I'll certainly second your tendency to be a little mean to the Boomers. I was born in '73 and I am a sick of their moldy cultural narratives as much as any Xer.

But I think you are actually far too nice. The idea that Boomers were all hippies dancing naked in the mud at Woodstock, smoking pot and protesting Vietnam war is just another one of their false narratives. Of course all that happened but it was a tiny minority that had any connection to it, nor did it have much effect in the long run.

I am not a big fan of analyzing political trends with a generational paradigm, but I succumb to it too so here's what I think. The reality: Boomers were the generation that elected Reagan twice and spawned the "culture wars" that are still festering to this day. They are the ones responsible for setting progressive ides back 40 years and counting. They have been compared -- and I think it is an apt metaphor -- to a swarm of locusts devouring everything in its path. Big box stores, materialism, urban sprawl, reactionary politics, shallow invective masquerading as political vision and hell GW fucking Bush is what we got from the Boomers. You pointed out yourself that they elected Reagan twice.

Not that there weren't a few good ideas that came along the way -- and a lot of the music stands the test of time. But even here, Boomers ruined classic rock radio -- they tend to suck the life and vitality from everything they touch. They are almost totally oblivious to anything past 1976, and are responsible for their own share of travesties. Captain and Tennile? Carole King. Bread. We choke on it to this day!

Their narrative is typically self congratulating and superficial. We live in a Boomer nation, and I for one am happy to see their overbearing narcissism withering away into irrelevance as they die off. You want to know why progressive ideas have been banished to the wilderness for 35 years? Talk to a Boomer.

Way too much emphasis on highway construction. Is it for maintenance or new highways? Here in CO we have a huge maintenance backlog. Every mile of new highway will require higher outlays in the future for maintenance. Why do they never factor this in?

Also, new highway construction us just a gift to the likes of developers and WalMart, who must be salivating at this honeypot. These are the people who have given us the decaying urban sprawl and big-box retail landscape that we are stuck with today, and they should not be rewarded or encouraged to continue their rape of our cities.

This money could be far better used on investing in mass transit and commuter rail.

Wow, your posts are so dense with clever epithets, raw contempt, race baiting and fear of the pantheon of conservative enemies with which conservatives always seem to be obsessed that I really can't follow WTF you are talking about.

Are you aware that you come across like a raving, reactionary paranoiac? Or was that your intention? WTF does any of this have to do with the Paglia article? Maybe I should just read more of your incisive wit to find out what set you off. But I'm sure you'll tell us.

Keep posting brother, remind us why the GOP deserved to lose... again and again ha ha :-D

Your use of sweeping generalizations is surpassed only by your ignorance. Gay people are more "sensitive" and that's why they are so upset by bullies? Is the corollary that heterosexuals are less sensitive? What is the basis for your assertions?

You don't have to answer. You pulled it all out of your ass. You obviously have no fucking idea what you are talking about, just a bunch of half baked prejudices and theories about what goes "screwy" in the womb to make someone gay. Attitudes like yours are PART OF THE PROBLEM.

For the record, I am not gay, but I was relentlessly bullied and called a fag from 7th grade practically until I graduated high school. I was 12 when the bullying started. I was one of the skinny, unpopular kids who didn't fit in, and I can relate to the kids Ms. Harding is writing about. You're going to sit there and tell me that they just should have been tougher? Fuck you, you have no idea what it's like at an early age when you don't even understand your sexuality to get beaten up and laughed at by ignorant, homophobic jocks.

Yeah I got over it. Not without some scars. Some kids don't get over it. The problem is not with the kids. It's the bullies.

I am father to a young son. I will be damned if I am going to let him inflict that kind of misery on other innocent boys, or tell him just to tough it out if it happens to him. It is not OK, and it has nothing to do with being sensitive, you asshat.