Okay, a book that the proponents aren't reading because they figure it'll be dull is also a book that its opponents aren't reading because they want to criticize it without being corrupted by the thoughts therein. It's the Satanic Verses of the new century!

There are ways. There are means. There are committees to discuss them. But when the big black stretch limo drops us off down the block, exactly which block are we on?

All wind, no lass. All spirit, no link. All an, no imus. It's the inside of things that matters, but the outside of things that sells. We all know this. We are all humbled by the knowledge. Yet in that humility we find the strength to simply quit.

For what good is any of it? The anthracite remains in our sullen veins, and simony rejoices as our drug of choice. Our atmospheric culture has been poisoned by the ever billowing smoke stacks of left handed instinct and hollow eyed reason. Where is the glamor in an Imperial gladiator dying of a simple respiratory infection?

Your ass, my hamster.

News flash. Memoir by practising politician is a snoozefest. I've never read a memoir by a politician currently holding office or looking to hold office and I don't see anything telling me that Hillary's book is an exception.
What did anyone -- pro- or anti-HRC -- expect?

"I've never read a memoir by a politician currently holding office or looking to hold office and I don't see anything telling me that Hillary's book is an exception."

I'm sure that's true.

If you start to snooze, well there's always Ann Coulter's Treason for you. Doesn't exactly sound like your cup o' tea, though.

By the way, does everybody know about Audible.com for downloading audiobooks? I've been doing this for 3 years now and it's great. But I keep running into people who've never heard of it, which is why I mention it.

Some think political memoirs are like eating ice cream from a blind man's eye sockets. Others say it's just senseless ideagrams scribbled in oil soaked sand by a jaded, faded mandarin.

Ends may justify means, but what about averages?

Is there something about political memoires that provokes epigrams?

At least they provoke something. They rarely provoke interest or controversy, and never promote insight. They rarely have anything to say and almost never say it well. The revelations and naughty bits, if there are any, get excerpted somewhere, and a few pages in Time or Newsweek, which would have been filled with something else anyway if the ad sales for that week supported them, contribute far less to the overuse of forest products than the vanity publications destined for a quick trip to the remainder table.

Damn, those things hit the 30% off Special Clearance shelf at my local Barnes & Noble faster than even the *Dune* prequels did.

Cornelius van Lunt, faced with unrelenting attacks by a particularly intransigent law enforcement agency on one hand, and an extremely hostile takeover led by rival executive factions within his own corporation on the other, took a novel tack to resolve his problems.

Luring both law enforcement officers and representatives of his own rebellious executives to a shabby, little used business facility for a meeting, he waited until all his opponents were within the structure... and then launched it into space. The run down warehouse in a secluded section of New Jersey was, in fact, a disguised short range space vessel (amazingly, none of van Lunt's enemies had noticed the massive tanks of liquid oxygen as they drove up).

While the mind boggles at speculating as to exactly what van Lunt had originally spent billions of dollars constructing a spaceship that looked like a warehouse FOR, ultimately, one cannot deny he found a profitable purpose for what many would have pointed to as a ridiculous economic white elephant.

If we want a fully funded space program, perhaps someone should point out to the current Administration the possible uses for such in terms of disposing of 'enemy combatants' and other undesirables.

Meanwhile, liberal and progressive media gadflies may well want to exercise wariness as to exactly what old, shabby structures they enter at the invitation of Republican operatives.

Your attention, please, Doc/Doc Nebula/Handsome/Darren Madigan:

This is your friendly local moderator speaking. Your remarks are making less and less sense. You need to do something about it.

I don't know what you usually do about it, but whatever it is, you need to do more of it, or go back to doing it, or whatever the heck it takes (I'm not asking), because you're starting to sound like you're broadcasting from the ozone layer.

This is meant as a friendly and helpful communication. Please read it that way.

Cheers --

tnh

The dialectic may sprout with the fury and fervor of genetically modified corn stalks, T. But if the seeds are sterile, whereof doth it profit us?

You may think I babble like a brook, but bear in mind... Theodore Marley was one fine lawyer when he wanted to be.

Cornelius van Lunt (aka Taurus of the Scorpio crime syndicate) first appeared in AVENGERS #77
circa 1970, and was later killed in an issue of WEST COAST AVENGERS. In between these he did indeed commit the crime Doc recounts. Quite what this has to do with the topic of Hillary's memoir I seem to have missed, however

Doc is hamming it up in the last paragraph (3:46 pm), but I can't make a dent in the first one.

Eh eh eh. Very good! 'Hamming' it up indeed. I laugh while I can, Monk E. Boy. As for not being able to make a robeson, Swiss family or otherwise, in the first paragraph {he said, giggling madly}, as with the secret lab behind 314, sometimes there's no there, there.

As to the so-called crimes of van Lunt, I'm not sure it's more than a misdemeanor to launch an unlicensed space vehicle without adequate ground clearance first.

Doc, listen to me. There's something the matter with your writing. You sound like you're hitting a manic phase. If you want to persuade me that I'm wrong, all it'll take is one clear non-elliptical post. But if you can't tell what I'm talking about, please think seriously about seeing a doctor.

T-girl,

'right' and 'wrong' are always subjective. Is it the broadcast or the antennae? I've got a brain, a super brain... and we're all doomed to die a horrible death.

Somewhat non-elliptically, when Captain Clarity gets his ass kicked, Wingman Whimsy must take command.

As to persuading you or anyone else of anything, hey. As Lapis Lazuli once said, I'm always right here, but sometimes, you go away.

Or maybe that was Lorelei Lee. Like nearly everyone, I get them confused.

Seriously, go see a doctor. You're not making much sense, and to the extent that you do make sense, you're communicating entirely in comic-book allusions.

1. Generally speaking, you can't go on this way.

2. Locally speaking, you're not going to go on this way much longer.

Doc, unless you're just being surreal and deliberately transgressive, Teresa's right. If you ARE doing Dada, as it were, she'll be justified in locking you out.

have to agree, Mr. Doc, not knowing you: e.g. "robeson, Swiss Family or otherwise": Just so you know, somebody got the joke (Lester Dent = Kenneth Robeson)--but what are you really saying? Not much that i can see; just making meaningless wordlplay. You do sound a bit like a certain longtime pal of mine when he checks himself into a mental hospital, as he periodically does. don't know, but I'd have to say, listen to Teresa.

Ahhhhh, yes. "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".

Unless, of course, I can't UNDERSTAND it...

I'm not sure which is better... being linear and coherent and getting routinely slapped around by it in a rather less than civil manner, or getting all whimsical (and obviously amusing any number of posters, judging from the responses) and immediately having my civil rights suspended by moderators with no sense of humor whatsoever.

No, no, what am I saying? It's ALL good.

'Growing luminous by eating light' apparently does not include whimsy, and I'm guessing Geeks Need Not Apply, either.

'No hyperspeed?'
'It's not my fault!'

Doc--

In order to properly exercise my civil rights, I demand that you immediately create and host a site, using either this software or UseModWiki, where I can post my opinions and ramblings on any subject that suits me.

In the meantime, I agree with Teresa--talk to a doctor. Even if you are one: self-diagnosis and medication is worse than being your own lawyer.

I could just be a misanthropic bitch, but I don't think he needs to see a doctor. I think he needs to grow up and get a life. Nobody was particularly harsh to him but he keeps harping on how badly he's been treated here. I think he's just trying to upset people and the best thing to do is ignore him. If he's one of those folks who thinks moderation on a non-governmental site is censorship and an abrogation of his civil rights he doesn't deserve anything but blocking from posting at all.

Grump grump grump.

Well, I have been a bit ill-tempered lately around here. I do think he's overreacting, but I figured he was entitled to express some annoyance.

Where I'm about to draw the line is his nasty comments (here and in another thread) to Teresa, who has gone to some trouble to address him with courtesy and kindness. We won't be having any more of that. If he thinks this is a violation of his "civil rights," he has another think coming.

If anyone's interested, PJ O'Rourke's review of Hillary's book is pretty funny, and I don't think you necessarily have to agree with his political/cultural views to enjoy it. (I know—I could be wrong).

I couldn't plow through it. The review, I mean.