Sticks and stones may break my bones but ridicule will kill me....
A switch on an old saying to point out that there is a not a fine a line between satire and ridicule, there is a broad chasm. Satire emphasizes the difficiences of a target and laughs at it but ridicule attempts to get us to hold the target in total contempt, to eliminate it while causing us to laugh. The Gay Cowboy movie, Brokeback Mountain, is getting the ridicule treatment on the early AM radio here; the early shock jocks bashed to smithereens the "Gay Western" complete with lisping John Waynes, totally swishy Clint Eastwoods, gay beyond belief Wyatt Earps. There were no holds barred and they destroyed the movie to the glee of their day break audience. All the people at work had heard similar attacks and nobody in the office has any intention of going to the movie. The Hollywood elites, much like the elites of the circulation sagging daily newspapers, are separated from their audiences by an abyss they are afraid to examine. Perhaps both elites remember the words of Nietzsche, "... if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you," and are paralyzed.

If you think this will change, think again.

Last nite a liberal newspaperman on the O'Reilly show answered a query regarding the Left attempt to kill Christmas in spite of the fact that 94% of Americans identified themselves as Christian. The liberal calmly instructed his host that "It is our responsibility to stand for what is good no matter the cost. It is indisputable fact that the expression of religion, both through deed and trappings, has caused most of the wars and conflicts over the past 200 years. It is our duty to remove them." He stopped short of saying it was his duty to stamp out Christmas but his intent was plain. These people are sure they are right, just like the Communists of the 30's "knew" they were right and that they were on "the right side of history" in spite of the murders by every Communist leader on the planet. They really didn't see. Or refused to see. Again, from Nietzsche:

Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.