While I didn't really care for Frontiers or anything after, my junior high purchase of Escape was to this day some of the best money I've ever spent. I still think these guys are brilliant. I often say that Schon is second only to David Gilmour as a composer of brilliantly melodic guitar solos.

It seems to me that a large part of the punk aesthetic is anti-melody ("nevermind" that Nirvana is endlessly hooky and melodic, or Green Day for that matter), and if melodies aren't your bag then obviously Journey isn't for you. Even Steve Smith's drumming is melodic forchrissake!

Thanks for sticking up for them, David

I thoroughly agree with you on the state of our health care "system", as you put it, and the resultant impovrished culture it leaves in its wake. And, I also get your criticisms of Moore's penchant for, shall we say, 'binaray' story-telling. It's nearly unbearable sometimes.

But, the ugly truth is that there are people--in much the same way (if not exactly the same way) that Moore simplifies his capital-L Liberal ideologies--who can only hear a story told in that sort of simplifed context.

It may even be that the number of people who can "ingest" the simplified version of a situation FAR exceeds the number of people who get, and love to dish about, the endless abstractions of a situation.

If the ultimate goal is to bring others around to a higher way of being--or rather, a more all-encompassing way of being--then shouldn't we support, financially, culturally, and attitudenaly the growth and nurishment of people, acts, stories, films, songs, anything, that spread the good news of oneness

After about 15 minutes. The trick is to use the placement of the ball on the paddles and movement of the paddles as you hit the ball to alter its trajectory. on screens without a wall i was often able to get it in a virtually straight line requiring little if no movement of the mouse for several volleys. In the level with the long wall on the top i got it to "adhere" to wall on one side and then the other (lengthwise) for 4 or 5 volleys.

very addictive. thanks.

Glenn,

The angle you’ve taken in this family values piece is, in one way or another, what we’re hearing from most center-left/left corners re: GOP hypocrisy. And, it obviously has its place and its potency. But, I have a serious problem with the gist of this criticism:

Infidelity, bastard children, divorce, physical/mental abuse of spouses or children are all behaviors for which the actor bears responsibility. One chooses (however consciously or not) to cheat, beat or split. Homosexuality is not chosen. One does not bear responsibility for one’s sexual orientation. To equate dysfunctional heterosexuality directly with homosexuality is its own perversion.

Granted, part of the issue here is that Craig and his ilk are choosing to be closeted and choosing to engage in illicit acts as a way of avoiding dealing with their orientation and personal responsibility comes into it as a result, but that is a bigger (and less political) problem.

The real issue here, and I think the far right can’t possibly grok it as the church to which most are beholden actively perpetuates it, is the cognitive dissonance required to live for decades as Sen. Craig has, and as Mark Foley has. I am so reminded of the scene in Angels In America where Roy Cohn sits with his doctor having recently been diagnosed with AIDS, and informs his physician that he can’t possibly have AIDS because it is a disease of homosexuals:

“Homosexuals are men who are nobody and whom nobody knows; who have zero clout. Does this sound like me, Henry? No. NO. I have clout; lots. I pick up this phone, I punch 15 numbers, you know who’s on the other end—in under five minutes, Henry?”

“The president”

“Better, Henry; his wife… This is not sophistry; and this is not hypocrisy; this is reality. I have sex with men, but unlike nearly every other man of whom this is true I bring the guy I’m sucking to the White House and President Reagan smiles at us and shakes his hand. Because what I am is defined entirely by who I am. Roy Cohn is not a homosexual. Roy Cohn is a heterosexual man, Henry, who fucks around with guys.”

And that is precisely how all of these closeted, gay, GOP leaders think. THAT is the issue. The whole family values spin is trivial, at best. I mean, the people who define themselves as values voters is a small and dwindling number of the population. Yes, they often have big megaphones, but that doesn’t give them any real power unless we capitulate.

The problem for the GOP is that they are anti-homosexual and they define that as moral. Being anti-homosexual is like being anti-nature. Sure you can hate the sun and the moon and the mountains and the streams, but they aren’t going to go away or change for you; and they aren’t really going to impact your life all that much unless your main value is channeling your hatred at them. Morality has to do with human actions. Morality doesn’t come into play at all with, for lack of a better term, “being-ness”.