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Voting for Bobo
David Brooks had a column yesterday pondering that certain je ne sais quois about Barack Obama that allegedly prevents Americans from fully embracing him. Toward the end, he throws out this socio-political thought balloon:
If Obama is fully a member of any club − and perhaps he isn't − it is the club of smart post-boomer meritocrats. We now have a cohort of rising leaders, Obama's age and younger, who climbed quickly through elite schools and now ascend from job to job. They are conscientious and idealistic while also being coldly clever and self-aware. It's not clear what the rest of America makes of them.
Brooks, for those scoring at home, is one week younger than Barack Obama; climbed quickly through the University of Chicago, and ascended from the Wall Street Journal to the Weekly Standard to the New York Times. This smart post-boomer meritocrat is known for being idealistic, coldly clever, and winningly self-aware. It's not clear what the rest of America thinks of him.
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 10:48AM|#
Brooks, for those scoring at home, is one week younger than
Barack Obama; climbed quickly through the University of Chicago,
and ascended from the Wall Street Journal to the Weekly Standard to
the New York Times. This smart post-boomer meritocrat is known for
being idealistic, coldly clever, and winningly self-aware. It's not
clear what the rest of America thinks of him.
That makes it either stunning irony or acute self-awareness. I'm
all about giving people the benefit of the doubt.
I think people mistake logic for coldness. The notion that a person
doesn't fly off the ideological handle at every given moment is
somewhat novel. Note (before the haters swarm) that I am not
arguing that Obama isn't ideologically driven, but rather that is
not how he presents either his positions or his
thought-processes.
Guy Montag|8.6.08 @ 10:55AM|#
Since they were both born the same year as me, 1961, it makes none of us "post-boomer", no matter how much we would like to be. No matter how little we have in common with the folks born 10 years and more before us. We are not "post", perhaps "late-boomers" but not post, by the common, proper, definition of the term.
|8.6.08 @ 10:55AM|#
Sure, but can Brooks stop the oceans from rising and compel the Earth to heal itself like Obama?
|8.6.08 @ 10:57AM|#
If you pretend that the term "Boomer" signifies nothing about generational politics, but refers only to dates of birth, that's a great point, Guy.
Fluffy|8.6.08 @ 10:59AM|#
I for one think Brooks is a douchebag.
So now you know a little bit about what America thinks of
him.
You just need about 300,000,000 more opinions and you'll have it
nailed down.
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 11:04AM|#
re: Baby Boomers -
Working in the hospitality industry, I can say as a broad
generalization that generationally, the Baby Boomers are fucking
useless: demanding, impetuous, conceited, and entitled to a
fault.
By comparison, the best groups are seniors (who are demanding but
*polite*) and twenty-somethings (late Gen X-Early Gen Y) who are
generally both polite and undemanding. Mainstream Gen Xers are, at
best, generally OK.
|8.6.08 @ 11:06AM|#
So is Brooks saying that being intelligent and succeeding on your own merits is(or should be) regarded by Americans as a bad thing?
Invisible Finger|8.6.08 @ 11:08AM|#
from the Wall Street Journal to the Weekly Standard to the
New York Times.
Ascension? Lateral moves at best.
|8.6.08 @ 11:09AM|#
It's not clear what the rest of America thinks of
him.
That he [Brooks] is a pompous douche who loves to assert his
personal opinions/preferences as those of "America"
robc|8.6.08 @ 11:11AM|#
If you pretend that the term "Boomer" signifies nothing
about generational politics, but refers only to dates of birth,
that's a great point, Guy.
Since the term refers to those born during the post-war increase in
birth rates, it, in fact, only refers to date of birth.
|8.6.08 @ 11:13AM|#
Is there a difference in 'old boomer' vs 'young boomer'
politics?
Are young boomer liberals different in outlook from old boomer
liberals ?
|8.6.08 @ 11:14AM|#
I hate when people group entire generations into one type. It's worse than astrology.
|8.6.08 @ 11:14AM|#
Since the term refers to those born during the post-war
increase in birth rates, it, in fact, only refers to date of
birth.
Yes, the term "Baby Boomer" has certainly not taken on any
additional meaning or connotation since it was first coined to
describe a demographic phenomenon. Certainly, it isn't used in a
political sense to refer to cohort with a shared political
history.
robc|8.6.08 @ 11:15AM|#
Marcvs,
I agree. At least with astrology there are 12 groups, with
generations there are only 4 or 5 alive at any given time.
robc|8.6.08 @ 11:16AM|#
joe,
Yes, the term "Baby Boomer" has certainly not taken on any
additional meaning or connotation since it was first coined to
describe a demographic phenomenon. Certainly, it isn't used in a
political sense to refer to cohort with a shared political
history.
I agree with this post 100%. :)
|8.6.08 @ 11:18AM|#
Marcvs,
That's why it's important to think of generational politics in
terms of issues, not positions. The right and left have very
different manifestations of Vietnam-based politics, but both
leftist and rightist boomer politics derive from the fights over
the Vietnam War, in a way that subsequent and previoud generations
do not.
|8.6.08 @ 11:20AM|#
Yes, the term "Baby Boomer" has certainly not taken on any
additional meaning or connotation since it was first coined to
describe a demographic phenomenon. Certainly, it isn't used in a
political sense to refer to cohort with a shared political
history.
Joe, when you speak of 'Baby Boomers', are you referring to those
born in the late 40' and early fifties who came of age during the
Vietnam/Civi Rights era?
|8.6.08 @ 11:25AM|#
Right, Kurt.
People who turned 18 in 1965 share a foundational political
experience with people who turned 18 in 1971, which is not shared
by people who turned 18 in 1979.
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 11:30AM|#
People who turned 18 in 1965 share a foundational political
experience with people who turned 18 in 1971, which is not shared
by people who turned 18 in 1979.
Gotta go with joe on this one. The generational cohorts are set too
wide to be used on a technical basis. Obama may be a technical
boomer but he was 8 in 1969 and would not have experienced that
period like somebody with, say, pubic hair and a doobie in their
mouth.
|8.6.08 @ 11:31AM|#
I think we need more refined terms for demographic groups,
especially when dealing with politics.
When hearing the phrase 'baby boom generation', I too think of the
demographic definition of all those born between 1946 and
1964(?).
I was born in 1968. That probably makes me Gen-X. I guess I could
also possibly be a 'post boomer'. I don't remember anything about
Vietnam and I vaguely remember Nixon and Ford as presidents.
jimmy|8.6.08 @ 11:31AM|#
i'm the same age as obama and i've always resisted/resented
being called a boomer. maybe we're only a "sub-generation" at best,
but if obama himself does not view himself as a boomer, that might
be the most positive thing i've heard about him yet.
the main difference, all conventional wisdom and
over-simplification of course, is the original opitimism of the
boomers, which was shattered by vietnam/watergate. they still tend
to think that the "right" government can put everything back
together the way it's supposed to be. those of us who grew up w/
vietnam/watergate as a backdrop were cynical from the get-go.
one can still be right or left w/in those paradigms, but one can
hope that obama's generational background gives him at least the
hint of a doubt whenever government is proposed as the solution to
some problem, a doubt that someone like ted kennedy never had, and
a doubt that GWB seemed to profess only in order to get
elected.
Guy Montag|8.6.08 @ 11:34AM|#
While we are at the newspeak game, how about we call everybody born between 1954 and 1974 "the 60s Generation"?
|8.6.08 @ 11:35AM|#
John McCain | August 6, 2008, 11:27am | #
My friends, I turned 18 in 1954!
With all due respect, Senator, nobody brought you up.
|8.6.08 @ 11:37AM|#
I agree with joe on this one. I'm only about three years too
young to be a boomer in the technical sense, and I was five years
old when the Vietnam War ended.
As a useful shorthand, "boomers" refers to people who were born
after WWII but were old enough to have been drafted during the
Vietnam era. In any event, "generations" have more of a gradient
quality than a hard border, demographically speaking.
|8.6.08 @ 11:39AM|#
While we are at the newspeak game, how about we call
everybody born between 1954 and 1974 "the 60s
Generation"?
I'd say that people who attended college from 1972-1976 and those
who attende college from 1992-1996 are going to be pretty easily
distinguishable.
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 11:40AM|#
While we are at the newspeak game, how about we call
everybody born between 1954 and 1974 "the 60s
Generation"?
You know, Guy, not *everything* written that you disagree
with/ridicule is "newspeak". Which is clearly your new favorite
word, and irony of ironies, the way you use it, it itself *is*
newspeak.
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 11:43AM|#
I'd say that people who attended college from 1972-1976 and
those who attende college from 1992-1996 are going to be pretty
easily distinguishable.
No kidding. I'm technically at the tail end of Gen X, and I have
next to nothing in common with the Gen X cohort of eighteen years
older than me. I think jimmy nails the feeling perfectly; being
born on the cusp between "generations" makes one uncomfortably
neither a full member of one or the other. I relate completely.
Franklin Harris|8.6.08 @ 11:45AM|#
I for one think Brooks is a douchebag.
Damnit, Fluffy! That is exactly what I was going to say!
Except I was going to add that it is the habit of every mediocrity
like Brooks to think he is a meritocrat.
|8.6.08 @ 11:51AM|#
Another point, Elemonope, is generational changes happen at
different times in different places.
Someone born in rural Iowa who graduated from a small school in
1969 could have had a college experience wholly indistinguishable
from what someone in a different part of the country went through
ten years earlier.
Matt Welch|8.6.08 @ 11:55AM|#
I was born in 1968. That probably makes me Gen-X.
Not probably, definitely!
LarryA|8.6.08 @ 11:57AM|#
but one can hope that Obama's generational background gives
him at least the hint of a doubt whenever government is proposed as
the solution to some problem,
He grew up in Hawaii and worked in Chicago. Neither one is an
antigovernment environment.
|8.6.08 @ 11:58AM|#
My mom is a Baby Boomer (1946), and she's nothing like the
Boomer stereotype. Quite probably the worst generation in U.S.
history.
I just can't get over how useless these candidates are.
|8.6.08 @ 11:59AM|#
I agree with Fluffy. Brooks is a good wordsmith, but his
observations are lacking in fact. Though at least he doesn't use
stories from cabbies as a replacement for man on the street
interviews.
God I hate that device.
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 12:01PM|#
Someone born in rural Iowa who graduated from a small school
in 1969 could have had a college experience wholly
indistinguishable from what someone in a different part of the
country went through ten years earlier.
Very true, though I've noticed that those regional differences had
begun collapsing by the time I started college. (I blame the
Internet.)
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 12:02PM|#
I'm smack in the middle of technical Gen-X and I've always
despised the whole this-and-that generation bullshit. Frankly, it's
crap made up by the boomers who participated in the counter-culture
movement, in order for them to falsely highlight how their
generation was "involved", important, and totally changed things.
The fact that a large portion of their generation wasn't
involved doesn't seem to occur to them.
Just listening to my aunt and her friends talk about how fucking
great and important their generation is/was while looking at the
absolute zero she's accomplished with her life is enough to make me
hit the sauce when I'm visiting her.
|8.6.08 @ 12:02PM|#
Boomer Esiason was a pretty good quarterback.
But seriously, folks, this is one of the best things I've seen from
Welch in a while: pithy, pointed and funny.
|8.6.08 @ 12:08PM|#
Pro Libertate
Could be quite a few boomers are nothing like the Boomer
stereotype.
And as for being the worst generation in U.S. history I suggest
looking at "The Greatest Generation." Beating Hitler and Tojo and
all that was cool but it doesn't come close to justifiying their
pure sense of entitlement.
Franklin Harris|8.6.08 @ 12:10PM|#
I agree with Fluffy. Brooks is a good wordsmith, but his observations are lacking in fact. Though at least he doesn't use stories from cabbies as a replacement for man on the street interviews.
God I hate that device.
William Raspberry's cabbie hates it, too.
|8.6.08 @ 12:10PM|#
Using baby boomer in any other context than the demographic is just fucking stupid. Baby boomer in a musical, political, recreational or whateveral context is meaningless.
|8.6.08 @ 12:11PM|#
The greatest achievement of the baby boomers was the War on
Drugs; makes you proud, don't it?
It kind of makes me want to round them all up, and...
|8.6.08 @ 12:11PM|#
The fact that a large portion of their generation wasn't involved doesn't seem to occur to them.
Actually it has occured to me. In fact, I was thinking of
posting just that thought. But you've done it for me.
Generalizations can be useful but not when they're too broadly
made.
|8.6.08 @ 12:11PM|#
My mother, also a boomer, blames a lot of the world's problems on the generation before her. What she thinks they did wrong is still unknown.
Guy Montag|8.6.08 @ 12:14PM|#
Matt,
Not probably, definitely!
Apparently, just for the historical moment.
I'm smack in the middle of technical Gen-X and I've always
despised the whole this-and-that generation bullshit. Frankly, it's
crap made up by the boomers who participated in the counter-culture
movement, in order for them to falsely highlight how their
generation was "involved", important, and totally changed things.
The fact that a large portion of their generation wasn't involved
doesn't seem to occur to them.
Yep, right on the money. Plus, the revisionists like to get all
sloppy with their terms. Has "the WWII Generation" gotten revised
yet? There is actually some distinction between that one and "The
Greatest Generation."
If these folks want to talk about people of different age groups,
then they should mention that, rather than slopping up a new
definition, for something already sloppily defined.
Maybe after a few more history books are written by 'pacifists' of
draft age in the 1960s and 1970s, the Greatest Generation will
morph into the Zoot Suit Generation to show the importance of that
movement.
|8.6.08 @ 12:14PM|#
P Brooks
The War on Drugs existed before the first motherfucking boomer was
even fucking conceived.
Its expansion to today's levels was instigated by Nixon and Reagan.
Bothe "Greatest Generation" fucks.
|8.6.08 @ 12:20PM|#
Baby boomer in a musical, political, recreational or
whateveral context is meaningless.
That's funny. There seem to be a pretty considerable number of
people who are quite able to carry on a mutually-intelligable
discussion while using the term to refer to a socio-political
cohort.
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 12:25PM|#
Generalizations can be useful but not when they're too
broadly made.
Point full of win. Generalizations are useful, albeit easily
abused, tools.
I have found it useful to gauge reactions to particular issues
(esp. privacy, technology, and aesthetics) on the age bracket of
the interlocutor. There are sometimes outliers, but it is a decent
predictor of overall trends.
|8.6.08 @ 12:28PM|#
Its expansion to today's levels was instigated by Nixon and
Reagan. Bothe "Greatest Generation" fucks.
And just who was it that scared the pants off Nixon, et al, with
all their dope-induced "free love"?
|8.6.08 @ 12:31PM|#
Elemenope,
I have found it useful to gauge reactions to particular issues
(esp. privacy, technology, and aesthetics) on the age bracket of
the interlocutor. There are sometimes outliers, but it is a decent
predictor of overall trends.
I agree, but I'll point out that this doesn't mean they are all
taking the same position, but one of a predictable group of
positions.
For example, the boomers (Boomers, Guy! Boomers Boomers Boomers, ha
ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa!) are still at each others' throats over
Vietnam, but the arguments of each side are still recognizeable as
Boomer politics.
When you see somebody in their 20s making those same arguments,
they stick out. Most people in their 20s, both pro- and con-
Vietnam War, argue in a way that's recognizeably different from
what most Boomers on the same side would say.
Matt Welch|8.6.08 @ 12:32PM|#
Brooks and Obama are both part of Generation Jones, a categorization that has always made sense to me.
|8.6.08 @ 12:33PM|#
There is a shift that happened in the 1970s and 80s whereby
people stopped doing things and working their way up and went to
the to on the basis of where they went to school or who their
parents were. Yes, that has always happened but it became much more
widespread in the 70s and 80s and continues to this day. For
example, my father hired on with AT&T in the mid 1960s. He
started as a union tech working on the equipment. After about 10
years he was promoted to manager and then progressively higher
levels after that. He and the managers of his generation knew the
business of telecommunications literally from the ground up. His
generation was the last to do that. After him, managers were hired
from prestigious MBA programs and immediately put in charge of
people doing jobs they had never done and using equipment they
didn't understand. They preceded right to the top, without much
understanding of anything beyond theory and how to count beans.
They proceeded to run the company in the ground.
We have two generations now of people who went to elite schools and
walked into one high paying job after another but never really paid
any dues or learned anything from the bottom up. Most of our
political class Republican and Democrat fit this description. What
did George HW Bush or Al Gore ever do that wasn't the direct result
of skipping the bottom rungs because of who their fathers were and
what schools they went to? Not much. That is not to pick on them;
they are typical politicians in this day and age. Even worse, the
old generation elites used to do things like serve in the military
which gave them some understanding of what it is to be like not to
be on top. For example, McGovern and George HW Bush were both
combat pilots in World War II. Kennedy commanded a PT boat. The
current generation of elites never does anything like that. Without
the life experience of being on the bottom rung of something, I
don't see how you ever obtain any wisdom or humility. I think this
phenomenon is the root of a lot of the problems we have with our
elites today.
Sean Scallon|8.6.08 @ 12:35PM|#
Boy David Brooks does a lot of navel gazing doesn't he?
Alas, another elitist east-coast political writer pondering daily
in his New York Times office in Manhattan concrete canyons: "I
wonder what the rednecks are thinking right now."
Spare me.
|8.6.08 @ 12:39PM|#
Nice, Matt. I'd never heard of that before.
Good point, John. I'll add that the "working your way up from the
bottom" for politicians used to include starting out at the bottom
in a political machine.
ed|8.6.08 @ 12:40PM|#
If you pretend that the term "Boomer" signifies nothing
about generational politics, but refers only to dates of birth,
that's a great point
If that's true, then a 20-year-old can be a "boomer" if he likes
the Beatles, defends Social Security and hates people who walk on
his lawn?
|8.6.08 @ 12:43PM|#
And just who was it that scared the pants off Nixon, et al, with all their dope-induced "free love"?
Oh, right. And rape victims are just asking for it, right?
ed|8.6.08 @ 12:46PM|#
Baby Boomers are fucking useless: demanding, impetuous,
conceited, and entitled to a fault
Wow, the author of this idiotic statement hates 78 million
Americans.
Does he secretly wish he had his own private death camp too?
|8.6.08 @ 12:46PM|#
ed,
A 20 year old who likes the Beatles had no experience with the
political fights surrounding Vietnam, civil rights, and the
SixtiesMan, and certainly didn't experience those fights during his
politically formative years. So, I'd say no.
BTW, most people from both the pre- and post-boomer generations
"defend Social Security."
Fluffy|8.6.08 @ 12:47PM|#
For example, the boomers (Boomers, Guy! Boomers Boomers
Boomers, ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa!) are still at each others'
throats over Vietnam, but the arguments of each side are still
recognizeable as Boomer politics.
I hate coming down on Guy's side on anything, but this is one of
those times where a group of Democrat political wonks hanging
around decided one day to frame a concept a particular way, and now
Joe is all bent out of shape when people who remember the, you
know, original meaning of the term don't want to go along
with this situational redefinition.
I personally never encountered the idea that someone born in 1961
was not part of the Boomer generation until some Democrats decided
it was useful to frame Obama that way, and to frame Hillary as
being "caught up in old Boomer political divisions". It's silly,
really. While a large part of the Boomers made their bones
politically in the Vietnam dispute, that's not the be all and end
all of being a baby boomer. Obama was in high school when the Viet
Nam war ended and when Nixon resigned. He was an adolescent and
young adult when the Boomers were doing their "Me Generation" stuff
in the 70's. And he's definitely, absolutely not part of Generation
X. So how is he not a Boomer?
Obama's parentage, childhood, overseas experiences, etc. make it
silly to try to place him culturally in any catchall US generation
anyway. If you kept his life story exactly the same but had him
born five years earlier, he wouldn't be any more of a "typical"
Boomer than he currently is. But just because he's not a "typical"
Boomer doesn't mean he's not a Boomer.
|8.6.08 @ 12:49PM|#
"Good point, John. I'll add that the "working your way up from
the bottom" for politicians used to include starting out at the
bottom in a political machine."
Very true. See Truman, Johnson, Tip O'Neil and Nixon as examples.
Even in politics, I think there is a lot to be said for working up
from the local level before stepping on the national stage. Now,
alarming percentage of Congress are the sons and daughters of
members of Congress. I am really disturbed by that.
|8.6.08 @ 12:49PM|#
The pre-boom generation got us to the Moon. The Baby Boomers are mucking about in LEO, because they're all pansies. I generalize, but there you go.
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 12:51PM|#
Alas, another elitist east-coast political writer pondering
daily in his New York Times office in Manhattan concrete canyons:
"I wonder if what the rednecks are
thinking right now."
One little word makes all the difference.
Yes, there are people from the South and Midwest who think. They
just tend not to be rednecks.
For some reason, I am reminded of an old Chris Rock routine...
|8.6.08 @ 12:52PM|#
To me "boomer" means coming of age in the 1960s and being eligable to serve in Vietnam. Vietnam is really the dividing line among boomers. There really is a big difference between the people who served in Vietnam and the ones who didn't. The people who served are more like the World War II generation and the ones who didn't tend to be more of what we think of as "boomers". I am not saying one side is better than the other, but that is the divide. I don't see how anyone who was born to late to face being drafted to go to Vietnam can call themselves a "boomer".
|8.6.08 @ 12:55PM|#
BTW, most people from both the pre- and post-boomer generations "defend Social Security."
And the oldest boomers are only sixty-two years old. That's not old
enough to be yelling at kids on the lawn.
And there's lots of boomers that can't stand the Beatles.
And joe, don't even think of making a serious response to this.
|8.6.08 @ 12:56PM|#
One other point about the boomers. The people who defined the culture during the 1960s were not Boomers. They were pre boomers born before or during World War II. Andy Warhol was not a boomer. Neither was Bob Dylan or any member of the Rolling Stones or the Beatles. The cultural creativty that happened in the 1960s was the result of the generation born between the wars, not the baby boom.
|8.6.08 @ 12:58PM|#
At least no Boomers voted in the Goldwater/Johnson election when the "Greatest Generation" and their parents tacitly endorsed the war in Vietnam, the war "for" poverty, and avoidance of dealing with an unsustainable social security system.
|8.6.08 @ 1:03PM|#
"At least no Boomers voted in the Goldwater/Johnson election
when the "Greatest Generation" and their parents tacitly endorsed
the war in Vietnam, the war "for" poverty, and avoidance of dealing
with an unsustainable social security system."
That is not true. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident and the escalation in
Vietnam did not happen until spring of 1965. Johnson ran the famous
little girl picking flowers folowed by the h-bomb add to paint
Goldwater as a war monger. No one thought that voting for Johnson
was going to escalate the war in Vietnam. In fact, people voted
against Goldwater because Johnson convinced them that Goldwater was
unstable and would escalate Vietnam into World War III. This of
course spawned the greatest political retort ever when Johnson
supporters responded to Goldwater's campaign theme of "in your
heart you know he is right" with "in your gut you know he is
nuts."
|8.6.08 @ 1:03PM|#
Fluffy,
I hate coming down on Guy's side on anything, but this is one
of those times where a group of Democrat political wonks hanging
around decided one day to frame a concept a particular way, and now
Joe is all bent out of shape when people who remember the, you
know, original meaning of the term don't want to go along with this
situational redefinition.
In case you didn't notice, most of the other commenters are
agreeing with me, and very few of them seem to be "Democratic
political wonks."
I know the "joe is teh partisan, so he's wrong" card is just lying
there, but you're barking up the wrong tree here. Noticing that
people born in the 1960s don't have the same political outlook of
the people who went to college during the 60s isn't exactly an
observation unique to me, or even to Democrats, or even to this
year.
|8.6.08 @ 1:12PM|#
John,
I'm not clear on what you mean by this: There really is a big
difference between the people who served in Vietnam and the ones
who didn't. The people who served are more like the World War II
generation and the ones who didn't tend to be more of what we think
of as "boomers". Dick Cheney vs. John Kerry? Are you still
talking about age differences here?
The people who defined the culture during the 1960s were not
Boomers. They were pre boomers born before or during World War II.
Andy Warhol was not a boomer. Neither was Bob Dylan or any member
of the Rolling Stones or the Beatles. Also, Timothy Leary and
Jack Kerouac.
Good point about the 64 election, too.
|8.6.08 @ 1:17PM|#
Joe,
it is more of a general feeling of mine. The people who served in
Vietnam tend to be more conservative than the ones who didn't.
There are lots of counter examples of course and it is a
generalization. But, if you took a 1000 random Vietnam vets and a
1000 people who got college deferments, you would of course run the
gamit in both groups. But my guess is that you would find more
Republicans and libertarians in the vet group and more greens and
Democrats in the college group. I would also bet you would fine
more gun owners in the vet group and generally a different cutural
vibe for better or worse.
|8.6.08 @ 1:21PM|#
When I was a kid, I used to be in Generation Y. However, a few years ago, it seems we were liquidated and split between a shifted Generation X and the new Milennial generation. I wonder if that makes us a Lost Generation...
|8.6.08 @ 1:21PM|#
How did Boomer Primero Clinton do when he got his chance to
achieve Peace With Honor in the War on Drugs?
Hint: "I did not have consummation with that spliff!"
disclaimer: I qualify as a Baby Boomer, and it really really pisses
me off when people who should (based on direct experience) know
better parrot a lot of hysterical bullshit about drugs and/ or
silently acquiesce to the grotesque abuse of freedom and the
Constitution which has been the direct result of that hysterical
bullshit. For the Children.
Guy Montag|8.6.08 @ 1:35PM|#
Matt,
I like that one but never heard of it before you mentioned
it.
Maybe if you get some of the folks at NRO to use it more it will
catch on ;)
|8.6.08 @ 1:37PM|#
John,
The people who served in Vietnam tend to be more conservative
than the ones who didn't.
Perhaps what's goinn on is that the people you know to be Vietnam
veterans are more conservative.
"The people you know to be Vietnam veterans" are going to include
1) people you are close enough to (family, your coworkers) to know
their veteran status, and 2) others who you aren't close to, but
who make a point of letting people know they are Vietnam
veterans.
People in the military in 2008 tend to be more conservative than
the population as a whole, and I'm guessing that your family and
social set is a pretty right-leaning group.
I imagine that most people who served there and are disgusted by
the whole episode, and who are now leftish, aren't as effusive in
drawing attention to their time in the military.
From what I've read, the Vietnam War more or less caused the
modern-day correlation between "military" and "conservative," and
that before and during that war, the military wasn't actually
further right than American society as a whole.
BDB|8.6.08 @ 1:40PM|#
Occam's toothbrush,
The cut off between Generation X and Millenials is a simple one. Do
you remember a time before people had computers in their homes?
BDB|8.6.08 @ 1:41PM|#
I'm on the cusp too but I only very, very vaguely remember a time before Email, and have no memory of life without PCs as a common household appliance.
|8.6.08 @ 1:46PM|#
"From what I've read, the Vietnam War more or less caused the
modern-day correlation between "military" and "conservative," and
that before and during that war, the military wasn't actually
further right than American society as a whole."
I think ending the draft did that. Once it became an all volunteer
force people started self selecting. Certainly, there are lots of
liberals in the military. Most military officers keep their
political views pretty close hold. But if I were to guess, I would
say a strong majority, say 60 or 65% could be described as
conservative and with the rest being some shade of liberal.
|8.6.08 @ 1:47PM|#
"The cut off between Generation X and Millenials is a simple
one. Do you remember a time before people had computers in their
homes?"
That is a good one. Another good one is "can you remmeber a time
when you didn't have cable?"
|8.6.08 @ 1:49PM|#
One other thing Joe. When I say conservative versus liberal I don't mean Republican versus Democrat. There are a lot of very Conservative black people in the military who still vote Democrat nonetheless.
Sinclair Lewis|8.6.08 @ 1:50PM|#
Very true, though I've noticed that those regional
differences had begun collapsing by the time I started college. (I
blame the Internet.)
Over twenty years before ENIAC, I saw the same thing. I think I
blamed the automobile, marketing, and human nature.
BDB|8.6.08 @ 1:51PM|#
Thats good too, John. I was born in '84, and we had cable by the time I was 4 or so, so I don't remember that either. The third factor I'd say is can you remember the Cold War at all? Gen Xers will, Millenials don't.
|8.6.08 @ 1:54PM|#
John,
I think ending the draft did that. Once it became an all
volunteer force people started self selecting. It's tough to
tease out how much is a "natural" affinity between conservatives
and the military, one which existed before the end of the draft,
and how much is a result of the Vietnam War itself.
The end of the draft, and the left/right polarization over the
Vietnam War, happened in quick succession.
Based on the Afghanistan and Iraq veterans who've run for office
lately, it might be the case that the correlation is breaking down.
If true, this would suggest that it was the consequence of that
specific historic episode.
And then there's the difference between officers' political views
and that of enlisted personnel.
And then, there's the question of whether that disparity is
explained entirely by the different racial demographics of officers
vs. enlisted.
|8.6.08 @ 1:56PM|#
Truly, the only thing we know for sure is that David Brooks has a very simple explaination, which makes intuitive sense, and is complete horse puckey.
robc|8.6.08 @ 1:59PM|#
Going on BDBs idea, my "cultural" dividing line between boomers
and Gen X would be "man walking on the moon seems like a big deal".
That might put the line LATER than the traditional 1964 cutoff.
Maybe earlier. Im thinking for Obama the moon landing was an
awesome thing, he would have been 9. Old enough to understand, or
at least notice, the impact.
Personally, I was born in that weird period in which man had walked
on the moon, but we hadnt stopped doing it yet (I was born in
August of '69, so less than 1 month after Armstrong). I have a very
vague early memory of watching one of the later (probably the last)
moonwalks on a B&W TV. My mom kept and framed the front/back
page on the local newspaper that had the first moon landing
pictures in it. It was from less than 2 weeks before my birth (Aug
3rd, I think). It is hanging in my house.
Screw Vietnam, Armstrong is more imporant.
|8.6.08 @ 2:02PM|#
"And then, there's the question of whether that disparity is
explained entirely by the different racial demographics of officers
vs. enlisted."
But a lot of black enlisted especially NCOs tend to be conservative
as the day is long. Think Shaquill O'Neil or Tiger Woods' fathers.
They are Democrats because 90% of black people are, but they are
not liberals. Further I know a lot of very liberal Democrat white
people who are in the military. It is just that those are in the
minority versus the people I know who are right of Goldwater.
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 2:10PM|#
You guys are missing the best indicator of the dividing line between "Generation X" and "Millennials": can you remember when MTV played videos and was good? If so, you are GenX, if not, Millennial.
|8.6.08 @ 2:12PM|#
Hmmm...I was born in 1986, so I don't remember the Cold War
(though I vaguely remember the Berlin Wall coming down, and more
clearly the Soviet Coup a few years later). We didn't get a
computer in our house until I was 10, and never had cable. But we
may have been unusual.
That is a good one. Another good one is "can you remmeber a
time when you didn't have cable?"
Uh...last month? And seeing as how I'm now watching exactly 3
channels with any regularity, I'm regretting the fact that that
changed.
Fluffy|8.6.08 @ 2:15PM|#
I know the "joe is teh partisan, so he's wrong" card is just
lying there, but you're barking up the wrong tree here.
Yes, silly me for asserting that Joe will often buy into contrived
political redefinitions of words and talk down to people who use
the words as they were originally defined or as they are generally
defined.
Tell me, Joe, what does the word "racism" mean?
Come on! Guy employed the literal definition of "baby boomer" and
you treated him to your withering disdain because he should just
know that people like yourself have invented a new, secret
meaning of the term that just so happens to be loaded with
political content.
Noticing that people born in the 1960s don't have the same
political outlook of the people who went to college during the 60s
isn't exactly an observation unique to me, or even to Democrats, or
even to this year.
That is true, of course. But that's different from saying that
people who went to college in the 60's are baby boomers, and people
who were born in 1961 are not baby boomers.
|8.6.08 @ 2:16PM|#
Recently I saw an article claiming that Milennial generation started in 1990, which would leave me in a no-mans land if Gen X went from 1965-1984...
BDB|8.6.08 @ 2:18PM|#
I don't think you're as typical as most. My family had a
computer the same year I was born, cable around '89 or so, dial-up
internet by 1995 (AOL). MTV always sucked big time, and I don't
remember guys in metal bands wearing mascara.
The dividing line between my generation and the next one will be
"Was Nickelodeon actually good when you were a kid?"
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 2:23PM|#
All you guys suck; I've had multiple computers in my home since 1976 (my dad is a programmer), I had my own TRS-80 (now there's an early GenX indicator), and he also got the first "Fat Mac" so I was word processing instead of typing by 1984.
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 2:23PM|#
Over twenty years before ENIAC, I saw the same thing. I
think I blamed the automobile, marketing, and human
nature.
I'll give you the automobile and marketing, but I think human
nature actually tends (in the natural environment) to conglomerate
around small easily identified local groups. You know, the
monkeysphere and all that.
I believe that regional identification has collapsed in abrupt
stages concurrent with advances in media and travel technologies.
The automobile certainly did a number on the concept of a
neighborhood. As they collapse, smallest, closest-knit groups seem
to go first, dissolved into the larger surrounding group.
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 2:24PM|#
All you guys suck; I've had multiple computers in my home
since 1976 (my dad is a programmer), I had my own TRS-80 (now
there's an early GenX indicator), and he also got the first "Fat
Mac" so I was word processing instead of typing by 1984.
Even as a late Gen-Xer I grew up with a C64 in the home, and by 5th
grade the school was rocking the Mac Classics.
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 2:27PM|#
Born in 1970. The real question is: "Did you ever rent a
laser disc?"
Never rented one, but I saw ST VI: The Undiscovered
Country on one when they were newish. I thought it was the
best thing since sliced bread at the time.
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 2:33PM|#
Born in 1970. The real question is: "Did you ever rent a
laser disc?"
No, but I have watched Frankenstein
Must Be Destroyed on one.
Another question is do you remember Betamax vs. VHS, and do you
remember there being Betamax rentals in the earliest video
stores?
|8.6.08 @ 2:37PM|#
I guess another question would be, do you remember a time before
Internet porn?
When I entered puberty, the best I could do was set the VCR to
record those 900-number ads with bikini clad women that ran at 2am,
hide the tape first thing in the morning, and then whack off to
that after school but before my mom got home from work.
Franklin Harris|8.6.08 @ 2:40PM|#
Generational markers:
1st Video Game Console: Atari 2600
1st computer: Commodore Vic 20
MTV: still showed music videos
VH1: still showed jazz
Prevailing music format: vinyl
Cable TV: 12 channels (three of them out-of-town affiliates for
networks we already had locally)
Star Wars: in a theater, 5 times
Guy Montag|8.6.08 @ 2:40PM|#
I dated a wackjob Leftoid chick for a few months who used the
assasination of JFK as some sort of social marker. Her use, not
mine, btw.
Started to go into the Saturday Night Live thing about confusing
that event with RFK and where I was, etc., but skipped it and let
her go on with her nonsense about it.
|8.6.08 @ 2:43PM|#
Elemenope,
They were actually first marketed in 1978, so weren't very newish
by 1991. The first time I saw them for rent was about 1979. One of
the reasons they died, much like poor Betamax*, was that they
weren't very rugged and couldn't stand up to the rental market.
(Well, that and "laser rot," a manufacturing flaw that caused the
lexan layers holding the optical medium to de-laminate.)
The first time I saw Star Wars outside the theater was on
laser disc. Blew. My. Mind.
*Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't some vast conspiracy that
killed Betamax. They had a relatively short run-time (necessitating
multiple tapes more often than VHS for the same movie) and were
fragile. VHS won because it was cheaper and rugged. And most of the
memories of Betamax's superiority is based on confusing home
Betamax with the professional Beta format. (Sorry, I rarely get to
unleash my Audio-Visual Archivist skillz.)
|8.6.08 @ 2:43PM|#
Fluffy, wtf are you talking about?
If I "invented" the idea that "Baby Boomer" refers to a
socio/political cohort, as a partisan gambit, why are there all of
these libertoids who are already familiar with, and agree with, the
concept?
Joe will often... See, this is your problem: you have this
"joe will often" storyline in your head, so you read everything I
write as evidence of the conspiracy.
If I'd written exactly the same comment as "Fred," we wouldn't be
having this conversation. So, chill.
|8.6.08 @ 2:47PM|#
Oh, and Fluffy?
Here you go:
rac·ism -noun
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various
human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually
involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the
right to rule others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering
such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
I don't recall ever using the term to mean anything else.
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 2:47PM|#
For my "generation" :
1st Video Game Console: NES (Although the 2600 was not dead)
1st computer: Commodore 64/Apple II
MTV: still showed music videos
VH1: still showed music of any sort
Prevailing music format: cassette
Cable TV: ~30 channels
Star Wars: on VHS/BETA
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 2:49PM|#
They were actually first marketed in 1978, so weren't very
newish by 1991. The first time I saw them for rent was about 1979.
One of the reasons they died, much like poor Betamax*, was that
they weren't very rugged and couldn't stand up to the rental
market. (Well, that and "laser rot," a manufacturing flaw that
caused the lexan layers holding the optical medium to
de-laminate.)
True. What sold my ST VI experience was it was the first time I had
seen a "home theater" set-up, complete with the surround sound and
sound dampened room, laser disc, and projection/Wide CRT
screen.
|8.6.08 @ 2:49PM|#
The first computer in my home was a TI Silent 700, which used an
acoustic coupler as well as thermal rolls instead of a
high-falutin' monitor.
We also had as our first game console some forgotten brand of
Pong-dedicated machine. It had built in sliding controls for going
up and down. The game included Pong, hockey, and squash.
I learned BASIC on a TRS-80, with the permanent memory residing in
a cassette tape. Yes, you read that correctly.
|8.6.08 @ 2:53PM|#
game console: Sega Genesis
computer: Macintosh Performa
music format: CD
didn't have cable
Star Wars: on broadcast TV
First date movie: IQ with Walter Matthau as Einstein
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 2:57PM|#
I learned BASIC on a TRS-80, with the permanent memory
residing in a cassette tape. Yes, you read that
correctly.
That's what mine had. My god, retrieving programs was tedious. I
tried to get my dad to get me a floppy drive (he had two in his XT,
the bastard) but he just laughed.
I did blow his mind by playing chess (where the colors are the only
way to tell pieces apart) on a black and white screen. My color
blindness allows me to associate color with greyscale, so I could
tell them apart while he couldn't.
|8.6.08 @ 2:58PM|#
game console: 2600
computer: C64
music format: vinyl
Cable: Parents too poor until 1982
Star Wars: Theater (3 times, and I saw the Christmas Special)
First date movie: Red Dawn
|8.6.08 @ 3:00PM|#
My color blindness
You couldn't do my job or work for me. Weird. And you say I'm the
defective one.
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 3:03PM|#
I guess I'll join:
Game console: Atari (I didn't have one but my friends did; I played
Missile Command on the TRS-80)
Computer: TRS-80
Music Format: Vinyl and Cassette
Cable: My grandparents had cable since its inception and my
cheap-ass parents got it in the early 80's
Star Wars: in-theater, but I was 5
First date movie: I have no idea, I wasn't paying attention if you
know what I mean
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 3:04PM|#
You couldn't do my job or work for me. Weird. And you say
I'm the defective one.
I have superior night vision, can tell colors in black and white
photographs, and am totally immune to camouflage. One man's defect
is another's advantage.
Fluffy|8.6.08 @ 3:05PM|#
We also had as our first game console some forgotten brand
of Pong-dedicated machine. It had built in sliding controls for
going up and down. The game included Pong, hockey, and
squash.
We had that. In retrospect the "Pong" era felt like an eternity to
me, but the actual elapsed time between getting that machine and
getting our Atari console was probably less than 2 years.
|8.6.08 @ 3:09PM|#
I saw Star Wars in the theater when I was ten. For the
record, Lucas has been tampering with that film since the first
theatrical re-release.
My first date movie was Trading Places. My date wouldn't
let me watch the movie, however.
No one has mentioned the 8-track, I see.
|8.6.08 @ 3:10PM|#
and am totally immune to camouflage
WOLVERINES!
I also have good night vision. Rods up, hoes down!
Mostly it's the trouble the colorblind have with matching a
digitized copy to the original for the purposes of color
correction. The HR department once investigated whether or not the
university could be sued for discrimination. (No, it turns
out.)
|8.6.08 @ 3:11PM|#
No one has mentioned the 8-track, I see.
My dad's VW had one, but the tech was dead before I started buying
music.
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 3:15PM|#
No one has mentioned the 8-track, I see.
So I guess this just outed you as the oldest person still reading
this.
Mostly it's the trouble the colorblind have with matching a
digitized copy to the original for the purposes of color
correction.
My mother is an artist with perfect color vision, and was confused
why I wasn't able to do shadowing of still lifes and the like using
purples. Then she figured it out.
Franklin Harris|8.6.08 @ 3:16PM|#
No one has mentioned the 8-track, I see.
My aunt had an 8-track deck in her Datsun and in her floor-console
stereo, but I only had turntables until I got my first cassette
deck when I was about 10.
|8.6.08 @ 3:17PM|#
I had a friend in college who was colorblind and painter. He'd paint beautiful pictures of his wife in acid-green.
|8.6.08 @ 3:18PM|#
First stroke object: Alicia Silverstone
First date movie after which I got laid: A Knight's Tale
Dagny T.|8.6.08 @ 3:18PM|#
First date movie: Red Dawn
Fucking awesome. I think that movie is best enjoyed while under the
influence of psychoactive substances, though.
I was born in 1985 & think that I'm probably a Millenial/Gen
Y-er.
Game console: Sega Genesis/Super Nintendo
Computer: Ooh, I'm bad at this game. We had a really old
floppy-disc-using console that we hooked up to an old TV when I was
8 or so. Then got a Dell that ran Windows95.
Music Format: CDs (but still used cassettes to tape songs off the
radio)
MTV: TRL-era
Cable: Always. 30+ channels
Star Wars: VHS
First date movie: The Wedding Singer (don't hate me!)
Guy Montag|8.6.08 @ 3:19PM|#
ACK!
I am relly getting old because I missed a couple of cards on the
color vision test for my last flight physical. Had to get
spectacles too, for distance vision.
Still passed the physical, after a 'free' (as in to-me) cardiac
workup.
Dagny T.|8.6.08 @ 3:24PM|#
Occam's toothbrush,
First date movie after which I got laid: A Knight's
Tale
Nice. Mine was the first LOTR.
robc|8.6.08 @ 3:30PM|#
1st Video Game Console: Atari 2600
check
1st computer: Commodore Vic 20
didnt get one until '85 PC clone
MTV: still showed music videos
in apparently random order
VH1: still showed jazz
didnt exist
Prevailing music format: vinyl
8 Track!!!! casette when I started buying though. Had a
casette to 8 track convertor in the 77 Buick Electra I drove senior
year of HS
Cable TV: 12 channels (three of them out-of-town affiliates for
networks we already had locally)
nah, we had about 30 channels or so once cable made it to
town
Star Wars: in a theater, 5 times
just once, opening weekend
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 3:32PM|#
First date movie after which I got laid: A Knight's
Tale
Angel
Heart. That was some dirty, nasty, black magic inspired
sex. Good stuff.
robc|8.6.08 @ 3:34PM|#
We had that. In retrospect the "Pong" era felt like an
eternity to me, but the actual elapsed time between getting that
machine and getting our Atari console was probably less than 2
years.
Ditto this, I had forgotten about the pong machine. Im sure my gap
was much more than 2 years.
|8.6.08 @ 3:38PM|#
Episiarch,
Well, I suppose, in a hellfire and blood bathing sort of way.
robc,
Did you vomit on your date?
|8.6.08 @ 3:43PM|#
First Movie/Sex: The Believers (during, at the
drive-in), but I finger-banged the same chick during
Mannequin in a regular movie theater three months
before.
And I once got a hand-job on a log flume.
|8.6.08 @ 3:44PM|#
"First date movie after which I got laid: A Knight's Tale
Angel Heart. That was some dirty, nasty, black magic inspired sex.
Good stuff."
No fucking way. That was my first date movie to. We may be the only
two people on earth who can say that. I mean really, who the hell
goes to that as a date movie? I really have to wonder about myself
as a teenager.
|8.6.08 @ 3:48PM|#
1st Video Game Console: Atari 2600
1st computer used: Apple II. With LOGO.
1st music format: vinyl
Cable TV: 1981
Star Wars: Fell asleep at the drive-in in my parents' car.
Thriller: Best. Christmas present. Ever.
|8.6.08 @ 3:51PM|#
Did she scream out "Frodo!"? Did she make you wear the (cock) Ring? Were you alone or was there a Fellowship of The Nine? Did you use a condom made out of leaves and elvish magic? Did you let Golem watch? Did she wrestle your Balrog into the depths of Hell?
|8.6.08 @ 3:51PM|#
First Date Movie: Harry and the Hendersons. Yup, the bigfoot
movie. Oddly appropriate, sorry Angel. Didn't quite know what
getting laid was yet.
First REAL Date Movie: the one where Emilio Estevez and Charlie
Sheen were garbage men.
robc|8.6.08 @ 3:52PM|#
Did you vomit on your date?
Unfortunately, thats a reasonable question to ask.
Actually, no, but the pre-movie pizza made a valiant escape
attempt.
|8.6.08 @ 3:52PM|#
joe,
One of my first memories is falling asleep at a Dukakis rally my
die-hard Dem mom dragged me to.
Elemenope|8.6.08 @ 3:54PM|#
Nice. Mine was the first LOTR.
That movie was, for some inexplicable reason, a fucking
aphrodisiac. I think it was the length, which sort of forced you to
find a comfortable position (a bed? each other's arms?).
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 3:54PM|#
Well, I suppose, in a hellfire and blood bathing sort of
way.
ProL, I was referring to the sex we had afterwards, not
the sex in the movie (though that was some crazy shit too).
No fucking way. That was my first date movie to. We may be the
only two people on earth who can say that. I mean really, who the
hell goes to that as a date movie? I really have to wonder about
myself as a teenager.
But did you get laid? Regardless, I compliment you on your choice
of sexually-charged movie involving sin and Satan. Think about
it--it's actually a brilliant choice to get the right kind of girl
randy as hell.
|8.6.08 @ 3:56PM|#
Epi,
I didn't get laid, but I got a lot farther than I had ever gotten
before. So I really can't argue with the results.
|8.6.08 @ 3:57PM|#
joe,
First REAL Date Movie: the one where Emilio Estevez and Charlie
Sheen were garbage men.
Men At
Work in case you want to Netflix it. (It also starred
Leslie Hope, Jack Bauer's wife in season 1.)
Have you always been secretly disappointed it wasn't Hot
Shots!? The irony would have been intoxicating.
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 4:13PM|#
Actually, no, but the pre-movie pizza made a valiant escape
attempt.
Actually, early Cronenberg films are extremely sexual and will get
the same girls that Angel Heart affected.
Videodrome is a fucking WINNAR in that respect. For the
even more demented girls, Dead Ringers is a true horniness
instigator. Those homemade gynecological tools do amazing
things.
"Long live the new flesh"
|8.6.08 @ 4:15PM|#
I second the Videodrome. Although it works best on chicks that want to be burned by cigarettes, so fair warning.
|8.6.08 @ 4:16PM|#
"For the even more demented girls, Dead Ringers is a true
horniness instigator. Those homemade gynecological tools do amazing
things."
I am not sure I want to get laid by the girl who gets turned on by
Dead Ringers.
|8.6.08 @ 4:19PM|#
"Gynecological Instruments for Operating on Mutant Women"
In case you only dimly remember what they look like.
Episiarch|8.6.08 @ 4:19PM|#
I am not sure I want to get laid by the girl who gets turned
on by Dead Ringers.
Oh hell yes you do.
BDB|8.6.08 @ 4:40PM|#
First Game Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
First Computer I used: 386 IBM Compat, MS-DOS (I still know command
prompts, too!) upgraded to Windows 3.1 later
|8.6.08 @ 5:08PM|#
What a bunch of kids.
First computer used - MK 118 Analog Fire Control Computer.
Computers with gears, synchros, resolvers and cams were fucking
cool.
First Date Movie - The Last Picture Show
Musical Format - Vinyl (LPs and 45s).
First video game used - Intellivision.
|8.6.08 @ 5:22PM|#
J sub D,
My actual first "computer" was a logic circuit for kids. You had to
move wires around to reprogram it. Not mechanical, no, but
primitive.
I forgot to mention something even more ancient and
unbelievable--as a youth, I used to take vacuum tubes from the TV
to Eckerd's to test them.
I never owned an Intellivision, but I used to play a friend's
pretty regularly. I liked the sports games, with the slow-motion
runners.
|8.6.08 @ 5:43PM|#
Gen X are latch key kids and children of divorce beacuse their
late Silent Gen and early Boomer Gen parents were busy trying to be
Gordon Gecko or trying to find themselves.
Millenialls are the kids from the second marriage that got all the
attention and toys.
Joey|8.6.08 @ 6:03PM|#
Matt:
Is Brooks running for president? And does he fit the definition of
"leader"? If the answer is no to both questions, then what
difference does it make whether he shares some of the same general
demographic characteristics of Obama?
Dagny T.|8.6.08 @ 6:46PM|#
Did she scream out "Frodo!"? Did she make you wear the
(cock) Ring? Were you alone or was there a Fellowship of The Nine?
Did you use a condom made out of leaves and elvish magic? Did you
let Golem watch? Did she wrestle your Balrog into the depths of
Hell?
This cracked me up, cuz I'm a chick. ;)
Matt Welch|8.6.08 @ 6:59PM|#
Is Brooks running for president? And does he fit the
definition of "leader"? If the answer is no to both questions, then
what difference does it make whether he shares some of the same
general demographic characteristics of Obama?
Because it's funny.
Also, because he's defined a clearly
intended-to-be-worthy-of-suspicion "cohort" that he just so happens
to totally belong to.
|8.6.08 @ 7:14PM|#
Fine.
Did he scream out "Frodo!"? Did you make him wear the (cock) Ring? Were you alone or was there a Fellowship of The Nine? Did you use a condom made out of leaves and elvish magic? Did you let Gollum watch? Did he wrestle your Balrog into the depths of Hell?
Dagny is not strictly girlie you know... and you might have been a
guy with female screen name, an e-vestite.
|8.6.08 @ 7:17PM|#
I forgot to mention something even more ancient and
unbelievable--as a youth, I used to take vacuum tubes from the TV
to Eckerd's to test them.
Yep. The friggin' drug store sold vacuum tubes. The schematic for
the TV was glued to the inside of the set. Damn PL, we're old.
|8.7.08 @ 9:33PM|#
Matt Taibbi was entirely accurate when he labeled David Brooks as an "elitist fuckhead."
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