On typewriters--I used to use an antique Royal until about 1997,(I'm 40, before y'all think I'm a senior) till one of the strikers broke and I couldn't find a repairman. And yes: I got MUCH more writing done then, whereas now it feels like a chore, though it should be easier. But it feels so weightless. On a typewriter you could pound it--the feel was different. More akin to a musical instrument.

But then, their design was based on pianos. I wouldn't drop my computer, but I do miss my typewriter.

Now here's the thing about that. Do you think Rush would ever take time out of his show to defend his cousin to those people(the Freepers--wow, they're still around? attacking her for this article)?

No. No he wouldn't. In fact, if he thought it would help his ratings, he would join in. And then claim it's all an act to his cousin.

But at the very least, he wouldn't say one word to defend her in public that might imply he values ANYTHING over ideology. Rush does not survive on people calming the fuck down. He lives off of destruction.

And I'm sorry to his cousin once more, but he has harmed many people. If you refuse to take any stand on that, all you're doing here is profiting off his name in the weirdest way possible.

Good to see one of my longtime Vertigo favorites here. (Some of you: check out CRUEL & UNUSUAL by him, the brilliant Jamie Delano, and John McCrea. It's not their best work, but it's fun)

Anyone who wants more Peyer, check out his(and a few others') blog, BEER & MEAT:

http://superfrankenstein.blogspot.com/

When David Horowitz sounds reasonable by comparison with most conservatives, I'm left in a rather confused state.

Then again, there was that time he defended Obama last fall.

Hmm. I think someone's looking to switch sides again.

...as I've been in an uncertain position since 9/11. Yes, that long. I had the good, ha, luck to be in California when that happened, after what seems now like it was a year of the electrical crisis that Enron kept going. And the economy was in the crapper. For the first time in the 7 years I lived there, I could not find even a stupid receptionist job. (I'm a cartoonist but it's only this year I've been able to make any regular money out of it and never banked on that, so I've made a living for years as a very skilled admin assistant of various sorts)

So my wife then and I moved to Chicago, where I'd lived before, and what happened there? Well, I spent 5.5 years there and half of that time on unemployment no matter how I tried and with 7 years then of solid experience. Good resume, no problems there. Good references. But what would I keep hearing? "Oh, it's the recession." Which never ended there as far as employers were concerned. And they took full advantage to downsize, to pay workers less, to load up on temps to avoid benefits.

My wife lost faith in me and left me two years in(after 6 years of mostly happy marriage till Chicago), and I spent three more years struggling, again being told again and again "it's the recession," plotting a return to the west coast and cursing Bush, praying he'd be gone or whatever it took for this recession to to.

Eventually I got back to the WC, but CA had just collapsed again so I went to Seattle. Got a job right away with higher pay than ever. And then? Well, we all know what happened last year. Till yesterday, I was unemployed for six solid months.

Obviously there are people who've had it much worse. I never owned a house, never owned stock, and HA I can't remember the last time I had a 401k. So I guess my question is: when were these giddy times with lots of money? Where did you have to live for that to happen? Because I lived in two major metro areas where the recession never had an end. I've thought of this last decade already as a time of want and struggle. I'm sure many others have too. I know the decade has been good for the very rich, but when isn't?

So, besides them, for whom here were this decade good? My memory has been years upon years of pain, fear, and my personal life slowly being destroyed and trying my best to survive anyway, even though at times I wished I'd just die. What exactly is new?

Or should I say, "Welcome to my world?"

I'm well aware that typewritten material wouldn't be taken now. But I do remember enjoying, and doing more, real writing before the PC came into my life. (I mean, it can be disheartening when there are crashes*--you don't feel it's worth it after a while, while paper never crashes) Once I got a drawing tablet similar fears arose. But I didn't give up my drawing board, nor did I start drawing on the computer--I turned the process into a bit of a hybrid.

On the other hand: in typewriter days I never wrote stuff in longhand, always right into the machine.(blame the film of NAKED LUNCH, a film that fetishizes typewriters in a way you could never do with a computer) Now? I write everything first that way.

Formatting, I think, is the enemy. Once I started only allowing that once I was done with the words, things went faster. But it is so easy to get bogged down in it.

*Nice try, Mac people who are about to tell me to switch, but I've crashed Macs too. Myth exploded.