Yay. Tourism.

already covered in other comments.

Already covered in other comments.

Maybe if you have experienced it (if you haven't, maybe you have) but it sucks to have something you love taken from you because other people wanted to make money off of it. Most people are not as comfortable as you seem to be climbing up and down branches of the judeo/christian/islam tree :)

Thanks. I'm taking a beating out there.

You are remarkably unsympathetic to people resenting being manipulated by others.

Right. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who that the photo accompanying this article is weird.

I would think that someone who dresses like a hypersexualized and yet non-threateningly childlike tentacle-porn male spank fantasy should be less snarky. One of us here is doing more to objectify women than the other.

I've said this elsewhere, but because I don't like it (and the gross commercialization of which booth babes are part and parcel) I don't go to them either as an employee or as a consumer. So I am doing my part, not through censorship, but by not participating. I've made that point here, elsewhere, at greater length.

I get it now- i misunderstood. I got my arguments crossed. There's two thinks I'm gettings shredded for here:

Never said I was the one to define depression. I just use the definition that the psychiatrists and psychologists do, as you suggest. I have pretty serious doubts that all those emo kids who write songs about how they cut themselves just so they can feel something are not, in fact, cutting themselves, but rather…

Well, we still live in benighted times, and sex does sell. I sort of think the people who aren't into strippers (like G4 has hired in the photo above) are an enlightened minority. I'm an old 70s style feminist, and think the women in the above photo are being degraded.

1) I guess we'll have to agree to disagree that J-Woww is vile, as is the Situation and the rest of those assholes. They are all vile for the exact same reasons, so it's not a gender argument. Ick.

I disagree with what you've said, but the religion thing is a great metaphor.

I think I'm often taken as being sarcastic when I'm being sincere. Not that I'm above a little sincere debate, either. I'm not afraid to be wrong. I've gotten a couple good smacks in the yap in this whole kerfuffle.

If you think sex does not, in fact, sell, I have some bad news for you.

What kon3ko said.

Thank you for saying it better than I did.

If your position is that sex doesn't sell, and people are not swayed by other, more attractive people, I have some bad news for you.

"So since I've finally grown into my enormous head (seriously, it was a medical condition for which I had to wear a hockey helmet to school) and gotten real hips and learned to dress for my body, I'm not a nerd any more?"