I would love to see Paris Hilton leave this experience transformed into a prison abolitionist. Everyone locked up in cages in L.A. is suffering from inhumane conditions. It doesn't have to be that way. What's most disappointing to me about the Paris saga is not that she is in the news again or even that she's getting preferential treatment at the hands of the justice system. What's new about that? It's the way her trip to jail is allowing the rest of 'us' (whoever we are; I'm apparently too humorless to be among us) to snicker and laugh at prison conditions in the U.S., conditions that include scratchy sheets and bad food but also epidemic rates of rape, staph infections, TB, etc. None of this is funny at all.

Denouncing DUI is one thing,

but Havrilesky and Traister's brand of derision reads more like the zealous rants of fanatical fundamentalists rather than two reporters' opinions regarding drinking and driving.

Thou shalt not be rich, famous, young, and beautiful...

else face the lash of spiteful, sadistic, editorial critique.

; )

When they sent her back after releasing her, I must admit I felt just a little bad for her. To have freedom snatched away like that is pretty tough and rich heiress or not, that to me just didn't seem right.

The thing is, she is a convicted drunk driver and as such should be afforded only those priviledges necessary to ensure her safety in jail. That's it. If the time is two hours or six months, she needs to serve it. Apparently, from what I have read here, and heard on televison, an average person under similar circumstances would have been released after 4 days. In that case she should be released.

I am no fan of hers but for some reason I get little pleasure from seeing her pain (I know, she's never really encountered any adversity in her life so it's about time, okay, okay). Actually, there are quite a lot of people that go through life relying on inherited cash, family connections, and other priviledges that other common folk don't seem to have access to. Sometimes they manage to become President of the United States.

Full disclosure: I agree with everything said in this piece - who couldn't? - but I have to add that sometimes I wonder at this self-flagellation we feel we need to engage in everytime a celebrity scandal consumes more than a weekend of our collective mental month. We're like media bulemics, swinging between the all-you-can-eat tabloid buffet and the porcelain alter of self-loathing for our pathetic habits and the sorry culture that spawns them. Well, I'm done. I'm ready to admit that the fascination with O.J. and Paris is as human as twiddling opposable thumbs. The rise-and-fall arcs of these modern-day Greek heroes and Goddesses is the meat and potatoes that fuels our collective imagination and identity, and we need them as much as we need to once in a while get down to the business of electing leaders and curing diseases. So enough with the preaching and guilt; go on watching TMZ - just try doing so with a copy of Crime and Punishment in your lap.

It is so obvious that the short lived reign of the USA as the worlds only Superpower is over. The inevitable defeat of the military in the sands of Iraq, the decimation of the manufacturing sector. The idiot King picked by the "wisemen" and woman on the USSC to replace the thoughtful and intelligent choice of the people. And now the final cultural decline into the sad insipid gutter. Paris Hilton is the perfect symbol for what our country has become. Now the whole world just wishes that we would “go away”.

Am I tired of hearing about her? Yes. But not in this way... Celebritites like OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson, Robert Blake, et. al. have made a living joke out of our legal/justice system. When Paris was released from jail after serving three days, the anger should have been directed at our incompetent courtrooms and sheriffs, rather than Miss Hilton directly.

So enough with the, "if you want her to go away stop writing about her" crap. This is NEWS. This isn't a story about her lastest collagen injection or shopping spree. This is about justice FINALLY coming through.

...and to those of you who wrote that Paris Hilton is 'beautiful', you need to have your eyes checked.

You know, Thursday was not a good day for me.

I'm 24. I had just gotten a new job at a great company. And Thursday, the big guy brings me into his office and tells me, "I'm sorry, but we have to lay you off. We're laying dozens of other people off today, and it was seniority based, and so you have to go."

And then I come home -- after being escorted out the side door of the building by a "counselor" -- and find out that the spoiled little skank with no talent and brains called Paris Hilton HAS BEEN LET OUT OF JAIL. And for what? Mental health reasons? As if no one else in jail is depressed and angry?

I thought then to myself, The world is shit. The world is not right. The world does not care if you're hardworking and smart. You will still be out of a job while this spoiled brat earns millions. And people pay her, watch her shows and idolize her even after the internet has already shown that she is a narcissistic famewhore, a racist and a bad person all around (does no one remember the "firecrotch" incident and how she egged on Brandon Davis?)

So forget those of you who are saying, "Oh, leave the poor girl alone. She's only a silly 26-year-old girl." No, she's not! She's 26 and she should be held accountable for her own actions. And those of you who are wondering why people care so much about this? Well, I guess you can just understand through the example of what I've just been through.

People, the economy is still kind of shitty. The average worker's pay is decreasing or holding steady while corporate profits are lining executives' pockets and not trickling down. Meanwhile, overseas competition is stronger than ever, and a lot of jobs are being outsourced or let go through attrition and layoffs. It's been tough on a lot of people in their 20s just entering the workforce, not to mention older people who are having to deal with increasing lack of job security.

And let's not even forget that there are people in their teens and 20s who are dying overseas in a war that's poorly run at best and unnecessary and disastrous at the worst.

And in a time like this, what does Paris Hilton do? She repeatedly drives drunk and endangers the lives of others, and when the judge finally throws the book at her, she gets out of jail on a bogus "mental health" reason.

Is that not supposed to stir anger and hatred like you've seen on this board?

So yesterday, when she was tossed back into jail to finish serving the rest of the sentence she so justly deserved, you can bet that it brightened my day. It made me a little happier, even though I was still out of a job, to know there is a little justice in the world.