you spend to much time worrying about the problem of rich, spoiled idiots - let them all die of liver failure, it saves us the trouble of dusting off the guillotine.

For years now, it has been impossible to turn on the television or click on the internet without seeing that silly face. The only thing more vapid, shallow and stupid than her is American media, for creating her. I don't have daughters, so I've never had to worry about any role modeling going on. But what has bothered me plenty is the thought that the rest of the world is deriving its impressions of American women even partially from the incessant noise made about her. Personally, I look forward to someday soon being unable to remember her name.

You're saying that (1) the Iraq war is fought to protect people who act like Paris Hilton, and (2) that this isn't something worthwhile to fight for?

Oh le sigh.

First of all, the war in Iraq has nothing to do with protecting our freedoms. It's being fought for different reasons entirely.

SEcond, our freedom to go to college or not, to educate ourselves or not, to do or not do whatever we want as long as it is withint he law, is something worthy of protection. It's the pure essense of individual freedom. You can't have individual freedom without people like Paris Hilton. If we allow people to do what they want, many of them will not live up to being mother theresa or inventing anti-biotics.

What I meant by the Parisite's vast resources was not just University, but being able to go to places and experience cultures that ordinary people could not experience. She could afford to go see the Pyramids in Giza, for example, but she'd rather go snort coke in some random nightclub than visit the wonders of the world, or visit a library, or travel to places that do not have nightclubs and vast shopping malls. Not all education takes place in a classroom. She has so much opportunity to learn about the world around her, but she is willfully ignorant.

So what? It's her life. As long as she's not breaking the law, who are you to judge. Some do-gooder Peace Corps memebr could tell you, why are you wasting your life posting letters on Salon.com when you could go volunteer and work for humanity somehow?

Plus, I'd say that she's acting no worse than Joe and Jane Nascar. To most of the rest of the world, average Americans have unimaginable intellectual freedoms. How we in the Soviet Union dreamed what it's like to live in a country with free speech and freedom of information, where you could go to a library and check out any book, and learn about pretty much anything you wanted to learn about. The opportunity americans have to educate themselves is probably better than most other people's outside of Europe and a few other countries (Japan comes to mind). Yet, most people choose to eat trans-fatty snacks to the point of overweight/obesity and watch TV to the point that more people know the names of the Simpsons than the Supreme Court Justices.

i know it's not always easy to stay on the same page (pun intended), but doesn't it seem a little preposterous to have not one but 2 paris hilton items--both clear instances of ms. hilton's habitual 'print my picture and get me onto page six' media manipulation--in your gossip column on the same day that salon posts a nearly 3,000 word rebecca traister pop-culture bon-bon about how it's time to stop paying attention to paris hilton, lest we sacrifice our mortal souls?

y'all are worse than rupert murdoch sometimes. please don't tell me what's bad for me and then dangle it right in front of my nose. make your choice, people: page hits, or the moral high ground. you can't have both.

I agree about the news media covering her as much as they do as I certainly don't consider her newsworthy. However, I don't have to watch the news segment do I.

I think it is a shame how our news media is turning into nothing more than the National Enquirer. They don't seem to cover any stories that are really news relevant (anyway to me) or stories that require some good investigative work and techniques but easy stories such as ship kidnappings that go on for months, etc.

Greta, Nancy, several MSNBC programs not news but sensationalism type stories. However, I guess the ratings are calling for it so maybe this is what America wants instead of important news.

It also amazes me that Paris is called an actress. If I was a legitmate movie actor or actress, I would rather resent this.

The last I heard, people are responsible for their own behavior and while Paris is certainly scuzzy, Spears did whatever for her own reasons. The fact that we can't get away from the blight of Paris Hilton is in part due to the media continually feeding her insatiable need for attention, this article included.

Rebecca Traister should use spend her time thinking about something far more important than the lifestyle of the celebrity spawn of our gossip-magazine culture. Paris Hilton has certainly spent far less time thinking about Rebecca Traister than Rebecca Traister has spent thinking about her. Thus, Paris wins. I guess that's what makes Rebecca so angry.

We Salon "haters" hate her because she blows up the American Lie.

She will never need to pull herself up by her bootstraps and she shows us that the idea of an American meritocracy is a complete fallacy.

We used to at least be able to pacify ourselves with this bit of our National character even if it isn't necessarily true. Now there are those emboldened enough to throw it back in our faces.

Thank god the Republicans repealed the estate tax!

People say I'm snotty

Maybe it's true

With my hair and body

You would be too

Isn't that it, in a nutshell?

trying desperately to look like a lady.