I might feel differently if I had grown up in Texas.

Believe me, you would.

Living in Texas without air conditioning is probably impossible.

Basically, yes.

Anyone who grew up there grew up with air conditioning, as sure as they grew up with refrigerators and other modern conveniences.

Yep.

In Texas, you grow up with AC the way you grow up with religion. It sticks with you. It becomes a part of you. You believe.

Actually, in Texas, AC is more important than religion, in that pretty much every one is a believer.

Right now, the heat index here in Austin is 98. Our AC is broken. As luck would have it, the repairman just arrived. Praise the lord!

All sorts of things, in fact. Things like pink elephants, the tooth fairy, unicorns, the Easter Bunny, Sasquatch, his mother's kind heart and generosity, leprechauns...

I received an invitation to subscribe to the NY Times in the mail today. Instead of shredding it as I normally would, I'm sending it back with a handwritten post-it note saying "I will not subscribe as long as Michael Gordon is employed by the Times. Fire him, and then we can talk."

If you are a "social values" Christian, like Vitter, and you happend to be caught using the services of a hooker, then it's only a matter between Vitter his family and God, and it's nobody else's business. Nothing to see here, folks, move along...

However, if you are a wayward sinner like Bill Clinton, then something like an extra-marital affair between consenting adults is the business of the entire country, and requires lawsuits, impeachment, and media scrutiny of the highest order for years, and in some ways, for the rest of his life.

Great. I get it.

Written by the immortal Harlan Howard and Bobby Braddock:

You say that you're born again

Cleansed of your former sins

You want me to say I'll forgive and forget

But you've done too much to me,

Don't you be touchin' me

Go back and touch all those women you met.

chorus

God may forgive you... but I won't

Yes, Jesus loves you... but I don't.

They don't have to live with you,

Neither do I.

You say that you're born again

Well, so am I

God may forgive you... but I won't

I won't even try.

The kids used to cry for you,

I had to try to do

Things that a dad should do,

since you were gone.

You really let us down

You may be heaven-bound

But you made one hell of a mess here at home.

of something that happened when I was five. I went with my father and my sister to get my mother a bicycle for her birthday. After getting a lecture on the way home about not telling my mother what her gift was, I burst in the door from the garage and declared, "Mom, I'm not going to tell you what we got you for your birthday, but you can ride it." Mind you, I was five. I've learned to watch my mouth since then. Bush hasn't. What a doofus.

The term "pseudo" is thoroughly unnecessary between "neoconservative" and "intellectual." It's redundant, and already understood "as is" by any reasonable person.

No one ever talks about the shortcomings of Farenheit 9/11? That's a good one. But off the top of my head, I think the most important distinction is that Farenheit 9/11 was a MOVIE, and as opposed to a news story. I shouldn't have to explain why that's such an important distinction.

I wrote my post in response to "Anonymous," not you. I didn't see your post until after I had already posted mine. I would have made my comments more specifically directed had I seen your post first. My apologies for being too vague.

That being said, I don't see why you have to be such a dick. You need to learn when a nudge with the elbow is more appropriate than a whack over the head with a baseball bat. Especially when responding to comments directed at someone else.

ps--you ought to consider not taking yourself so seriously, and save the ad-hominem attacks for your own blog.

I agree. Lydia seems to be employing the "We'd stop doing so much drugs if those dealers would just go away" line of reasoning.

Maybe I'm too cynical this morning, but I think now that news is strictly a business, and editorial content and reportage has learned to follow the dollar signs, I truly belive we have passed the point of no return. To the point even that the blogoshere will have little or no influence on the MSM. Trying to shame the MSM is a sisyphean task at best when so much money is involved.

prefer a state of war to a state of peace. I don't see how you can come to any other conclusion no matter how you look at it. They will grasp at any excuse whatsoever to perpeutate and prolong this useless, senseless war.

A few days after the 2004 election, I asked my neocon younger brother how he felt about the 1,000 soldiers who had been killed in Iraq (at that time). His answer?

"Well, that's what they get. At least during war-time, they actually have to earn their pay."

I think this sort of contempt for our men and women serving in the military is fairly common, if unspoken, among the cheerleaders of this "war." From the President on down to the College Republicans. It certainly explains the ease with which they are sent into battle war after war, and also explains how the "Decider" and his fervent supporters can sleep so comfortably at night. With "supporters" like these, who needs "the enemy"?