I'm an Obama supporter (an Obamaite or an Obamanian, if you will) & I think the mistake the Senator made was in apologizing or conceding that he had somehow defamed a segment of the American voting public.

He should have used all this publicity to relentlessly advance the critique: If you're not bitter about the way things have gone in USA last 7 years, then you must be a rich Republican with a defense contract.

The main thrust, though, would be how Republicans (and by extension GWB & McCain) just give the working classses platitudes while they shaft them economically. There are some easy stats to put up: outsourcing, fixing tax rates for wealthy, etc. that show anyone with some sense what Sen. Obama was saying.

This 'apologizing', of course, plays into the meme that Democrats are all a bunch of pansies. How much apologizing did GWB & his gang do prior to 2004 elections?

for your comments up above. I did excerpt one quote from your response I'd like to comment on: 'Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have taken over DUNE and will be producers on a new film.'

I read all of Mr. Herbert's 'Dune' books, even 'Chapterhouse Dune' & appreciated his works. Last year I bought 3 'prequel' books written by B. Herbert 'Butlerian Jihad', 'The Machine Crusade', & one other that I can't remember.

Yegods, were they bad! I staggered thru 3/4 of 'Butlerian Jihad' (that's about 400 odd pages) & I had to put it down as I couldn't read the bad writing anymore. If the other ones were any better then I'll never know as I gave them to Goodwill.

Hoping any films will be better than young Mr. Herbert's writing.

P.S. I do have 3 or 4 of the Jerry Pournelle 'Warworld' stuff. I thought it was far more readable than the Dune prequel stuff I mentioned above.

Greeneyedkzin mentioned up above: 'I can see why you'd read DUNE, with THAT name.'

That was a minor reason I liked Muad Dib's character ;-) Reminded me of me & all that. Around where I live, if you hear 'Atreides', it will usually be followed by 'goats here for that 67 Chevy up on the blocks over yonder'.

Greeneyedkzin: 'Frankly, I enjoyed the backstory -- especially the Harkonnens and the Old Duke, but that's me.'

I loved the backstory too, but this stuff was back, back, backstory (roughly 8000 years prior to events in Dune). You have robot cyberbeings controlling most of human space, Harkonnens are the good guys, Atreides are working with the 'Computer Overlord', etc. The worst thing though was the writing itself, it seemed at times like a huge Penthouse letter (not the things happening, just the level of writing).

Greeneyedkzin: 'I LIKE backstory and retroactive continuity.'

I sure do too, that's why I have like just about every legit book associated with LOTR and/or edited by C. Tolkien.

Greeneyedkzin: 'Jerry is now putting out the War World material in e-copy.'

Great! I hope to read some more about the Sauron Supermen.

I thought the 'I hate woman' stuff was Brightstar65's brand. I haven't read his theories about Mars. Probably makes for better reading than his usual comments.

I hope he posts them again (his collected works are too large for browsing through, I wonder if indexing them would qualify as a scholarly work).

Bryan Hurst asked: 'I'm trying to think of significant musical acts Lexington has given us, and I'm stuck at Richard Hell.'

I think Richmond claims them too, but a couple members of band hailed from around Lexington. Also, I think a Backstreet Boy was from Lexington.

I try not to Google if I can help it, so I might be wrong here.

hexis commented: 'When my family drove around, I was always on the look out for the municipal mating grounds because it never occurred to me that my species just did it in bed.'

I liked the turn of phrase 'municipal mating grounds' LOL!

Excellent reminicing by all the posters.

djansing asked: 'Matt Groening's genius vs. George and Chuck. Hmm. Which should I have chosen? One one hand, I've seen the Futurama episode several times already, but on the other hand, there wasn't anything George and Chuck had to offer that could compete with a rerun of Futurama, even one I've seen a dozen times.'

I went with the Futurama episode. I stand by my decision.

I am an Obama supporter. I will vote for whomever has 'D' after their name in the general election. If that is Sen. Clinton, then I hope to help make her President.

Anyone who purports to be a member of the Democratic party & will not do the same is a fuckwad, IMO.

If I was Sen. Obama, I would answer any question on the Flag Pin by making an allusion to the Pharisees in the bible. Those people who were always loudly praising God & going on & on about how holy they were, etc. For those of you who weren't raised Christian: Jesus does not have any nice things to say about the Pharisees.

Exactly how that allusion would be worded I leave to Sen. Obama. What it does is it indicates that Sen. Obama is familiar with one of Jesus's main messages: 'loudly braying about how holy you are is BS compared to the good deeds you actually do', (and that is a central message in the New Testament & anyone raised in any mainstream denomination is well aware of it) and it will allow voters to tie the hypocritical actions of the 'Flag Pin Wavers' to those same Pharisees (who Jesus despised).

He could also make a humorous remark that when he sees losers like Cheney, Bush, Rice, etc. strutting around with theirs, it sort of loses its cachet (probably not use the word 'cachet', it sounds French/elitist).

good point about 'shine' vs 'cachet' LOLing on that one!