To extend Ms. O'Donnell's point, I once worked at a psych hospital and a former child star was admitted. He was thickened and wrinkled by time, but not mentally matured. He vied for attention in the old childish ways and probably wondered, as he'd been wondering for decades, why the old tricks didn't turn heads anymore. One reluctantly imagines Jim Carrey trying to provoke laughter in 40 years by having his butt "talk" and that's Paglia's problem. She's become a talking ass by not evolving. Her shtick, which once turned heads, now only has Bush voters turning their attention to her.

I am about as far from Titanic's target audience as someone could have been--a middle aged, macho, gun owning, hot rod driving, redneck conservative male. That said, when dragged to Titanic by my wife along with another couple, I, too, found myself taken by the story (and with Kate Winslet's strong performance and striking depiction of her character), but completely mesmerized by the soundtrack and Celine Dion's voice.

Ever since, I have been secretly listening to it. My wife is amused, and I have only come close to being caught once, at work, when someone picked up my Ipod and looked through it. I immediately cursed my wife for not knowing how to properly use the sync feature of I-tunes and accidentally downloading it onto my Ipod. The escape was narrow, but successful.

Camille,

I've never read the letters/comments at the end of your articles.

Wow.

So many dripping with rage and hate.

It even surprised me.

No wonder liberal talk radio failed. Who wants to listen to bitchy, whinny malcontents all day?

Global warming...or now rephrased as climate change...is the new religion of the left. And if one even suggests there maybe things to debate regarding the subject...you are shouted down and impugned. So much for the tolerant, educated, wise, sophisticated and enlightened left.

I'm sure you are used to it my now Camille but you deserve a badge of courage for putting up with all those poisoned darts.

keep up the brilliant work

Freedom is on the march in Iraq. Enlist! Oceania needs you!

I used to read Camille's column with great eagerness because I think she writes with intelligence and honesty.

But she's lost me in the last few columns with her platitudes about Palin. It's like that part of her brain got hijacked by a right-wing terrorist group.

Palin cannot put two sentences together that make sense. I am not an elitist snob, but someone who prefers to hear people -- especially one with a journalism degree -- be able to speak with syntax.

Enough of your defense of this woman!

"Who wouldn't misspeak from fatigue on the long, brutal national campaign trail?"

What about the fatigue during the long, brutal task of running this country? If you're going to search for an excuse you should make an effort to find a good one.

Well Camille, some of us knew, and dared to suggest, that Mr. Obama is not a divine avatar, as was widely believed. That peculiar bubble of illusion grew very large, and like all bubbles that must eventually pop, it is popping, slowly and painfully. Business as usual in the White House, business as usual in Congress, and the same old financial manipulators pulling the corset strings until nobody can breath--that is what we see, and the only real difference is that Mr. Obama has already sold himself to the players, some time ago, and will therefore be more amenable than most other presidents. All of this is the effect of wishful thinking and mass hypnosis that rolls downhill faster and faster, getting bigger and bigger, just like an ice-cold, useless snowball. On the other hand, Camille, you did in fact abandon every feminist principle when you chose to support Obama in preference to the first real and viable female candidate who would likely have a shot at the presidency. The same illusion-making process that glorified Obama took place with Palin, only this time in reverse, and the quite decent woman was trashed, horribly. Where are your feminist credentials? Better look in the dumpster, they might still be there. Oh, and don't advance any new feminist theories and arguments for a while because it will be particularly awkward and embarrassing if you do. Face it Camille, you betrayed all your principles for the sake of a candidate who knew full well that he was being falsely hyped, inflated, glorified, and foolishly worshiped as a god. Didn't you notice that worried and unhappy look that often passed over his face in public when he knew that the mass adulation he was receiving was for nothing, and that he could not even prove his natural-born citizenship status? He was often fearful and nervous about these things. Didn't you even notice?

Is that the furthest left fringe can't find a handhold to him. Sure the GOP lost the election and there's reason to cheer, but the lefty left, the Salon left, the faux Marxist left, the people with Daddy Issues, take that, wrongly, as a mandate that Obama is the new Che/Lumumba. Which he's not. So anything he does that doesn't sound like he's a Shining Path Maoist insurgent, they're going to be very angry. I wouldn't worry about it too too much.

I trudged through his garbled, inflated prose like Katharine Hepburn's Rosie Sayer slogging through the labyrinthine muck of a dissipated river, the African Queen in tow.

that's my score in my game of 'guess who's a first time writer, i.e. kissass to Camille'. 2 of those I missed have only 2 letters, so I could be generous & say 9 of 12.

If I wasn't at work this could be a drinking game.

Bigguns, love your response to one of the Camillebots 'Oceania needs you' (ha, ha).

Directed to your site from Drudge I read your column and enjoyed your wit and insight. I'm a strong conservative (degree in Economics from U of Chicago) with three daughters and enjoy reading something other than political talking points. I don't agree with the Obama camp on most things but I want him to succeed - for our country. Unfortunately, Republicans don't understand what is happening and they've resorted to banal cliches and talking points (as if only they love God and country - how old). They seem to use talking points that use the dialect of 10-20 years ago. I'd say they are as out of touch as Harry Reid (I hope the Democrats are emboldened to recognize they are in a leadership position and move forward with a new, stronger, more intelligent Senate leader - it says more about the Democrats then they might realize). I'll be back. Again, enjoyed your column.