Well, I just laughed for about half an hour.

...I'm still not sure I get it, though.

Uh, okay.

Is my face red!

Just for the record, I am not related to either one of them.

I don't think they were twins separated at birth, exactly.

I'd vote for RuPaul in a heartbeat but I don't think he's running is he? Ron Paul is sort of scary but I don't think he could really do much damage and he sure would shake things up.

Currently my first choice in '08 is Cthulhu, why vote for a lesser evil?

Brenda #6: The Elder Party is the lesser evil.

God, I'm so glad you cleared that up. I was on the verge of making a really embarrassing mistake.

***guffaw***

What is the difference between a media celebrated transvestite and a Republican Presidential candidate?

On and U?

There's just got to be a good punchline to this.

maybe a good taint punch-line.

Well, RuPaul would certainly be the most glamorous President you'd ever had, and one of the tallest too, I think.

RuPaul could then start repeating the anecdotes of Lincoln, updated for modern sensibilities.

Has Mitt Romney got confused between them as well as Osama and Obama or something?

Are you sure they're not the same person, Jim? I mean, has anyone ever seen them together?

has anyone ever seen them together?

It's amazing what you can do with mirrors.

It's amazing what you can do with mirrors.

And a good foundation.

Has anyone ever seen Ron Paul and RuPaul at the same time in the same place? Hmmmm....

Okay, so one makes you doubt your sexuality, and the other makes you doubt your sanity?

I miss the days when you just voted for whoever was tallest.

6 Brenda

I fell out of my chair, laughing.

Steve Jackson Games (designers of GURPS, Ogre, Car Wars, Assassin and other classics) used to have a bumper sticker:

'Cthulu Saves'

Being from points north of the 49th parallel, where people are a bit less expressive, it took me a bit of time to get that one.

Kip #18:

Which one of those two *is* taller?

I'm not sure Ron Paul is any crazier than Guliani, though he's less polished, and not having gone to Shayol Ghul to give oaths to the Dark One, he has no chance of getting the Republican nomination.

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Spprt Dr. Rn Pl nd sv ths grt ntn.
Lst lnk (bfr Ggl Bks bnds t gv't Wll nd drps th ttl):
mrc Dcvd (bk)

It's interesting to note that of the current field of GOP candidate, the one who talks the most sense - that we need to cut our losses in Iraq, for one thing - happens to be the crazy racist.

That alone tells you a lot about the rest of their pro-torture, anti-Enlightenment pack of screwballs.

Though I'm certainly willing to listen to RuPaul's platform. Or to check out her platform shoes.

It must be gratifying to know that Making Light is read on the far side of the moon. Well, the far side of something . . .

Has anyone ever seen Ron Paul and RuPaul at the same time in the same place? Hmmmm....

Before trying that particular experiment, it would be good to first confirm that they aren't anti-particles of each other. For safety's sake at least.

We just got linked by Avedon Carol guest-blogging at Atrios. I'm happy to have people who come in through that portal join the discussion, but damned if I"m going to be hectored and bullyragged by someone who thinks there's literally no difference between the Republicans and Democrats.

TNH @25:

You didn't recognize that? That guy wanders the highways and byways of the political blogosphere, plugging his self-published (iUniverse) conspiracy theory book, claiming that the government censors are right on the verge of banning it from Amazon.

It's an internet phenomenon. Collect the whole set.

Oh, that guy ... he's flogging his vanity-published (iUniverse) book. It hasn't actually been banned from anywhere. It's just that he was too cheap to pay the extra to get it listed on Amazon.

Valuethinker @ 19: 'Cthulu Saves' -- well, yes, Cthulhu's saving throws are deity-level, and attackers are usually working under serious penalties.

Now that's funny. Thanks for a good morning laugh.

This one's tougher, though:

http://www.daveexmachina.com/wordpress/?p=2020

Abi, Jim, I had missed him until now. The unlucky fellow's definitely been smacked on the head by the fairies.

I don't think that getting hectored (though, unfortunately, I understand so little Spanish) is all that bad, but I think bullyragging is illegal here in South Carolina.

Wow. Not only are their names similar, but from behind, they're pretty hard to tell apart too.

28 Joel

Does our Lord get a saving roll then? Blew it on Calvary Hill, methinks.

25 TNH

There is an important difference between Republicans and Democrats.

The one has an agenda, and have, step by step been advancing it since at least 1980. Look at where the public is on Estate Taxes, or on abortion, compared to the situation in 1980. Or income tax rates in general. Note the progress of universal healthcare in the US since that time. Or the environmental movement. The US had 8 years in which a president named Clinton practiced a particularly moderate form of Republicanism, but otherwise it's been a clean sweep at the presidential level, and to a greater or lesser extent at the legislative level.

Social Security, with a manufactured 'crisis', is next.

Was it credible, in 1980, that the US would again attack a country on a pretext?-- I mean at least in the Tonkin Gulf there was evidence the other guy had fired on the US destroyers. Now having conducted one such war, the US is on the point of conducting the second, cheered on loudly by *Democratic* presidential candidates.

In 1979-80 the US president talked about serious energy conservation measures, and about Israel trading land for peace. What US president has taken either stance since?

The other party has no discernible agenda, other than to try to hold ground against the right wing party. Sorry, I mean they have the 'gay agenda'.

True story about my Catholic High School religion teacher. (preface this by saying I am still Catholic, and HEY! I'm late to church... Must Type Fast!)

In one of her weekly rants about the evils of pop culture, one of my high school religion teachers decided to talk about sex in the advertisement media.

She whipped up the single most offensive cheesecake image of fleshly, sexy posingness that she could find. She pulled it out to show it to the class and ranted profusely about the way this was promoting negative body images of women, and violence against women, and society is evil, and we must burn *BURN* this magazine should we find it for this imagery.

One of the students interrupted her long enough to point out that the model was RuPaul.

It took a few minutes to explain why that was an important detail, but with ears deeply reddened, the teacher quietly put away the picture without any more ranting, and a befuddled look on her face.

Her world was *changed* that day.

True story, and off to church I go!

Jim @ 36: you, sir, owe me a new shirt-- I managed to divert the coffee stream from the keyboard and the monitor, but not without consequences!!!

Jim, I'm definitely using that story the the next time I lead catechist formation.

jmmcdermott #36: YOMANK!

Bob Oldendorf #22: It's interesting to note that of the current field of GOP candidate, the one who talks the most sense - that we need to cut our losses in Iraq, for one thing - happens to be the crazy racist.

Waddaya mean, the crazy racist? The craziest, maybe, but they're all crazy racists.

I've ruined enough keyboards and t-shirts reading around here to think we all even out in time.

And, who's Jim? I'm J M. (or Joe.)

Wait, I have a great idea:

I will pray for your keyboards and T-shirts, fellow readers. But, do please pray for mine.

Strictly my mistake J.M. My apologies.

Valuethinker @34:

Does our Lord get a saving roll then? Blew it on Calvary Hill, methinks.

One can usually choose to fail a saving throw. So He saved by failing to save.

And come I think of it, I suspect RuPaul is also dedicated to abolishing our Federal Reserve. It's not like he has any.

Perhaps RuPaul could get a gig helping Rudy with his makeup and wardrobe. It might make a difference with the "values" voters.

President RuPaul was well known for his witty sayings, of which we have a selection printed below:

Whatever you are, be a good one.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him high heels.

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool the ones that feel you up.

People are just as gay as they make up their minds to be.

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason I'm sooo bad.

Another RuPaul quote:

"We're all born naked. Everything else is drag."

Actually I'm not 100% sure that is from RuPaul. But I've never heard it attributed to anyone else.

Thank you for the chuckles. I love you all, except that wacko without the values. I mean vowels.

Looking hard at those two photographs, I seem to detect a faint similarity in bone structure. Do you think they could be distant cousins?

Lizzy L @ #48, if Barack Obama and Dick Cheney are distantly related, as reported recently, I see no reason why not.

But...don't we all really know which one of the two has the better grasp on reality?

I know which one I'd tag as the more likely candidate for the next (inevitable) Republican Gay Bathroom Sex Scandal, and it ain't the one in the dress...

Gar 47: I first heard that from a drag queen interviewed in Word is Out (1978). RuPaul hadn't turned 18 yet, but I bet that's where he got it too. Actually it's probably something that drag culture in general keeps in mind, and it's probably not even original with the 1978 source.

I always mix them up with Drupal

I'm embarassed to say that for several months after I first heard of Ru Paul, I didn't know he was a man. Considering that I once nearly picked up a transvestite in New Orleans and was nearly picked up by a transvestite in Syracuse, there may be something wrong with my radar.

ethan @40:

Waddaya mean, the crazy racist? The craziest, maybe, but they're all crazy racists.

Do you mean, all racists are crazy, or all of the Republican candidates are crazy racists, or...?

And on what evidence? I've heard particular Republicans accused of racism before on grounds that turned out to be pretty flimsy.

Could someone do a post on how to tell apart Elizabeth Moon, Elizabeth Hand, and Elizabeth Bear? I keep forgetting who wrote what.

Jim 55: the GOP is the party of crazy racism. They mask it in all sorts of ways, like wanting to "curb illegal immigration" and so forth. (I never once heard of an INS raid on Irish illegals, not even back in the 1980s when they were the most common illegal immigrants in New York.) They have many planks in their platform, but most of them, at their core, amount to "we don't want brown people to have what we have."

There's somebody roaming my hometown with a "Ron Paul '08" sticker that has had the n and the top of the o blanked out with Sharpie.

Hell, I'd vote for RuPaul. Subsidized heels and lipstick for all!

Jim Henry #56:

Simple cheat sheet: Moon writes military sf (mostly--there's a few exceptions), Hand writes horror in a fairly literary way, and Bear writes anything that comes into her head: vampires, post-cyberpunk, faerie, and I think I lost track.

#56: Elizabeth Hand wrote Waking the Moon and Elizabeth Moon, according to her website, wrote about an empire called The Benignity of the Compassionate Hand. As far as I know, neither of them have written about bears.

I'm pretty sure Bear included bears in at least on of her books.

Or maybe it was beers.

Whatever.

Nathan @ 61... No biers in a single Bear story?

Could Ru Paul be a Time Lord/Lady's latest reincarnation, and Ron Paul the not-so-great previous model?

Serge @62...I bow to your wisdom...and raise you a pier. Here, here.

Nathan #64:

No, no, that's hier, hier.

The phenomenon recurs