Hey Dude!

SDAI, I have to thank you for the shocking revelation, yet I admit is does tend to humanize our president.

>"Bush just got in a quickie for Hillary......."

Wow! Will there be pictures with the news at 11:00.

>" Republicans are not good at self flagellation (surely you know they are just sadists and not masochists - every liberal knows that ;-)"

Ooops, guess I slipped up again by not knowing what every liberal knows. I keep getting strange mental images of that champion of the conservative cause--J. Edgar Hoover--running around in a dress. It tends to confuse me. Mea culpa.

>"And compared to the evil eighties where everyone was wealthier (thanks to Reagan...God Bless him!)"

I assume you reference the Japanese population and the Japanese auto industry here.

>"All while our military was downsized ......"

You know what? You just reminded me, I am still looking for my promised "peace dividend" that was supposed to accompany Nixon's secret plan to end the war in Vietnam.

>"Bush just pointed out what anyone with a brain already knew - America had chose hedonistic materialism over character and youth over experience."

The association of Bush with anyone with a brain throws me off track. When I have composed myself from my excessive mirth, I shall continue. Yeah right. I didn't know if you were making reference to the hedonism of Aristippus or Epicurus. Epicurus looked for Ataraxia: tranquility of body, mind, and spirit. Frankly, that sounds pretty good to me, and I am glad my fellow americans have chosen such a path. In the view of Epicurus the highest good is the absence of pain and any pleasures that bring pain or discomfort as their consequence. If, in your interpretation---and Dubya's--this is bad, then I opt for bad.

>"We all have paid a heavy price for that decision - and not all the roosters have come home on this one either."

No, I think they have followed the chickens to KFC.