Ask any wet-brained scalawag or brain-damaged man-child and he will tell you: The Stranger is not a family publication. Some of my Libertarian associates will tell you that this is a fine thing; they argue that even hateful, asocial loners need a local newspaper to call their own, and that The Stranger fills that need. Reasonable human beings, they argue, are free to ignore it if they disagree with it.

I suppose this is true. But in this issue, the line has been crossed. CHARLES MUDEDE has penned a lengthy essay about parenting, and it is full of the usual desperate attempts to outrage readers and drive up "page views"—he repeatedly calls children ignorant, for example, when it is obvious to the reader that Mr. Mudede's children are ignorant only because they are being raised by Mr. Mudede. But for The Stranger to blur the line between its disgusting brand of anti-Christianism and the institution of the American family goes beyond the pale. The "writing" here progresses (or regresses) from Mr. Mudede's usual infantile provocateurism into downright criminality: He mentions pedophilia in one breath and his own daughter in the next, for example.

I am horrified to think that a parent would confuse this issue of The Stranger for a copy of Seattle's Child. "Oh! Parenting tips," I can hear the typical Seattleite say. "How useful!" And then their minds would be dragged into the filthiest suckhole of degeneracy they have ever known. Parents may go home and hold their families close, to remind them that there is something worthwhile in this universe, but it will be too late. Mr. Mudede has already proverbially defecated into their minds.

Elsewhere... NEWS: Another credulous whingefest about marijuana, this time of the so-called medical variety. Surely, news editor Dominic Holden is openly accepting kickbacks from the marijuana industry by this point... THEATER: Didn't read... BOOKS: Paul Constant continues his unrequited love affair with a jazz musician named Jay-Z, this week combining that with his ignorance of economic issues... VISUAL ART: Jen Graves continues her wave of tut-tutting polemics about what she believes is the sad state of the arts. She raises the question: "The state arts commission is set to be slashed. Does anybody care?" The obvious answer: No. Grade-school economics, Miss Graves. If the arts need money, the arts should produce something of worth. The end... CHOW: Didn't read... MUSIC: A profanity-laced diary of the on-the-road disappointments of a group of musicians paradoxically called the Intelligence (I am a musician, too—I shall now perform a solo on the world's smallest violin)... DEAR SCIENCE: Dr. Golob continues his childish war against basic airline security... SAVAGE LOVE: Didn't read.