purty writing

...My point here is that [Bill] O'Reilly went to see The Doors in concert (or rather, the remaining Doors with a young feller standing in for the guy with all the talent who drank himself to death three decades ago). And even a passing fan like myself knows that The Doors were all about drugs, the use of which Jim Morrison believed would help him comprehend the mythic archetypes that compose our collective... etc. Hell, Morrison even named the band after Aldous Huxley's "The Doors of Perception," which is Huxley's first-hand account of a truly sensational mescaline trip. Morrison was fond of inciting the crowd and himself to perform what he liked to call "Dionysian acts," and what the arresting officers generally liked to call "getting high and drunk and mooning the audience."

I'm not condemning Morrison for that. It's just a way of getting to my point: What was O'Reilly doing collaring some sad kid who was trying to join a party that ended thirty years ago when he should have been grabbing the parents in front of him in his clammy fists and yelling, "Why the hell would any parent bring their 9 and 11 year-old kids to a DOORS CONCERT!!??"

And I suppose neither the parents nor O'Reilly were fazed by the possibility that someone might end up having to explain to a 9 year-old the lyric "Father - yes son - I want to kill you / Mother I want to fuck you... kill kill kill kill kill kill...


---


...Al From thinks that Bill Clinton won the elections in '92 and '96 solely because he was a DLC-style candidate, a so-called "centrist" who was in fact to the right of the mainstream economically. But the truth is that Perot's candidacy played a crucial role in electing Clinton, who did nowhere near as well as Al Gore did in 2000 after his alleged "swing to the left". And much of Clinton's early momentum with the press had to do with his apparent social liberalism, something the DLC is allergic to on most days of the week. In reality, Al From has never gotten a president elected. And by allowing the liberal discourse to be suppressed, he handed the right-wing culture warriors everything they needed to lead the Democratic Party and the country "into the wilderness."


---


God Save Queen George

grasping at straws

Keep an eye on Eddie Castillo. In California's recall election, he and voters like him could play a decisive role -- if they decide, for once, to show up at the polls.

Castillo was among a throng of young men in surfer shorts and sunglasses following actor Arnold Schwarzenegger's every move when he campaigned in a beach town near here recently. They had come for the sand and the waves, not gubernatorial politics. But their talk changed after the "Terminator" star arrived.

Dude, they said, this time we might vote.

"I've never voted," said Castillo, 23. "But this is kind of really motivating me."

...

But there are signs that a similar phenomenon may be emerging here for Schwarzenegger. His campaign intends to use his celebrity power -- and his celebrity friends, such as actor Rob Lowe -- to try to captivate young adults and register many more of them to vote. Schwarzenegger is planning to visit college campuses next month.

"We think there's a whole new voter available to this candidate that's unique," said Rob Stutzman, a spokesman for the actor's campaign.

When Schwarzenegger appeared in Huntington Beach last week, young fans mobbed him. Some even frantically dialed their cell phones and told friends to rush to the scene.

Afterward, some said they definitely plan to vote for Schwarzenegger even though they did not know much, if anything, about his politics.

"You can tell he's a people person," Castillo said. "Just his personality makes you feel like he's going to do his best."


The best part is, the deadline for registration is three weeks away and half of the demographic that contains these culture warriors isn't registered.

Rob Lowe? Is going to bring in adolescent boys?

Special Window on Youth award to the author for the use of the word "dude," which I understand was deeply hip with young people as recently as twenty years ago.