Yeah, well they aren't actually that smart. I expect you're going to have to explain this simple two-step logical exercise over and over and over again and, even then, I'm not optimistic they'll get it.

The gutter right media will never care what Glenn Greenwald has to say about anything.

You know, doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results is...nuts.

Does your confidence in Sen. Clinton require this kind of fantasy?

But when you do all that and see the slop computer matching comes up with...

Maybe these men you date are just as mercinary as you are.

Take out the creative writing and the story is something like:

GOP strategizes against perceived demo front runner

Wow.

...which is that men her age are spoiled (unless they are, of course, "slop").

Since I'm 47, I therefore must be either spoiled or slop. More complicated options are ruled out, apparently. How about it, Cary? Spoiled or slop?

The LW has many options. Like younger/same age/older, spoiled/"slop", and male/female (hey, she could be bi). This person has only tried spoiled, same age, male...that leaves out a lot of people. Maybe she would consider some of these great offers coming up in the Cary Tennis letters section.

Anyway, according to Ben Dover, Brightstar et. al., nobody would want me anyway.

I think they call this a "strawman" argument.

Why this anger directed specifically at older women? If we're all so gross and disgusting, why not just leave us alone and go chase after sweet, young hotties?

Some men over 40 are actually attracted to women their own age, and have issues. Go figure.

This kind of thing doesn't sit well with people who take a more rational approach to romance. But I wonder how many relationships (both long and short term) actually got started for seemingly silly reasons.

I remember my mom telling me a long time ago that she liked my dad because he looked a little like Humphrey Bogart. And someone I dated for a while once told me that I looked liked Bryan Adams...apparently she was a fan of Mr. Adams. She went on to get a Ph.D. in psychology, so you could hardly accuse her of being a ninny.

to members of the "salon". However, the war is going to end in Iraq because of the fact that we're losing it, not because of the story that we're losing it.

There is no link between the left blog world and the war because there's no broad-based antiwar movement, and no draft. The war is unpopular, but so is Paris Hilton. It's just another story in the paper, unless of course your son lost his legs there. And if that's the case you might just as likely be riding the Patriot Train as not.

So the "truth" reaches a fever pitch in certain groovy enclaves, with little obvious effect on the culture. Of course the president is polling low but at this point what difference does that make? Oh, I forgot: the cool kids are outing the MSM. Pass me an iPhone...lets email-bomb the White House...

The LW should take a break from the creative life and go on a trip to the local Target, or Home Depot maybe. Listen to the conversations...glance at the faces. Take four or five hours. Think about what it all means. Does it mean anything?

Good writers also have empathy. If you could get past a writing tone that obviously grates against your genius-worshipping sensibilities, you might see a person in pain. Oh wait, no you wouldn't.

Like the letter-writer's friend, I also go "off the radar" for long periods of time, lose friends, and have nothing left over afterwards that can be easily fashioned into a "narrative".

The problem might be that she just doesn't trust you.

...is she doing it on porpoise?

A few years ago I was unemployed for a stretch and decided to volunteer at the local Unitarian church, as an exercise in self-improvement. The group where I volunteered - the "Social Justice Committee" - was made up mostly of upper-middle class white people. They did a lot of strategic planning around social justice issues, because after all this country is operating under a distorted class construct, spearheaded by the right.

Although I'm caucasian, I'm also lower-middle class and as such never really hit it off with these wonderful people. You may not be a "pill", but you're probably "acting out of class," which may or may not be a bad thing. It probably doesn't mean all that much to the homeless people you're eating with, but I could be wrong.

Usually, as people age, they make mistakes and experience misfortune to some extent. So they develop empathy for others. How one might develop authentic empathy without having any bad luck, or without making any bad choices, is an interesting question.

The comparison between Nazi Germany and the Bush administration is off-topic. The problem of whether or not someone should disown their parents for political reasons can be discussed on its own merits, without substituting "Nazi" for "Republican" (no, I'm not a Republican).

Unless we start substituting "moron" for "anonymous".

My parents were Republicans. I'm more of a moderate, but one brother has gone in a really crypto-leftist direction (for example, he thinks that 911 was a government conspiracy to justify the Iraq war). The worst part is how his opinions are delivered with a kind of smug certainty that precludes any actual discussion.

I don't talk to him anymore.

The cool kids have spoken.