This was long before playing a flamboyant gay character became a vital resume-builder for any straight actor longing to be taken seriously.

Gay men have been playing straight men in the theater and in the movies for generations, "passing" for straight. Sometimes the acting is great and sometimes not, but no one ever got all excited over the fact that a gay man was playing a straight man. But for some reason it's a big deal when straight men merely play gay men, no matter how bad the acting might be. Why does any of that matter?

Keep 'em honest Glenn. As we move through this transition time, you are quite right to monitor the historical revisionism that is now taking place. If left unchecked, by the time we get to the Inauguration, all these journalist whores will have rehabilitated themselves into champions of the progressive faction of the Democratic Party and opponents of Bush's agenda from the first day of his first Inauguration.

Hopefully Progressive bloggers and the netroots will raise holy hell over this kind of revisionist baloney as it unfolds.

If you'd passed a universal healthcare plan, Detroit wouldn't have had to pay such steep premiums for its workers, leaving more money for innovative research in small cars and fuel efficiency.

Where have the auto executives been all these years? Why is it we've not heard loudly and clearly from them about their need for universal healthcare? These are very wealthy, very powerful people who have the means and the clout to get a national public hearing. Why have they not been pushing openly and vigorously for universal healthcare in every quarter and every means available to them? As Obama has pointed out, he can't really accomplish what needs doing unless the people, and the business executives at The Big Three are part of The People, demand be done. I'm a very high information citizen and voter, sourcing across many different media. I've only very recently become aware that the honchos at GM and Ford want universal healthcare. Whose fault is that? These guys have a much bigger voice than I do, or most of us do. Why are they not screaming and yelling at the top of their lungs for universal health care? When are they going to get started? We need them. Let's get'er done!

Stop blaming the unions.

It seems to me that uncoupling health insurance from employment would make it easier for small business to attract workers who might otherwise apply only to companies that could afford to provide good health benefits.

You make an excellent point. Universal health care, uncoupled from employment, could be a great catalyst for entreprenuership.

It started with retarded people being called developmentally challenged

It used to be called the War Department. I believe it was Truman who changed the name to the Defense Department when he established the National Security State, the third American Republic. Long Orwellian history in the U.S.

About 18 years ago I thought Paglia was a freakin' genius for writing the first 10 chapters of "Sexual Personae", and I used to think she understood gay men. Then I read her essay, in "Vamps and Tramps", defending gay bashing by straight, teenage males as a rite-of-passage and I realized she actually hates gay men. I never believed another thing she ever wrote. She's shot her wad. The chick is a vacuous old bag, a true blowhard, growing nuttier with every line of poo she puts to paper.

I didn't read this article. I only read the letters, which are always far, far more entertaining and enlightening than any of the silly tripe peddled by Paglia. It's the only reason I look forward to a Paglia posting.

I'm with you. I'm from the South and I live in the South. Fuck the stupid South.

Assuming for the sake of argument that an action is justified, and rightful, it is completely craven and cowardly to back away from that action because you might get terrorized, and furthermore it reinforces the belief amongst terrorists that terror pays dividends. Terrorists don't just attack buildings, they also attack liberty itself, as seen when a newspaper in Denmark published cartoons of Mohammed. Should we censor all artists so that we don't get attacked, as well? Perhaps we should form an official Muslim censorship beaurau, and run everything by them first, to make sure that it won't offend any terrorists.

And it goes on like this, the exact same mentality employed by both sides, back and forth, attack upon attack, year after year until everyone is dead and the land worthless. And all the death and destruction from both sides all done, as always, in the name of liberty and justice, everyone convinced beyond any doubt whatsoever of their moral correctness and superiority.

Garrison, it's perfect. Don't change a word. I love your sweet, honest, fierce, kind, curmudgeonly heart old man, and the way you express it. Doctor soft, you too. You give me hope far more than any politician.

Over the years, I've learned to ignore most anything Paglia has to say because its vapid witlessness, flabby political nonsense and stomach churning self-aggrandizement are like total intellectual downers, man. But goddamnit I find myself in agreement with her on the whole gay gene thing. No such thing as gay genes. No such thing as straight genes either. There are only horny genes! Her explanation for homosexuality is total crap however, a pile of sociological scatology that has never held up to empirical evidence, or even the most cursory inventory of one's own life and the lives of one's gay associates or friends, but then facts never stopped our Ms. Camille. How does she explain heterosexuality, which frankly seems far more improbable, far more fraught with danger and failure than homosexuality.

He's deluded, sociopathic, even psychopathic. A truly evil man. He leaves a trail of death wherever he goes.