"Why is The Departed so great again? I have yet to hear a valid defense of this movie other than that it was very well put together."

If it is half as good as Mou Gaan Dou (Infernal Affairs) it will be well worth watching. As for Ellen, it was painfully obvious that she belongs on daytime TV and is not ready for prime time. Gore was dignified, but he could have said more. He is a decent man cheated out of the presidency by a corrupt system - where is the outrage? The vacuum cleaner stunt was stupid, and you could tell the stars who had to move their feet resented it. In general, award shows are mindlessly boring exercises in mutual masturbation. I would much rather watch a good variety show, like the Chinese spring festival, than listen to "stars" go down endless lists of people to thank.

Envy is a childish emotion. If, for a moment, I ever feel envious of someone's bigger house I only have to think of a neighbor's autistic son to realise how lucky I am.

JetBlue allowed passengers to be held captive in a sealed tube for 10 hours for only one reason - money. It failed to cancel flights that should have been cancelled in the hope of reducing revenue loss. Sadly, Patrick has become a shill for the airline industry.

Bill Maher lost all credibility for me the night he said something to the effect that "maybe Bush is right in Iraq". With liberals this feeble, the neo-cons have nothing to fear.

"What are we fighting for over there? Why are we fighting to keep Iraq together?"

Bill Maher accepts at face value the official line that the US is trying to unify Iraq. What if the opposite is the case? What if the Bush administration wants Iraq in a state of civil war, the better to control the oil resources and also to reduce the military threat to Israel. If that is the case, then the war in Iraq has been a huge success. It has had the further benefit of enriching the military industrial oligarchy while "starving the beast" of money for health and education.

First, Salon writers are critized for using the word "stewardess", now "uppity" had joined the banned list. Pretty soon salon writers will have to have their stories pre-approved by the Vatican. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "uppity" as follows:

Above oneself, self-important, ‘jumped-up’; arrogant, haughty, pert, putting on airs. Cf. UPPISH a. 2d. a. attrib.

1880 J. C. HARRIS Uncle Remus 86 Hit wuz wunner deze yer uppity little Jack Sparrers, I speck. 1933 Times Lit. Suppl. 9 Nov. 776/2 Grammy is living contentedly enough with an ‘uppity’ young creature named Penny. 1952 F. L. ALLEN Big Change II. viii. 130 The effect of the automobile revolution was especially noticeable in the South, where one began to hear whites complaining about ‘uppity niggers’ on the highways, where there was no Jim Crow. 1982 B. CHATWIN On Black Hill v. 28 He had a head for figures and a method for dealing with ‘uppity’ tenants.

b. pred.

1932 Sun (Baltimore) 23 Aug. 6/2 [She] could have plenty o' friends. The trouble with her is she thinks folks too common to bother with unless they're too uppity to bother with her. 1947 ‘N. SHUTE’ Chequer Board 68 They've been here alone too long, and they've got uppity. 1955 F. O'CONNOR Wise Blood v. 89, I reckon you ain't as uppity as you was last night. 1966 D. BAGLEY Wyatt's Hurricane i. 27 The Navy is trying to build up Cap Sarrat as a substitute for Guantanamo in case Castro gets uppity and takes it from them. 1973 P. WHITE Eye of Storm viii. 381, I came prepared to rough it... It's Dorothy who grows uppity if all the cons aren't mod.

Some of these examples are used in reference to African Americans; others are not. Last time I checked, Castro was not black. If it reaches the point where salon writers are afraid to use "uppity" and "stewardess" then I will have reached the point of finding better things to read.

"I don't know enough about Obama, but I do know that one is either a 'natural' or one is not - you can't learn it, or become one through practice...the phrase carries its own definition."

It was immediately obvious to me that this headline "How Obama learned to be a natural" was meant ironically. The same way one might say "In politics, sincerity is everything - once you can fake that, you have it made". Is no one capable of reading with subtlety anymore? As for polititians being smug and arrogant, didn't one of Shaw's characters say "you know nothing and think you know everything; you are obviously destined for a career in politics". What else is new? I take it for granted that a politician is self-aggrandizing and power-mad. My only concern is for the policies he/she espouses, and whether he/she can actually promote them and implement them. Where does Obama stand on war, on universal health care, on reigning in the military industrial oligarchy, on climate change and peak oil? Who pulls his strings? What will he do to reduce wealth disparity in this country? As for Hillary, how could anyone vote for someone who voted in favor of the Iraq war - a war that may even exceed Vietnam in stupidity and waste? But to criticize Obama for faking being "natural" is to fall into the error of hopeless naivity, and to lose all claim on being taken seriously.