What a list of American Boomer nostalgia-dominated nonsense, made even more irrelevant by inclusions #35 and #38-#40, and by the general focus on mainstream pop/rock. Where are songs that changed the musical landscape like Kraftwerk's Autobahn (launced Electronica), XTC's Dear God (spearheaded the college radio revolution), or The Resident's Hello Skinny (gave birth to truly alternative music)? Not to mention people who pioneered real indie music, like Wire, Pere Ubu and Laurie Anderson. Whole movements are missing, like Industrial and New Romantic, as well as almost any band you'd see at Lollapalooza (Front 242, Ministry, RHCP), while New Wave scarcely makes a showing with a late entry by The Cure (instead of one of their foundation tunes like Boys Don't Cry).

Instead of a challenging look across the breadth and depth of music history, we get this, a list of songs that looks like the track listing on the back of K-Tel's Golden Hits, available now for $24.99 if you call in the next hour. Sure there is some important stuff in there, but there's way too much junk that reeks of audio complacency. And the last entry is symptomatic of that phenomenon where people just can't resist adding their current favorite to the list of "things that will live forever". Don't expect to see it on next year's list, assuming anyone can expend the same minimal effort to do another one.

"launced" should be "launched" in my post, and thanks to mjwycha for pointing out a couple other crucial omissions - Parliament/Funkadelic should definitely be in there somewhere, as should Howlin' Wolf, though for him I personally favor "Wang Dang Doodle". Likewise, I'd much prefer Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You" to some of the weaker be-bop choices they made.

I'd put it on a list with "Rock And Roll Fantasy", "Barracuda", "Make Your Own Kind Of Music", and "Rock Lobster". The good stuff that didn't change the world, just made it a bit better.

While I do believe that words can be cutting when used injudiciously, I wholly concur that the indulgent parenting style currently in vogue must go. I'm beyond tired with going out, only to be confronted with parents whose children are behaving like free range baboons that have just discovered the fermenting fruit. The parents just sit there in a rigid cocoon, staring at the middle distance in an attempt to tune out both their ungoverned children and the disapprobation of strangers like me. And the end result is another fucked up kid, another clueless parent, and another slip down the slope of general civility.

Frankly, I'm ready to go vigilante on this. So be warned parents, the next time your child comes tearing down the aisle of the store or restaurant, careening and wailing like an ambulance stolen by a teen tanked up on hard lemonade, don't be surprised when they faceplant after encountering my outstuck foot. Because that's how society works - you get the first chance to correct your progeny, and if you don't, we will.

And we won't have a problem. But I don't consider children exempt from the rules of human conduct, and if you won't bring yours to heel, don't bitch at me when I do.

If you're grown up enough to bear children, be grown up enough to raise them. Otherwise you've got no scope for complaint when other folks do what you are unequipt or unwilling to.

It says something about their waning power and hold on the American soul that they have to resort to extralegal actions so pervasively in order to maintain even a hairline majority. And now, in spite of those machinations, even that tenative majority is evaporating.

It may not be a death rattle, but the patient is definitely showing respiratory difficulties.

Just letting you know you have a trailing quote in the URL for the Moyers show, which generates an error when clicked. Removing it takes one to the right page.

Thanks for the link, I'll be watching this soon!

Good, you fixed the link already. Now if you could just do something about the same tired trolls who predictably appear and vomit the same nonsense over and over without ever listening to the topic at hand. I know I should be more tolerant of people with severe psychosocial disabilities, but there's no reason you should afford them a space at the table if they aren't willing to engage in genuine dialog.

9/11 happened with the Republicans in charge. I know that's treasonous to mention, because the administration was hard at work looking for a way to trump up an Iraq war and couldn't be bothered with the terror warnings. But nevertheless, it happened on their watch. Period.

So fuck you, and fuck all the other Republicans who claim that the Democrats make for a less safe America. Because the only ones who've proven so far that they can't defend our country are the Republicans, and no amount of fear-mongering can change that.

It's hard for me to think of anything less newsworthy than the minutiae of the lives of transient celebrities. In a world filled with compelling, fascinating, and horrifying things, all of which deserve attention and coverage, mass-media gossip is the psychic equivalent of a crack rock - cheap, opiating, addictive, and ultimately of no benefit to anyone except the dealer.

Thank you for leaving this behind.

If I'm ever photographed for the front page of the paper, can I have my penis out? Even if it's just for a civic award or an In Our Neighborhood piece.

Seriously, the sex/violence dichotomy of our nation is hovering right around the head-exploding level. How can it be offensive to show photos of body parts that at least half the viewing population possesses in any given circumstance, but bloodshed and mutilation is a-okay for the Cocoa Puffs morning crowd?

If you picked up America and shook it over the Atlantic until all the stupid fell off, how big of an island would it make?