I would love for you to tell us why you bother with Paglia. She's been a crass shill for right wing ideology for some time now. If you're looking for viewpoints from the other side of the political spectrum, aren't there any thoughtful, intelligent conservative writers you can tap on the shoulder? Or, is it all about ad revenue and hits from the Limbaugh brigade who flock here at Paglia's every utterance? Given the decline in quality of the articles over the last few years, why do you waste precious space with her nonsense? Salon used to be a favorite destination, but every day I'm finding fewer interesting articles and wonder why I bother to subscribe.

It's got to be a blessing and a curse to be given an assignment such as this. The poem had some powerful elements, but her reading was off. I chalk it up to the the fact that someone not accustomed to huge audiences is suddenly faced with speaking before millions of people.

In the end, it's mostly forgetable. After Obama, there really needed to be something more inspiring, interesting, crowd-pleasing. Someone mentioned having a slam poet. Now that would be a great idea for Obama's inauguration in 2012.

Louise comes off as such a unlikeable person that it's difficult to get through this story. There is nothing insightful or particularly interesting to take away. It's a waste of time. Maybe Mr. Bowe will strike pay dirt with the next entry.

sadsheep you are so wrong to claim that all gay people are gay because of trauma and sins against them. Unlike you, I know many gay people and while a couple of them have had bad childhoods, so have a few of the hetero people I know. Most gay people I know came from strong, loving families, and that includes my sister. She was raised by two parents with a good marriage who loved and cared for us. She just happens to love women. She also goes to church every week, unlike me the hetero, married heathen.

I'm so sick of evangelicals who pick and choose (oh yes, you do) from the bible to support their beliefs and then chastise others for picking and choosing who believing differently.

As for Haggard, I feel sorry for his situation, but he needs to come out of the closet. He'll be happier, his family will be happier. Leave the evangelical nutcases behind.

I have to admit that I haven't ever watched the housewives show. The promos have been enough to turn my stomach. But, I saw a snippet of the show recently where the brunette mom (maybe that's the Jeana you referred to in your article) was not only cursed at by her adult son, but the son said he should have hit her with a baseball bat. Maybe she's a shitty mother, how would I know, but it was sickening. The kid had the affect of a sociopath. HH, I have no idea how you can make yourself watch this stuff.

Right-wing women (of which there are too many in my extended family) love this kind of talk too. They get off on watching vocal dem/progressive women belittled, humiliated, and taken down. See Malkin, Couter, and Ingraham as examples of this type of creature. So, I really don't expect any women on the right to care about what these idiots say. In fact, they probably love it.

I don't care what Phelps does in his off time if it doesn't hurt anyone else. Smoke pot? Big deal. I also agree that our drug laws are insane. What I fault Phelps for is not understanding the deal he made when he signed his endorsements and became a celebrity. Seriously, if you are being paid big bucks by corporations that are banking on your clean cut, boy next door athletic superstar appeal, it would be really stupid to get caught taking a hit from a bong. I would think given our celebrity culture that he would have realized that once he became famous anything he does is going to be fodder for the media. I know that takes some self awareness and maybe his agents and handlers haven't drilled this into him yet. As stupid as it is for the media and consumers to be upset and drag out this non-story, this is the world in which we currently live. He's going to have to grovel and then move on. Eventually everyone will move onto the next scandal.

That Judith Warner piece was offensive on so many levels. TMI, objectification of the Obamas, making annoying broad assumptions about women based on a tiny sample of her personal friends. Yuck. Why even mention it?

I've received plenty of chain emails over the last dozen or so years with lists of XX Random/Unknown/Unusual Things About Me. Since Facebook is the darling of the interwebs right now, I guess it wasn't considered interesting or a phenomenon until now.

What has it come to when tomreedtoon is defending HH against the pretenders to his throne. I love it. Even at his most annoying, tomreedtoon wrote superior take downs of HH than the folks who've been slagging her the last few weeks. Suggesting that she review Dostoevsky instead of reality TV? Hilarious.

As for Top Chef, Stefan seems to be the clear favorite at this point. He's head and shoulders above the remaining cheftestants. Although it's hard not to root for Sideshow Carla since she's so goofy and endearing and clearly loves her craft.

I agree with the person who praised the episode of Kitchen Nightmares that featured Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack. It was a lot of fun to watch Ramsay's interactions with Momma and her staff, especially the head chef. His criticisms were right on, the staff took his criticisms to heart and help turn the place around. I only wish that there were more episodes like this in the series.