We are worse off than Rome. Rome did not have a vapid, spineless news media that focuses only on fear, gossip, and "who's hot, who's not" stuff. Example: the last Republican debate was frought with factual inaccuracies and misleading statements about Iraq and the "war on terror." And what did we get? How the candidates "came across."

It's the same as 2000. And that was before 9/11 made dismantling American democracy a slam dunk. It's a tragedy that we lost 3,000 Americans, but it's worse that while incompetents wreck the country, most Americans do nothing, afraid to be called "unpatriotic." Let's be honest: we are that coddled. And stupid.

I'd love to think we'll wake up and save ourselves, but if the media (and most of us) are this inept when the next terror attack comes--do you think American democracy will survive?

Camile Paglia, like Ann Coulter, is brilliant by offering nothing more than lazy, loud, ballsy non-analysis.

She worries that a Hillary Clinton whitehouse would suffer that "indefatigable buttinski Bill Clinton. Spare us!"

Spare us? Where have you been living woman? The Clinton presidency helped usher some of the most prosperous, domestically peaceful years of the 20th century.

She's like Paris and Ann, folks. She plays us for fools as well make her rich.

Patrick K

I didn't watch the finale, but I'm angry about the ambivalent ending anyway.

So angry that I will have my revenge on David Chase. How?

I will write and publish bad Sopranos fan fiction until my own fade to black. Starting now:

Tony has a new mistress. Her name is Canina. She smokes cigars and has scars on her arms from repeated wrist slashing suicide attempts.

Now Tony is dreaming that he's dumped bags of laundry on a frozen lake, in piles forty feet apart. And he lit them on fire. It looks beautiful at night.

Tony pulls out a gun, a big one, and shoots everybody in the room. Everybody being just one guy, some mobster that fucked up earlier. And Tony says something clever like, "You had it coming, Dawg."

Next up: my blog, The Sopranos II

kisses,

I looks pretty and makes me smile. That is plenty from a Sunday cartoon.

New York women are the best women in the world.

Smart, independent, opinionated, damn sexy often in dangerous shoes.

They kick ass in their own lives and make men's dreams come true.

Thank you New York single women.

Because Pakistan coddles Al Qaeda.

Read about how the U.S. aborted a raid on Al Qaeda leaders in 2005 so not to offend Pakistan. Little lefty blog I think.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288546,00.html

BONUS LAFFS!

Camile, how would you describe the Soviet Union?

Camile: "A mammoth entity."

Nailed it!

We also would have accepted "Gi-Normous thingy," and "Humongous country-ish type thing."

Farhad you badass-- dump that iPhone! (that is, return it with proper receipt for a full refund).

Next thing you know you'll be on a myspace login hunger strike and a blackberry blackout.

Keep it coming Salon, I can't wait to hear what these American iDorks do next.

Indeed.

Environmentalism just means we're going to trudge though our last days in scratchy hemp shoes, while pining forever lost road trips to California, flights to Rio, and heavy metal hair chicks with too much make-up. And plastic stuff in crazy colors.

And today's congressional Democrats have none.

If Reid and the Democrats don't quickly start appealing to our John Wayne loving, strong Daddy craving lizard brains, they will go right back to losing every election. Reid Democrats today look weak, sound weak, and act weak. Jim Webb excepted.

Few of us are proud to be Democrats and the Republicans love it.

Pakistan playing nice with al-Qaida is nothing new.

Shortly after 9/11, this story appeared in the MSM:

Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad, the head of the Pakistani ISI, an organization funded by the CIA, ordered Omar Sheikh to wire transfer $100000 to Mohammad Atta.

Inspite of strong proof, the story got no traction nationally and died. Later, the final 9/11 Commission report stated that discovering who funded the 9/11 attacks is "of little practical importance."

To learn more about this shocking new 5-year old story, check out this complete 9/11 timeline compiled entirely from mainstream news accounts.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/

Determining the credibility of war proponents, who claim Iraq is a fight for the survival of the U.S., is really very simple.

1. If you are between the age of 18 and 40 you must enlist and

truly support the troops as you claim.

2. Strongly encourage your kids to enlist so your family can sacrifice

along with the thousands of other military families.

If you won't do either, then you are a coward and a hypocrite and

have no credility and might consider keeping your mouth shut.

Again, a simple response to Weekly Standard types:

You "support" the war? Prove it by sharing the sacrifice already being made by military familes.

1. If you support the war and are between the ages of 18 and 40, you need to enlist. If you don't you're a hypocrite and coward.

2. If you have children of military age, you must strongly encourage them to enlist. If not you are, again, a hypocrite and coward.

Don't we all have a gut feeling the U.S. is going to be attacked again? It might be sooner, might be later, but it's going to happen.

What good does it do us when the bulk of our homeland security plan involves occupation of a country that had nothing to do with 9/11? Shall we duct tape our windows?