Having now waded through the intelligent posts floating in a sea of crap, this comes late, but what the hell, right?

The question "What compels us to act as we do?" is a big one. I believe (and you're a good case in point) there are a number of us who are awake, inner-directed and processing information as well as following our own better angels, but many others are walking around, "Eyes Wide Shut", robotically, feeling the pleasure of having dropped a soma and not dealing with the sturm und drang of critical thought. So basically "us" is a flawed concept from one aspect. From another, we are all one, of course (you're now a Buddhist) so from that aspect the entire structure is doomed to fail (now you're an engineer). First, however, we are humans, so we can choose (at least those of us who choose to choose) to separate ourselves at the thinking level. This means the skeleton survives, even if the meat falls off. (Not pretty, but a structure nonetheless).

Then comes GOPAC. My take on it (and I've been exposed by a partisan who is torn between his instinctive desire to live in a past that never happend and a future he fears will never arrive) is that it is the single most dangerous institution extant in the Republic today. It's not simply a "training center", it is an indoctrination machine. It runs on Maoist principles dressed up in an Uncle Sam costume.

As for the "consumer mindset", or what Fromm referred to as "the marketing mentality", I believe it is a convenient personality disorder peculiar to the west, which has not only savaged our humanity on a day-to-day basis, but has brought down on us the wrath of the irrational Other, and has brought together (backing toward each other all unawares) the neocon movement, Christianist eschatologists, and Islamic extremists (with god-knows-what bringing up the rear). The Consumer Mindset is a disease, and wherever there is a disease, there is a faith healer ready to collect donations in order to continue the "healing ministry". Religion has co-opted the energies that would otherwise be dedicated to actual good.

Sarah Palin looks precisely like a GOPAC indoctrinee, and for that reason alone she should be isolated and deprogrammed. Since that's not gonna fly here in the Republic (yet), the best we can do is shun her. I have no problem doing that, although she's so damned entertaining (and I am such a pervert) that it's difficult to look away from the spectacle.

And yet, Fester, I remain an uncurable optimist, hopeless romantic, and true believer.

We can celebrate the falling apart of GOPAC and the Republican party shortly. Meet me at the White House.

How you can make any remarks about someone's intelligence when your boy Obama made his remark about the "57 States"? When, in the drunkest stupor of your life, would you have ever not known how many States we have?

It's true, you Limeys did a huge part of the work in resuscitating the blues at a time when most of us here in its birthplace had wandered off leaving it to die.

However...while John Mayall et al were doing a huge part of the work across the pond, John Fahey was doing it right here (and interestingly, were Fahey still alive, Mayall would still be older than him by several years). From the late 1950s John/Blind Joe was making trips from Azalea City into the deep south, hunting up the likes of Bukka White, Skip James, Roosevelt Sykes, etc. Actually he started by hunting up their recordings, but eventually he actually found them, and others as well, and was instrumental in restarting their careers. (As I listen to Skip James, in fact, I sometimes hear an eerie echo of Nick Drake -- or is it the other way around?). At any rate, John did his part, but it was you guys who somehow made the dynamite actually ignite.

I had to set that record straight (no pun intended) because Fahey was such a huge influence on me as a kid. I miss him terribly, and I swear to god, I would have voted for him had he run for President. Degrees in philosophy, psychology, and most especially in mythology and folklore would have made him the perfect candidate.

I hope you've read the liner notes (booklet, really) that comes with "The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death." It should raise more questions than it answers, and that alone tells us what sort of man John Fahey was. Oh, and it's all true, that stuff he wrote. All of it. I was there.

Turning in now, totally off-topic (or so it must seem). See you next time I'm in town. Seriously.

One has to question Conason's qualifications to critique the obvious: Gov. Palin was a mayor and is a governor. Obama once headed a not-for-profit Chicago Annenberg Challenge and sent over $100 million down the drain without an iota of improvement to the targeted children in Chicago. That, Mr. Conason is his sole qualification.

Most thinking people will take the experience of a successful mayor and a successful governor all day over someone who has never done anything except exploiting others.

"From the tenor and content of posts here it seems that a majority of contributors have yet to acquire sufficient experience of life and moderation of passions to render balanced and prudent judgments about such things as politics. They are not grounded and are easily swept away by their emotions. The capacity for sustained and sober reflection has not had time nor sufficient foundation in experience to develop and grow. Their judgments therefore cannot be counted upon to manifest wisdom and prudence."

Translation: 'Tut-tut! You malcontented rabble need to depart from this comment board and go gather some undefined life experience before you can intelligently hold forth on such matters of import as the political function of your own government. Go on, now- remove yourselves and don't come back until, oh... 2012 or so.'

I caught your late shout-out to LondonLad--and it wasn't off-topic to me ;) You two were in the know; now I get to get it, too. A highlight of the day.

Sleep well. Me, I'm off to watch Sarah on SNL...