I find it highly comical that these wingnuts have to resort to such cowardly tactics in order to get the last word.

I've never made that connection between Steele and Alexina before, but I can see it now that you mention it. The only thing I haven't yet seen from Alexina is stuff related to Israel (ala Steele) but I guess that'll be coming soon.

Here's an interesting thing (to me, at any rate): think of the untold billions of humans in Africa and Asia (both southwest and east) who're entirely ignored for the most part by American media--you'd think they didn't even exist. But Israel, oh gosh, the planet's well-being hinges on the outcome there (and I say this with no disrespect to either Israelis or Palestinians--merely as a comment on stupidity). One the one hand, that's apropos of nothing; on the other, consider how such things dominate our discourse.

This is what it means to be bamboozled.

I'm game for anything. Here in Boise, Idaho, there isn't a lot going on so thank God for the internet (and that RetroTV channel I referred to a few days back).

About HR Puf 'N Stuff, dwg, well, you didn't miss anything. It was some weird psychedelic program made when words like "psychedelic" were cool. What was really bizarre, I always thought, was "Land of the Lost". I mean, that was right down my line--alternative history, dinosaures, early hominids (essentially, a fundamentalist's version of planetary history where all of life takes place within the past 6,000 years), and a pretty sorry family that exhibited no sex drive whatsoever, even though two of the three were teenagers (and the Dad couldn't have been more than, say, 35). It was a lotta laughs.

I can say this as someone who has more than most. I don't mind paying my share. I understand that the price of having a decent and just society may be that I have to pay my share. I have no problems with that. I also understand that that society may not look exactly the way I'd like it to look. Again, I understand and accept it.

See, this is why you're a good guy (you, too, dwg).

How many of the weirdos here would even hint at being willing to help their neighbors? Not one. They can barely wait to describe how they'll eviscerate them should those folks become indebted.

And--almost certainly--they all go to church on Sunday, proud in the delusion that their holiness will grant them access to heaven, even as the scum of the earth (also known as human beings) burn in misery.

Man.

Yes, I enjoyed that casualness as well. It's good stuff (and fun!) to talk about, say, old-timey television, or whatever else enters the mind. As intense as most of us are about matters political and social, there's always space for fun.

So that was a welcome respite.

What bothers me, I think, daily, is the cruelty of so many who'd passively watch the deaths of their neighbors, shrug perhaps, then go on cleaning their windshields, mowing their lawns, or lamenting the minority that just moved in to that empty house on the block.

And so we strive to better ourselves as humans.

these people who believe in those types of policies are the first who would scream bloody murder about injustice when/if they suffered any sort of social and/or economic setback.

Completely right. These--okay, I'm gonna say it, fucks--who want to hammer mercilessly on others, well, when the shoe's on the other foot, gosh, their cries of injustice will bring down the heavens.

It is utterly revolting, appalling, pathetic (and any other appropriate adjective) to have these people whine about the potential loss of their protected status, descended as they are from John Smith and that ragtag Mayflower bunch (which we'd nowadays refer to as 'homeless').

Grover Norquist is well-known as the speaker of the line

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

This is the enlightened view of an enlightened man living in an enlightened society. Or, more appropriately, this is the sort of caveman the rest of us must fight daily to create a better world.

About Ayn Rand,

Was a seer and a savant and Atlas Shrugged, quite frankly, should be required reading in all public schools.

Had you said idiot and left off the "savant"part, we'd be in agreement.

I really don't get folks like you. What exactly are you promoting? Rand was a mind-numbing "writer" (I'll give her the benefit of the doubt there) who thuggishly promoted a merciless political and social "philosophy" (again, giving her the benefit of the doubt). What's worth defending about that?

I didn't check this person's archive (foolish me) and am glad you did, then highlighted the appropriate parts. Here's what I found amusing

"Of course every personal malfeasance and indiscretion was supposed to be annulled and remitted by adherence to the proper ideology, hence one was free to lead as abandoned and even vicious a life as he desired, so long as he continued to proclaim the proper political pieties and platitudes he had picked up along the way.

Now I ask you, who talks that way? It reminded me of reading English literature in high school (which EricThor apparently didn't) and nodding off after about 5 seconds.

clearly You mean integral, I believe, not intrical, which doesn't exist as a word. Anyway, I don't disagree that Carter made a bad move supporting Afghani fighters against the Soviets. But, you know, that's just not comparable to the mayhem GWB unleashed upon this planet. You may disagree with me, of course, but I ask you--as a reasonable person--do you think these are comparable?

Be honest now.