It’s important to differentiate natural masculinity from toxic insecurity and not confuse the two. Embodying stereotypically feminine traits, such as vulnerability and empathy, as reflective of a healthy masculinity that informs a man’s conduct, as opposed to ill-conceived conquest metrics that reward false bravado borne of insecurity and inadequacy, and are misattributed to masculinity. Distinguishing the propensity to protect women as if they are owned property from standing up for and defending women because they warrant and deserve respect as equals.

In an open letter to Time Magazine, Clinton Fein excoriates the publication for its decision to name Donald Trump as Person of the Year, reminding the publication of its embarassing history of low grade, sensationalist journalism, from O.J. Simpson to Jon Benet Ramsey and everything since.

In the real world, when someone treats you like a cheap, unworthy piece of shit, you reestablish the definitions and boundaries of the relationship. An invitation to opt in to a new service or product demonstrates a respect for you as a person, and a confidence by the inviter in their product and service and the value it will add to your life.

Who is Dr. Sally Blower? Why is Head of the Disease Modeling Group at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA making claims in writing that are confusing, contradictory and so easily refutable? Why is she, along with her researchers, churning out alarming press releases that inspire confusion and panic among populations already stigmatized? And why are so few media organizations challenging the extrapolations and misinformation they yield, which have the very real potential to interfere with AIDS/HIV prevention and treatment strategies on a global scale?

As the rhetoric heats over healthcare reform, the swastika has taken center stage. The problem is that no one knows whether the once dreaded symbol is being used to identify the target or the perpetrator.

According to proponents of Prop 8, a man could walk into a strip club, walk out with the first woman he sees, marry her, commit adultery every night, and that relationship is regarded as more sacred and meaningful than, say, the man's gay sister's, who has been with her partner in a loving, monogamous relationship for twenty two years.

The problem is not how low Sarah Palin set the bar for the debates, however. It’s how low she has set the bar for the Vice Presidency, and given John McCain’s precarious health and age, the Presidency. Contestants for American Idol are given more scrutiny than Sarah Palin’s vetting process and subsequent media access combined.

Giuliani’s response to the Judith Regan suit was to dismiss it as sounding like a “gossip column story,” and one not worthy of his response. That strategy might have worked for George Bush Senior when asked about his adulterous affair, but Giuliani might not be so lucky. For one, even his Republican opponents are already all over it, and more importantly, it’s not only a gossip column story, it’s a lawsuit alleging criminal conduct on behalf of News Corp. executives in the name of protecting the presidential ambitions of Rudy Giuliani.

California's Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein's decision to join Senate Judiciary committee Republicans in approving the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey for Attorney General is nothing short of disgraceful.

Much like her decision to sponsor legislation that would desecrate the constitution by criminalizing flag burning, Feinstein has shown her true colors yet again.

When Senator Craig determined that Sgt. Dave Karsnia, the arresting officer, was not responding to the foot-tapping, either by foot-tapping back, or making some other gesture that demonstrated his interest, he should have had the common sense to quit. That's why there are codes, idiot! It’s that clouded judgment, along with immediately pleading guilty to make it “all go away” that suggests he is ill equipped to serve as a representative of the people of Idaho, let alone in any leadership role.

I tried to imagine what I would do if minding my own business in a bathroom stall and some strange, liver-spotted, gnarled hand swept across the underside of the stall.

He may have been a nice father to someone, or a sweet grandfather, or a kindly mentor, but Jerry Falwell represented the absolute worst that mankind has to offer. His message was one of hate, intolerance and ugliness, sugar-coated along with a twisted and poisonous infusion of dogmatic religious fervor.

He may well have galvanized millions to fight the protected notion of separation of Church and State, but his legacy is as ugly and embarrassing as it was ever impressive.

In the name of decency (also known as lost advertising revenue), Don Imus was fired by NBC, who claimed that they wanted to work toward a campaign of common decency that expanded beyond the walls of their news organization with its strained credibility.

That was before they received the “multimedia manifesto” from Cho Seung-Hui. Now watch how decency looks, grieving families be damned, when advertisers aren’t bolting.

Two years ago, I warned MSNBC that Imus was tainting their brand. More than that, I questioned how they could continue to allow Imus to denigrate their journalists, as the media and political elite sustained his platform with appearances on his show.

Imus still has the right to free speech, and the right to call whoever he wants whatever he wants. With or without appropriate context. But never forget, that speech may well be free, but never free of consequences, and is not guaranteed under the banner of a news organization striving for integrity and journalistic excellence, no matter how far short they have measured.

For every deed, a million analyses; for every sentence, a million deconstructions. Blogs begetting blogs, begetting social networks, begetting conversations and commentaries. Comments about comments for comments, responses for responses about responses. Words tripping over words to embellish words about words. Sentences about sentences, broken down into keywords and efficiently retagged into categories and subjects to be repurposed and rehashed and replayed and redeployed.

A brouhaha of gargantuan proportions has enveloped Hollywood after the Grey’s Anatomy star, speaking to reporters at the Golden Globes, reopened a wound he had made back in October last year when he referred to T.R. Knight as a faggot.

Like Jesse Jackson’s attempts to ban use of the word nigger, efforts to punish Isaiah Washington for using the word faggot seem ridiculously misguided. His denial of having uttered it is what’s offensive, not his use of it in the context of the denial. Had he said, I am really sorry I called T.R. a faggot, as opposed to I didn’t call T.R a faggot, would his comment have been so explosive?

Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic meltdown was no less vitriolic because he used the word Jew instead of the more derogatory kike or hooknose. His seething sentiments were perfectly communicated by the context and delivery in which they were proffered, not by his choice of words.

Similarly, Michael Richards’ tirade was shocking because of the sentiments he communicated, not because he used the word nigger. Had he told the black men in the audience that he didn’t appreciate being heckled by African Americans, would that really have made the comment any more palatable?

For Republicans, the Mark Foley scandal is more about the embarrassment of having a high ranking homosexual in its party than a predator in its fold. For Democrats, it’s more about revenge of the Republicans than it is about questioning their supposed values to begin with. For right-wing fanatics, it’s more about equating homosexuality with pedophilia than it is about protecting allegedly vulnerable pages. And for gay activists, it’s more about clamoring to defend itself from those very accusations and the likely vilification by Republicans than it is about simply distancing itself from a congressman whose only possible crime is being a predator, not a homosexual, and for whom the issue is no more relevant than it is for Alcoholics Anonymous.

Hate-filled morons, swathed in protective layers of faux legitimacy provided by self-defined "news organizations" are making it more and more dangerous to find, access and report the truth. And harsh as it may sound, Olaf Wiig, in all his idealism, cannot expect to perform his role as a journalist, no matter how noble his intentions, with blithe indifference to the corporate structure through which his contributions are filtered.

John Ramsey is unlikely to forget who his friends are, and hopefully will keep the media at bay, as they prepare to dig up, piss on and shred JonBenet’s memory once again. And hopefully he won’t succumb to the too-little-too-late, inevitable, post-mortem re-varnishing of Patsy Ramsey’s memory either.

Alas, for the Ramsey family, resting in peace does not seem like an option.

Nothing captured the world's attention quite like the World Cup which culminated in a dramatic clash between Italy and France in which French captain, the gifted Zinedine Zidane, better known as Zizou by those in the know, head-butted Italy's white trash, trouble maker, Marco Materazzi, in the chest after he called Zizou "the son of a terrorist whore" according to published reports, albeit speculative. Condoleezza, listen up!!

Michael Dickinson teaches English in Istanbul, Turkey. He is also a fantastic collage artist -- one who uses the tried and true method of paper, glue and scissors – and also happens to be a contributor to Annoy.com. Mr. Dickinson is facing a 1 to 3 year prison sentence for daring to depict Prime Minister Erdogan as a dog in his collage titled, “Best of Show”.

Like the hypocrisy of our government and media, this reflects the cultural superiority that we are exporting preemptively by force and attempting to protect from external influence by racing toward implementing an anti-family, xenophobic, geocentric immigration policy that is as humane and family values-oriented as performing an abortion with a rusting butcher knife.

The President used the bully pulpit to spew a narrow, deluded world view that bares not a trace of reality, vision or wisdom. Representing a once-respected nation by turning it into a sick, despised caricature of democracy, achieved by preemptive force, violence and intimidation. A twisted Napoleonic mélange of bullying, bellicose bravado, riddled with corruption, cronyism, greed and arrogance. The extent of the contrast betweeen the President's hot air and the chilling reality would be laughable if the consequences were not so horrific, painful and deadly.

It appears, with Sec. 113, that one is guilty of a crime if one were simply to "utilize" a telecommunications device "with intent to annoy" a person. Regardless of the content, or even in its absence. A conduct rather than a content crime. Perhaps waving a Blackberry in someone's face. Or annoying someone by using their cell phone as a vibrator.

That the President and his defenders can turn around and look the American people in the eye and claim to be protecting them, when this Administration shamefully continues to discharge and punish vital and accomplished warriors in its War on Terror for their sexual orientation and their private, constitutionally protected conduct, does not just make President Bush a cheap liar. He is aiding and abetting the enemy while spying on the people who supposedly elected him.

Enter Harriet Miers – the most unqualified sycophant ever! The woman George W. Bush has nominated to replace Sandra Day O’Conner on the Supreme Court is a shallow, forgetful, inconsistent brownnose who believes the control of women’s bodies ought to be shaped by men with delusions of piety, and in imaginary, sandal-clad martyrs watching protectively from the heavens. Not since Mr. Bush himself was appointed to the Presidency has a nominee been so extraordinarily unqualified to hold a position. When Monica sucked President Clinton’s cock she ended up with a soiled dress and a lousy job at the Pentagon. Harriet Miers kissed George W. Bush’s ass and was offered a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

As people still search for remnants of lives and loves lost in the toxic sludge that still submerges as much as 40 percent of New Orleans, they can at least do so happy in the knowledge that brave people have stepped up to acknowledge their mistakes – even if the consequences are designed simply to improve their standings in the polls. As power grabs are made, and America is forced to confront its racially linked poverty, one can rest assured that blame games will continue, and responsibility sans consequence taken with a wink and a smile.

What I was witnessing was not in some other part of the world where access, resources or familiarity was a problem. The initial response evoked Robert Mugabe bulldozing the destitute of Zimbabwe, masked with a paper thin veneer of false compassion. Could all this really be playing out in a major American city? Could a country that flattened Hiroshima honesty be stymied from reaching a Convention Center in New Orleans to save a few lives?

Your stale line of bullshit that somehow your lying, traitorous, oil enriching adventures in the Middle East are making us safer here at home must be especially comforting to drowning mothers and lifeless, floating babies. Or the elderly and infirm, wandering around aimlessly with the few possessions they have left in the world with no direction and no plan. Kind of like your post-war Iraq.

What no politician or partisan talking head on the cable TV circuit seems to be getting, is that in order to hand over control, one has to have control to hand over. If the current situation is this chaotic, with 138 000 American troops, it’s impossible to imagine how untrained Iraqis will not only learn from them, but avoid their mistakes and become actually effective. Sovereign control is neither a campaign slogan nor a sound byte.

Between the Trumps and the Hiltons and their obsessive desire to parade their money as a form of entertainment, the tasteless vulgarity of the nouveau riche will continue to provide ample sport for the snobbish, older-moneyed variety, or subject matter, if distastefully ironic, for the Maureen Orths and Maggie Gallaghers. Reinforcing that no amount of money can buy breeding or taste. America is looking more and more like a Liberace-inspired, gaudy, palatial trailer where plush and lush and cash and trash are one and the same and where a culture war seems to be tirelessly waged in a cultureless society.

As everyone fought and politicized a woman’s personal and private nightmare – with such ugliness one can only hope she was not cognizant of any of it – John Paul II lay clinging to life, powdered, puffed and swathed in silk and satin in what was interpreted by the Catholic Church as a "lesson in suffering and sacrifice." His much anticipated death quickly knocked Schiavo off the front pages, but only amplified the increasingly vulgar mix of religion and politics – particularly in America. Until they remembered Michael Jackson.

Does the FBI really expect me to believe that it has only twenty pages in its files on Bush? How could it be, I wonder, given his four years as president and six years as governor of Texas, not to mention the clearances he would have needed from the FBI to walk into the White House when his father was first vice president and then president, that the agency would have less than two dozen pages to release in response to a FOIA request?

Don Imus peaked sometime in the sixties, and looks a lot older than he is. Kind of like an aging bull-dyke with anorexia and a penis. He epitomizes everything that every minority in America despises about the dominance of a White heterosexist patriarchy. He is foul-mouthed, blowhard with a chip on his shoulder deeper than the Grand Canyon and an axe to grind with almost every politician or public figure of any stripe or affiliation.

Trust is earned by delivering on a promise, not simply making one. Armstrong Williams, his personal hypocrisy, questionable ethics and probably illegal violation of federal law notwithstanding, should find no problem getting a job, even as Tribune Media, Sinclair Broadcasting and other exposed media outlets abandon him quicker than if he was Pee Wee Herman at a Michael Jackson slumber party. Time Warner, News Corp. and NBC Universal are still hiring.

Amber Frey, the timid blonde that was perpetually sheltered by the overeager publicity whore, Gloria Allred, is now poised to dazzle us with such enchanting insights as "I wonder if Scott thinks about me," dutifully reported by CNN news scrolls beneath tsunami-ravaged Indonesian orphans. The State of the Union address; Pentagon and media orchestrated Iraqi elections; homo-frantic attempts to ban everything gay from marriage to usage of the very word; and, naturally, Amber Frey book mania, will keep us busy and distracted enough to ignore the real carnage of both the War on Iraq and tsunami until Martha Stewart is released and hype begins for her new TV show and upcoming book.

On November 2nd, I submitted to the President my intention to resign from the office of Attorney General of the United States, effective upon the filibuster of the nomination of my successor. As I take leave of this high office, I am filled with gratitude to you, the men and women of the Department of Justice, for a dark and ominous period of service that has ushered in a mockery of justice and delusional sense of security for the American people. We live today in an America that is more dangerous and belligerent than ever before; an America where freedom is not a promise but a joke, not a dream but a myth.

This is not even Pop culture, its Popsicle culture. Regurgitated to meet the demands of a reality-based celebrity obsession that defies the notion of depth. Andy Warhol's theory of fifteen-minute fame was conceived in a pre-ADD mind-set. Who can even tolerate fifteen minutes without being bored to death or achingly distracted? Unless, like with Arnie and Maria, our force-fed celebrity fix is constructed from, disposable, non-biodegradable plastic.

When it comes to the issue of FBI files on President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry, the so-called liberal media have shown unquestionable bias in only scrutinizing Kerry's dossier and ignoring the possibility of a file on Bush.

An Associated Press story on May 5 detailed how the wire service got the FBI to hand over more than 9,000 pages on Kerry's role in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, by demanding their release under provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

That the media and the government, or anyone really, is surprised by the abuse scandal is mind boggling. When you send women and men off to kill people you obviously have to desensitize them by reducing the enemy to a sub-human level. To expect anyone to be able to sophisticatedly switch compassion on the basis of inadequate training and conflicting, shifting and shifty, Geneva-Convention-dodging interpretations designed to avoid culpability and responsibility at every turn -- Love thy Prisoner of War like thou love thine Enemy Combatant -- is fundamentally impossible for almost any human. Even Gods. Even Ronald Reagan.

“But they don't tell us when; they don't tell us where; they don't tell us who; and they don't tell us how,” Dr. Rice earnestly told the commission. While the terrorists should be appropriately chided for failing to provide such exquisite detail of their attacks, (or commended for following the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy to the letter), such an expectation from your National Security Advisor suggests we disband the CIA, FBI, and Department of the Homeland Security altogether, and simply adopt a “Hope for the Best” motto as an equally effective and far less expensive counter-terrorism strategy.

Already the miscalculations are coming home to roost. Using dramatic images of September 11 in a dramatic ad campaign, the Bushies horrified and offended the families of victims and survivors of the terrorist attacks, who were sickened by the politicization of an event that was supposed to have represented -- if anything -- a non-partisan unity of American resolve. The use of actors posing as firemen in what resemble plastic helmets garnered scorn from the real firefighters who lost real men wearing real helmets.

Democrats should expect wonders from, and elect President, a man who signed the Patriot Act before reading it, and sat there like an idiot actually believing Dick Cheney, as jaws dropped in disbelief in the rest of the intelligent world and beyond, before giving the nod to create a new depleted uranium landfill called liberation in what was once the Cradle of Civilization. All the while, enjoying the overwhelming support of the “separate but equal” gays and lesbians scrambling like starved rats for his cursory nod to civil unions.

I guiltily popped into a Starbucks feeling dirty, wondering when the first Tikrit store would be opening or if there were equivalent Iraqi terms for "non-fat venti macchiatos" or a "tall vanilla crème frappuccinos" (until I realized there weren't English terms for those either). I vowed to avoid television for the weekend, refusing to watch the gloating. Just what America needed. A fat dose of "gotcha" shit-eating grinning and self-congratulating with no self-reflection and no context. But there was no escape. There never is.

Maybe in William Bennett's dark, smoke-filled world of roulette wheels and blackjack tables or Rush Limbaugh's hydrocodone heaven, or Bill O'Reilly's toxic, over bloated ego, but for most of us, these pseudo-moralists spewing their ill-concealed hypocrisies are probably the only things more revolting and anger-provoking than some steroidal, testosterone-imbalanced bastard shoving his robotic hands up the skirts of our Moms or sisters.

In a speech given at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, on September 10th, the President exploited the gravity of the September 11th anniversary to politicize an aggressive police state agenda and deflect criticism by sugar-coating it in patriotism. “We will not forget the rescuers who ran toward danger and the passengers who rushed the hijackers,” he said, reminding everyone that at the same time, he ran away leaving the nation and world lost and leaderless for almost the entire day. “And we will never forget the servants of evil who plotted the attacks,” he piped, reminding everyone that even after turning Osama Bin Laden into Saddam Hussein, billions of dollars and thousands of lives later, he’s still nowhere to be found.

If a referendum were held, the question over the display of the Ten Commandments would be in the hands of the people of Alabama, and the controversy would dissolve immediately. If Roy Moore has his way however, any public official, no matter who they are, can unilaterally decide to sneak into any public building in the middle of the night and pepper any wall or rotunda with any art they feel is appropriate, without any kind of formal procedure.

Perhaps a mutiny of the sodomites is in order. If every gay servicemember came out of the closet, the policy would have to be struck down, because the system couldn't handle it. Nor could America's national security or its overflowing imperial responsibilities. Right now, in a new and dangerous era of pre-emptive colonization, the supposed leader of the free world is moving to ensure that some of the men and women fighting for her freedom (and imperialism) cannot marry someone of their choosing. For gay servicemembers, there are only two choices. Lie or die.

Fundamentally flawed blocking technology, intended to keep smut from children, does not violate the First Amendment even though it shuts off some legitimate, if not critically and life-saving importantly informational Web sites, such as how to practice safe sex, a divided Supreme Court held, ruling that Congress can force the nation's public libraries to equip computers with anti-pornography filters. Once again, the High Court has failed. It offers no guidelines and the definitions it applies remain unconstitutionally vague and inadequate as a standard, particularly one by which to approach a modern and unique medium. Especially one characterized not only by words and images, but also by audio, interactivity and imagination.

The same coke-snorting college drunk that became the Commander in Chief that allowed seven Arab-speaking linguists to be kicked out the military for being gay rather than help decipher terrorist threats in Arabic, sat mouthing words at the teleprompter as a woman teased and pouffed his hair (which seemed significantly less grey than images from a couple of days prior) just minutes before announcing to the world that little girls in Baghdad were about to experience what a Tomahawk felt like. The Queen of Mean. Move over Rosie.

An adjustment to the transcript of President Bush’s address to the nation from the Oval Office in Washington on the beginning of the war in Iraq as reworded by Annoy.com's Clinton Fein.
To all the men and women of the United States armed forces now in the Middle East, the future wealth of my family and the contracts that will be bestowed on corporations to rebuild Iraq now depends on you. That trust is well placed. The innocent children you bomb, maim and annihilate will never know your skill and bravery. The people you liberate will witness the deplorable descent of the American spirit.

Lobbying organizations, such as the MPAA and RIAA, which used the fear and uncertainty from terrorist attacks to sneak in legislation tying the profits of the movie and recording industries to an egregious abridgement of civil liberties deserve nothing but derision. For an aged representative of that contingent to stand up and talk about moral compacts, and disdainfully dismiss technologies that, like it or not, have revolutionized communications globally and, like it or not, represent real, functional file swapping technologies – not “so-called” ones -- is beyond contempt.

A sudden, dramatic spike in sales of plastic sheeting and duct tape suggested that Americans were taking heed of the advice represented by the threat level alert system -- which although previously had specified shopping as a response – had failed to add such blatant product specification. It’s only a matter of time before color-coded security alerts turn into full-scale branding opportunities. Burnt Orange brought to you courtesy of Dupont.

A new documentary, The Gift, by filmmaker Louise Hogarth is a timely investigation into a fascinating phenomenon -- the eroticization of deliberate HIV infection -- that shines a balanced yet uncompromising flashlight on the effectiveness of HIV prevention strategies and the mixed messages that continue to dangerously fuel a psychologically complex and potentially deadly game.

Symbolic platitudes, such as a day dedicated to Martin Luther King, and upon whose poetic insights these dire forebodings are reconstructed, offer little more than a decoy that enables us to avoid the yearnings of institutionalized apartheid, inadvertently vomited forth by racists at political birthday celebrations of bitter men as fresh as their moldy ideological predispositions.

In this frenetic world, our hyperactive attention deficit disorders are simply repackaged as multi-tasking abilities, reinforced by an ADD President with attention span of a Ritalin tablet. Depressingly enough, it’s reality that is depressing, and antidepressants are nothing more than a pharmacological escape from it, not a coping mechanism to function in it. We are confusing realism with depression, pessimism with weakness and denial with optimism. As a result, everyone’s taking all the wrong drugs for all the wrong reasons.

In his own words: President Bush's Address to the Nation on Sept. 11 Anniversary was a pep rally prep for his September 12 Saddam strategy before the United nations. Following is a translation of President Bush's address to the nation from Ellis Island.

The Maniscalcos, Tarantos, Sullivans and Goldbergs represent the backslapping, under-exercised, thirties-going-on-seventies school of mediocre, William F. Buckley-inspired puffery pundit poofs who stuff themselves on an inebriating diet of hate-filled, self-aggrandizing, paradigm-trapped swill that perpetuates their distorted sense of relevance and inflates their already-obese egos. Their disturbed regurgitations offer a daunting yet valuable insight as to how much education is needed in America’s synagogues and churches before we can expect to see or make a difference in the mosques and madrassas in the Middle East, let alone demand it.

A traitorous evildoer sees the President's kowtowing to the bible thumping double-crossing Karl Rove crowd as just another sign of his fraudulent, white-collar, preppy, Yankee Doodle Dimwit, yahoo, nouveau-riche classist blend of upchucking rather than upbringing, who’s parents’ shitloads of oil and blood soaked cash could only buy him a C-grade education from Yale, while he cocaine snorted himself all the way to the pinnacle of mediocrity. Operation TIPS to the rescue.

Although it is highly premature to write an obituary for the Pledge, it is not too early to note the irony: Many, although by no means all, of the Pledge's defenders fancy themselves as keepers of the country's best traditions of liberty and justice. But their allegiance to the Pledge may be misplaced.

President Bush Calls for New Palestinian Leadership to lead the Israelis and Palestinians to the land of milk, honey, Starbucks and Coca Cola. The full Bush speech with all the subtext that Karen Hughes refined, Karl Rove hates, Dick Cheney okayed, Colin Powell will be forced to stomach, Condi almost understands, and Ari Fleischer will neither understand nor articulate. The new black is transparent -- or vice versa, so step over Moses and Ghandi...it's George W's time in the thousand points of light.

Instead of censoring journalists who have the tenacity to delve into issues and expose vulnerabilities that put people at risk, the government would be better served in efficiently and effectively ensuring their remedy rather than taking steps to muzzle the person speaking out. Vulnerabilities in our food supply, electrical grids, chemical plants, trucking industry, ports, borders, airports, special events and cruise ships are far more likely to remain if we criminalize discussing them instead of addressing and fixing them.

They function as entities unto themselves. They have their own standards, their own morals, their own values and their own set of laws that govern their conduct. Deference is given to them by both courts and constitutions globally. Both have been beset by scandal, time and time again. Most often, it's about sex. In this comprehensive look at the similarities, differences and nuances of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policies of the United States military and the Catholic Church, Clinton Fein concludes that the time has come for parents to take responsibility for the well being of their children - or be held accountable.

As Americans writhe in an unrequited love fest with George W. Bush, the most draconian of laws and policies are being slipped past us all in the name of terrorism. And the latest revelation to demonstrate just how far this is all going, is the distasteful teaming up of ABC, the Pentagon and a couple of Hollywood twerps to produce a reality war television show imaginatively titled “Profiles from the Front Line”.

As we gather tonight, our Nation is at war, Linda Lay is hitting the talk shows pleading poverty, and the civilized world faces unprecedented dangers – both from demented terrorists plotting attacks and other nations like ours pissing on the Geneva Convention. Yet the state of our Union has never been stronger. And the Union of the State has never been more dangerous and illusory. A glimpse of what George W. Bush really said in his State of the Union Speech.

Without so much as a blink, a disastrous concoction of anger, blame, grief, revenge, resolve and good intentions was blended into a toxic mixture by America’s relentless media conglomerates and served fresh as a tonic, with an excess of patriotism, platitudes and a twist of political grandstanding. The clichéd notion of a world forever changed, a media perpetuated paradigm we’re still suck in, was as dubious on September 11, as it is now.

One of the most dramatic battles between federal and state governments -- and a painful illustration of how drug prohibition cripples human dignity -- is brewing in Oregon, where a federal judge recently issued a court order to block U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft from interfering with the state's physician-assisted suicide law.

From the rights of women in Afghanistan to anti-proliferation, President Bush speaks openly and candidly to the cadets at the Citadel, South Carolina in a speech that is possibly the most authentic thing he’s said on America's role in the war and terrorism since telling Russian President Putin to trust, on a handshake, an ill-defined, legally useless and non-binding "strategic framework" to replace the ABM Treaty.

A simmering anger among activists, media organizations and city officials erupted last week amidst accusations of bomb threats, terrorism and stalking in a series of events that rocked the City of San Francisco. While ACT UP/ San Francisco crossed the legal line, there are some grave issues to consider. In light of the events of September 11, 2001 is it fair or even remotely accurate to call this terrorism?

Columnist Andrew Sullivan is pissed off, as is Salon's David Talbot. And confusion over censorship and duty appears to be at the root of the misunderstanding, along with a good dose of self-righteousness on both sides. It all started, or at least some of it, when Sullivan began criticizing an interview conducted by Talbot with Susan Sontag in which she discussed the strong reaction to some of her own insights on America's and the media's response to the terrorist attack and war, which were published in The New Yorker. Yep, the rebuilding has begun.

Not since Alanis Morisette's song "Ironic," in which she lamented mournfully about nothing more than a series of shitty coincidences, has anyone been so off base as to what irony is and does. Irony is just as hard to deny as it is to define whom we are supposed to be fighting in this newly declared war: where and how.

Let's smell the Starbucks and realize that the stock prices of companies like Viacom, Microsoft, AOL Time Warner, News Corporation, General Electric, Disney, Vivendi, Alcoa and Halliburton are really the only thing anyone from the White House to the Treasury to the media touting this war cares about, not humanitarian values or the value of the information or programming that is designed to keep us ignorant and petrified while we cling to our flags in tears.

As we continue to execute those who were minors at the time of their crime, the mentally retarded, women and the elderly, we ought to pause before we listen to government bureaucrats and elected officials quick to use the nineteen children murdered that day to defend and justify America's killing industry. One can only wonder what lesson they might have learned today, had they not been in so unfortunate a place at so awful a time.

Judges need to understand that prior restraints on speech yield detrimental consequences. All too often, the issuing of prior restraints does little more than invite violation and sharpen the focus of what may have otherwise remained in relative obscurity. Our position is consistent with our commitment to freedom of expression, the relevance of this case to our own experiences relating to prior restraint and to point out clearly that prior restraints should not be issued and do not work. No matter how well-intended a prior restraint may be, it is flagitious, perhaps even more so when accompanied by sweet reason rather than the gag orders of a precisian.

Eminem however, is understandably angry. His music is a channel of expression through which he is able to articulate his isolation, confusion and the anger that the society he lives in thrusts upon him. The media hypocrisy that surrounds him. The trappings of fame and glamor. The struggle between mainstream legitimacy and outsider credibility. Ironically, his pairing with Elton will do more to defuse his outsider credibility by mainstreaming him with the likes of Sir John than any picket protests or pathetic town hall meeting could ever hope to accomplish.

Lost in the twenty-four hour mediathon that New York Times' Frank Rich articulately predicted would be short in lifespan owing to the absence of sex was a bitter and delicious irony. The very mistake that permeated both campaigns pre-election - the misuse of the word fuzzy and its connotations -- turned out to be at the core of this embarrassing post election stalemate.

After Lynn Cheney's masterful performance decrying the foul-mouthed misogynistic Eminem before John McCain and the gang on Capitol Hill, one would have automatically expected her and the former Death Row producer Dr. Dre to be squarely opposed ideologically. But the current gyre of moral outrage, politics and spin swirling around entertainment, media, violence and law is so much more complex.

In June 1999 the government ordered ApolloMedia to furnish the identity of a user of our site annoy.com's popular electronic e-greeting card service that facilitates anonymous communications after the University of Houston's tried unsuccessfully to obtain ApolloMedia records. At the same time the court ordered ApolloMedia to refrain from discussing not only the content of the order with anyone until authorized by the court, but the very existence of the order and its application. The unprecedented blanket gag order was unlimited in time and scope.

No two words better describe what is left for us to endure over the next eight months and sum up what we have already suffered since the primaries began last year. Campaign 2000 is the most horrific phenomenon to hit America since Columbine, replete with MSNBC and CNN and the rest of the cesspool that comprise American media bombarding and polluting our consciousness with the same drab experts, analysts and pundits that predicted the removal of Bill Clinton from the White House.

The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue" policy found its origins in a personal vendetta. Scorned and humiliated that another Southern democrat of dubious political pedigree had captured the democratic nomination in 1992, an embittered senator from Georgia, Sam Nunn, embarked on a mission to derail the early Clinton presidency by undermining his authority and embarrassing him by shining a spotlight on his naïveté. Ill advised by dangerously inexperienced advisors barely out of school and a military leadership resentful of a draft-dodging, pot-smoking Commander in Chief, Clinton's first real Act as President resulted in the most disastrously confusing policy that to this day is responsible for the death, harassment and anguish of servicemembers gay and straight.

Now that I'm over the euphoria from my little excursion to Disneyworld and a slight respite from your impeccably mannered press corps, I have had a moment or two to reflect upon my future and weigh in whether my mother's death by drowning to get me here was worth it in the end.

It's been a long week for etoy.com. On Monday, a judge issued a preliminary injuction fining them $10,000 each day that their website was hosted at their domain. They shut it down right away, of course. They're just internet artists. They don't have six billion dollars like the company that filed the suit: eToys.com. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

In the age of Matt Drudge and Salon, the credibility of online journalism continues to face an uphill battle. The rejection of an advertisement that is not in poor taste, that does not promote hate or violence, but simply offers a point of view potentially offensive to a small minority, makes the task all the more difficult.

Seems like God had a trick or two up his sleeve. Or decided to teach the irreverent Reverend, Fred Phelps, a cyberlesson. Ownership of the controversial web site "www.godhatesfags.com", that Wired News' Steve Silberman once dubbed the "most despised URL on the Net," was transferred to The God Loves Fags Organization - registered owners of the site "www.godlovesfags.com", a site that characterizes itself as "a positive, affirming site that could serve as a resource to gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual and transgendered persons of faith."

I recently gave an interview to Tina Brown's new magazine, Talk. I know a lot of you are offended by my decision to speak only to Talk about Monica Lewinsky - a subject you all obsessed over for the better part of 1998. Some of you even won Pulitzers because of your obsession, although thankfully not you, Arianna.

We were doomed the moment word of the plane crash hit the wires. The media response was predictable enough, but things were just a little different this time. The media had learnt from Princess Diana and a diabetic-coma-inducing glut of sentimentalism was repackaged and replayed before the bodies had even been found or retrieved from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The press' ability to zoom in on tragedy, and focus on and manipulate our grief has been turned into an art form.

Claiming to "promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age", the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) is plagued by one of the pitfalls that all too often beset non-profit organizations. They can't afford good attorneys.

Up until now, I've been doing the victimizing. I've been raining punishment on New York Times readers and beyond. I'm very proud to be the only columnist of our time who owes my success entirely to my reputation as a victimizer of Monica Lewinsky. And it's not as if I was alone in my field!

One of the more interesting similarities can be found in the art of overstatement. Annoy.com engages in this technique in order to drive home the illogic of the legislation we challenged and to legally and socially push the envelope. Indeed, the violence in A Clockwork Orange is dramatically overstated including such devices as the use of animation in one sequence, much like the animated images on annoy.com's homepage. Or the bold and literal electrically illuminated "Home" sign that demarcates the home of the political writer that Alex returns to after having been asked to leave the home of his parents.

In the understandable confusion surrounding the gruesome murders at Columbine High School and in our natural desire to seek answers, it is all too easy to seek a scapegoat upon which we can project our anger and outrage. Do not blame sites like this. Do not blame the Internet.

A recent ad campaign launched by 3Com shows a nude woman clutching nothing but a Palm V handheld Palm Pilot. Of course, we at annoy.com relish the flesh. Our site is full of it. No sooner had the ad campaign launched on billboards and bus shelters and in magazines, the moral outrage began.

On March 24, Serbian authorities confiscated the Yugoslavian transmitter of radio B92 from Belgrade. The editor-in-chief, Veran Matic, was held in custody in a police station for well over 8 hours.

While I strongly hold that every woman should have an abortion if she needs one, I do not think that other opinions about the subject should be outlawed or fined, no matter how harshly they are put. Yet this is precisely what happened in the case of the Nuremberg Files. Yes, the site was as outspoken as one can be, and yes, it painted a nasty -- and in my view a distorted, atrocious and one-sided -- picture of abortion and of its protagonists and defenders. Nevertheless, everybody has the right to advocate the opinion that abortion is murder.

Citing trademark violations, the college administration sought to forbid claremontmckenna.com's use of the domain name, demanding that they sell the domain name to the college for $150.00 and threatening litigation for continued use. Enterprising students at claremontmckenna.com researched and found that Claremont McKenna College is in fact the only Claremont College that does not have a trademark on their name.

How 'bout educating the petrified children
How 'bout feeding the starving and healing the sick
How 'bout telling the truth when the lie is much easier
How 'bout finding the answer and not the excuse

A westernized approach to death is inextricably associated with religion, and our desperate need to believe in an afterlife. Our religions place an unattainably high price on pious virtue, almost impossible sacrifice and unnatural humility. Despite the fundamental goodness of well-meaning people, few of us actually believe we are good enough or worthy enough to make it in an afterlife, and as such, deny looking at death in any meaningful way. Denial is at the very root of our dysfunction.

The release of the tapes was nothing short of a solid gold jackpot for America's festering media machine who swallowed it all up a lot better than Monica ever did. As MSNBC's Don Imus aptly coined it, "MSNBC's Gulf War". Talking heads attempting to analyze nuance, tone and context in a rehash that only they watched, commenting endlessly on their own interpretations, and giving Laura Ingraham something better to do than interview Monica's hairdresser.

Almost immediately following his death, a national fever-pitched outcry about hate crime legislation, hate speech, Christian dogma, gay agendas, crime and punishment, words and deeds colored America's national dialog and political landscape. Memorials, candlelight vigils, marches, protests and demonstrations swelled on campuses, streets and city halls across the country. Angry and tearful speeches, passionate condemnations and dire warnings from Presidents to preachers dominated the airwaves and newspapers in an outpouring of sentiment not seen since Princess Diana was killed in a car crash last year.

Legal counsel representing cartoonist Charles Schultz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip, has threatened legal action against the creator of a web site parody depicting the famous characters "Charlie Brown" and "Lucy".

It was, if nothing else, momentarily refreshing. When CNN/Time retracted their much touted and highly controversial serin gas story, the media were all over it, like a pack of army ants devouring an injured cockroach. Picking it to pieces, media "experts" around the globe solemnly commiserated on the heavy burden the beleaguered news behemoths now faced, and forewarned of a difficult path ahead.

The court-martial of Sgt. Major Gene McKinney is the most recent of embarrassing incidents to expose the glaring hypocrisies inherent in the military's policies governing sex and behavior. The military, in all its shining glory, is the ultimate microcosm of American society. Military culture is one of honor and integrity intertwined with duplicity and deceit.

The wave of publicity surrounding the rather unfortunately named and about-to-be discharged Timothy McVeigh is shining a welcome spotlight on an issue that has gone ignored by both mainstream media and First Amendment advocates for years. It all began with a privacy violation which arose when America Online violated both its policy and privacy law in response to the Navy's violation of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue" policy.

Why People Magazine? Not because they're any better or any worse than any of the others in print, television and on the Internet, but because they do it with such glaring hypocrisy, in full color and on cheap paper. If nothing else, we thank them for proving beyond a reasonable doubt that all the scrutiny the debate over privacy and free press received following the wreck in Paris means absolutely nothing when it comes to selling magazines...or using people.

PC Magazine recently voted as Editor's Choice, a particular content blocking software product Cybersitter, available from a Santa Barbara based company, Solid Oak Software, Inc. But as annoy.com contributor, Peacefire's Bennett Haselton reveals, the manner in which Cybersitter's owners treat the "children" they claim to protect is, at the very least, eye opening.

If all couples, regardless of gender, don't achieve the basic rights afforded their heterosexual counterparts, then at the very least, tax reductions would be in order since it is legally, socially and economically unjust for homosexuals to foot the bill for rights and benefits they are denied. The all too familiar shrieks of how same-sex marriages will erode the institution of marriage suggest an inability on the part of these heterosexuals to manage the institution they are laying claim to.

On a chilly night on Christmas eve, in a small town in Colorado, a six-year-old girl was brutally raped and murdered. Not much was happening in the O.J. civil trial...Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich were being nauseatingly sweet to one another, feeling, perhaps, that their shut-down gift the Christmas before was more fun giving then the ethics scrutiny they were receiving this year in return. The shark-like media, stuffed and lazy, circled the tank of American obdurance and prejudice, slowly in sinful abundance. And further South in Petaluma California, Polly Klaas lay in her grave, silent, still and forgotten.

With so much of the focus on children, Annoy.com publisher Clinton Fein weighs in on the net censorship issue in a heckle to kids who might chance upon the site.