Without conceding your point, I accept your implorations.

was a lot more offensive than anything I may have inadvertantly written.

...

[though, to be honest, it was, if anything, as Jebbie pointed out, inadvertantly ageist]

What Jebbie said was

I do think you have a warped view of what a person of age can and cannot do, but I think you would have the same view regardless of whether we were discussing a male or a female.

Whether or not you want to call a 'warped view' inadvertent or not, you have gone on and on defending it here. And have been adding subsequent "inadvertentlys" to the pile along the way.

I suggest you take Jebbie's further advice.

I am not intransigent, but I'll be damned if I'll let you get away with half-apologies out of one side of your mouth whilst you simultaneously lay little associative turd blossoms like "screamer" on me from the other.

I'm going to bed too before someone figures out what a crotchety old bitch I really am (besides you, omoo, I mean). ;-}

She's everything that Greenwald has been saying a reporter should be. Her age or sex has nothing to do with it.

If anything, her age makes her less susceptible to the baubles and blandishments that are the scales on the eyes of the younger, more ambitious reporters who've followed.

It's yet another reason why she is the only one asking the questions we want to have asked.

That and her obviously ponderous and pendulous gonads. ;-}

Night all.

I have to admit I was wrong about Thomas; I had seen her in a Daily Show skit recently and she didn't seem to be all there--but in hindsight, its possible she was just annoyed at the format.

I just watched this and she seems completely on top of her game, still. Though I don't really agree with some of her political analysis, especially concerning the greatness of Kennedy or her shock at "what we've become". But she is a reporter after all, not a wonk.

I found the last few minutes of this video very moving; it was, ironically enough the first thing I found when I googled her and exactly what we have been discussing here down to the verbiage. Its given me food for thought.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvUbWSmn9Bk

. . . including Helen Thomas.

She herself was accustomed to arriving at press conferences knowing in advance that she'd get to ask a question - - in fact, knowing in advance that she'd be called on to ask the first question.

It's unbecoming of her to now be carrying on and harumphing about how it was "shocking" that Nico Pitney knew in advance that he'd be called on to ask a question at a press conference.

So she's not everything a reporter should be, but who is?

Long may she harumph.

None of these folks are scheduled to teach at Georgetown next semester, Anonymust. The course titles are the tipoff: Rove on civility, Kristol on accountability, Gregory on inquisitiveness? Not in our lifetimes.

Glenn was simply poking a stick in the university's eye for its employment of Douglas Feith and Alicia Shepard.

At least Feith is long gone. MJ Rosenberg wrote in TPM Cafe in April 2008 that "the Jesuits have done themselves proud by, at long last, giving Feith his walking papers. I wonder where he'll turn up next. In a McCain administration or in the dock at the Hague?"

Shepard doesn't know why it's so important to call something torture. I'll answer her question with a question: Why is it so important to AVOID calling something torture?

Piss on the Washington Post. That corrupt, statist, neocon rag deserves to go belly-up, and the sooner the better.

GG was kidding about Rove, Kristol, and Gregory

How would we know? The great man has not seen fit to address our pitiful squeaks of distressed puzzlement over the matter.

Perhaps the Master has left us grasshoppers a fruity riddle wrapped in an nutty enigma and coated in dark chocolate to contemplate along with the sound of a one hand clap.
Whilst all the while he swans off on a pert ass spotting expedition down on Ipanema beach this weekend.

In fact, I have some suggestions for them.

There seems to be some controversy about whether Alicia Shepherd is a real Ombudsman, or not. I suggest that from now on, instead of calling herself an Ombudsman, to avoid controversy she should describe what she does at NPR. For example, she could say that she spends most of her day ignoring the reactions of her readers and listeners. She could point out that she says, "I think that's a fair point, but," a lot, right before she toes the NPR party line.

I think this approach is actually a lot more powerful, and descriptive, than simply calling herself an Ombudsman. In fact I may suggest it on her blog.

Amen. I am of the opinion that elderly women have often, if not always, been the repository of cultural wisdom throughout man's history. (woman's herstory?)

I wonder if you can help me. I've just heard that on the 4th of July the heads of slain Taliban with their balls sewn in their mouths and stuck on spikes are going to be used to line Pennsylvania ave as Barry the African is carried in a sedan chair past a cheering and adoring crowd.

Is it true that America has already stated doing "The Total Nero Thing," or will that only actually happen when Darth re takes up residence and uses Bruno as his fashion consultant.

Yes, that is so. Well, at least rhetorically. The holiday could be about the founding of a country that is run by the people and for the people. I could be a holiday that celebrates the individuals who live in this land, both recent additions and those whose families date back hundreds of years.

But it is not. It is, in fact, an homage to the Empire. A great celebration of America's military power and dominance over others, both domestic and foreign.

My mother has invited all of us to her house for a celebration. How can the wife and I refuse; mother has lost a son and a husband over the last couple of years, and the beat goes on as another relative was cremated this week. The wife and I have been in the habit of leaving town and going far out in the country on this day to avoid the Celebrations of the Empire as much as possible: and now, we will have to join in the festivities.

Even worse, the whole god damn military branch of the family will be there. All the ones who helped and those still helping to kill people world wide will be there to celebrate the wonderful tasks bestowed on us by the "compassionate creator" --- the tasks of killing anyone, anywhere who fails to obey. They have all profited greatly in material gain due to service to the empire; and they worship the giver of the bounty.

Other than that, it is just another day in paradise.