This drew no argument – and the host allowed me to continue, so I pressed the other things we discussed here – regarding the civic responsibilities that comes with broadcasting on the public airwaves, and THAT provoked a response from the host.

But the point is – he did allow me an inning, and he did not have any answer for the main contention (the falsity of the ‘Obama the deluded civil-libertarian-for-enemies-of-the United States’).

Anyway, it was refreshing to think that at least a few people might have heard the host’s point rebutted, and noted that the host had no further argument. Really, I cannot help but like our local guy; he will allow opposing views (very unlike his national counterparts), as long as one is polite about it.

Can’t ask for anything more

She is also of the generation that came of age when the Shah was in power and Iran was a much more liberal, westernized country where women could aspire to have careers and dress however they please. I remember meeting an Iranian couple back in the ’80s who were trying desperately to remain in the U.S. because their cherished way of life in Iran was no more and they couldn’t bear going back. They were educated professionals in an egalitarian marriage. I don’t know what became of them but I hope they were granted citizenship.

It is kind of cheap to attack Palin on her looks and to cast aspersions about her daughters being sluts, but it doesn’t bother me. Palin, after all, would never have come to the defense of Chelsea Clinton when Rush Limbaugh was calling her an ugly dog that nobody would want to fuck. They used to take some pretty gratuitous swipes at Chelsea on Fox. I remember a Chelsea joke on a graphic leading into a commercial break that said something like “An African prince asks Bill Clinton for Chelsea’s hand in marriage. He offers three chickens and a goat. Bill Clinton accepts. Question: Is the prince getting screwed?”

Palin, in all fairness, really is more beauty than brains. She serves herself up in the kittenish way that true feminists loathe. And while I don’t think politicians’ children should be exploited, I also don’t think politicians should exploit “family values” as cheaply and cynically as she does. For this, I think she deserves to be tweaked for having a knocked up teen daughter. Time will tell whether abstinence-only education is working for the younger one, and frankly I won’t be disappointed if and when it doesn’t.

rant over, sorry for the caps lock voice.

Sorry, Jon, as Tom Lehrer said, it gets harder and harder to do satire (Lehrer said, without a smile, that he quit the satire biz when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize: “How can i top that?”).

Letterman’s style of humor has really never appealed to me, and his bashing of Palin’s daughter was meanly stupid.

And – I think the Palin family’s response has been more composed and reasonable than the Stouder family’s would have been, if the lanky comedian (who lives in a moral glass house, too) had slimed our daughters. Just sayin’

Anyway, if we don’t get in there sooner, Pam and I will be a company event there July 15 (extra good seats, plus food and goodies), and I’ll give you a full report!

KK’s Goeglein alert was pretty funny to read; thanks!

And ALex – those Iran pieces are good stuff. I’ve been taking in the hopeful pictures and such from there – of throngs in the streets…and I’m working not to get my hopes up. But indeed, and with all due caution and so on – I think it wouldn’t be too much to say that if the Iranian electorate responds – in the coming hours – to what the American electorate did last November (and dumps Nutjob), I’m going to have some serious pollyanna reactions about how folks are folks the world over, etc etc.