I have been thinking about porn and looking at porn and observing my own reactions and have hesitated to talk about it because I felt that I had no ability to look at it dispassionately.

But lately, I have made some progress in this regard, and am able to step back and look at it. And what I see is something that is enormously powerful but cloaked in taboo.

It is important to be specific and factual. Porn is not a drug -- it is not a substance. But it is a mind-altering phenomenon. It affects the nervous system quickly and powerfully.

It is sex crack. It is dangerous and habit-forming. While it is dangerous and many dangerous things are against the law, it is not a good idea to outlaw it.   more »

"Fashion Rocks" is a really terrible idea

It's an event where millionaire rock stars

sing a song while models parade

in front of them on a catwalk

There's lots of clapping. And backslapping

It's barely much more than mutual masturbation

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Keywords: rock, culture, pop, stars, fashion

"Quite honestly, since Sept. 11, most of the time when we get on a plane, we talk to each other and just reaffirm the fact that we love each other," he said.

This is the man whose supporters recently held a "$9.11 for Rudy" fundraiser for him. His political capitalization on that event is officially out of control.

I hear Rudy also divorced his last wife, decided to shave his comb-over and stop wearing women's undergarments also because of 9/11.

It is amazing how it really did change everything for him.   more »

The US was born a settler colony, that unique product of largely British (but also European) migration during the era of empire, which was to leave a permanent Anglo-Saxon footprint in such disparate lands as North America and Australia.

The settler colony produced a quite different dynamic and mentality from that of Europe and Asia, both of which were characterized by the relative continuity of their native populations.

The establishment of settler colonies meant the conquest and brutal destruction of the native populations.

It is impossible to understand the psychology of the Americans, without understanding what they did to the Indians. This was not ethnic cleansing but something closer to ethnic extermination.   more »

We see how imperialism has two weights

and two measures when it comes to using

terms such as "revolution" and "democracy"

For imperialism "democracy" means

the untrammelled rule of capital

Any hint at genuine mass, workers' participation

in the political affairs of a country

is seen as "dictatorial"

We see this in the way they define

the Venezuelan revolution and Chavez' socialism

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