I've seen this a lot, with people wondering why Allison had to change to get the guy. But I don't think she did, Andrew was already attracted to her. I think it was more about the snobbish Claire doing something, she felt, that was nice for her.

I know what you're saying about Vacation, at least the first one. It was in many ways a very dark comedy, the dog being dragged behind the car, the dead aunt tied to the roof, leaving the dead aunt in a chair with a note pinned to her, the implied incest between Cousin Eddy and his daughter, Clark having a mental breakdown and taking hostages. I hated European Vacation, Christmas Vacation was watered down but ok, and I never saw Vegas Vacation.

I thought there was always a darker theme running through his movies, along with the cheery fun. I don't agree with a lot of your feelings toward his movies, but they were well thought out and I enjoyed reading your opinions.

Bravo, I loved reading your comparison of Ferris and Dubya, very funny stuff! I was always struck by the sort of dark subtext of the film. On one hand it's light and funny, Ferris impersonating the 'sausage king', everybody dancing to Twist and Shout, the hapless principal Rooney. But on the other hand, we all know what's going to happen to Cameron when his father gets home.

But it's not an either or situation, you can enjoy many types of films. The Breakfast Club really spoke to me and my friends at the time. Until Freaks and Geeks came out, it came the closest to capturing the feel of my high school experience. Sure it didn't capture everybody's, but I don't think it needed to.

I also disagree that all the adult characters were bad. Even as a teen, I really liked Vernon. I could feel his frustration at trying to find a way to deal with, as he viewed him, a criminal like Bender. After they have their shouting match, he's shown privately for a moment, and the expression on Vernon's face showed how conflicted he was about what just happened. That was some great acting by Paul Gleeson there.

And hey, if you didn't like his teen comedies, he also made Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, that is definately a comedy classic.

"- these journalists, given their network affiliation, have probably maintained in the past that GITMO was gulag. Do they still stand by that assertion, now that they have been to a real gulag?

- do they still think people get tortured by the US, now that they've seen (and probably experienced) real torture?"

So our bragging rights are that we're not as bad as North Korea? I set my bar for this country quite a bit higher than that.

I guess we could send them to Abu Ghraib and have them experience the "enhanced interrogation" techniques and ask them if it's better or worse than what they went through in North Korea. Maybe have Lyndie England come out and walk them around naked on a leash, waterboard them, sic vicious dogs on them, force them into stress positions for hours on end, and God knows what else that hasn't been made public. I could go on, but you get the picture, your comments are pretty much nonsense.

I'm sure they love their country. Suggesting that those that have high standards for their country don't appreciate or love it is reprehensible. I spent most of my adult life serving my country, and even though I was deeply ashamed of many of the things the Bush administration said and did in the name of the United States, I never once wavered in my devotion to my country. I knew that as bad as Bush was, our country was strong enough to withstand his presidency.

I've heard a lot of people here say that, a girl that I dated last year believed it too. Of course, she also thought he was the antichrist. In fact, I was at the gym last night and heard a group of guys discussing it in the sauna. They all believed it.

Unfortunately, I don't really have any trouble believing that the poll is accurate.

I don't think it's disingenuous to say they had the last laugh. You have to remember how the right wing went after them. I remember right wingers crowing that they would never have a hit album again, and they would break up within a year or two.

Even with country radio stations refusing to play their music or promote their concerts, they still produced an album that went double platinum and won an armload of grammys. The video for Not Ready To Make Nice was the number one video on VH1 almost that whole summer.

I don't doubt that they lost some of the idiot red necks, but in the age of the Ipod, almost all album sales are down, so there's various factors that go into that.

The bottom line is that the right wing noise machine tried to ruin them, and they failed. The Chicks still had a critically acclaimed, award winning, double platinum album. They remained very successful while staying true to their beliefs. I would say that's having the last laugh.