"So GM and Chrysler are broke- better them than me"
Mr. Cohen, perhaps you recognize the author of this letter, I e-mail you at least once a week. I’m one of the little people whose e-mails probably pile up in your in-box. I’m sure you’ve never heard of me. The good people of the Daily Kos, where this letter will also be posted (one way of fighting back) think their diaries excoriating Bill O’Reilly are read by him. Isn’t that a scream? These excellent writers reveal themselves as being a little naïve though, when they can’t resist adding the words "I know you’re reading this Bill" to their diary.
Mr. Cohen, I have two favorite columnists; you and Charles Krauthammer.
You're walkin' along the street, or you're at a party,
Or else you're alone and then you suddenly dig,
You're looking' in someone's eyes, you suddenly realize
That this could be the start of something big....
....There's no controlling the unrolling of your fate, my friend,
Who knows what's written in the magic book.
But when a lover you discover at the gate my friend,
Invite her in without a second look (the original opening theme to Steve Allen's the Tonight show on NBC)
Mr. C,
Usually you’re address is bundled with the 50 maximum other addresses allowed per letter, and I believe its 150 e-mailings per day on Hot Mail. Past that number and I have to pay the piper and do the condition- response thing with the capital letters, lower case and numbers all running together (like my writing style perhaps), sometimes three times before I’m trusted by the Hotmail police. (Excuse me Mr. Cohen while I juggle two audiences at once, and let me address the Kossacks chomping at the bit here.) I know you think that sounds contradictory; not really, I started out naïve- no one tries harder to be heard by the elitist media and gets less results than me, and I’ll continue right along being naïve till my Mexico crusade, among other things peters out.
The bells, oh the bells! Quasimodo I can’t take it anymore! Oh Mr. Cohen, you’re shaking your head because you can see I’m such a nuisance to the folks at the Daily Kos as well. And I can’t stop adding diaries. It’s a pool of never ending possibilities so long as you don’t take yourself too seriously. To think I have one that’s a wrap waiting on the shelf yet. A very serious one titled "The Ugly American," Mexico and ADD, as in Attention Deficit Disorder. And I started yet another one last night, "The Sporting Life and Confessions of a Troll." There’s still one more rattling around my head, hence the bells. I’d like it to be an interactive diary perhaps,maybe I’ll call it the Wheel of Fortune. How much can I push the envelope though, I’m way over my head here.
And now I’m banging out this one besides, Mr. Cohen. It just couldn’t wait, could it? I hardly shave anymore! They mop the floor with me afterwards in the comment section, so why am I such a masochist? The metaphor is very appropriate too since in real life I’m a maintenance engineer who can’t spell worth a dime. I’ve been told by some very nice bloggers on the Kos, thank god there are a few who actually try to be helpful, to compose my diary on a separate (word) document. Ohhhh! If they only knew, and still some of the misspellings slip through.
Well you can see by this horror, why they poke fun at me.
I’ve written two diaries concerning the auto industry. Hold that thought. You might be more interested naturally in the Cohen-Krauthammer juxtaposition. Wrong word perhaps? Perhaps. I was criticized in my last diary (and understand- when you hit on a hot button subject, such as unfairly criticizing Bill Maher or Jon Stewart in a diary, my computer screen comes alive. And you can’t respond to everyone, although I’ve tried. It’s just as well I can’t because they are very clever; more clever than me. And you should see the names they use; it’s one of the most endearing things about this blog. I think it started out as a blog. I’m one of the few people actually blogging (in a Diary). It’s a raucous, hilarious free for all in the comment section though. My hats off to them........I was criticized in my last diary for using the word "ad hominem" improperly. I probably did, big deal, real people use the word "bourgeoning" incorrectly all the time as well. I say let it rip, perhaps there wouldn’t be so many Kossacks "lurking" and afraid to post if they took my advice to heart. This is what happens when not enough outside agitators like me don’t contribute, double negatives aside.
They’ve got a cult thing going on I think, and people in cult always see themselves as innocents. What I mean is that my friends are taking themselves too seriously. There’s this always waiting rejoinder (wrong word? Close enough)to the effect that the purpose of the site is for electing Democrats and increasing their totals. But is it shutting down free expression, I wonder? If your not afraid like me to swim with the big fishes you’re OK (I’ll be swimming with the fishes all right, with all do respect to the Clemenza and Barzini clans) I know in my gut its true, but now I’m (typically) way off track, and already someone is re-loading their guns and is ready to download that famous old picture (not for the first time) of a train that was "way off track" and they will be rewarded with a plethora of recommends or +’s. I think that picture was taken in old Philadelphia of a train crashing through the station wall from two stories high up.
Mr. Cohen, I actually think you’re a better columnist then Krauthhammer. He would never write a piece like you did, "What tattoos say about the economy." That column hangs proudly on the wall in my house. George Will tries the same creative approach quite often and falls short. A long time ago my oldest brother, a lifelong Democrat, and perhaps the subject in another diary, once said of George Will, "he reminds me of a head on a stick." I think I’m quoting you accurately Howard. I knew what you meant, and Mr. Will would too. He is the way he is, but he’s tough as nails (so is my brother by the way), even if he is a little stuffy (ditto my brother).
My brother and I don’t really communicate anymore. I think we had a falling out soon after he became fed up with me and my politics and my unbridled admiration of Ronald Reagan. My brother is seven years older than me. Everything was cool while I was head over heals for Birch Bayh for President in 76. When Bayh crashed (think of that train again) I was just as eager for Udall to grab the brass ring. I’m not a bad judge of character. Look at what a nice son the Bayh's produced.
Years later in my parent’s house, after my mother died, I came across a letter my brother wrote to the then, newly elected Jimmy Carter. He’d think I’m wasting time now writing letters in 2009, and it’s scary, the shear quantity, but at one time bro you were quite naïve too. By the way I got my first good look at Reagan in 1976 while visiting my brother at his home in Massachusetts, the summer and the week of the Republican convention. I was 20 years old.
Charles Krauthammer if you reading this, which again is doubtful, you are straight foward, more conventional, but if you chose to, you could write a column as good or better then Richard Cohen. I know you can because you did when your brother passed away several years ago.
....So now we’re down to the end of this diary and I haven’t discussed my original criticism of Richard Cohen and the auto bailout. I’ve spread more manure around in one diary, if that’s what it is, so why stop short, let’s get it all out in the open. (And I’ll respond to the GM thing in one sentence in the comment section).
Can a sometimes false sense of superiority of strident, or just plain very committed Democrats, be explained by the fact (it’s a fact) that they express themselves very well, are very creative and as such dominate the arts, the universities, the 4th estate etc. Haven’t you heard that argument before? And conservatives dominate in the business world. I’m reminded of that argument when I sometimes read in this blog that you Kossacks have been to Republican blogs. It must be very rewarding? I’ve never been to a Republican blog. I’d be afraid what I might find. I’d rather be here among the koombaya crowd (we all know it’s a buzz word of the Limbaugh’s and Hannity’s, who I don’t have any regard for by the way) then attending a putsch meeting at some conservative blog; if I even knew where to look. Some of the nicest among you, are here, some of the worst among my crowd are probably there.(another gut feeling. If my side fawns over the egomaniac Anne Coulter, then they are sucking up to that "human cash register" there for sure. How well could they possibly write?) The best among my fellow conservatives never blog. I'm willing to bet.
p.s. a minor note of interest. I read Cohen’s Friday column today. God help the newspaper business. I pulled Friday’s paper out of the trash, saving 75 cents (I clean offices, don’t you forget it!) and read the piece this morning along with my coffee.
Oooo ooo oo oooooo
Oooo ooo oo oooooo
There's a world where I can go and tell my secrets to
In my room, in my room (in my room)
In this world I lock out all my worries and my fears
In my room, in my room (in my room)
Do my dreaming and my scheming
Lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing
Laugh at yesterday
Now it's dark and I'm alone
But I won't be afraid
In my room, in my room (in my room)
(In my room, in my room)
(In my room, in my room)
(In my room, in my room)
(In my room. .
here