They just can’t quit, can they?  Already, the right-wing conservative media is screaming about Barack Obama and how he’s screwing up the economy.  Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly are raining fire and brimstone from the heavens, telling us all how we’re going to experience a horrible four years because the nation elected a Democrat, and they’re pointing wildly at what’s going on right now as proof.

Here’s what I don’t get:  How can you blame someone for something he hasn’t even done yet?  Yes, the stock market is swinging wildly and people are still getting laid off in droves — but guess what?  Obama is still two months away from setting foot in the White House. He’s not making policy yet, he’s not making laws yet.  He can’t.  He’s not responsible for what’s going on right now.  You know who is?  That idiot who’s been in the White House for the past eight years who Limbaugh and O’Reilly and all those other mindless puppets supported.  He’s the one who got us into this fine mess, the one that’s causing our economy to collapse especially since we spent $800 billion on a neverending war that destabilized the Middle East and cost us goodwill around the world. 

Let’s put blame where blame is due.  History won’t record George W. Bush as some conquering hero.  He’ll be remembered as the guy who wreaked havoc across the Middle East, ignored global warming and put us on the path to the worst economic situation since the Great Depression.  I can only hope that history doesn’t condemn us for allowing him to readily trash the entire planet.  Because the prospect of this scares the crap out of me.

Despite my making noises about breaking up with Mad Men, I actually stuck with the show through the end of the season, and I was intrigued by the fact that they set the final episode during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

I can’t claim to have ever felt like my life was in danger, though I did grow up near the largest naval base on the East Coast, so I knew in a little-boy-kind-of-way that we had a Soviet warhead with our names on it, but I never actually felt like there was a chance that it was actually going to come our way.  I live in Los Angeles, where I live in fear of earthquakes, but the fact that it’s just kind of a fact of life here and that there’s no buildup really doesn’t make it that much of a reality for me.

That said, my parents lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis.  They were in New York, and they were in their teens, so they remember it all and knew what was going on at the time.  They still remember the duck-and-cover/hide-under-your-desk drills.  My mother still has the dogtags they issued the New York City schoolchildren in case of a nuclear attack so they’d be able to identify the kids’ remains.  She’s pretty open about the fact that everyone was convinced that war was imminent and there was a pretty good chance they weren’t going to survive it. 

I am incredibly thankful that despite it all, I live in a pretty stable environment.  There aren’t bombs going off on a daily basis, the country isn’t falling apart to the point where civil war isn’t exploding all over the place, and we’re not under martial law.  I can’t even imagine what it must’ve been like to live back then with the knowledge that there was a decent possibility that it was all going to end at any minute.

Election roundup:
- My polling place was 3 doors away from my apartment.  There was a guy who walked in right before me; he was the only person in line ahead of me.  I was in and out within 5 minutes.
- I am not pleased about Prop 8 passing.  As my girlfriend says, people apparently seem more interested in the comfort of farm animals (Prop 2) than allowing other human beings the same rights they’re afforded.
- It scares me that 56 1/2 million people voted for a ticket that had a woman who didn’t know Africa was a continent and not a country.  Also, apparently she caused more damage on her shopping spree than was previously estimated.
- I tried to hunt down a copy of the Los Angeles Times after work today — you know, have a memento of the historic occasion.  Couldn’t find a single one, and I made at least half a dozen stops.  Apparently, newspapers all over the country are sold out.  I may try to order a back issue.
- One of the Time Warner Cable guys spent his Election Day finally fixing my cable.  After 2 1/2 months, they finally fixed the problem I was having, and now all my channels are back.  Now if only my godforsaken upstairs neighbor managed to fix her lack of understanding that sound travels beyond her four walls and would turn her freakin’ TV down…

My mom’s best friend’s sister is gay.  She’s open about it — I’m not outing her or anything here, she’s a lawyer and was actually one of the people fighting for the right to get married in Massachusetts; once they won the case, she and her partner were one of the first couples to get married under the new statutes. 

She does have a daughter, but the daughter was raised mostly by the couple, since the mom and her partner have been together for around a decade.  When her mom got married, she was 14.  After the ceremony, CNN interviewed the daughter and asked her what she thought about her mother getting married to another woman.  She replied, “All I know is, all of my friends who have straight parents are going through divorces, and my parents have been together for as long as I can remember.  They love each other.”

Californians, vote no on Prop 8 on Tuesday.  Every child deserves to have a stable home, no matter who their parents are.  Just because a marriage is between a man and a woman, it doesn’t guarantee stability or caring.  Love guarantees that, even if it is between two people of the same sex, and they deserve the ability to go through the same civil declaration of that love that heterosexuals do.

I was laid off from my job back in April 2001, during the last recession.  It’s actually what made me start blogging.  I had all these things to say, and I wasn’t venturing out into the world anymore on a daily basis to talk with people and spew my thoughts upon them.  But that’s another story.  Either way, the lack of a job made me a bit anxious, as that sort of thing could do.  I lived in Boston at the time, and Massachusetts paid a pretty good unemployment rate (to the point where I was making more collecting unemployment than temping so guess what happened to temping… and even the temp jobs started drying up a little), so I was getting by, but I knew unemployment would eventually run out.  The prospect terrified me, especially as I spent my days sending out waves upon waves of resumes and cover letters that disappeared into the ether and that I never heard back from.  The entire time, I got 2 interviews — one of which turned out to be “informational” when I got there.  Insomnia set in and I would lie awake at 4am, wondering where the rent would come from when the unemployment ended.  Suffice it to say, it’s something I never want to experience again.

Naturally, these thoughts and fear made their way into my blog, especially as I occasionally mentioned the fact that yet another 10 or 20 cover letters and resumes went out with the hope that just one would be the one that would score me a job, kind of like an actor with an audition list.  I had a pretty decent readership back then, including 2 women from out of state who I’d come to consider online friends that I would chat with online and exchange e-mails with during the day, especially since it’s always nice to have people to interact with, especially when you lose the will to go outside and face the world.  And I continued on my merry way — until one day, I happened to be reading one of their blogs, which the other had commented on, and I was the topic of conversation.  “I’m sick of Keith’s whining that he can’t find a job,” the basic gist of the entry said.  “It’s not that hard.  Go out, apply for stuff, and get a job.  There must be something wrong with him if he can’t find a job.” The commenter agreed, saying something along the lines of, “If I can keep a job, why can’t he?”

Needless to say, I was angry and hurt.  Not just because people who I’d thought were sympathetic to my cause had callously turned against me, but because they were being so dismissive about the whole thing.  It’s well-documented that people who are laid off tend to take a hit to their self-worth and self-esteem, and this just felt like kicking a dog that had already been beaten.  I’m a smart, talented, college-educated guy — why couldn’t I get a job?  Plus, didn’t these idiots realize there was a recession going on and that money was tight everywhere?  It wasn’t entirely my fault I was out of a job, I was laid off as part of economic cutbacks that the entire country was experiencing. 

So now it’s 7 1/2 years later, and we’re in what some are calling the worst financial situation our country has experienced since the Great Depression.  Friends of mine are getting laid off right and left, and while I still have my job and don’t believe I’m on the front lines if there were to be cutbacks at my office, the thought still crosses my mind and I’m a little worried about things.  For now, I’m all right though, even though it gets disheartening day after day when I go into work and hear from people in my industry who have lost their jobs.  The thing is, I know how things are.  I know it’s hard.  I know it’s scary, and I know things don’t look good.  And I’m normally somewhat sympathetic anyway, so I tend to listen with a caring ear when people I know complain to me about their situations, which means that if anyone out there has lost their job because of the economic freefall we’re in, you can rest assured that I won’t listen and then mock you for it later.  Except for those two, wherever they are.  I want them to stew for a little while to realize what it’s like, even if they don’t remember me at all.

Facebook really is killing my blogging, but there are still things rattling around in my head that can’t be expressed in a couple of sentences or less.  Like the fact that I’m still very happy about the people who are getting more involved politically and actually tolerating conversations about it.  I remember seeing The Beastie Boys about 4 or 5 years ago, and during the show, MCA came out and sat down on the stage and said, “I’d like to take a moment to talk to you about something important — the upcoming Presidential election and the war.” Instantly, people began to boo.  “Shut up and play music!” and “We don’t want to hear your shit!” were two of the more prevalent things that were being yelled at him.  Patient as he was, MCA said his piece and didn’t let the yelling and booing faze him.  But I still am very glad that there are more people who are willing to listen this time around. 

My 401(k) looks like London after the Blitz, friends are getting laid off right and left, and I will freely admit that I have experienced some of the abject panic that our leaders are telling us not to give in to.  The two things that are keeping me going right now are (1) the thought that things have got to get better and (2) the fact that we can still laugh about the whole thing.  My favorite thing so far has been the entry from the Budweiser boys.  You remember the ”Wassup?” commercials that ran eight years ago?  Well, it’s eight years later, and the boys are saying “Wassup?” again for a good cause. 

Speaking of change, I’ve made some changes in my TiVo Season Pass lineup… namely deleting the Season Passes for Grey’s Anatomy and The Simpsons.  I’ve been watching both shows since they started, but it’s just gotten to the point where watching them feels like a chore rather than enjoyment, which is not what TV is supposed to be about.  The Simpsons seems to be on the air simply because it can keep going on, delivering bad jokes and plotlines that are just plain stupid, while Grey’s seems pretty much the same thing — how many times can the staff at Seattle Grace fall in love with each other interchangeably and sleep with each other in various rooms in the hospital while whining about how pathetic their lives are?  At some point, it just becomes monotonous… and I’ve passed the point of it being time well spent.

So Southern California is on fire again.  People are under mandatory evacuation and are fleeing the fire, with smoke and ash covering a good chunk of the area.  This morning, one of the major networks went to one of the evac centers and talked to a pastor who is helping out at the facility, and his advice for the people who were in danger of losing their homes and didn’t know if they were going to lose all of their worldly possessions?  “Trust in God.”

Last week, the Pope gave the opening remarks at a monthlong meeting of bishops at the Vatican, and what does he believe the cause and solution are for the global financial crisis?  “He who builds only on visible and tangible things like success, career and money builds the house of his life on sand.  Only God’s words are a solid reality.”

It’s not that I’m anti-God.  As an agnostic, I doubt the existence of God, but mostly because I haven’t been presented with solid proof either way yet.  And to be perfectly honest, I admire those who can so readily believe in something that they cannot prove the existence of.  However, what I do take issue is putting the control of their lives in the hands of some mysterious deity that they can’t prove exists, which is akin to declining to take responsibility for anything.  That’s great that God’s words mean so much to people, but the last time I checked, God’s words don’t feed people, don’t clothe people, don’t put roofs over people’s heads, don’t put fires out.  Humans do that.  Humans do that either through their own personal actions or the actions of other humans.  To trust in some ethereal being that may or may not exist… well, that can just be downright foolish-sounding at some points.  “Solid reality”?  Last time I checked, I can touch money and the things I buy with it, which feel pretty solid and real to me, but I can’t touch God’s words.  If God’s got a plan, then what’s His/Her plan for destroying so many people’s lives and putting them through so much trouble needlessly by taking away their homes and all of their possessions?  What’s the use in making people suffer? 

So this past Thursday was my six-month anniversary with my girlfriend.  It was a little weird because that day was also Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, so we celebrated by not eating or drinking all day and by spending a good chunk of time in Temple.  In some ways, things still feel new — which is a good thing, because it keeps things fresh and exciting.  Part of that may be due to the fact that, for once, I’m actually in a fully functional relationship, and I’ve occasionally remarked that it almost feels a little strange to me to be in such an easy relationship.  Sure, we each have our issues, but nothing seems to be hot-button issues for the other, and we seem to be pretty well-matched in a lot of ways.  That actually lends itself to another set of minor yet amusing issues, where I’ve mentioned something involving my girlfriend, and the other person will say, “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend!  How long have you been dating?” and then will be astonished to find out how long.  Well, honestly, I have nothing to complain about, so I don’t talk about her too much unless I’m bringing up something we’ve done together or it feels natural to weave her into the conversation.

Speaking of things we’ve done together, my girlfriend had a couple of work events this weekend where I got to meet both Keyshawn Johnson and Lisa Kudrow.  The other sighting/meeting this weekend was on Friday, when a bunch of us went over to lunch at a place in the mini-mall next door… after we ordered, Tone Loc walked in, and we actually got a chance to meet and talk to him for a while.  And no, he didn’t try to do the wild thing on my leg.

I’m feeling better about the political situation, although I can’t remember the last time a VP candidate overshadowed the Presidential candidate to the degree that Sarah Palin has blocked out John McCain.  The amount of attention she’s getting is a little insane, though I’m glad to see that people are starting to peek behind the curtain… or see that the emperor has no clothes, depending on which metaphor you prefer.  I still believe that if she can claim foreign policy experience due to her proximity to Russia, then the fact that I’ve never lived 10 miles away from the ocean should qualify me to be Poseidon, King of the Seas.  And if having a six-figure income (plus per diems and all that other cash that’s been thrown at her), three houses (including one that’s worth half a million — in Alaska, where the real estate is nothing like L.A., since $500,000 here will buy you a townhouse in Compton) and a plane qualifies her as a “regular working-class American,” then I must be living far below the poverty line.  I await tonight’s VP debate to see what happens next.

I also eagerly await fall here in Los Angeles.  I know that the seasonal change is subtle, to put it mildly, but I’ve gotten to the point where I’d like to be back in long sleeves again and where I’m not still uncomfortably hot in a t-shirt and shorts.  You know, when it’s not 100 degrees outside, like it was here yesterday, despite the fact that it’s October.  And people claim that global warming doesn’t exist…

In other news, I’m extremely disappointed in Hershey’s, who has decided to try to pull a fast one by removing cocoa butter from its chocolate.  Isn’t cocoa butter what makes chocolate chocolate?  Apparently, they’ve substituted in vegetable oil, and the taste and texture difference is noticeable.  You’d think that the bastion of chocolate in America would stay true to its products and quality, but even they are looking to cut corners in these hard economic times, but it comes at a different cost:  According to the FDA, they’re not allowed to call their products “milk chocolate” anymore because, well, they’re not.  The labels now say “chocolate candy” or “made with chocolate” or even the vague “chocolaty.” When chocolate isn’t chocolate anymore, I don’t know what kind of world this has turned into.

My company holds an annual convention for our industry, and this year’s edition was last week.  I got back into L.A. on Saturday afternoon, and it feels like a weight’s been lifted from my shoulders… especially because I can apparently sleep again.  In the weeks leading up to the Convention, I was having some serious insomnia issues, but I slept 8 hours Saturday night, then another hour and a half yesterday afternoon, then 8 1/2 hours last night.  This year’s edition was also held in Austin, which I’ve never been to but heard a lot about and always wanted to see, and I think I had more meat there in four days than I had in the past month, including what I consider to be the best steak I’ve ever had in my entire life.  We also had a chance encounter with the “Austin Queen” — a dude easily in his 60s, parading around on 6th Street wearing only a black thong and bra.  Seeing him chase after our head of sales while screaming “give me a hug!” was classic. 

As with most people who’ve been doing this blogging thing for many years, I’ve kind of reached the point where I’m trying to decide what to do with the site.  With more time being devoted to my personal life and wonderful girlfriend (met the parents last night!), it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the updates here are becoming more infrequent.  On top of which, Facebook is kind of taking the place of blogging for a lot of people, with what’s being annoyingly dubbed “microblogging” taking the place of regular blogging as people use things like Facebook status updates and Twitter to update people on what’s going on in their lives and in their heads.  On the other hand, it can get a little over-self-indulgent, as I see people doing updates way too often.  Seriously, people, I don’t need to know when you’re waiting in line for something or going to the bathroom or buying fruit at the supermarket.  However, I do feel like I’ve already expressed a lot of the thoughts in my head on Facebook status updates, and I’m wary of repurposing stuff for back here.

That said, I still haven’t figured out why people clap for airline pilots when they successfully land the plane.  It’s their job.  And, as proven by the recent Metrolink crash, it’s just as possible to die from a commuter rail crash or a car crash or something, so why don’t you clap for your subway operator or taxi driver when they get you safely to your destination?

Seven is supposed to be a lucky number. 

Yet it’s now 7 years after 9/11/01, and we are much worse off than we were when we were attacked.  The president of my country vowed to the nation that day that he would bring those responsible to justice, yet I do not see Osama bin Laden in American custody.  A week and a half after 9/11, the president of my country promised to Congress and the country he governs that we would rebuild New York City, yet, to this day, I still see that giant wound of a hole in the ground in lower Manhattan.  A year and a half after 9/11, the president of my country, promising that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and had been helping Al Qaeda (which were both later proven to be untrue), invaded Iraq and toppled its government, destabilizing the entire Middle East and sending more than 4,000 American servicepeople to their deaths — more Americans than those who actually died that day in 2001, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have also died as a result of our invasion, despite the president’s claim of “mission accomplished.”

Back home, we are deep into financial recession.  Gas prices are triple what they were 7 years ago and almost reached quadruple levels over this summer.  Foreclosure rates are the highest they’ve been in decades.  Banks are failing.  New Orleans is still partially destroyed and deserted.  The country is bitterly divided over what has become my generation’s Vietnam, while outside our borders, American goodwill has been squandered and our country’s image has suffered in the eyes of other nations.  And yet the Republicans have the gall to claim that it’s a bad thing that the Democrats rarely mentioned 9/11 during their Convention.  Did they really want the Democrats to bring up how badly things have gone since that day on the Republicans’ watch?

I mourn those who were lost that day in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, and I mourn those lost since then in the Middle East.  And in seven weeks, I will cast my vote, hoping that a new leader will finally set this country in a direction that will honor those who have died.

Yes, I may be a music snob, but at least I’m an accurate music snob.  Turns out that my friends actually put “I Will Survive” on the “do not play” list for the band for their wedding, and the band played it anyway.  This is why I will have an iPod at my wedding — no one to go against my orders and risk incurring my wrath during my own wedding, if/when that ever happens.

On a whim, I Googled my bitch-of-an-upstairs-neighbor and surprise, surprise!  She’s not a hooker, as I’d previously surmised.  Turns out she’s an actress from Orange County, which would explain the sense of entitlement and why she’s spoiled and inconsiderate.  Thankfully, the world has not been afflicted with her presence on a massive scale, as it looks like the stuff she’s done is pretty low-level (translation:  probably direct-to-DVD) and it also looks like she’s only had bit parts so far.

Given all that I’ve heard about print media going down the tubes as far as readership and revenue, maybe magazine companies might consider saving some bucks — and the environment — by not sending out 18 million subscription renewal notices starting a year before your subscription expires.

And yes, Sarah Palin scares me beyond belief — and the fact that Obama & McCain are now even in the polls also scares me beyond belief — but I’ve said all I’m going to say on it in various different places to various different people.  I know Obama wants to make it a fair fight, but the Republicans are already fighting dirty… time for Obama to roll up his sleeves and roll out the big guns.

Live, from JFK Airport in fabulous Jamaica, New York… I’m sitting in the departure lounge because my flight is delayed while they replace a part on the plane.  My beloved Virgin America has slightly let me down, though I’m still looking forward to watching my own movies on the flight on my laptop thanks to the power plug.  And the funny thing is that as I look around, the 6 other people here who have also whipped out their laptops while we wait are all using Macs. 

I flew to New York for the wedding of two good friends, which happened yesterday up in the Hudson Valley at this absolutely gorgeous venue.  The wedding itself was also great, it was extremely well-organized and incredibly fun — and tastefully fun so that it wasn’t over the top, nor was it underwhelming (pictures coming soon — I took over 100 photos).  The groom was an old friend from college, so it was a bit of a mini-reunion, and I got to see some friends who I haven’t seen in several years, one of whom told me I look exactly like I did when he saw me last 5 years ago… I guess that’s a good thing since it means I don’t look like I’m aging or something?  Plus, the groom was also one of the guys from my a cappella group, so a few of the other guys showed up and, naturally, we sang during the reception.  I forgot how much I really enjoyed singing with these guys. 

I was honored by the bride and groom by being asked to witness the signing of the ketubah, which is a Jewish marriage contract.  Some accidental hilarity and tension ensued when the rabbi asked me my Hebrew name — which includes your parents’ Hebrew names, and I couldn’t remember what my father’s Hebrew name was… and neither could he, because when I was bar mitzvahed, he actually made up a Hebrew name for us to use.  I couldn’t call and ask because my parents are on vacation in Eastern Europe at the moment.  I remembered my mother’s Hebrew name, so thankfully we put that in and the rabbi was okay with that instead of putting both my parents’ names in.

Other things I forgot about that this weekend reminded me of:
- How delicious Dunkin’ Donuts is.  I haven’t had Dunkie’s coffee in almost 5 months, and there were not one, but two within three blocks of the hotel.
- What it’s like to drive on a two-lane highway that is completely lined with trees and greenery and has a full divider with more trees and greenery.
- The puzzling thing that are the vending machines in JFK that offer hot food, like pizzas, hot dogs and chicken sandwiches.
- The fact that I can be kind of a music snob, since I was a little put off when the band at the wedding played “I Will Survive” — I understand it’s a popular song and the kids like to dance to it, but is that really a venue-appropriate song for a wedding?  If/when I get married, I think I’ll probably be so anal about the music that I’ll just wind up making my own playlist and wiring my iPod into an amplifier and a pair of speakers.
- What it’s like in a small town (like Fishkill, NY), where the local kids all hang out at Ruby Tuesday’s because there’s nowhere else to go and, for the adults, the dive bar in a mini-mall where the DJ plays bad hip-hop way too loud and the video game has you hunting deer with a fake pump-action shotgun and there’s a dude hanging out there who looks exactly like Larry The Cable Guy.
- How much I really do appreciate the rich cultural heritage of Judaism and how proud I am to be a part of it and connected to it, no matter my views on God or religion.

I will readily admit that none of the hoopla surrounding the political arenas excites me right now.  I haven’t watched any of the DNC bash, I don’t plan to watch any of the RNC festivities.  While I’m excited about the possibility of change and the country’s first African-American president, but I think I overloaded on politics several months back.  I know who I’m voting for, there’s no need to continue trying to convince me.  (Yes, I realize they’re not campaigning for me, they’re campaigning for all the other people out there who haven’t decided.)

That said, I do have issues with some people in my party.  Some of the Hillary supporters have basically been saying that they plan to cut off their noses to spite their faces with this whole charade of saying that since Hillary didn’t get the nomination, they plan to vote for McCain.  Dubya tee eff, people?  Are you that upset that you would rather have someone in control of this country who has openly said that he doesn’t have your best interests at heart or in mind (and I’m assuming that if you supported Hillary, you also agree with her on key issues that McCain opposes)?  Are you that ignorant that you would prefer four more years of having your entire country continue this admittedly rather rapid decline into oblivion, just because you want to act like a petulant child because you didn’t get what you wanted?  Buck up.  Having an African-American president is just as momentous as a woman president. 

The other thing that bugs me are the people in my party who are as vehemently opposed to anything Republican-related as the Republicans are to anything Democrat-related.  I’ve always been annoyed by the raving conservatives who attempt to spin everything into a “liberal conspiracy,” and now I fear that there are some on my side of the fence who are becoming as dismissive of the opposing party and making everything into a “conservative conspiracy” in their own minds.  One of the things I’ve liked about Democrats and liberals is that they tend to be more open-minded — this has been documented in surveys as recently as just a few months ago where a greater percentage of liberals took in conservative media than conservatives took in liberal media — but to constantly complain about this stupid Republican trick and that stupid Republican ploy… well, when it becomes shrill, it feels closed-minded to me, and it’s something that irks me. 

Either way, I look forward to the democratic process that will soon take place.  Polls and projections are a great thing, but I honestly wonder what people will do and how they will act when there’s no reporter shoving a mike in their face or a pollster scribbling down their responses… you know, when it’s just them, the booth and a closed curtain.

Time for another edition of What I’ve Learned:

- Rules were meant to be broken, but not in the way you think.  If you know the rules, you know how to get around them. 
- TiVo really is one of the most wonderful inventions ever.  It’s one product that can definitely boast that it’s definitely imitated but never duplicated. 
- I will never understand the formula of TV comedies that always seem to pair up some dumpy schlubby guy with a gorgeous woman who will put up with all of his shenanigans.  The King of Queens.  Everybody Loves Raymond.  The Flintstones.  Is it simply meant to draw dudes in because they think they might have some chance with a hot woman based on what they see on TV?
- With all these wireless Bluetooth headsets around now, I can’t tell if people are talking on the phone or just crazy and talking to themselves.  It used to be easier to spot the crazies.
- Gay, straight… does it really matter?  Lindsay Lohan is still a friggin’ mess.
- There are some times when I really long for the ‘60s, ‘70s or even the ‘80s — a time when people had thicker skins and could take a joke.  Satire is satire, humor is humor, and people need to realize that sometimes taking offense at every tiny little jab makes you look oversensitive and can damage your cause.  I can laugh at a good Jewish joke as much as I can laugh about “going full retard.”