Thanks, Jonathan. As I recall, "fandom" absolutely hated Star Wars, too, when it first came out. The responses in the "sf" mags were stuffy and superior and uniformly negative.

Now, your "fen" have "telefiction" groups that celebrate not only the whole Star Wars series, but Battlestar Galactica, as well - both the new and old versions.

You can restrict yourself to the old, musty tomes (I don't think anything you cited was newer than 20 years old, and tended toward the 30-60 years-ago range), reading and re-reading your classics if that's all you're open to do. You can also unclench a little and take fun and excitement where it's offered.

BSG is space opera. Get over it. As science fiction, it's not that bad. As far as production values, characterization, plot, and depth, it's pretty damned good. And in an era of "reality" television, endless brain-dead "game" shows for people dumber than fifth graders, and "news" restricted to celebrity trivia and right wing bull, Battlestar Galactica is a real standout.

Plus, you can even turn off the old tube and read between episodes.

... alienate the vast majority of your audience ...

Seriously? ... well, judging by the letters so far, maybe.

But that's because too many Salon readers seem to be humorless, self-absorbed rage-aholics. "I criticize, therefore I am." Honestly, sometimes the Letters sections read like freshman "litrichoor" essays - everyone's got to find fault, or be thought to have not gotten it.

I thought the Dylan lyric was a touch of humor, particularly since strait-laced Col. Tigh seemed to be the one most affected by it. "There's too much confusion here!" he yells at his friend, Bill Adama, after Adama excuses himself from Saul's long, confused tirade to go back to the trial. It was surreal - like the shared dream sequences that the Cylons Sharon and Caprica 6 and Cylon-touched human President Rosalin - shared.

The whole series has often gone to the surreal, the mystical, blurring the lines between mundane reality and something more. Are the gods - our familiar Greek pantheon - real? Their oracles sure seem to be. Their ancient temples sure seem to hold ancient powers. But is it just high technology? Or are the people of the Twelve Colonies really different kinds of humans from us, their distant cousins?

Who knows? Science fiction typically involves some suspension of disbelief. Less, maybe, for the "hard core" techno stories (unless they use "technobabble" to explain how the impossible things work, like Trek), but it's always there.

We can also choose to accept it when authors wink at us, by sharing a litte "in" joke. Like when Scott Adams walked onto the Zocalo in Babylon 5 and inquired if anyone had seen his dog and his cat. "They're plotting to take over the universe."

You don't have to like it. You can validate yourself by expressing angry condemnation.

But maybe you just didn't get it.

Oh, Tom, how could you? "voters [are] looking for more civility and more cooperation between Republicans and Democrats"

If so, that's only going to happen if

1. You get some radically different Republicans from the ones we have now, or
2. Republicans and Democrats unite in opposition to George Bush and his Regime of (t)Error

We voters may indeed crave "civility and cooperation", somewhere down the line - but more than that, we want a less stupid government than the one we're stuck with now. We want the crooks - and there seem to be a lot of them - to be rooted out, convicted, and punished.

After all that, some civility would be nice, thenkew.

The memo states "The question of whether Mr. Griffin (who then was on active military duty in Iraq) might be considered..." [my emphasis]

Is this true? Was Mr. Griffin, a young Republican, actually on on active military duty - in Iraq?? Knowing what we know about Today's Republican Party™, it's unlikely that Mr. Griffin was a member of the armed forces. Could he have been on political assignment in the Green Zone? Is the whole thing a fabrication? (why would they lie to one another??)

Inquiring minds, you know.

Okay, so we all know, after the last two weeks of rage against poor old Garrison Keillor, that homosexuality is Not Funny. Moreover, they don't wear those colorful costumes, they don't act fey, and there's absolutely no way you can tell a gay guy from your average (non-Log Cabin) Republican.

Unlike what we have been encouraged to believe from TV and movies, gay people are not better educated, nor are they more sophisticated. Their tastes are no different from Joe Sixpax. Morever, they Are Not Amused. Apparently ever.

At least, that's what they told poor old Garrison Keillor.

What does this have to do with "Blades of Glory"? Given that the graceful sensitive guy is represented as a heterosexual, I don't have a clue.

Sorry.

I heard Mr. Bush sneering about the Democrats "going on vacation," as if the Republican members of Congress were staying in DC, and as if he weren't going on vacation himself.

Mr. Bush may not realize that when members of Congress "go home," they're rarely "vacationing." They're maintaining office hours to meet with their constituents locally, holding public meetings throughout their districts so they can hear what people have to say, traveling around their states to touch base with the voting public. They realize that most of the voting public isn't able to travel to DC to talk to them.

Congress represents the voters, and the Democrats at least, take this seriously.

Mr. Bush "represents" no one but himself anymore. And he doesn't seem to have clued that the November election was, once again, "a accountability moment." And this one, he lost.