... and in the USA, that means the problem *is* Christianity. Daniel Dennett is right. We need to analyze this crap right out of existence. Religion is the house built on the shifting sands of superstition - it's been propped up with all kinds of additional strucutures, and built higher and higher into a strange and curious edifice, but it's ready to fall down. About time, too.

Tim Lukeman says:

"But what we call spirituality, which encompasses art, psychology, metaphor, symbol -- that's the other half of our humanity, which enables us to engage & appreciate existence at something other than just a rational level".

This is flat wrong. When you experience art through a so-called spiritual filter, what you do is *dilute* the art with your own sentimentality.

Yes, I am laughing at you. I'm laughing so hard I almost wet myself. I just felt I needed to share that with you. There is nothing quite as much fun as a self-righteous fool, so thanks for providing so much free amusement.

but "The Congressman's Daughter" by Craig Nova is a really good book ;-)

(Actually, all of his books are good, and he creates some wonderful female characters).

If two teens under the age of 16 engage in sexual activity, and "each such incident constitutes a rape, regardless of the parties' mutual consent", then exactly who raped who? Do we now have mutual rape? These people are too stupid for words.

Chenry, also known as "the Prince of Darkness", reportedly said "I was getting tired of having other people do my killing for me, so I shot a man just to see him die".

Isn't the plural "quail"?

I believe that you would only use the term "quails" when discussing different varieties of quail, for example:

The woods were full of quail.

There are five different quails in the USA - Montezuma, California, Scaled, Gambel's and Mountain Quail.

(Staying away from Bobwhites for now)

Ap.

In fact, all this nationalism is the antithesis of the Olympic spirit, if any such thing still remains. The purpose of the Olympics is to allow the world's greatest athletes to compete with each other. Ideally, they would get rid of all vestiges of national identity for the games - no national anthems at medal ceremonies, no flag waving teams in the opening parades, no medal tables by country, the ability to have mixed nation teams in relay races and other small team events. Keep it about the athletes, not wherever they happen to live this year.

Shani Davis was clearly right, and Hedrick is a flag-waving buffoon, but that's just a sympton of the sickness. Congratulations to the knowledgeable Dutch fans who've been cheering for Shani.

One last thing - everyone responsible for the Olympic coverage on NBC should be forced to watch every single minute of the Canadian coverage until they understand how to do it right.

I find it hard to imagine why anyone would want to watch hockey during the Olympics. The fun of the Olympics is to watch sports that you only get to see once every four years. Boring old hockey hardly qualifies, even if the quality is higher than that WWF spinoff that they show here year-round.

As for skating, I tend to agree with Ms. Witt. The average Olympics watcher really cannot tell the difference between a perfect Triple Loop and a slightly off Triple Toe, so the technicalities of the scoring are mystifying. However, even the interested amateur can tell whether or not a program flows elegantly and works well with the music. Unfortunately, as the Ice Dancing competition showed all too clearly, the interesting and enjoyable programs can barely crack the top ten, which is dominated by Slavic automatons in appallingly ugly costumes being "athletic".

You've got to be kidding me? This is what Salon readers think is the most important topic that requires discussion?

Of course, a quick glance shows that there isn't that much discussion going anyway, just a bunch of people piling on with their "but wait, here's my story" babble.

It's no wonder the USA is so screwed up, when even the supposed intelligentsia are a bunch of solipsistic navel-gazers, more interested in pouring out their trivial problems than considering the real issues in the world.

Using bogus fearmongering to scare women about the "dangers" of a tiny group of anti-contraception cranks, Salon fights for a culture in which scare-tactics create interest in a stupid, manufactured story.

but is THWTH pronounced "Twat" ?

"A few minutes later, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch shot back ..."

- why the delay? Did someone have to wake him up?

Heart of Selflothian ;-)

> Given that more senior people are predominantly male,

> women are less likely to find mentors.

What makes you think that men can't mentor women? I certainly have done, and it's been very successful. I've also had mentors who were women and who helped me in my career. Assuming that young women need female mentors is overly limiting, and may be part of the problem.

Here we go again - more self indulgent trivia-babble that really ought to be published on the author's blog, or maybe WhoTheHellCares.com, but instead is taking up space on what used to be my favorite online magazine.

is why there is any need to discredit Farhad Manjoo. I mean, seriously, does he have any credibility anyway? I was asking my Salon didn't fire him a couple of years ago. To my knowledge he has never written a single article that was either accurate or valuable.

which is a shame, because a couple of years or more ago it used to be very funny, but it has got worse and worse recently.