Already this summer we've had Michael Bay's Transformers, a cacophonous one-note CGI thriller "derived from" the 1980s Hasbro toys.

Naturally it went over huge with hormonal teenage boys who maintain furiously well-dusted collections of movie tie-in action figures in their original packaging.

And now here come the Bratz, a quartet of sluttily attired little mall-minxes, acting all teenage, the better to beguile their target demographic of nine-year-old girls.

If you wish your daughter to emulate such role models as Britney, Lindsay and Paris when she enters her teenage years, then the sexually suggestive Bratz dolls, with their puffy lips, skinny bodies, pointy tits and minuscule noses, will offer her a fantastic starter kit.   more »

* Upper Class: a group of those who are not only wealthy, but usually born into the wealth, and who espouse a different set of values than wealthy middle-class people or “proles”.

* Upper-Middle Class: much better off than the majority, this class still lives primarily off earned income derived from professional status requiring expensive education: doctors, attorneys, upper-middle management, and so forth. Dentists and accountants are somewhat more problematic.

This class is characterized by intense interest in higher education, and is generally the target audience of mainstream but elitist publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, and so forth.

* Middle Class: most “white collar” workers, including many of the self-employed, and a group most afflicted with status anxiety and confusion, envying the refinement of the upper-middle class and the leisure of the uppers.   more »

Rove, Bush's consigliere for the past 30 years, left last week in much the same manner as he had stayed: misleading the public.

He told the nation that he wanted to spend more time with his family. Maybe he should have checked with his family first. His only son leaves for college in just a few days.

Rove is leaving because there is nothing more for him to do; Bush is letting him go because he no longer has any use for him.

His departure effectively marks the end of the Bush presidency - from hereon in Bush's tenure is about keeping the troops in Iraq and as many of his administration out of handcuffs as possible.   more »

Celebrity culture reflects consumerism by flattening distinctions:

If all cultural products - from video games to poems, from roller sneakers to religious beliefs - are reduced to commodities, then the only thing that matters is buying and selling.

A Rembrandt and a Lil' Abner comic strip are basically the same as long as they entertain me or make me a profit.

Celeb culture has helped bring about the commodification of human life.   more »

It’s time to start thinking seriously about Hillary Clinton’s running mate.

I know that the first primary is six months away (although the date keeps creeping backwards) and the conventions more than a year away, but this one is over before it’s over.

Clinton’s national poll numbers are very high and if they hit 50 percent fence-sitters will climb down and join her ranks. John Edwards isn’t going to catch fire, and Barak Obama has already caught all the fire he is able to ignite.

With every day, the small possibility that Al Gore will join the race gets smaller. As for the other candidates, they are either running for vice president or just having a good time.   more »