OH!

Heh. Two nights in a row.

sOH?

Nice job, Teddy!

Nice piece. I have a dentist that calls me “sir”.

hiya, GdP!

hello, DrBong (it’s your day — 4/20!)

hi there CT.

He’s an old-old-old old-too-old man. Get off my lawn!

hello, rwc.

Howdy!

Or, in St McCain’s case: Get off my trollop’s lawn!

Since he has no lawn of his own.

I could get a dentist my own age- but I wouldn’t trust him. This kid is GOOD!

This might provide some fun tomorrow at WaPo0:

Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, author of “A Contract With the Earth,” will be online Monday, April 21 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss finding a common commitment to environmental stewardship and bipartisan solutions for global warming and other critical problems.

Well he’s old. He’s pretty stupid, and apparently he has the personality of a abused pit bull….

So why shouldn’t he be president?

Yeah, there comes a time in one’s life when it is good to have doctors, dentists and such younger than you. One of my grandmother’s kept outliving her doctors. The other grandmother liked to go to the cute young ones, and so never had that problem.

I ordered Kevin Phillip’s new book when he was here the other day. It came and I read the first half..had to give it a rest. Too fuckin depressing.

Good evening, Teddy!
I’m against McCain’s ascending to President, but as bad as he is on Iraq and civil liberties and a whole host of issues, I can’t for the life of me imagine how someone who has been in the US Senate for so long could be so clueless about economic issues. You’d think just by osmosis…

Oh, please, Newt and his contracts. Did he really call it Contract with the Earth? Run, Earth, run!! He’s going to screw you every which way, insult your intelligence and call you terrible names, make local Rethug clubs buy hundreds of copies of his book to give away with new memberships and make it required reading for any classes he teaches.

I despise this Republican more than most others.

Hi, Teddy
Tonight you are writing about something that I know a lot about. And McCain is TOO old. I am 2 years older than he and I know for a fact that the body becomes undependable. Some days you feel pretty good and others you just don’t have any energy. I do not have the kind of health problems that he seems to have but what if he had a crucial meeting and felt dull and tired? My joints ache and sometimes the old body just won’t go. But I’m not the prez. He is too old and doesn’t seem too sharp. IMO

Maybe an interview should ask McBush some harmless math questions- just to see if he’s up to it.

When they debate, Obama should offer McBush a hand up to the podium- and refer to him as “sir”.

I am guessing that our dear friend Newt sees the writing on the wall and did some focus groups on what cause would bring him back some limelight. Like many politicians, he doesn’t have any moral compass of his own, just whatever has the most currency for whatever he wants to achieve. He came across as so nasty a person that he embodied/personified the hard core right. I cannot see him turning into an earthy-crunchy teddy bear who loves Mother Earth.

Either that or whisper his answers so that McSame has to shout, “What?!”

i don’t know twain… i don’t think it’s the same for everyone. when i was in my (early) twenties a 72 year-old led the first semi-serious backpacking trip i ever made. he carried a 60 lb pack on his back and out hiked the 18-19 year old young men carrying 40 lb packs. ‘course he’d been hiking those mountains (the sierranevadas) since he was 7.

and when one of our group got a serious case of altitude sickness (a pulmonary edema, i think), bob took on even more weight as we divided up our friend’s things to carry for him.

if bob were running for POTUS, i would not say he was too old.

Teddy, What a great arguement. Other than what you’ve said: Why would you object? I would add his connection with Hagee (if that’s the name) who believes there is some Biblical vision that preordains why we have wars. It may be that is some authority for his 100 outlook, getting ready for the endtimes. I am sure we can add to your list. Thank you.

Lust must have worn off Newt’s most recent marriage. He wants to get back into action.

Way back when (1996), my family had a number of Republicans in it (My sister has since “seen the light” and has come over to the Democrats). I asked and they all agreed that Bob Dole was simply too old to ever make an effective president. I said to myself “Dole will never make it if even my family thinks he’s too old for the job.” Sure enough, he lost.
Of course, Clinton was following DLC strategy, so his win was a lot less impressive than it could have been.

Oh—THAT’S a GOOD one!

Well after McBush loses- there’s always Viagra ads.

McCain gets a particularly Abe Simpson aspect when he tries to hear someone speak who is more than a foot away.

There are people – bless them – who do have the ability but most people I know my age need a nap now and then. It’s not that you are tired all the time, but that you can’t depend on the body to not be tired when you need it not to be. I always think about making appointments 2 or 3 weeks ahead and thinking that I hope I feel like getting out of bed that morning. Most people, in one way or another, feel their age. So far my mind seems fine but my assistant will tell me when it goes. :)

Most people, in one way or another, feel their age.

i’m no bob – i feel every year (i’m glad to have them, mind you *g*)

IIRC, it was at the end of the last debate for his second term, where Reagan all but drooled on himself. He was blithering off into total nonsense when they called time on him. There was no question that he was senile.

After each speech he made, the White House sent in a team of “spin doctors” to meet with the press to tell them “what the boss really meant.” It was obscene that the press never blew the whistle on that fiasco.

At least we can rely on the American press corps to tell us if McCain slows down or slips up on the campaign trail — not.

I have a different age problem. I am a lot older than I look. Several times recently I have had a younger person in his 20’s or 30’s speak disparagingly about someone in their 50’s, assuming I was barely into my 40’s. I usually don’t tell them that I qualify for the senior’s menu at IHOP.

I’m not a fan of using ageism as it could offend seniors (i.e. Medicare Part D) who could be persuaded to the Democratic ticket. Being old is not a strength for McCain, so it’s better to go after his trumped-up image. However, I think it’s perfectly fine to go after his lack of competency and keep the focus there.

McCain refuses to support our troops with a GI Bill and won’t let them ever return to the great country they serve. He wants to run our honorable soldiers into the ground, so they and their families have no future to look forward to.

McCain is a flip-flopper. He has flip-flopped on torture, putting the lives of our soldiers at greater risk. He flip-flopped on being financially responsible, giving our children and grandchildren a growing and monumental debt while today’s deadbeat Republicans won’t lift a finger to help pay off our country’s bills.

McCain hugged George W. Bush after Bush operatives attacked McCain’s wife and accused her of being a junkie. McCain called his wife the c-word in front of other people. What’s wrong with that picture? Just what kind of family values does he demonstrate? How can he protect our country when he won’t stand up and protect his wife?

- Tom

Bertrand Russel said something like:

“In my youth I practiced mathematics. In my fifties I switched to philosophy. In my sixties I wrote letters. Now I just read detective novels.”

I expect that he will get tired during those long debates and get really cranky. If I had to stand for that long and talk, I’d want to lie down on the floor and howl.

I take it the media announced ‘explosion in violence’ in Chicago will become a new talking point to use to club Sen. Obama.

McCain will do a photo-op near a crime scene with police tape, just like Poppy Bush did in Massachusetts near a filthy section of Boston harbor.

-G

There are many, many excellent arguments for not voting for McCain. I’m only proposing this one for those moments when one only has, um, a moment to make the argument.

So many arguments against his election seem to require many words, and a rudimentary understanding by the listener of McCain’s own hypocrisy. “Too old” is very easily understood, by the young and (especially, I think) by the old.

I am a little younger than McCain, my better half is slightly older. Most of our friends fall into the same group. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how well educated you are, how active you are: at McCain’s age, his memory, his concentration, is ability to think quickly is inferior to someone in their forties or fifties. As any doctor that treats older people will tell you,there is deterioration with age. The Presidency is a grueling, demanding and exhausting job. It is not an old man’s job. McCain is an old man! Beside, I just read The Real McCain. His ethics and policy positions are lousy too.

Our candidate must not agree to seated debates.

Teddy good post! Who in their right mind wants an old man who is tottering on the edge of senility?

dugg it!!

We had a cranky friend over for brunch this morning. He and Mr. Gnome were talking about McSame and some of his negatives. I mentioned that he has a real anger problem. Our friend said, “He’s a guy! All men have anger problems.”

For why McCain should be President, one word is fine for me.
Liar.

Absolutely not. Cranky is how we want Mc.

I think it’s a very good argument- and not partisan..Need to work out a good verbal description of an angry geezer who started out with shit for brains and lost half that load.

And where are his medical records, anyway?

Thanks, nahant

but we don’t need to make generalizations about “most” 70 year-olds in order to identify a ton of reasons why mccain should never be president.

teddy, love you. hate this.

shouldn’t not should.

You’re right about that. Obama must be at least a foot taller. He will look more commanding and Presidential. (I am assuming it will be Obama.)

They would need a wheel barrel to cart them around! /s

That covers it. It is really a quirk that he has become the candidate. So many Rs. don’t like him. In a different field he would never have gotten this far, and he has had to revise most of the previous Maverick McCain positions. Something in him really wants to be Pres.

None of the media hacks and patsies have mentioned the “E” word when talking about Condi Rice as VP.

Elite.

I mean what would you call a former college provost who plays classical music, wears expensive Ferragamos, had an oil tanker named after her and has apparently been such a career oreinted person to settle down get married and have a family?

-G

i must confess i thought of you when writing this today, selise, because i knew you’d hate it.

I wouldn’t use the E-word, I’d use the L-word. *g*

It’s amazing that two of the three names floated most often are Rice and Crist.

Great post, Teddy.

Since 1980, we’ve had two presidents with severe brain dysfunction (Reagan with dementia; Shrub with chronic substance abuse sequelae, mood disorder, and sociopathy).

Our Republic has barely survived them.

McCain – with his cognitive impairment and emotional instability – is too impaired and volatile to serve as an assistant principal, much less Chief Executive.

Dugg.

There’s really no need to hate it. Age is a fact of life. Quite frankly, I love being older. So many things fall into place when you age a bit and I don’t think it’s ageist at all to tell the truth. Besides that McCain wouldn’t have been qualified to be prez if he were 40.

I know many people McBush’s age- and they think he’s too old.

When I think of Condi, it’s more about the I word. Incompetent. She is easily the most incompetent Secretary of State ever.

There certainly may be some eighty year old people out there who would be able to do the job- but there is no evidence that McBush is one of em- and why take the chance?

I guess that Condi came in feeling as if she couldn’t compete with Cheney, Rummy and the gang- and so she just took in their laundry instead.

LOL!

((teddy)), if i’m that predicable, would you just go a head and write my comments for me? thanks!

Hi there Kirk! I thought about you today as I was eating smoked brisket that my stepson had made for his own birthday. It felt immoral. I seriously wish there was a way to impart that kind of delicate crispy outer crust to tofu.

would you have disqualified lincoln too?

Peggy Noonan is suggesting that McBush promise to be a one year president.

Now why would she suggest that?

Cause she knows that he’s too fuckin old!

one year?

no one term?

Peggy Noonan is suggesting that McBush promise to be a one year president.

One year or one term?

Oops- yes that was to be “one term”. Forgive me. I am aging.

Having been the most incompetent National Security Adviser ever, it’s the best we could expect of her at State, though. Alone among the Bushies, she seems really clueless; it’s as if events revolve around her with no effect due to her presence whatsoever, except bad.

Hi Gnome!

Oh dear – if I’ve come off as suggesting eating meat (especially for ceremonial holidays) is somehow wrong or immoral, I’ve (once again) overshot my rhetoric.

Sigh. Over four decades of using English, and I still can’t get it right.

[worse still, it’s my mother tongue]

Aside from the fact that she is an idiot, why would she feel free to make that statement? Did he tell her that? I doubt it. I also doubt that he would leave after one term.

On the positive side, McBush likes to get into physical altercations with fellow gooper senators. I bless him for this.

No, you are not that predictable, but you do serve as my conscience somewhat. I tried to temper this post with as many excellent reasons as I could think of for not electing McCain before clarifying my two-word quickie reason.

I often find it difficult to understand why Peggy says the things she does.

Teddy, another fine post to round out the evening.

And, I knew that you weren’t drawing a line in the sand, as to the age issue. As you indeed explained in a comment, meaning that the other stuff about McCain is really more important, tho not quite as “memorable”.

I mean, like, my mother is 91 and would make a better President than McCain would. Course, she’s not a Repug!

There’s a big difference, however. Reagan was an actor, used to taking direction. He did what his handlers and wife told him and generally didn’t get in the way. McCain is a bullheaded know-it-all fighter pilot with a hot temper. He’d insist on being in charge and pushing the button “if necessary.” I find him very scary in spite of what St. Obama says.

I suppose she was an obvious choice for State. She is definitely not heard from, and rarely seen.

Cornhole Brown is on CNN ramping up a debate about ‘faith’.

I am putting my index finger down my throat and tickling my uvula as we read and write.

-G

No, no, no. That is about me, not you. I wish I didn’t enjoy meat like that. I would love to be a total vegetarian like my sister-in-law who has not eaten meat for moral reasons since she was eight!

We may never know what came from Reagan and what came from his “staff”. He (and Bush) may have been responsible for more of their own fuckups than people imagine.

I am quite eager for some Bushies to give us some details on what has really gone on in there. Hope they do.

i love your other reasons. thank you.

GB- oh, please don’t do that!

I have discovered that I can get by with fairly small quantities of meat…Four ounces of a really good rib eye is enough for example.

That is obviously MY first thought too. However the GOP media hacks and patsies float her name out often and I just wonder if they’ll hold her up to the same standards….I know IOKIYAAR…

-G

Bush’s people are known for their loyalty. It will be interesting to see how far that goes. When the whole crowd is brought to the Hague, then maybe details will come out.

I changed the channel instead.

-G

WingNut Welfare is a powerful pull, and the party will crack any dissenters and chatty types, assuming they have any party discipline left (I am not discounting a Gooper win) after the General.

John Dean is an aberration.

There might be some loosening of tongues when the idiot in chief can no longer throw em in jail or ruin their lives.

Evening all. Teddy, I don’t care how old he is, McCain is simply too stupid and crazy to be president. It is probably why the press love him, he is even more incompetent and corrupt than they are.

I think the Meyers angle of the torture story is a sign of the cracking of the Chimpy Omerta.

-G

GB- oh, you are so good at making me LOL!

Paul O’Neil gave us some pretty candid comments early on about what a hopeless manager Clusterfuck is (of course he was fired).

At any rate- there’s some hope.

Good Evening, Dr. Dick!
I totally agree!

Me too, actually. Meat appears as more of a condiment in many of my dishes, and I don’t eat meat everyday. But I would feel so much “cleaner” if I could give it up completely. My cranky friend was saying at lunch that a pound of grain has about 100 calories in it, while it takes about 700 calories of grain to produce one pound of meat.

Two best arguments about McCain:

1) He’s too old

2) It would be insane to try to correct the Bush problems by eight more years of Bush policies.

When I think about how bushco has has innocent people thrown in jail and disappeared it’s understandable that his cronies are afraid to talk.

rw- O’Neil was fired? are you sure? I thought he resigned in disgust.

Obama will be able to resurrect the “flip flop” ads from 04 and just plug in McBush…he’s been on both sides of bout any issue you can name.

That’s true. If only the Nation had taken the comments as a lesson instead of a traitorous yelping. Suskind’s book was as much warning as we could hope for, and was successfully marginalized by a “Rove-Machine” that was barely spun up to half-speed.

I’m reading The Real McCain and believe me, there is nothing real about him. Cliff has done a good job.

“Paul O’Neill was President Bush’s first treasury secretary. But in an administration that highly values loyalty, O’Neill’s penchant for speaking his mind became a problem. Shortly after O’Neill publicly questioned the merits of one of Bush’s tax-cut plans, he was let go. As CEO and chairman of Alcoa, the world’s largest aluminum manufacturer, Paul O’Neill decided to dissolve his company’s PAC in 1996. “What’s going on with campaign financing has reached well beyond a reasonable limit,” he told Fortune magazine. “Some people said we’d have a problem with access [to elected officials]. That hasn’t been the case.” That’s probably because Alcoa relies on Vinson & Elkins, a Texas-based law firm, to lobby the government on its behalf. While Bush was still governor of Texas, Vinson & Elkins got a loophole in the state’s environmental regulations that will allow Alcoa to continue emitting 60,000 tons of sulfur dioxide annually into the air, solidifying Alcoa’s position as one of Texas’ top polluters. Vinson & Elkins was George Bush’s No. 3 campaign contributor during his first run for president, giving him more than $200,000. Before joining Alcoa, O’Neill was the president of International Paper. He has also served on the boards of Lucent Technologies and Eastman Kodak”

Don’t forget: Cliff Schecter will be here at noon FDL (3pm eastern) on Wednesday 4/23 to talk about his book!

While I have certainly scaled back on meat over the years, have to admit I am still a committed omnivore. Your friend is right (or at least in the ballpark) about what we use to produce meat, which is incredibly wasteful and expensive. On the other hand, grass fed livestock actually transforms something we cannot eat into something we can and has the bonus of being leaner. That is a primary reason for adoption of pastoralism in arid regions. Cattle or sheep raising is actually the best agricultural use for most of Montana and the northern & western Great Plains. Growing corn in western Nebraska is crazy.

I’ll be here and looking forward to it.

Mccain and his gaggle of lobbyists traveling in a bus calling itself the straight talk express always brings to my mind the Insane Clown Posse.

would you have disqualified lincoln too?

Selise, I was not aware that Lincoln evinced symptomatology consistent with:

a) dementia

b) sequelae of chronic substance abuse

c) sociopathy.

Thank you for the opportunity to expand upon mood disorder (aka affective disorder).

Mood disorders come in two broad flavors:

unipolar (mood disorder episodes in a single direction [almost always depressed {though many folks with Bipolar II can exhibit “stable” hypomania for months or years: hell to live with, but often highly productive}])

bipolar (aka manic-depressive)

Though I would not suggest folks with mild to moderate depression had CNS disease so great as to compromise their capacity to serve as Chief Executive, Lincoln served before Goddard’s first rockets – let alone thermonuclear warheads.

Lincoln’s history of symptoms c/w major depression, severe (without psychotic features) would be sufficient for me to vote against him as a Nuclear Age president.

Of course, I’d also not want anyone with bipolar disorder I or II (or severe personality disorder) as Pres, VP, Cabinet Officer, or Congressperson.

Which rules out lots of pols on both sides of the aisle.

The brain’s just another organ, no matter how much like we like to think it’s special.

And the Presidency (Chief Executive) is just another job – no matter how much the D’s and R’s like to pretend it’s special.

I’m all for ADA (and I lost at least one medical position inlarge part because of that advocacy). Yet even I can’t support giving Olympic Team slots to those with cardiomyopathy so severe they can’t get out of bed.

Being an Olympic-class athlete is an opportunity, not an entitlement.

Similarly, high elective (or “appointive”) Federal office is an opportunity, not an entitlement.

We humans like to get all squicky about brain function – but I haven’t seen a convincing argument for those with cortical blindness to be commercial aircraft pilots.

The “chief executive” job demands executive function – and that means robust CNS function, with sufficient impulse control not to turn the planet into a heap of fused glass.

Summary: In the nuclear age, I wouldn’t choose someone with recurrent major depression (severe, without psychotic features) as President.

Even if that means ruling out someone who was fit to hold that office a few decades before Edison’s first commercially successful lightbulb.

I dunno, there’s age and then there is old. Jimmy Carter’s old and he’s still got it. With McCain, it’w more of a case of sanity.

hiya Kirk!

hello VG and HD.

have i missed anyone? if i did, hello!

Thanks for that insight. I was wondering how grassfed animals fit into that equation. One thing that I learned from my ranching great grandfather is that cattle eat the grass blades, but sheep pull up the whole plant and will kill a good pasture. They are better suited for weeds and areas of undesirable growth. Goats, too. In fact, my brother borrowed two goats to clear an area on his property that was full of a soft kind of bamboo.

With McCain, it’w more of a case of sanity.

See #107

Yes, but Carter always did have it and McCain never did. In some ways I think age has accentuated some of their key characteristics. In Carter’s case it is some of his best traits. In McCain’s it is his wost.

Uh-oh.

Guess I can’t be Prez, either: comments 111 and 112 indicate I’m suffering from severe deja vu.

Rats.

I could’a been a contender

Sheep are indeed potentially more destructive of pasture than cattle, but that just means less intensive use and different management regimes (got to watch out for cattle men’s prejudices here). Goats on the other hand are browsers and do not normally eat grass at all. They eat bushes, tree leaves and twigs, and some herbaceous plants. Nature’s own brush hog and mighty fine BBQ. Much of the problems with livestock raising are actually problems of improper management practices.

I suspect that if someone asked Carter whether he could be a good president at his age he’d laugh his ass off…

Thanks for this post, Teddy. His age is but one of many reasons not to vote for him.
Hi all!

DrDick- that really does sum it up!

evening pups,
doing a drive by, i have to finish some non-blogging related stuff but i wanted to pass on this wee article from the financial times. it is o/t

Financial Times Endorses Obama

Well, I am old enough to remember both the Carter presidency (which was not nearly as bad as generally advertised and certainly nor worse than Ford’s) and the Keating 6. Both men today are embodied in their actions then.

Hi Teddy! Forking cold here in Babylon By the Bay – but at least the freaking winds have stopped.

Hi Margot!

Hey, Doc! Didya see this article… “Exposed: the great GM crops myth”

Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.

Carter was president when I joined the Army. The military(at least the army) detested him, thinking that he was a wimp.I was young and just sort of fell in line with that idea. The wimp factor was a large part of the reason I voted for Reagan. It wasn’t until years later that I learned that he was a boomer skipper, with all the intellengce and emotional stability that the job required. I guess even back then the noise machine was making itself felt.

You are welcome to try the weather here in western Montana. Snowed yesterday and today and is currently 28 F. Unusual, but not epically so. I have seen 6 inches of snow in mid-June.

Some perspective:
If McCain wins and serves two complete terms, his predecessor will not be as old then as McCain is now when the second term ends.

Call me ageist too! He’s too old to cut the mustard, I tell ya!

That’s a headfull

The noise machine was born in the Nixon administration, but really came of age with Reagan. Carter, like Eisenhower, was a wise soldier (or sailor in his case) who detested war.

First night here with the windows raised and fresh lilac breeze working its magic all through the house.

Most boards of directors would be pushin McCain out the door at his age if he was runnin a small peanut butter company..

Brr. Dr (pause) Dick – there’s no place like home (even if it alternates between foggy and cold with a constant backdrop of homicidally negligent auto “drivers”).

Dayam – and I thought Friday’s radio warnings of possible snow showers north of Sacramento the next day were a big deal….

Brrr. I’ll quit griping to myself about moving up here from SoCal….

It’s not that he’s too old. His ideas are too old. My mother will be 79 this year and is sharper, smarter, more energetic and compassionate than John Sydney McCain III (The Elder). She supports Obama.

I will also be older than Obama (by six months) and I won’t demonstrate the weird resentment that characterized the Baby Boomer resentment of Bill Clinton among the Beltway Elite.

Some more perspective:

If McCain wins and serves two complete terms, his predecessor’s predecessor will not be as old then as McCain is now when the second term ends.

Hillary answering questions about the Bible- apparently Obama’s next…what fun!

And terribly phrased…

Some perspective:
If McCain wins and serves two complete terms, his predecessor will not be as old when the second term ends as McCain is now.

Better.

Hey CT – thanks for that linky: saw the article yesterday, but I hope news spreads as widely as possible.

GM soy: toxic in rodents and inferior yields on the farm: what’s not to like?

Actually, we are all bitching and moaning about it. We should be wearing short sleeves and shorts right now (of course some of my students do that when it gets above 45), not digging out the fleece.

Yeah- that IS a little easier to follow..

Have they put “thou shalt not kill” and Iraq in the same answer yet?

Still think that the old fashioned way of selective breeding and localized seed stocks is still the best way to go.

The Democratic party has waited an awfully long time for a politician like Barack Obama. Enough already.

That’s a great piece. Thanks, Wobbly!

Not that I’ve heard- but Hillary is giving a dissertation on turning out the lights after you leave the room.

That’s how we got W.

707!

No, no, no. That’s exactly what I meant we I talked about inappropriate management schemes earlier. In a proper localized selective breeding program you only keep the fittest and best producers and cull the nonstarters.

The term ageism suggests an irrational prejudice. Worth considering why we have minimum age limits for certain things, one being the presidency. Perhaps some of that rationale also applies to the other end of the spectrum.

I thought that in selective breeding you’re supposed to cull the sports.

The best part of W dribbled down Bab’s leg…! ;-)

Well, I need to toddle off to bed. Have a busy week ahead of me. One of my Ph.D students defends his dissertation proposal on Tuesday and should become the second student in the department to advance to candidacy (it is a new program). Both exciting and a bit scary.

Speaking of which. Notice the MSM whores never ask McInsane about the Keating 6 scandle. Can you imagine HRC or BO being involoved in a scandle such as that and the media not ever mentioning it.

The best part of Dubya never made it anywhere near Babs.

Boy, does that remark need to stay in video form!

gregb at 79-”I am putting my index finger down my throat and tickling my uvula as we read an”

it’s much more fun to tickle someone else’s…..oh wait…..

But that’s a much more iffy proposition. Some people retain their faculties to the day they go and others not so much.

Ewww, Brain bleach time.

Heh, you know where the brain bleach is stored…! ;-)

I owe ya a Coke…! ;-)

Congrats and goodnight, Dr (pause) Dick…

[and I agree with you on local seeds.

As do Ursula LeGuin’s Ekumen: all knowledge is local.]

Just watched it a month ago…
And yeah, I know :-)

not so surprising:

“Vast right-wing conspiracy” leader’s paper backs Clinton

(04-20) 08:54 PDT PHILADELPHIA (AP) –

…

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton was endorsed Sunday by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, whose owner and publisher, billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, personally funded many of the investigations that led to President Clinton’s impeachment in 1998.

It was one of a handful of endorsements the New York senator has received from Pennsylvania newspapers before the state’s primary Tuesday. Most of the state’s major papers have endorsed Barack Obama.

Let us know, my cubicle mate had his wife doing written and orals this week. Lots of tension here.

It depends what you’re breeding for. Survival of the fittest doesn’t imply the best, merely what fits the environmental factors best.

We need a Kennebunckport variable.

Dugg!
Thank you for your great post! (((((teddy)))))

Thanks, brat! How are you?

Obama on now- tryin to out Jesus Hillary. Neither of em are really goin over with the local faithful it appears.

Is this CNN extravaganza on faith a re-run of last week’s? I hope the candidates aren’t doing it again

When they debate, Obama should offer McBush a hand up to the podium- and refer to him as “sir”.

And he could point out that he pulled back the chair for Hillary if called on it. “I was raised the old fashioned way- to be polite to my elders”.

Or he could say to the critics…”Well the way you guys want debates…you’d have me push him off!”

I’m good, thanks. Celebrating the 90th birthday of my favorite California artist, Big Sur’s fabulous Emile Norman. Thanks for the great post, as always.

Was there one last week? Maybe it IS a rerun then. Hillary was on first- now it’s Obama’s turn…lots of questions about abortion- yer favorite bible passage, etc.

Well, Obama or Clinton can say ‘George W Bush is the worst president in my lifetime… or even in John McCain’s lifetime.’ Save that one for the debates. No royalty or credit necessary.

John McCain supports torture by the United States of America.

John McCain:
Worse than Bush

and older than Reagan was

It’s a tough issue.. but I think there are analogies to be found. I’d never argue that some 80 y/os aren’t totally qualified to serve, though whether they could maintain for 4 years is difficult to predict.

One could make a pretty good argument that many 25 year olds might be well suited for the presidency, that some 16 year olds could drink responsibly and that many could be trusted to drive at 12. My guess is the general rationale for those regs is experience and generalizations about maturity.

The deal with aging is the inevitable diminution of faculties, often accompanied by denial. It is undoubtedly a delicate balancing act, life experience v diminishing capacity. I’m not advocating a maximum age, just trying to find a way to consider age without putting an ism label on it.

i hate my browser, i just need to say that.

i missed this entire freakin teddy thread because of a spinning wheel. and all of the things involved in getting rid of it.
i am exhausted.

back in the day, i was the second person to have internet in my county. really, it was a tech fetish…..power mac. a big deal, call me a pioneer. then aol came along when people could talk to each other, but still wasn’t widespread, then it all broke out after that.

then dialup high speed access, 56k’s, that was high times, only people on the net then that you could talk to were with nasa and the original tech nerds. me among them.

now i am strangled by an outdated computer and being out of date………what irony. i am now a dinosaur.

it so sucks.

oh, a change is gonna come.

Here’s a guy who says he doesn’t understand economics that wants to get elected during a major recession (on the edge of a 1929) and who wants to select as advisors the same goons that precipitated the economic crisis.

85% of America say that the country has gone awfully wrong…meanwhile the Republicans are gonna offer us a guy who’s “Son of Dubya” (’cept ten years older)???

Beautifully stated SunnyNobility! I like to think I wouldn’t wish any infirmity on John McCain but that doesn’t mean I don’t suspect he exhibits signs I associate with early dementia and/or hardened arteries.

Buck up buckaroo – TRex is a dinosaur and you’re a distinguished FireDog. Life is good. ;~)

I don’t think the post is serious about endorsing ageism, but a better title might be “Yup, he’s too old”. (I do think he may be too old). Ageism is a serious issue, however, and as a 70 year old I don’t want to listen to 7 months of mean-spirited jokes about alzheimers, can’t get it up, creaky joints (he IS a torture survivor after all), etc. I don’t mean any of the comments here. The problem is when banter edges into insensitivity to the elderly, the belief that old people are worth less as human beings, their ideas are automatically invalid and can be dismissed, they are inferior, employment discrimination, etc. I couldn’t do the President’s job, but some people McSame’s age probably have the stamina for it. Hell, I can barely get through the primary, even as an observer. His mental functioning seems pretty bad, however, (even for a Republican), so I’ll go with short-hand “he’s too old” as long as it doesn’t degenerate into real ageism. I’m tempted to call him an “old fart” myself, but I’ll try to stick to his other glaring deficiencies without resorting to that.
I do actually remember Pearl Harbor, although I didn’t understand it; it must be one of my earliest memories.
Your Grandmother may be reading everything you write on the internet. Think about it. :) Get off my lawn!

there are people who are ninety years old who have their full faculties about them. some of these people are actually smarter and wiser and more alert than Rick Santorum and Nancy Pelosi and George W. Bush. Helen Thomas, for one. You ought to get off the “too old” schtick. it doesn’t really hold up.

i should say that i do realize that Helen Thomas isn’t ninety even though she is older than St. John by a nfumber of years.

You ought to get off the “too old” schtick. it doesn’t really hold up.

I’m not going to disagree with your prior comment, except to say that, by definition, age is something to be considered in a number of different qualification settings, and that McCain’s age in and of itself may not be a factor in electability, but his age and its outward manifestations is, in my opinion. Yes, it’s subjective, but not unimportant.

MaCain is, by many qualified accounts, a very cranky bastard, or, a “prick”. He may well have had physical confrontations with colleagues and subordinates. If you consider age as a factor in, for instance, whether someone is less patient or capable of intense concentration, it’s worth considering.

I also am 72 and recall Pearl Harbor because of the turmoil in our household and my father saying that he would have to leave soon.
There may be some people who would be able to be good Presidents in their 70’s, but I am not one of them, and neither is McCain. Neither was Reagan.
In addition, I think McCain suffers from PTSD and needs counseling.

There is no way for us to know..because Sen. McCain refuses to release his medical records…just how bad off he is. But as someone who cared for two elderly parents, I can tell you that he is showing all sorts of symptoms that scare me to death if he somehow got to be president: The shaky hands(Parkinson’s Disease?), the personality disorders(PTSD? MID?), the seeming lapses of memory. We won’t even discuss his recurring skin cancer. This is a man who, it is very sad to say, really should not be in public service at all.

Age is not a disqualification. Strom Thurmond, for example, served in the Senate for a number of years as a cadaver.

Get used to it

I mean presidents older than 70. More and more people are surviving, and in better and better health, well into their 80s.

No, we shouldn’t tolerate presidents with even early dementia, as Reagan obviously had on assuming office (the bit about missiles being recallable was an undeniable memory lacune), and of which McCain gives some, but much less clear, evidence. But only a minority of even 80-year-olds have dementia or any sort of mental impairment. I don’t think that the national supply of politicians with good sense is so huge that we should arbitrarily exclude even one potential good president on the basis of some arbitrary rule — not when the over-70 contribution to the candidate pool is going nowhere but up.

You can weed out the elders who might have cognitive difficulties by using the exact same criteria that every voter should use on every candidate of whatever age. Do they make sense, or not? We might have weeded out Dubya if enough voters had done that due diligence, and no one thinks that his cognitive difficulties have anything to do with age.