I spent about an hour today in best buy playing with cameras, and I've got to say, Sony has come a LONG way since my last purchase.
Base on what I currently feel is most important to me, my next cam is going to be a sony.
The few Panasonics that Best Buy has, are incredibly slow, and though I know that my co-workers is reasonably fast, it's nowhere near as fast as even the cheapest sony that I played with. The lenses, even on the teeny tiny sony are pretty highly reviewed, much like the panasonic lenses.
for me, the hands on test was a hands down win to the various sonys
as for the rest of the discussion, you've gotta meet yourself a nice wheelin' chick. I guess we need to start recruiting single chicks for the club.