My mother told me pain builds character. I read this crap by Paglia because I am astounded at how bad it is. It is the worst writing in the whole world! It is the worst writing ever written in all of history!

I "crusaded against poststructuralism" in the 1990s too. When I was being force-fed it in college. Not when I was a desperate flash-in-the-pan wannabe public intellectual struggling vainly for relevance. Can I have a monthly column with a pompous pseudo-intellectual's version of Penthouse Letters making up 33% of my output as well? I promise I can generate as much offensively braindead intelligence-insulting hogwash as Paglia. I just won't dress it up in my own insecurities as thoroughly as she does.

Seriously. Paglia is less than useless. Is it all just about page hits, or do you actually care what content appears under your logo?

Whether Palin has a national future or not will depend on her willingness to hit the books at some point and absorb more information about international history and politics than she has needed to know in her role as governor.

What kind of national future did you have in mind? The host of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" Cuz if so, she'll really have to hit the books.

You betcha.

that should put the final nail in the coffin of the Republican party...

two useless columns in Salon: Wingnut and Paglia - but they do generate click-throughs...

I enjoyed the implication that the biggest reason Palin appears to be so ignorant and errantic -- as opposed to Obama, say -- is that she "lacks [a] cadre of trusted pros" to vet and orchestrate her every move. So if Palin and Obama switched staffs, does Paglia think that Palin would metamorphose into a smooth and witty raconteur, while Obama would suddenly find himself blurting sentence fragments and unable to remember which newspapers he reads? Har!

Maybe the biggest reason Palin appears not-so-bright is because she is, in actual reality, not so bright. Just an idea, Camille. And thank you for this time sparing us the drooling over Palin's eloquent -- indeed, Shakespearean! -- oratory.

Also, can we please drop this idea that Palin could cruise to the White House if she would only study? I thought the same thing after the election, but after the bizarre events of last Friday it has become clear that Palin hasn't changed, and never will. She will never "hit the books" or "bone up" or any other such thing. A leopard can't change its spots.

OK, I could only stomach reading Page 1, she seems to be getting more offensive. Did she mention her favorite, but obscure, Brazilian chanteuse this time around?

This is just too pointless.

Just had to weigh in on this, since I didn't see it in a quick scan of letters (apologies if this has been said).

A major reason for hate crimes legislation is that hate crimes are designed to send a message to an entire group. Lynchings in the south were not crimes against just the person murdered; they were meant to cow the entire African-American community into not being out at night.

Hate crimes legislation is additional punishment for the additional harm of a credible threat against an entire group.

Also, Salon, I would love it if you had a conservative writer who could present good arguments for their ideology. I really don't like echo chambers, but someone who just writes 'Palin cleaned Biden's clock' clearly lacks the intellectual and literary skills to present conservative ideas in a coherent and compelling fashion.

What is with the self-serious letter writers here at Salon? They're almost as bad as the commentary over at the AV Club.

How anyone can not find Paglia both truthful and hilariously amusing is beyond me. Have these people never heard of Gore Vidal or Pauline Kael? Do they not comprehend the giddy, irreverent energy that permeates Paglia's writing. (Do they not understand her brutal comedy?)

Ms. Paglia is our greatest woman of letters -- but I suppose they don't teach that in liberal arts colleges anymore.

your caps lock is on

The only thing I enjoy reading more than Paglia's monthly columns are the screed responses from foaming and foul mouthed, intolerant "shut her up", self proclaimed intellectuals (many who can't spell). The real kicker is the professor who wrote 5 books, hopefully he took the CAPS LOCK key off for his books, who wants to deny Paglia her forum. Yes indeed, the modern American university remains a bastion of competing ideas. . . oops, I forgot those were the universities of 40 years ago which were controlled by conservative deans who actually did tolerate both sides of the argument. Now that the majority of deans are liberal, political correctness and a one world view is the norm.

I read this crap by Paglia because I am astounded at how bad it is. It is the worst writing in the whole world! It is the worst writing ever written in all of history!

-- antineocon

Wrong again antineocon! The worst writing in the world is the monthly hate replies to Paglia columns. Keep up the good work you foaming bunch of rapid, pitch fork carrying enlightened neolibs.

because I have read posts elsewhere making fun of Paglia. Dear God(dess)now I understand!

You say "Given her success with finalizing the massive Alaska pipeline project, I think Palin should have stuck it out".

What! Nothing about the pipeline is finalized. Read the local newspapers: The pipeline is a decade away, still awaiting permits! http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/pipeline/story/828336.html

I'm afraid you've been played like a lot of other folks who don't do their research.

Signed,

A Proud, Happy, Alaska State resident

I don't really mind reading Paglia's contortions. Then again, I don't really mind watching my cat lick her own butt, either. Whatever

There is no double standard, Camille. The difference between the average democratic politician and the average republican politician is that the former rarely presumes to instruct the public on how we should live our lives behind closed doors, how we should raise our families, what we should do with our bodies, etc. From the beginning, Palin stood by with her family while espousing a set of values to the public, many of which she hoped to enact as public policy. Behind closed doors, however, she and her husband could barely keep the wheels on the car. Her family, therefore, was and is (as long as she continues to hold public office) a valid target to the extent that it reveals the hypocrisy of her public policy views.

The reason why it wouldn't be anything other than a tabloid story for a democratic politician is because it likely wouldn't involve a layer of hypocrisy. Democrats rarely step out to tell people how to live their private lives, using their families as examples. Many republicans do. Palin did. So there is no double standard here, and to pretend there is constitutes a special kind of delusion about moral equivalence between the left and the right. Nobody is perfect, but more often than not, it's republicans who pretend, or outright claim to be, and try to shape public policy based on these fantasies. This is why they received an inordinate amount of scrutiny, not because there's some media conspiracy to avoid the democrats. Hypocrisy sexes up pretty much any story in the US. When the democrats become hypocrites on matters of private sexuality and family issues, you can bet the media will start kicking ass and taking names on them.