Why does Salon offer a forum to such a third-rate “columnist” like Camille Paglia? A first-rate journalist like Joe Conason must be embarrassed to share the same space with this loudmouth. Paglia puts herself forward as some kind of iconoclast – but she is too lazy to come anywhere close to pulling it off. She airily dismisses global warming without any serious refutation of the case Gore puts forward in “An Inconvenient Truth”:

“Climate change, keyed to solar cycles, is built into Earth's system. Cooling and warming will go on forever. Slowly rising sea levels will at some point doubtless flood lower Manhattan and seaside houses everywhere from Cape Cod to Florida -- as happened to Native American encampments on those very shores. Human habitation is always fragile and provisional. People will migrate for the hills, as they have always done.”

Oh really? Has Paglia read the evidence? In the past 50 years, atmospheric CO2 concentration has broken out of a range over which it has varied for 600,000 years. Furthermore, the rate of increase in CO2 concentration increase over the past 50 years is 100 times greater than the fastest rate of increase that occurred over the previous 600,000 years.

“I was snorting with disgust at its manipulations and distortions…”

All right then, let’s see your publications on the evidence, Camille! Surely your college geology course equipped you to take on the scientific establishment. Write a letter to Science and tell the editors what you think of the paper published there on CO2 concentrations and presented, quite accurately, in Gore’s movie: SCIENCE, Vol. 310, 2005, p. 1313.

All rhetoric and no documentation... this shit may or may not be true but all I can think of is whether Maher expects anyone to take him seriously as a journalist.

I read Salon for news and editorials, not unsourced, inflammatory garbage that barely rises to the level of "writing."

U.S. News and World Report, which does the definitive ranking of colleges, lists Regent as a tier-four school,

Regent University

Ranking

U.S. News rank: Tier 4

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/directory/dir-law/brief/glanc_03172_brief.php

Since 2001, 150 graduates of Regent University have been hired by the Bush administration.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/04/08/scandal_puts_spotlight_on_christian_law_school/?page=full

and more...

Pat Robertson's Regent "University" Law School isn't the only shitty institution from which Bush has drawn his joke of a government.

Check out Patrick Henry College, the shit-for-brains college from which 7 of 100 White House interns hailed in 2004:

Patrick Henry College offers eight biblical studies courses, twenty courses in government, and three math courses (all pre-calculus), 10 political theory courses, and five courses in "science" (Physics with Lab, Biology, Biology Lab, Molecular Nutrition, and Neuroscience). I shudder to think what kind of shit they shovel there - I bet their "molecular biology" is interesting since they offer not a single course in chemistry! And the physics course that discusses relativity and quantum physics with pre-Newtonian mathematics must be a real gem. Of course, if they did offer calculus then their students might be tempted to look into the basis for radiocarbon dating or potassium-argon dating and that would lead to the devil's work: evolution!

Oh, Rosenkavalier, you can find more information another proud right-wing Christian indoctrination center at:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0421-09.htm

http://www.phc.edu/

I may be a grandfather, but now I feel better about it. I hadn't the faintest idea who Leslie Howard was.

BTW, consider: Ric Ocasek + Petra Nemcova, John Mayer + Jessica Simpson, and the quintessential match, Lyle Lovett + Julia Roberts.

How can the Knocked Up premise be discounted?

Scooter Libby was a treacherous functionary in a corrupt protofascist government. He helped bully CIA analysts for Dick Cheney in his warmongering disinformation campaign – and I’m sure he was handsomely rewarded. Then he crossed the line; Scooter Libby obstructed justice in the investigation of the treasonous leaking of identity of a covert CIA agent and perjured himself when questioned under oath about the sordid affair.

Benedict Arnold was a patriot and without contribution to the American cause, the American Republic might well have been lost. He distinguished himself early through acts of cunning and bravery. His many successful campaigns included the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga (1775), the Invasion of Canada (1775), victory at the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776, the battles of Danbury and Ridgefield in Connecticut (after which he was promoted to Major General), and the Battle of Saratoga in 1777.

In spite of his success, he was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress while other general officers took credit for his many accomplishments. As his personal debts mounted, political adversaries conspired to have him investigated for corruption. Frustrated, bitter, and disaffected by the assaults on his honor, Benedict Arnold committed treason. When his scheme was detected by the capture of British Major John André, Arnold fled to the British at New York, a disgraced traitor. (thanks to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_Arnold)

I’m certain no one ever wrote testimonials seeking to exonerate Benedict Arnold, and that if he had ever set foot in the newly-founded republic he’d have been hanged. Not even among the British did he have any friends. I guess the founders lacked the patriotism of Bush’s loyal courtiers.