Whether Palin has a national future or not will depend on her willingness to hit the books at some point and absorb more information about international history and politics than she has needed to know in her role as governor.

Camille: The presidency isn't something you study for, like an undergraduate cramming for a final exam.

We had a good look at Sarah Palin during the '08 campaign, and we pretty much decided she is not presidential material. No matter how much she "hits the books," she just doesn't have the breadth of knowledge, experience and judgment that the presidency requires.

To be fair, she does have a lot of positive qualities, and she's very attractive personally, but just because she can fire up crowds of loyal Republicans, it doesn't mean she can handle the biggest, most complex, most demanding job on earth.

Quitting her job as Governor of Alsaka was a huge mistake. She needs to stay in Alaska. That state and its politics pretty much defines her level of competence. If she tries to swim in the larger pond of national politics she will get her clock cleaned.

You would think the GOP would have learned from the last time they plucked a governor of limited talents and intelligence and thrust him into the national spotlight, where it became painfully evident he was not ready for prime time.

But then, maybe some in the GOP think George W. Bush's presidency was a success.....

Klein's comments struck me as incredibly disrespectful. More than that, if I or any other doctor revealed those kinds of intimate medical details publicly, we might be vulnerable to a charge of violating federal health privacy laws, a punishable offense.

Oh, for chrissakes, everybody else is "dishing" about Michael Jackson's medical history and about everything else in his life.

Michael Jackson's whole life was a media spectacle and Jackson himself encouraged and enabled the media microscope he lived under.

Like everybody else, I have developed a morbid fascination with the details of Michael Jackson's bizarre life. It's like watching a trainwreck in action; you can't look away.

So stop being so frickin' sanctimonious, Salon. And get out of the way so we can dish some more.....

Lack of public outrage?

Hey, no problemo.

We've got a group of wackos here at Salon who are so outraged, they gang up on poor Garrison Keilor every week when he's trying to write about potato salad or the inherent grace of young girls.

It seems that Mr. Keilor had the temerity to say (several months ago) that it might be counter-productive to try and put Bush people on trial because it would intensify partisan hatreds at a time when we all need to work together.

Heather Havrilesky, I love you.

No one else can nail phonies and snobs and poseurs like you can, in such pithy, hard-hitting language.

Your opening paragraph was simply superb:

July 14, 2009 | Now that Bravo has thoroughly mined the realm of the filthy rich housewife, its programming prospectors are searching for fool's gold on brand-new demographic frontiers. First came "NYC Prep," a cautionary tale about teenagers whose parents are too rich and important to do the inconvenient work of child rearing, and now there's "Miami Social" (premieres 10 p.m. Tuesday, July 14), a very special TV experiment examining the lobotomizing effects of far too much sunshine, top-shelf rum and tacky, gold-lamé-draped glamour.

I hope you stay at Salon a good long while.

I'll bet you're just as tedious and full of uncontrolled anger in real life as you are here.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph....

Plucked eyebrows were a bad look in the '30s and they're equally bad today.

There's something creepy about a woman with plucked eyebrows, and don't even mention a man doing it.

Eyebrows are attractive and sexy on a woman. Just look at Jennifer Connelly.

'Nuf said.

Ideally:

"Yes, OFFICER CROWLEY, I will refrain from any facial expression implying you are a prick devoid of intelligence."

"No, SIR, I am NOT going to breath a single molecule of oxygen into my lungs until you allow it."

"You want me to suck your white dick, sir? Yes, officer. You want me to swallow, sir? Yes, officer."

Yeah, susan, he should have put out a submissive black-man smile coupled with a buttload of humble-pie and Simple Cop Crowley's little world would have turned rosy.

-- Agile Cyborg

You are a real moron, aren't you?

Thank you for standing up for all the relentless drones who will forever hate Garrison Keilor because he dared to suggest that it might not be in the nation's best interest to try and put George W. Bush on trial for real or imagined crimes.

You are a credit to tedious wackos everywhere.

From his latest column:

...Scotland, where brokenheartedness is a way of life. It is, after all, where golf was invented, a game that almost never fails to show us the worst aspect of ourselves, our raging anger and self-loathing even in the midst of pastoral splendor.

The socially redeeming aspect of golf lies in the vast number of lawyers and bankers and managers who play it, and when you think of the damage they would do if they were at the job instead, you can see why golf courses are a wise investment for any municipality. Even on the skinny peninsula that is San Francisco, there are beautiful green landscapes where people can go and suffer intensely.