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Streetcar Line
From a Crotchety Old Man
Words to the whippersnappers.
Today, we interrupt the constant discussion of politics to vent our spleens at the under-30 generation, and at other random portions of the popular culture who have little appreciation for experience, history, manners and common courtesy, or respectful discourse backed by sustained and developed logic.
For those under 30 who do not merit the criticisms herein — and there are plenty of them — please accept apologies in advance: You are not implicated, and you know who you are.
That said…. Here are some things too many under-30s don’t seem to know, to value, or to understand:
1) A person’s level of technological proficiency is not a sign of character. Sorry, but the ability to “text” or to “Twitter” is not a window into somebody’s soul. And a refusal to join Facebook or to be “LinkedIn,” or whatever, is not an indication of being anti-social.
2) People actually still communicate by voice. It is civilized. There are reasons why people actually want to communicate by phone sometimes, or even in person. If somebody asks for a return phone call, that means they want a phone call, not a text message or an email. It means, probably, that they have follow-up questions, or comments, that are dependent on what you say to them. And it also allows people to express things, and be judged, through tone of voice. As a corollary to that, if somebody doesn’t reply to your email, it doesn’t mean they are being rude. It probably means they didn’t see the message because their inbox got too full. The proper response, therefore, to an unanswered email (after a decent interval) is, yes, a phone call.
3) Things that people did and learned more than six or seven years ago actually might be valuable. Young conservatives, in particular, often seem utterly dismissive about all the experience, the sweat, and the wisdom of everybody who built conservatism into a political and governing force — with the exception of Ronald Reagan, who the under-30s seem to revere (good) while often completely mis-citing his record, his philosophy, or his methods (bad). Yes, Ronald Reagan did compromise, often. Yes, he did communicate personally with liberals. No, he wasn’t a failure at restraining the size of government. And no, as galvanizing and admirable figure as he was, he could not have done what he did without the work and brains and courage of a whole lot of people who are frequently belittled by some under-30s.
4) Small-government conservatives and “social conservatives” aren’t necessarily at odds. For that matter, there is no automatic disconnect between “flyover country” conservatives and coastal conservatives, nor between Palin-ophiles and Palin-ophobes, nor between neoconservatives (rightly understood) and just-plain-conservatives. Corollary: The attitude of “either you’re with us or you’re against us” doesn’t work in the real world. Further corollary: Not all “moderates” are “squishes.” Some of them are weaklings with their fingers in the wind, but others actually have a coherent set of “moderate” beliefs that are worthy of respect and that, if you take the time to actually understand them, you might find more amenable to your position than you’ll ever know if all you do is castigate them.
5) Your own “personal space” doesn’t extend to all spaces where you happen to be. Just because you are a pedestrian with a right-of-way doesn’t mean you don’t have an obligation to avoid holding up traffic. Just because you have an iPod doesn’t mean you have the privilege of being oblivious to your surroundings. Just because have one of those no-hands cell phones doesn’t mean you have the privilege of talking loudly while gesticulating in fast-food lines. Just because you and a friend want to walk slowly down the sidewalk doesn’t mean you should walk two abreast with the exact spacing necessary to keep people walking behind you from passing.
6) Some subjects, and some words, and some sights, and some behaviors, are not appropriate for general public consumption. No, it’s not okay to talk loudly in a public place about your sex life. No, it’s not okay to say “cr@p” or even “$uck” around other people’s children. No, it’s not okay to wear tank tops and short-shorts on airplanes.
7) An assertion is not a reasoned argument. Nor is a series of assertions. Your opinion isn’t valuable because it’s yours; it’s valuable if you back it up with reason, with an explanation of cause and effect. And not all opinions are equally valid. And emotion, especially anger, does not an opinion make. And invective isn’t a proof of authenticity.
8) Esteem isn’t a right; it’s earned. And unlike elite colleges, real life doesn’t award you a B+ just because you show up most of the time.
9) There are certain things you must know in order to be a good citizen, among them a basic understanding of American history and civics. If you’re in college and don’t know the difference between the First Amendment and the First Commandment, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you don’t know that the U.S. Civil War was fought in the mid-19th century, or that the Constitution lists Congress as the first branch of the national government, or that the Korean War occurred between World War II and the Vietnam War, then you don’t have enough sense to be taken seriously.
10) Discimus agere agendo: We learn to do by doing. A political platform shouldn’t mean more than a political record; a promise should mean less than production; and a theory can’t replace practice. A position paper isn’t statesmanship. And short-term success is no measure of worthiness over time. Not to put too fine a point on it, but an election to office while pushing reform means absolutely nothing unless you can maintain your principles and authority to beat back the bad-old-boys after your honeymoon is over and they have re-grouped, re-strategized, and re-attacked you a few years down the line.
There. That’s enough for now. Or maybe there should be an 11: It should be only a rare occasion for columnists self-indulgently to blow off steam about the self-indulgences of others.
About the Author
Quin Hillyer is a senior editor of The American Spectator and a senior fellow at the Center for Individual Freedom. Follow him on Twitter @QuinHillyer.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (64) | Leave a comment
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yates Sealander MD | 3.27.09 @ 7:33AM
Thanks, and we both know there's a lot more
robert bulk| 3.27.09 @ 8:58AM
My daughter teaches middle school. I sent her this piece and asked her to circulate it broadly.
Geoff, "friend of frost"| 3.27.09 @ 9:09AM
Agreement, except for #4. The "social conservatives" have chased away any number of otherconservatives and Libertarians with their incessent carping and sanctimonious zealotry.
The insufferable types seem to dominate, and their lack of tolerance seems to be in gross opposition to the idea of Free Speech, but that's okay (can't help but wonder if Judy, under letters, is "pro-life" when it comes to the death sentence for killers) - - like my friend, I'm moving on. Fini.
Paul| 3.27.09 @ 9:14AM
Great piece, Mr. Hillyer. I especially like #5. Working in Manhattan it is not right the way some folks cross the street at a corner as lackadaisically as they can when a car trying to make a right turn is holding up a dozen cars behind it. Can't you just walk a little more briskly to help keep traffic moving?
Keith| 3.27.09 @ 9:40AM
Geoff,
If you actually believe there is no difference between abortion and the execution of a murderer, I suggest you refer to #7.
Geoff| 3.27.09 @ 9:42AM
Thank you for proving my point. Adios.
DrWho| 3.27.09 @ 9:49AM
Keith, your opinion isn't valuable because it's your own etc. etc.
Perhaps pro-life should be renamed to pro-some-life-but-not-all-life-and-I'll-decide-which-is-which.
Vietnam Vet in Coommunist MA| 3.27.09 @ 10:26AM
DrWho & Geoff "friend of frost": I can always tell a social liberal when they call themselves a 'fiscal conservative'. I am pro-life because I believe that life begins at conception and the embryo/fetus/unborn child thus deserves the full protection of the law. This is perfectly consistent with supporting the death penalty -- if you wantonly take a life, you should be punished by forfeiting yours! Your liberal bias prevents you from understanding this logic.
Ned| 3.27.09 @ 10:29AM
Right On, Dude.
Thomas| 3.27.09 @ 10:30AM
Oh goody. Abortionists are back. In keeping with the spirit of the article, let me explain the difference between abortion and adjudicated execution.
Both practices kill human beings. This is the similarity between the two. Now that we have gotten that out of the way, let's explore the differences, shall we. In the case of legal execution, the party being executed has committed a heinous crime against the body of society. He has proven himself to be a patent danger to other members of society and, in some cases, even to society itself. He has proven himself to be such a threat that his re-entry into society is unthinkable to a rational human being. This is the point where people invariably bring up the internment for life option. That would be valid, if the perpetual incarceration of the heinous criminal could be guaranteed. Unfortunately, it can not. Therefor, in order to guarantee that the heinous criminal can not re-enter society, either by escape or some type of judicial fiat, society resorts to execution of the individual to safeguard the rest of her citizens. I know, here comes the argument of "What if the society makes a mistake and the individual is innocent?" Well, in the first place. The condemned criminal is afforded a decade, or more, of legal appeals in which to prove his innocence and have his conviction set aside. But, the bottom line is if humanity and its constructs [society] were perfect, then we wouldn't have criminals and we wouldn't be having this discussion. Because of this lack of perfection, execution should be, and now is, reserved for those persons who have demonstrated their callous disregard for human life and through that their extreme danger to society.
Now, abortion. Those opposed to abortion hold a very simple belief. That is the belief that human life begins at conception, not at birth. Strangely, this is a belief that is apparently held by a majority of the states and the Federal government, as it has been legislatively deemed a homicide if a fetus as young as seven weeks is killed through criminal action. So if a fetus is a human being and a heinous mass murderer is a human being and your mother is a human being , why can't we just kill any of them at will? Because, the mass murderer is a demonstrable threat to society. Mom and the fetus are not. The mass murderer gets numerous opportunities to prove that he is, in fact, innocent of the crime. Yet, the harmless unborn individual has no such opportunity. With absolutely no judicial review, no appeals of sentence, in fact no crime, the unborn individual is killed out of hand; for convenience, by its mother.
Now, it is interesting to note that many people who oppose the death penalty support abortion. Why? Usually because, in their opinion, human life begins at birth, not conception. The question here is, what if they are wrong? Tens of millions of unborn children have been legally killed in the U.S alone, by their mothers, since the decision in Roe v. Wade. In the same time only a little over one hundred convicted murderers have been executed. All of the aborted human beings were innocent, while most, if not all, of the criminals were not.
Don't see a difference here? Look a little closer.
Jim| 3.27.09 @ 10:47AM
Killing innocence and killing the guilty are the same. Okay, got it. One court, one decision for all for the former vs many courts, many lawyers and many years of appeals for the latter. That seems fair.
Pro-lifer's are just so inconsistent and contradictory in their arguments. You pro-choice folks are so b"right". My envy.
Jim| 3.27.09 @ 10:57AM
And from one crotchety old man to another, kudos.
Geoff| 3.27.09 @ 11:12AM
Swapped a couple e-mails with frost. He’s gone, too much suffocating and narrow-minded (dogmatic’s a good word too) preaching. He’s now apparently 86’d this site, heading for more “openness” and less Fire’n’Brimstone:
http://www.rationalreview.com/
http://www.libertyforall.net/
http://www.vinsuprynowicz.com/
Thanks Thomas -- I've also exited... stage right.
Thomas| 3.27.09 @ 11:42AM
Jim,
Thank you for the intelligent, reasoned response to my arguments. You could have saved yourself a lot of time by simply replying "Oh, yeah?"
Thomas| 3.27.09 @ 11:43AM
So long, Geoff.
Pingback| 3.27.09 @ 12:31PM
Topics about Phones » The American Spectator : From a Crotchety Old Man links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Oldefarte| 3.27.09 @ 1:02PM
As a 63 year-old, I'm going to take seniority status as a CROTHETY OLD MAN over Quin, and respectfully disagree with him [sort of]. The phone [in my opinion] can be an obnoxious nuisance/intrusion, and an instrument for irrelevent communication at times [as seen by the explosive dissemination of cell phones in existance today]; whereas email forces the user to apply certain cognitive abilities in thought profession. As to yesteryear's knowledge of things Reaganisk, I will go further in my rememberances of conservative Barry Goldwater and his response to the left's critisism of his non-liberalism, by his saying that EXTREMISM IN THE DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE [which is applicable more than ever today]. For those of you over the age of 10, Democrat Lyndon Johnson, the supposed conservative Texas Democrat, soundly trounced Goldwater, the supposed war-mongering Republican; and thereafter gave us the Great Society governmental welfare programs, which we taxpayers are still paying for today. As to Quin's diffentation among conservatives, if all conservatives, moderates, sane Democrats, and taxpayers don't begin to wake up and smell the roses concerning the current extremists in Washington, this country will quickly turn banana republic-like. As to moronic children's use of vulgarities, it simply describes their illiteracy and ignorance of the more appropriate words, COPULATE and EXCREMENT; and is the indictment of the unionism of our public school system. On the subject of esteemism being a right, I guess that Ted Kennedy's straight A Harvard grades translates into his being classified as an esteemed US senator [joke,folks]. Finally, I will interpret Quin's DISCIMUS rule as applying to our current president, although I still maintain that his pre-election platform, theories, thoughts,etc all SHOULD HAVE alerted most conservatives, moderates, sane Democrats, and taxpayers to his extremism, but unfortionately it did not do so!!!!
Doug Welty| 3.27.09 @ 3:17PM
I've yet to hear or read a "coherent set of 'moderate' beliefs," 25+ years after having turned 30.
Crusader| 3.27.09 @ 3:47PM
If you have to compromise "conservatism" so "conservatives" like frost and jeff stay, well, no thanks. Good riddance. Like I said previously, I do not compromise life.
Pat| 3.27.09 @ 4:04PM
Young folks: Pay no attention to the aging Boomer behind the curtain. There's nothing wrong with you, it's simply that Boomers are growing old and that literally scares the heck out of them. They never thought it would actually happen (yeah, I know, but no one said Boomers possess an overabundance of common sense). So they distract themselves through the highly satisfying practice of finding fault with the younger generation, while secretly envying you your youth and optimism about the future.
Boomers don't have much to be optimistic about. They're getting old, their carefully hoarded fortunes are gone with the wind of the "credit market crisis", 401-k's melting away like icicles in Springtime. The startling realization is kicking in that you under-30's will determine their future welfare - you may even determine their future existence. The great ponzi scheme that is social security and medicare doesn't provide the psychological comfort it did only 10 short years ago. Furthermore, you'll get to choose their taxpayer financed nursing home, you may even decide to pull the plug on some of the more hopeless cases to avoid enormous medical expenses - and they won't be able to stop you.
It's no fun getting old despite what the "feel-good" peddlers write for AARP Magazine or the experts say during their frequent interviews on aging gracefully. Anxiety drives Boomers to tell you what to do to improve yourselves, they have a vested interest in seeing you succeed - their future economic welfare depends on it.
Your kindly cookie baking grandma or the granddad that took you fishing do deserve your love and respect, but don't confuse those feelings with respect for the wisdom of the Boomers. The mess we see now is a direct result of that selfsame "wisdom" and your generation will be the ones responsible for correcting the mistakes. The best advice is when a Boomer wants to share his or her wisdom with you, listen patiently and then do just the opposite.
Bram| 3.27.09 @ 4:50PM
#10 - The young soldiers checking into my National Guard unit had not hiked nearly far enough, cleaned enough latrines, or generaly suffered enough pain to have an opinion on anything. It was my duty to help them with this - most of them were okay after a while.
Matteo | 3.27.09 @ 6:05PM
Geoff, you don't think that killing babies showcases a certain lack of tolerance?
Pingback| 3.27.09 @ 6:08PM
Top 10 List of Annoying Millennial Habits | Axis of Right links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Phil| 3.27.09 @ 6:15PM
I agree with all that was said but Number 5 is one I firmly believe in. I am tired of having to listen to people's work, social and any other problems which they believe no one else can hear as they shout into their cell phones. My worst experience: a four-hour train trip during which I got to hear more about one man's work, his family and friends and someone's medical problems. People, life is not Get Smart; there is no cone of silence that comes with your cellphone!
bernardo| 3.27.09 @ 6:52PM
Darn it. I've said this before, and the author says it well in #4, so listen up. The lefties are on a rampage, and we must limit the damage. We can have internecine fights over abortion later. Right now we need to notice that the barn is on fire and to start working together to put it out. Things are getting serious out there.
merlin| 3.27.09 @ 10:13PM
Whatever the arguments presented for and against abortion, if one reaches the conclusion (as have most liberals) that capital punishment is horrible and abortion is a right, one's elevator does not go to the top. This is an assertion, and I additionally assert that it is obviously true. If you want to kill both or neither, we can talk, but if you hyperventilate about eliminating a murderous thug, but want to kill the most innocent human you can find something is seriouly wrong with you. More assertions and I will also assert that invalid assumptions lead to contradictions as above.
Great article, Quin.
Lady Godiva| 3.28.09 @ 12:35AM
Abortion is blessed by god.
Reagan was Right| 3.28.09 @ 1:17AM
I'm under 30, thank God you came along to tell me I was wrong. WTF.
Hooooooo| 3.28.09 @ 1:34AM
That girl thinks shes the queen of the neighborhood
Shes got the hottest trike in town
That girl she holds her head up so high
I think I wanna be her bestfriend
Rebel girl, rebel girl
Rebel girl you are the queen of my world
Rebel girl, rebel girl
I think I wanna take you home
I wanna try on your clothes too
When she talks, the revolutions coming
In her hips, theres revolution
When she talks, I hear the revolution
In her kiss, I taste the revolution
Rebel girl...
That girl thinks shes the queen of the neighborhood
I got news for you, she is!
They say shes a slut, but I know
She is my bestfriend
Rebel girl, rebel girl, rebel girl
I really like you, I really love you
I really wanna be your bestfriend
Love you like a sister always
Soul sister, blood sister
Please be my rebel girl
Kevin Riley O'Keeffe | 3.28.09 @ 4:42AM
"Perhaps pro-life should be renamed to pro-some-life-but-not-all-life-and-I'll-decide-which-is-which. "
Yeah, or better yet, perhaps we could just acknowledge the simple reality that "pro-Life" is, for 95 percent of the American public, short-hand for "believes abortion should be illegal," and not play insincere word games.
Kevin Riley O'Keeffe | 3.28.09 @ 4:49AM
" Young folks: Pay no attention to the aging Boomer behind the curtain. There's nothing wrong with you, it's simply that Boomers are growing old and that literally scares the heck out of them."
I don't know about that. I was born in 1970, and most of what he said rang fairly true to me.
"The best advice is when a Boomer wants to share his or her wisdom with you, listen patiently and then do just the opposite. "
Never-the-less, as a general rule, this isn't a bad one.
syn| 3.28.09 @ 6:57AM
"There's nothing wrong with you, it's simply that Boomers are growing old and that literally scares the heck out of them."
Born in 1961 I'm the last of the Boomers; for the first 40 years of my life all I ever heard was I should abort my children so I could have an important career however oddly enough since I turned 40 what I see are paranoid, single 40+plus women who desperately need someone to take care of them in their old age so they buy some sperm to get that youthful care taker.
How stupid was I? I never acknowledged the fact that even though I was female I was not the human being being aborted!
My gender sucks; she is weak, hapless, paranoid, and emotionally-stilled.
Sure, Gloria Steinem may have burned our bras however she left a legacy of sagging sized-DDD siliconed boobs warn on anorexic, skeletal bodies with botox-stiffed faces screaming about the plight of Eve Ensler's va-jay-jay.
Beware the Ides of Boomers who executed life in order for themselves to live eternal on steroidal youth juice, they're vampires...blood-sinking vampires.
My ge-ge-ge-generation, the most vile of all.
Pingback| 3.28.09 @ 9:35AM
From a Crotchety Old Man « Depravity links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Deborah | 3.28.09 @ 10:01AM
Just a little note -- Boomers didn't make abortion legal. That happened in 1972 or 1973 (can't remember). Many Boomers were still in high school or elementary school then. I was 20 or 21. Not a lot of decision-making done by Boomers then.
There's a generation with no name between the Greatest and the Boomers -- Gloria Steinham, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, all of the Chicago 7, the leaders of the Weather Underground (Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn), also the Black Panthers -- were all of that un-named generation. I'm sure many Boomers were influenced by their like (Barack Obama is one Boomer who was especially influenced as was Hillary Clinton). Bill Clinton and GW Bush were both born in 1946, the first year of the Boomers.
Just a little misunderstood history I like to correct occasionally. Go on, however, keep bashing the Boomers. We can take it.
macdaddy| 3.28.09 @ 11:14AM
As a pro-lifer who believes in capital punishment, I will be happy to trade capital punishment for outlawing abortion in a New York minute. Any takers? Didn't think so.
syn| 3.28.09 @ 11:15AM
Deborah perhaps you're feeling a terribly guilty about the mess our own self-absorbed, narcissistic baby-boomer generation made is no doubt the main reason why you must revise what is a Boomer?
Our parents had us Boomers and we in turn believed we had the right to kill our children; own up to it Baby Boomer...you've come a long way!
Another reason why my gender sucks...she cannot face her inhumanity; she must hide Medea's barbarism.
pete the mediocre| 3.28.09 @ 11:25AM
I have never understood the rationale behind equating the life of an innocent unborn baby to that of a cold-blooded murderer.
It is my pro-life stance that leads me to support the death penalty. The value of a human life is upheld by requiring the forfeiture of the murderer's own life.
Oldefarte| 3.28.09 @ 11:53AM
Pat: Presuming your advice to the younger generation comes from your own post-boomer status, you may wish to reconsider your apparent ignorance. The current generation has now given us Barack Hussein [Barry] Obama & Company[and their save-the-world/governmental welfare agenda], who are currently driving the bus [owned by all of us], directly over the cliff of existance. Instead of going broke, boomers are the only ones with any assets left, after the liberal welfare-mongers in government [in response to the moronic young leftists that predominately occupy university campuses at present and their mindless brainwashed, devotion to their socialistic professors] seem to have succeeded in converting America from a capitalistic to a socialistic country. After we save the karibu, the spotted owl, and all of the genius marine life in our existance, and transfer our wealth to the stupid, lazy, indigents among us; we'll be left with walking from home to office [that is, if there are any jobs remaining]. We won't have to worry about buying any material goods, since all factories/utilities will have been shut down, due their pollution ramifications on all of us kumbyya, tree-hugging, bearded monks. As to the younger generation straightening out our current problems, I guess they demonstrated their intellectual prowess in that regard by their insane devotion to, and election of, Barry. Yea, we knew life as it existed say two years ago, which was due to the efforts of the combined, previous generations including boomers; so now let see what life resembles at the end of the next 20 years [when your marvelous current generation has had a chance to wave its majic wand of stupidity]!!!!!
Pat| 3.28.09 @ 12:07PM
It's a Boomer trait to get hyper-picky whenever criticism is directed their way - they picked it up in the 60's arguing with the authorities over what is or is not a drug. LSD was Debate Topic Prime among college age Boomers - is it in fact a drug? Should it be illegal? Why? What about organic, non-manufactured drugs like peyote or marijuana? Shouldn't those be considered non-drugs and in their own seperate, and legal, categories?
Boomers loved to argue the finer points of everything drug related, usually while they were high on something - and thus their love of jibber-jabbering over technical detail was born, plus it brings back good, although somewhat hazy, memories.
So, is someone born in 1945 merely a silent generation Pre-Boomer as opposed to someone born in 1946 - an authentic Boomer? For a Boomer reliving their dream-state debates at Woodstock, those few minutes before and after midnight on New Years Day 1946 make all the difference in generational classification - and may explain why the Boomer generation produced so many lawyers.
And what is the final year of the Boomer generation? Some say 1964, others stretch it to 1968 or even 1970, although some cutoff early, say 1961. There could be Latter-Day Boomers out there - who says it has to be purely mathematics -it could be more a state of mind - or an attitude.
And, you young under-30 folks, pay no attention to Boomers criticizing your affinity for technology, their love for technology far out-stripped your own. More enjoyable than an IPOD, easier to use than a cell phone, more reliable than a 64 bit Windows Vista PC, the Birth Control Pill first appeared during the Boomers' years of glory -and it was immediately and lovingly embraced like a prodigal son returning home.
Birth Control Pills and drugs - Boomers don't actually consider those two inventions to be technology, not like an IPOD is technology. In their minds, The Pill isn't really an example of technology, it might even come from a tree or a bush. But, without the Pill and the drugs, a Boomer's life was sadly diminished - there'd be nothing to do on week-ends. Accidents happen of course and drug impaired memories sometimes forgot whether the Pill had been taken last Tuesday or maybe not taken. But when that happened there was abortion technology to solve any long lasting after-effects. Of course, that was old technology - been around for centuries.
So, don't let them kid you, Boomers were far more in love with technology than your generation can conceive. Technology gave young Boomers their first taste of life without consequences. It made their lives worth living and took away all the bad things. When young Boomer males were leaving for Canada to escape the Viet Nam War draft, the two things they always told their girlfriends was don't leave my stash laying around where my buddies might find it and don't forget to take your Pill. Let's meditate on the lessons contained therein to the sounds of the Beatles - please pass the bong.
- -| 3.28.09 @ 12:37PM
Pre-Boomers, Pat, were the "Greatest Generation," certainly unequaled since... downhill ever since.
Oldefarte| 3.28.09 @ 12:47PM
Pat: Instead of watching so many reruns of the 60's radical Peter Fonda's EASY RIDER [and typifying boomers from same], try observing Hollywood's current liberal-dejour Sean Penn's INTO THE WILD, as a synopsis of the current generation's pathetic lifestyle and attitude!!!!
- - | 3.28.09 @ 3:08PM
Fell into this site almost accidentally a week or two ago and, after the last few days, can't help but wonder if The American Spectator is not actually mis-named -- could be the Anti-Choice or the Anti-Abortion or the Pro-Birth, or, "A Pox on Anyone Who Does Not Agree With Us" page....
Just wondering, as skins seem to get thinner and thinner almost daily.
As with a few others, think I'll also depart. Bye.
Geoff| 3.28.09 @ 4:19PM
--(heh-heh-heh) - wish I'd said that. This is just like the old "preaching to the choir" thing. Came back to just chaeck and see if ther'd been any changes. Guess not.....
Alan Brooks| 3.28.09 @ 11:01PM
fine, depart-- troll elsewhere.
more for us.
Pingback| 3.29.09 @ 8:48AM
Topics about Phones » From a Crotchety Old Man links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.29.09 @ 12:32PM
Topics about Airplanes » Archive » From a Crotchety Old Man links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
John N| 3.29.09 @ 3:45PM
"Fell into this site almost accidentally a week or two ago" calls himself "--". What do you call someone who has been a reader for almost thirty years? I'm sure it involves most of the characters above the numbers.
Ran| 3.29.09 @ 5:07PM
Quin, just asking: "No, it's not okay to wear tank tops and short-shorts on airplanes." Um, does this rule apply to women, too?
Deborah | 3.30.09 @ 9:19AM
No revision necessary. Just the facts, syn. "Boomers" make up a huge group of differing political philosophies. The media dubbed the "Boomers" with the left-wing wackos of the 60's because they were in their faces in the big cities. That left out a huge swath of flyover country. I'm not singing praises of my generation, just trying to make certain that when you speak of "Boomers" you're talking about a group that spans birth years of 1946-1964. My parents were of the Greatest generation, but there is a generation in between, those who were children during WWII (boomers were born after that conflict).
Most boomers (at least those that I know) did pretty much what their parents did -- worked hard, raised families and had to compete with many other boomers for jobs. I hate Social Security, and we have tried to save for our retirement since we knew the Ponzi pyramid would be upside down when our large generation retired. The fallacy that Boomers want to live off their children is another promoted by the media. I think Social Security is another instance of "generational theft" being continued on the generations after us. It was a Boomer, GW Bush who tried to address it. It was a Democrat Congress led by those in the generation before ours (Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid) who kept it as is.
It's socialism, communism and the left in general that has taken this country down a terrible road. It's been going on for generations and took root as those leftists got into power in media, academia and Hollywood and played to the large group that is the Boomers. Just facts that have been obscured by those really good at obscuring them -- the Democratic left.
SusieQ| 3.30.09 @ 9:50AM
I would say that many of your excellent points do not necessarily apply just to the under-30 crowd, but to our whole self-absorbed society. I have stood in many lines at the grocery store, post office, etc. only to have my senses interrupted by some obnoxious ring tone (usually a Top 10 song from the 80's) and have some moron carry on a conversation without the slightest bit of discretion or embarrassment. This self- important cretin obviously believes we are all so interested in what he has to say, which is usually nothing but inanity on display in public. I think the so-called Boomer generation and all subsequent ones have thrown the old axiom, "mind your manners," out the window. Oh, that we could throw thier cell phones, too!
Angel| 4.4.09 @ 2:56AM
Quin's advice is excellent--for everybody! We could all be more courteous. Frost got chased off AmSpec by Diane Smith. What a weenie frost is--thanks, Diane, for getting rid of that smug little b@stard and his toad friend. You'd have thought frost had had an abortion the way he defended it. Unseemly dirty old man.