In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times.

Nicholas Kristof/The Pimps’ Slaves

The Short Version: Save the girls!

In his words: “Pimps crush runaway girls with a mix of violence and affection, degradation and gifts, and then require absolute obedience to a rigid code: the girl cannot look the pimp in the eye, call him by his name, or keep any cash.”

Score: D (Depressing)
There’s nothing here we don’t basically agree with — like who’s in favor of nasty pimps? — but we don’t get the sense that Kristof’s solution is going to do much about the problem.

Maureen Dowd/Soft Shoe in Hard Times

The Short Version: The country is fucked, yet George is always laughing these days. Wtf?

In her words: “Dude, you’re already in the ditch.”

The Score: A- (Amusing)
This column is fairly classic Dowd; what she overlooks, of course, is that Bush — like so many of his upper-class peers — doesn’t give a shit about the country at large; his regime has been about extracting and hoarding as much money as possible from the bottom 98 percent and in that regard, he’s been remarkably successful.