? what a lazy cynic! Useless!

Please don't waste my time any more by headlining this kind of tripe.

( Premium subscriber for >5 years. No, I'm not threatening to drop the subscription. )

Lehrer's show covered the story tonight. He had an ex-Bush Justice Dept. hack on against some ambivalent and equivocating 'liberal'. The Bush hack claimed the purge was nothing unusual and compared it to Clinton's replacement of attorneys at the start of his term, something that *is* standard procedure. Lehrer's "reporter" ( Margaret Warner ? ) didn't challenge that obvious distortion, and the whole piece only muddied the issue.

Jim Lehrer's news hour: a pseudo-intellectual version of standard MSM deception, with a quieter tone.

Don't give to public television; it's already owned by the likes of Archer Daniel Midland and other huge corporations.

Being an artist has never meant having a reliable income. Never.

The tired refrain of concern for the artists is a hypocritical red herring to distract from the fact that the decrepit castle of copyright law protects corporate profits.

Selling little pieces of plastic that hold music or pictures is a dying business, we don't need the record companies anymore. They will end up in the dustbin of history, but they're not going without a fight. With the way our government works they've got a super head start.

But writers, musicians, and other artists have no right to whine about not being paid for their work. It's *always* been a problem, and to support the current extreme copyright regime in hopes of getting wealthy in the music biz is like making a deal with Satan.

Alberto Gonzales has never prosecuted a case in his life, yet he wound up Attorney General.

This bunch can both lie and be really stupid.

And all this time we thought it had to be one or the other.

"Open-source projects require that any subsidiary use perpetuate the non-commodifiability. "

Only the Gnu Public Licence (GPL) has that intent, and the GPL doesn't exactly embrace the phrase "open source."

Open Source is a term coined and promoted by Eric Raymond (ESR). His concept has no requirement that any subsidiary use perpetuate non-commodifiability. In fact, the viral nature of the GPL has been criticized by ESR, and defended by RMS ( the author of the original GPL )

The only people who favor current copyright law is the dying plastic disc industry and artists who hope to get rich quick in the plastic disc industry "you too can be a star" sweepstakes.

To anyone who cares about a rich, vital culture, current copyright law is an abomination, a blight, a corporate curse.

Don't buy any nonsense that Gore "didn't fight" in 2000. He pushed Florida to do a recount and went for the least onerous recount to ensure it would actually happen. He fought the phony counter suit all the way to the Supreme Court, which didn't really have jurisdiction in the matter. Gore may have made strategic mistakes, but he did fight.

The only thing Gore could be criticized for is not backing the Black Caucus' challenge to the results. It could be that he felt it was already too late and he was probably right.

It was John Kerry who rolled over, not Al Gore.

I don't care if she likes someone or not, there's no meat to her writing. It's like Maureen Dowd, only less.

I hope she gets the big media job she seems to be gunning for, so as to make room for a better journalist here.

Good catch with Greenwald though.

Is anyone's opinion really swayed by a National Review editorial?

just wondering.

that's really funny.