Humes Ghost asked: 'What is it about D.C. that eats peoples brains and souls?'

I'm sure you remember the old Simpson's episode where Krusty did something very unethical & when he was called on it by Lisa/Bart, started crying & said something to the effect of 'You don't understand. They drove a dumptruck full of money to my house!'

Mr. Gibson & his fellow journalistic lackeys get paid huge sums of money (Gibson probably gets > 2 million a year). Think about that now. That's a monthly salary of

167,000 dollars.

He knows that if he doesn't toe the line, then that salary will go to some other toadie.

For people in that tax bracket, the Bush years have been very, very good.

Cintra Wilson still wrote for Salon.

FWIW, I have never read any of the Narnia books, nor have I watched either movie.

Professor Tolkien (an academic peer to Mr. Lewis at Oxford) thought that Mr. Lewis stole stuff from him (Professor Tolkien would read parts of LOTR as he was writing/polishing it) & also disliked his hamhanded Christian allegory that suffused his books (according to Profesor Tolkien).

Thus, due to my deep reverance for LOTR & J.R.R. Tolkien, I must pass on reading/watching 'Narnia' (which I have always thought would have been a great name for a pirate island/hangout: "Avast there ye scurvy dogs, where be ye heading? To our secret hideout, Narnia, gnar!").

who asked: 'Do you also boycott Shakespeare? Tolkien hated him.

Tolkien was a brilliant writer but, like all people, he had his moments of behaving like a blithering idiot.'

Since I have riposted with you before, I will assume that you would have some documentation to back up your assertion that Mr. Tolkien hated Mr. Shakespeare.

I have a book that contains a collection of many of Mr. Tolkien's letters. I haven't read it in years, but when I did I was primarily focused on some extra musings about the world of LOTR (what would have happened if Frodo had kept the ring at Mt. Doom, etc.) & just stumbled into his screeds about Mr. Lewis. Other letters, which probably include the anti-Shakespeare stuff, I evidently did not read.

I would say that I generally don't read Shakespeare, as his works (poems excluded) are mostly in the form of a play & I personally dislike reading plays. I would have no problem seeing many of Mr. Shakespeare's plays performed (Macbeth is the most recent I have attended). So, I guess I'll have to part ways with Mr. Tolkien on this matter.

I would, however, like to read Mr. Tolkien's critique of Shakespeare to see why he disliked the bard. Probably something about allegory ;-)

I was just at a extended family get-together & as part of the festivities, we went to a karaoke bar. This was the first time I had ever seen it 'in real life'.

The DJ has some kind of software set up & you choose your song & when it comes up there is a big screen you (and audience) can see which gives the lyrics (lead singer only) & the words change color at the speed you are supposed to sing them. Neato!

Anyway I listened to some good karaoke & some bad. The worst was when some drunk (white) dude decided to cover the immortal 'Ice, Ice, Baby) by very white 'rapper' Vanilla Ice. The mad rhymes come pretty quickly & the drunk dude couldn't keep up & only occasionally managed to croak out a random 'ice, ice, baby'. We gave him a round of applause for being so willing to embarrass himself.

Rhythm is hard (when you're looped).

I tend to agree with others who have already posted that this 'townhall' stuff would tend to play to McCain's strengths.

Sen. Obama is going to have to find a way to combat the tactic GW Bush used so well against VP Gore. Whenever VP Gore would list all sorts of bad and/or crazy stuff that Bush Jr. had either done or said, Bush would just get a sort of hurt expression on his face & say something to the effect of 'if he's trying to say I have a hard heart or don't care about America, then he's wrong'.

Basically, the classic Bush 'set up your own straw man & knock it down stuff' (and it worked well for him, with his simpering media sidekicks helping to protect him from the inconvenient truths of VP Gore's comments. You could see how it frustrated VP Gore (and by God did it frustrate me)).

The same thing will be done by McCain, I prophesize. Sen. Obama is a better public speaker than VP Gore, but he will have to find a way to make clean, simple statements that draw great contrast with McCain's positions & not just wait for him to flip out in public (as Gov. Richards & VP Gore both tried without success against Bush).

To those who have been salivating at McCain losing it in public, you must have a better strategery (to borrow a word) than that! I guarantee you, if GW Bush can keep his temper in check, then McCain can as well.

They'll medicate him if they have to.

We should be able to wipe the floor with McCain on any number of policy points (as well as looking presidential, charisma, etc.). We don't need to have 'get him to flip out' as a political tactic.