8 Comments, 8 Threads

1. 1. bolivar

   I just love this guy. I only wish I knew him. Bet he would be a hoot to sit down and have a beer with and hash out the worlds troubles. His writing style is so matter of fact but, sometimes I feel I know Gnat as well as my own kids.

   Thanks for the post. Keep up the good work and the new site is kick ass.

   July 30, 2004 - 3:40 am   Link to this Comment

   

   
2. 2. Scott Ferguson

   It seems as if James Lileks and Garrison Keillor operate in parallel universes. Both are Minnesota writers with radio shows. Right vs. Way Left. Minneapolis vs. St. Paul. Happy marriage and a beautiful kid vs. third marriage and bitter. Incisive observation vs. smug unction. Wax vs. wane.

   July 30, 2004 - 5:34 am   Link to this Comment

   

   
3. 3. Mike M

   Lileks is the Seinfeld of the blogosphere. Most of his blog is about nothing, but it’s still entertaining…and the parts that do have a topic are outstanding.

   Asking “did Vietnam attack America?” is like pulling the wrong Jenga block out of Kerry’s stack. The carefully constructed labyrinth of his foreign and military policies just crubmle.

   I noticed that Kerry didn’t mention that he voted against funding the troops in Iraq before he said how horrible is was that families had to take up collections to buy troops body armor…

   July 30, 2004 - 7:16 am   Link to this Comment

   

   
4. 4. catherine

   ah, yes. i’m sure lileks would have thought kerry’s speech was better if only he had changed some grammatical aspects of certain sentences.

   July 30, 2004 - 7:37 am   Link to this Comment

   

   
5. 5. Sgt. Hulka

   Hillary has even more to fear from Kerry than she first thought, because Kerry took the lead in the Banality race with that speech last night. BTW, this is a superb site that will flourish.

   July 30, 2004 - 7:38 am   Link to this Comment

   

   
6. 6. peggy

   I had a feeling that Kerry/Edwards would attempt to recast “back to the good old days” in a new package and they delivered. The over-riding message that I got from the convention is that they were promising a return to the days before 9/11 when life was good/better and not so scary and hard.

   I admit that before Kerry’s speech last night, I still held out the very slim hope that maybe Kerry might surprise me and show himself to be someone that I might be able to support with out all the conflicted feelings that I feel for Bush. I am a recovering Democrat after all and I still have trouble even imagining myself voting Republican.

   But Kerry is doing nothing less than contemplating surrender although he might not realize it himself. Anyone who promises to make things safe again in the short term is contemplating doing whatever he has to to take the heat off. That is the false promises of a coward. Kerry’s is a man who may have once been brave but now he is compromised and the man that he is now is what counts, not what he was like 30 some years ago.

   I got my answer last night and I can’t vote for a man who makes soothing promises like he did. Unfortunately its a seductive message that he’s selling. How many people are there in this country are tired of being afraid and will actually believe that he can make the world approve of us again?? I hope not many.

   Those who do right are rarely approved of until they are proven right by events. Until then life is just a tough hard pitiless slog and the brave person or nation needs to know it and accept it.

   If the Bush camp is smart then we can expect to hear Bush refuse to promise an end to fear and refuse to promise to make the world like us again. We can expect him to exort us to be brave and resolute instead. When he does, then he’ll have my vote in the bag.

   July 30, 2004 - 1:23 pm   Link to this Comment

   

   
7. 7. denise

   I’m no big fan of Kerry, or of last night’s speech. And he had some pretty crappy lines that are rightly getting him some negative attention.

   However, what Kerry said was (and I couldn’t find a transcript so I am probably getting the quote a bit wrong): “We will tell the terrorists, ‘The future doesn’t belong to fear. The future belongs to freedom!”

   Hell, this is a lot more active than most of his foreign policy lines. I got the idea for a few seconds that he might get in the terrorists’ faces and at least yell at them a little bit.

   July 30, 2004 - 4:38 pm   Link to this Comment

   

   
8. 8. McGehee

   I got the idea for a few seconds that he might get in the terrorists’ faces and at least yell at them a little bit.

   Yep. He’ll yell, “Do you know who I am!?”

   August 1, 2004 - 4:02 pm   Link to this Comment