AdamSmith

Old Fogeys Against God-all!

To the contrary. I see 'em all over middle-class white suburban America. In imitation of urban street thuggery, sure. But still. Worst are the ones with hollow centers, that look like little car tires.

Just noticed this. Very good! After all, as one must plagiarize from one place or another, why not the best? ...Why do you think the good Lord made your eyes? So don't shade your eyes But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize! Only be sure always to call it, please, "research."

Hypothesis: Not long after the generation of Prescott Bush, the breeding population shrank below the level needed to sustain the species. Dick Lugar must feel like one of the last dodos. Fed-up Olympia Snowe, ditto. When even Alan Simpson from the sidelines calls "Enough already..." More serious answer would of course go into: toxic effects of Atwater et al. Personalizing political differences (no more Tip-and-Ron fighting by day, schmoozing by night), success of Repub appeal to opposite of their constituents' actual interests + politics of resentment; effects of 24x7 media spin cycle; etc., etc., etc.

If the mechanics of casting, recording and counting votes were ironclad and foolproof, sure. But just going electronic, with current technologies at least, hardly seems to guarantee any such. Indeed, some present-day systems (thanks a lot, Diebold et al.) appear to yield a much sketchier audit trail than more archaic methods. I don't like the distortions that the electoral-college system can produce. But it's worth remembering that the Framers conceived the federal election process with more than one backstop to, among other things, help the political process determine and express the will of the polis even in the face of some uncertainty in ascertaining the popular vote.

Canceled that subscription; applied the balance to a site dedicated to phimosis. Anyone...? And of course there are always pickles.

Hitoall, being able and willing to turn the other cheek can be an admirable virtue. But remember that Jesus himself did not hesitate to storm into the Temple and vehemently, even violently (overturning the money lenders' tables) denounce practices and beliefs that he found corrupt and evil. Even though they were settled religious tradition among believers of that faith and time.

Meant to say... Keep this up, and you'll have me moving from anhedonia to Freedonia in no time!

P.S. Not just gassing into vacuum. There were two gorgeous Russian twinks who danced at Web/NYC a year or so ago. Both promised much in a lap dance, took your money, but then would not allow even the slightest contact.

MsGuy: At the risk of nativism, jingoism and all, can you really imagine a commission, in whatever form, from a RUSSIAN? Ask any U.S. or European oil company that has tried to do business there how it ends up. (Not quite the same, but still useful remembering how to spell "Khodorkovsky.")

Lucky, re Leave It to Beaver, regret it was just barely before my time -- went off the air when I was three. I got stuck with My Three Sons. Of that motley crew I would as soon have had a blow job from Uncle Charlie as any of the other neutered men/boys on the show. Providing he took his dentures out!

Occasionally I used to get, "You look like David Bowie!" But i stopped fishing for that when, in my early 30s, in a cafe in LA, the teenage waitress said, "You know, you remind me a little of David ... Cassidy!" This was some considerable time into his long drug travails, and supposed recovery(ies), when his face had come to look like it had been put through a machine.

lookin, thanks for those superb mementos. I have my YouTube research cut out for me. For my part, how could I have forgotten the weirdest of them all -- Dark Shadows?! An annual fan convention is still going strong, more than 40 years after the show was cancelled... http://www.darkshadowsfestival.com ...and Johnny Depp (Barnabas of course) and Tim Burton are finally into production on a new DS movie that promises much...

P.S. I am writing these latest posts from my cell phone, on which it is a fiendish nuisance to try and dig for old posts to be able to insert a link back to them. Sorry about that.

Ooh la la! But alas, ze monee is long spent. I reported here in living color how it went toward three delirious days in NYC with Andre, July '09. That "alas," of course, has not the slightest shred of sincerity in it.

P.P.S. Johnny Quest! ...Sim, sim, salabim! (note how senility and attempted correction of same drives post counts)

P.S. How could I have forgotten Gilligan's Island? And -- no lie -- H.R. Pufnstuf. Again, crush on the slightly fag Brit kid co-star. (Kept hoping for same reaction to successor show Lidsville, but it just never measured up. Despite best efforts of villain Charles Nelson Reilly and good genie played by quite weather-beaten old actress who had played Glinda the Good eons past.)

Agree with many of yours. Mine, in approximate though not exact order of favorites... Star Trek Lost in Space Perry Mason The 21st Century Bewitched Medical Center (first jacked off to Chad Everett, if that was the actor's name) Flying Nun (give me a pass ) Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Turn of the Screw meets prime time) Courtship of Eddie's Father (had it equally for Bixby and for the kid. Whose being my age made it not pedophilia. Right?) The Time Tunnel (all praise to Irwin Allen) Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (and again!) The Red Skelton Show (got to sit up 30 minutes past my bedtime each Tuesday to see second half-hour of the show - whee) Do cartoons count? Bugs et al. Roadrunner Huckleberry Hound Pink Panther ... Clearly I watched altogether too much TV back then. Oh, and not to forget the Watergate hearings!

I refer the right honourable gentleman to the remarks I made some days ago. And now (to mix parliamentary systems) I yield back the balance of my time.

(sorry for repeat. Editing by iPhone -- arghh.)

I might ask: Did You really create us in Your image? If so, isn't that a far more damning indictment of You than of us? (Or, depending on what sort of mood He was in, maybe: If so, didn't You know Yourself better than to do such a damned fool thing?)

Shitloads better. OK, OK -- abuse of IRS, CIA/FBI, law enforcement to harrass political enemies, plumbers/Watergate... But what's a little fun among friends? He did create the EPA, propose a more liberal and progressive publicly supported health care plan than even Hillary did (when RN visited Bill Clnton in the White House residence, Hillary commended him for it; btw, it was perennially the UAW lobby that blocked that idea, of a public-option health care floor plan, so they could keep that as an option they themselves could claim having gotten for their members. Possibly the most criminal set of actions of the last century.) Back to RN... In Star Trek 6, if memory serves, Spock has tricked Kirk into giving a Klingon ambassador safe passage to a galactic peace conference. Kirk: "Spock, how could you?!" Spock: "Captain, there is an old Vulcan saying: 'Only Nixon could go to China.'"

Aunt Fancy! ... Monica Crowley, now a righty commentator, wrote two books based on her time as a grad student and research assistant to Nixon in his last years: "Nixon Off the Record" and "Nixon in Winter." Both were engrossing. Somewhat adulatory, but nonetheless credible and fairly clear-eyed, I thought. Anyway, to this thread, she reported Nixon's reaction to Buchanan's gay-bashing (among other things) speech that opened the '88 nominating convention for G.H.W. Bush: "My God, he's way over there with the crazies...it's an embarrassment... I spent all that time dragging the party back to the center after the Goldwater loonies highjacked it, and now we're back to this... What was Pat thinking? So many people are gay, or go both ways. I don't care. "Anyway, gays vote too!" (the above recollected from memory of the book, not transcribed verbatim.)

As the $1500 poster child, OK, one feels sufficiently chastised. But to the point: any of our participation here is tied to all kinds of other, not necessarily related life vectors. But which do affect desire/motivation/time to post here, as they affect so many other life pursuits that we chase with verve during more normal times. For me, divorce, rocky business transition, and trying (not too well) to navigate a complex of psychopathologies all conspire toward anhedonia (what Woody Allen originally wanted to title Annie Hall). Back when and as one can. Love continues meanwhile.

Just when one thought your sentence could not get better, it manages "headgasket" and then, wonder of wonders, "Carpathian"! What more could we ask?