I used to think she was cute

Even pretty. I think the image to the left here erased any remaining association with "cute" or "attractive" I ever had concerning her.

We're looking at an image here of a very, very insecure person who is in constant need of affirmation. I think this is what draws a lot of people to Progressive Politics and its associated activism. (It also draws a lot of people into the performing arts). They want attention. They want the "atta-girls" and "atta-boys" -- which Janeane gets plenty of on Maher's show. Look at the image of the same woman to the lower right. I mean, that's a beautiful woman. But she has, for some reason, chosen to mark up her body and go on national television with her massive ink exposed with and with stringy (dirty? sure looks it) hair -- why? So people will take her seriously when she rolls her eyes and mocks people in the nastiest of tones and as if she has a clue what she's talking about -- or even as if she actually let the person she's mocking complete a thought to mock -- all to the adoring applause of the studio audience and the hoards of young activists who think she's sockin' it to 'em? She comes off as a bitter, insolent adolescent. She goes to the well, her bag of snarky leftist talking point soundbites to score ego points. Too bad. I get the impression she has some intelligence, but has chosen not to use it for reason -- I'm guessing because she doesn't trust her own ability to reason.

She appears instead to use it to rationalize psuedo-arguments to support the narrative of the Church of Progressivism. And she does this precisely to feed her hunger for approval. But it's never enough, because subconsiously she knows it's not her own reason she's defending. So she has to do it again. And again. And again. The lights are on in there, but it's a house of mirrors inside. A fun house with recursive reflections and warped mirrors.

I get this because I have a theory about a lot of actors and actresses. If you find them basically playing the same character over and over and they excel at that playing that character -- it's usually becuase they aren't really acting. They're playing themselves. Garofalo does basically play the same character in everything she's been in. A cynical outsider with a snappy sense of sarcasm, whose also actually pretty vulnerable beneath that protective shell. She nails that character every time. It's because that's her.