I notice he doesn't say what the standard was for, however.

It doesn't make you scum but I don't quite agree with you. Eddie Van Halen is better than Jimmy Page, though.

There's no denying that Eddie Van Halen set the standard for an entire generation.  Sadly though that standard can be described as covering the body of your electrical guitar with electricians tape.

It does indeed just make him opinionated just like the two whole Motorhead Doll fans there are in the world.

Actually, that just makes him opinionated, and he - like those poor deluded Alice Cooper fans - is entitled to his own opinions, no matter how absurd. 

UPDATE:

See Pie's criticism of the idea that "Eddie Van Halen set the standard for an entire generation".

I'm not sure this is necessarily true. The likes of Satriani, Vai and Malmsteen stole a few tricks (most notably high-speed and several-finger tapping), but the main influence came from the old blues guitarists like Chuck Berry and Wes Montgomery, and of course Jimi Hendrix. In Malmsteen's case it was more the influence of classical pieces from Bach and Paganini which got him where he is, but still, Eddie Van Halen takes a backseat in terms of influence.

Grr...

So, what was in the gift basket from Chrisrianna?