America has been falling prey to the Peter Pan mentality for the last sixty years or so. The choice of twenty-somethings to delay their big life decisions may appear more selfish than the choice made by their parents at the same age, but in truth it may be linked to a desire to act responsibly.

The Baby-Boomers are still living in a state of delayed adolescence themselves, their legacy of debt, no-fault divorce, single parent homes, free-sex, victimology, deconstructionism, anti-Americanism and self-worship have left their offspring without a clear path to responsible adulthood. Who can blame this generation for not jumping out of high school to follow the only examples of adulthood they know: a string of broken marriages, one or two vanity children, an over extended lifestyle of debt, a self-absorbed destructive "mid-life crisis" and an early, lazy, retirement filled with endless laments of being on a fixed income.

Who in their right mind would aspire to that? 

But Molly, wouldn't it be great if we all put aside our cold, jaded, facts and logic and took up a child-like, emotion-based ignorance?... I mean innocence! The government has has spent the last hundred years trying to turn us into their obedient, malleable, perpetual-juveniles and now they rely on children to make their legal briefs, the circle is complete.

UT, What ugly rumors! Rest assured, Scientology is more egalitarian than that. You generally just don't meet the poor Scientologists because their busy sweating out their million year contracts in the work camps.

My sympathies go out to the satirists of the day, they have to work ever harder to exceed the expanding standard of the absurd set by the reality of modern culture

It's absolutely true the national government has become less federal over time, just as the Democrat party has become more and more socialist over the decades- therefore in the spirit of solidarity for your proper naming of things, I think we should also re-name the Democrats the National Socialist Party.

Lets not forget that between Darcy's immature, irrational sister and his hyper-critical, childish aunt, he had probably learned abbreviated responses and silence to be his only self defense if he was to retain his dignity.

Joan: That Tiger Beat pic of Bill Gates is pretty hilarious.

But isn't it the gag that Darcy and Lizzie deserve each other? They're greatest strengths are also they're greatest weaknesses; Her clever wit and social grace turning into a cruel biting tongue and gossip, His sense of responsibility and decorum turning into a priggish aloofness. But learning to look past each other's negative attributes supplies them with the self-awareness to work on improving their own. Their strengths and weaknesses compliment each other.

If we are focusing primarily on Catholic English writers of the the late 19th- mid 20th century I think the strength of their literary prowess may be two parts structural and one part conditional. The Roman Catholic Church has a strong history of scholarship and classical learning, this would create an even stronger drive to learning and writing when combined with a secular culture still benefiting from the academic expectations of the enlightenment.

Also, Catholic culture embraces the tragic view of life fairly consistently, while the protestant church began to avoid a full examination or acknowledgement of it. (Lewis being a great exception to this rule.) The tragic view of life is essential to the very purpose of literature itself.

I suspect the English Catholics minority status played a part as well. Anglicanism suffered from an ever creeping secularism. While  Catholics faced more friction in society for their faith, which probably prompted them to examine it more. The minority status also probably prompted them to view the culture they lived in as more of an outside observer; allowing them to pick up the elements and oddities of the culture people more cleved to it might fail to notice.

I find the song tends to stand or fall by who's doing the male vocals: James Taylor equals; sweet and playful, Rod Stewart; creepy and pathological.

The melody and clever writting make it a clear winner though.

  But really, if this song and a church social is what drove ol' Qutb over the brink, It was only a matter of time before anything threw him into a  full blown hissy-fit. If not a secular Christmas ditty, maybe Disney's Lady and Tramp, or a Gil Elvgren pin-up would have sufficed.

But then again, I get skeezed by the hyper-sexualized/commercialised "Santa Baby" in full on, gross-out, baby talk mode. But not enough to run off and create a militant theocratic movement over it .

I guess some people just don't appreciate the gross stereotype about all frogs being great mid level ad men.

Can we make it a double header with Tiptoes ?

Heaven's Gate was so bad a death cult took it's name.

I suppose it's too much to hope that the exclusion of meat on Mondays include the pork barrel?

Great choice! I almost mentioned this one myself, watched it in my teens, the scars are still visible.

The MTM is a technical masterpiece in the very least. Do you realize how long it takes for a muppet to learn how to ride a bicycle?

There are plenty of bad/boring movies, but a really fascinating train-wreck is something to cherish, hold on to, and resent. Much like children. Here are some of truly awful movies that'll give you a laugh and rot your brain:

Deep Space: Half an Alien rip off- not set in deep space interestingly enough. The other half is an 80's buddy-cop movie. + fan favorite Julie Newmar.

The Apple: the gay agenda is real and I have witnessed it.

Vicious lips: this one does take place in deep space- it's amazingly bad and probably too painful to bother getting to the end.

Mutant Hunt: The movie is awful- but the main character does live in a wicked cool dojo loft.

Chopping Mall: Teenagers get stuck in the mall over night- highjinks ensue.  That is until the mall's new robot security task force goes berserk and starts taking them out one by one.

Bonus Movie: Star Slammer: a woman's prison movie, set in space, staring a bunch of 80's moms from the gym down the street.

All terrible movies I'd rather watch five times over than any Lars von Trier movie ever.

If this was a republican administration Oliver Stone woud be half way through his second draft by now.