I’ve been to a Georgetown cocktail party.  There were some Democrats there, including myself.  Mostly conservative Republicans.  Cuz rich white people (you know, elites?) are overwhelmingly conservative Republicans.

I can’t help feeling a certain level of schadenfreude that McCain’s influence in the world outside of Congress and those Georgetown cocktail parties has dropped to near zero—and he’s so clearly enraged by it.

So, you’ve got this bitter, angry, old jagoff—he’s the son of a Navy admiral, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (barely, thanks dad!), he’s been a U.S. Senator for decades, he was up to his ears in corruption but was able to trade on his POW stauts to escape charges in the Keating Five affair, he’s husband to a pill-popping multi-millionaire beer heiress who “influenced” her way out of a DEA indictment for stealing drugs from a charity to support her habit, and he’s father to a no-talent, spoiled-brat heiress daughter getting by soley on her family name and celebrity connections.

I can see why he hates elites.

Well, to be fair, I do like bonbons, screwing each other in the ass, and big piles of money.

The commandant of the United States Marine Corps says when your life hangs on the line, you don’t want anything distracting

John McCain is right here. Every Marine needs to be single, with no natural family, sterile, and asexual so they aren’t distracted by thoughts of loved ones.

The easiest way to do this is to grow our Marines in vitro and train them from birth to be a fighting machine. Sure, some natural borns will refer to these people as ‘tanks’ but until we’re able to make fighting robots, it’ll be the closest to non-distracted soldiers we can get.

I do believe that it is rather a stretch to claim that John McCain actually thinks.

”...Real Americans With Patriotic Family Values Who Only Have Missionary Heterosex In The Dark Before Praying…”

That’s correct as far as it goes, but incomplete.

You’re supposed to pray before your Missionary Heterosex, because you are about to do something that God only accepts under limited circumstances (propagation of the species) but is otherwise a base and disgusting act engaged in only by people who are too weak to resist the temptation Satan causes in their loins, and then afterward to apologize to God for any pleasure you might have experienced (hopefully as little as possible), because pleasure is something reserved for the afterlife when you’re in Heaven (if then).

At least that’s what I heard. 

I’m sure our friend Dana The Token Catholic Pandagon Troll can confirm this…

The commandant of the United States Marine Corps says when your life hangs on the line, you don’t want anything distracting

He might want to ask the Thebans or the Spartans about that.  Don’t they teach any military history at the military academies any more?

This guy was born and raised and has lived his entire life in the elite class.  He attended a prep school and then got accepted for a free, taxpayer-paid Naval Academy degree when his father was a big shot in Washington naval circles - could be some elite influence there.  When he was in danger of losing his elite status after his dad died and he left the navy, he dumped his nobody wife and married a very very rich one so he could go into politics.  Two senators were in his wedding party.  As a politician he did not, of course, start at the bottom and work his way up by running for dog catcher first.  No, he ran for congress after getting his wife to buy a house in the district he thought he could win most easily. 

He has been a member in good standing of the DC elite all his life.  The only real Americans he knows are the ones who clean his many houses and wash his many cars.

Artiofab, did you just watch a marathon of Kirk Russell movies ending with Universal Soldier?  Or Space Above and Beyond?

I live in Wisconsin.  We don’t have cocktail parties, we tailgate.  And I’m the first one in my blue collar family to even go to college—and yes, my parents were progressives.

“Don’t they teach any military history at the military academies any more?”

They do, but the Texas Schoolbook Bowdlerizing Committee took care of censuring out the gay stuff from the textbooks…

Also, McCain is a 3rd consecutive generation Navy & political elite.  His grandfather was a Navy bigwig, too.

Well, to me it has been obvious for sometime that McCain is suffering from dementia of some stage.  I noticed it most egregiously during the campaign.  There were times where he was actually and literally babbling incoherently. It was terrifying.

Did you know that John McCain was in the military? It’s true. He’s the only senator who was. He’s the only senator who ever was. In fact, he’s the only PERSON who ever was. The lamestream media won’t report that because they’re biased.

Andres, true, but so do many non-elites and a lot of Republicans, elite or not.

Gold stars?  Seriously?  He’s comparing a widely-supported bill to ensure equality in the military with the fucking holocaust, seriously?

artiofab, a few months ago I posted a link to the TNR were Rep. King of Iowa basically argued that allowing gays in the military would force America into the culture of Sparta where boys were raised from birth to be soliders and this would be bad. These people are morons.

Every time I read something about McCain, I get more disgusted with him.

That “gold star” comment is just infuriating. It’s way out of bounds. What he’s saying is, service members will die as a direct result of serving with gays.

That is an outrageous slander against people who are serving their country with honor. I’m trying to see the difference between McCain and the lunatics who pop up at military funerals with their “God Hates Fags” signs. As far as I can tell, it’s a difference in degree, not kind.

So the repeal of DADT passed 65 - 31 with 4 senators not voting.  If you adjust for the relative populations of the several states, this something like a margin of 71%-29%.  Which isn’t so far off from the poll Amanda mentioned where 77% support repeal. 

Also, McCain is just nuts to think that a subsequent Congress might reenact DADT.

McCain is just a rambling fucking idiot who doesn’t deserve to be in the Senate anymore.  I don’t think it’s about his age, it’s just conservativitis that eats away at the brain.  And he used to be so good on many issues, but there is nothing salvageable left about his reputation.

that don’t partake in the elite schools that bar military recruiters from campus, that don’t partake in the salons of Georgetown and the other liberal bastions here and around the country.

Yeah, because the U.S. Naval Academy isn’t an elite school (complete with academically mediocre legacy students with disciplinary problems who are given a pass by the administration). This kind of class warfare rhetoric is amazing coming from someone who, with countless homes provided by his heiress wife, stands out amongst his fellow members of the millionaire’s club we call the U.S. Senate—a club to which he’s belonged for decades. When he talks like this, he comes off with all the credibility of Monty Burns running against Mary Bailey in that Simpsons episode

McCain’s willingness to expose his rank pseudo-populist hypocrisy in support of DADT goes beyond the usual “finish that fence” political opportunism he’s exhibited ever since he was schooled by Prince Bush back in 2000. He really seems to have some pathologically serious personal issues regarding homosexuals in the military.

Rollling Stone did a devastating piece on him.  He beats the POW drum while ignoring all the other POWs, and voting consistently against many things which would actually help other veterans.  Voting against DADT repeal makes absolutely no sense from a military stand point because let’s face it….everybody’s served with a gay soldier or two at this point. The linguist corps has been devastated.  The Marine general is a throwback who probably longs for the good old days when there were no blacks or women, either, because it made the white men upset.  And what civilians don’t know is that the combat troops are the least-educated and lowest-scoring service members. They watch Faux News in the chow halls—-it’s often the only channel made available.  Sometimes that’s mandated by command.

. . . Perverted Liberals Who Eat Bon Bons And Screw Each Other In The Ass For Fun On Big Piles Of Money . . .

Amanda, I’m disappointed. You left out the abortion parties. You used to love the abortion parties.

Funny, I’ve known dozens of people who have served in the military (and enlisted men/women, at that, not scions of Admirals who went to the service academies), but never met anybody in person that went to Harvard.

For fucks sake, the Penatgon itself is in a extremely blue area of a blue(ish) state (they don’t call it the “People’s Republic of Arlington” for nothing).

I’m trying to see the difference between McCain and the lunatics who pop up at military funerals with their “God Hates Fags” signs.

Oh, McCain will descend into Fred Phelps land before long, given the stunning rate at which he’s declined from his already low standards.

Just wait until START passes. The United States and Russia rebuilding their diplomatic relations while reducing the threat of nuclear war? That will make him blow a gasket, because nothing pisses off liberals like nuclear weapons!

AndersH #4: Bonbons have asses?

Elite schools?  The USNA is about as elite as it gets, baby.  More difficult to get into than the Ivy Leagues and Georgetown.

This has shades of George HW Bush (Yale grad) calling Michael Dukakis “elitist” for going to Swarthmore and Harvard.  And if memory serves me correctly, didn’t George W Bush (Yale BA, Harvard MBA) do the same thing with Kerry for having gone to Harvard?

What is scariest is that there are people who actually swallow this nonsense.

Amanda, I’m disappointed. You left out the abortion parties. You used to love the abortion parties.

They’ve become way too commercial.  It’s supposed to be about the abortions, man…

mtthw, a “Gold Star” is what U.S. families hang in their window when they’ve lost a son or daughter in the military. The Holocaust featured “yellow stars.” With more points than the gold ones.

McCain’s “elite” bullshit sounds frighteningly like Bill Donohoe’s denunciation of museums.

mtthw, the gold stars aren’t a reference to the holocaust. he’s referring to five point stars you see on houses, not six point (Jewish) stars. all he’s doing is trying to speak for all rural families who’ve lost friends and relatives in the military. that’s horseshit in multiple directions, including 1) that all rural soldiers’ families oppose DADT, 2) that the military is overwhelmingly rural or smalltown, 3) that families of dead soldiers want McCain to speak for them… but nothing to do with the holocaust. He’s trying to use the respect we have for military families, because he doesn’t have that respect for himself anymore.

John McCain: “When I hear the word ‘Georgetown’, I release the safety catch on my Browning…”

...then he shuffles over to the the food table at the party in Georgetown he’s attending (rubbing shoulders with other Republican elites who like to pretend they are Real Americans on the way) and loads up on canapes and champaign…

“refresh before writing comment” strikes again!

The false dichotomy of “Real Americans With Patriotic Family Values Who Only Have Missionary Heterosex In The Dark Before Praying and Perverted Liberals Who Eat Bon Bons And Screw Each Other In The Ass For Fun On Big Piles Of Money”, as opposed to the dichotomy that exists in reality, which is “Most of the country against a bunch of bigoted religious fanatics who see the number of groups they’re allowed to hate openly while being taken seriously growing smaller and smaller.”

McCain’s version can’t be true. I’m a liberal and I *hate* Bon Bons.

Why are you insisting on treating this with an analysis of the factual content?

There is a right-wing narrative where there heroes set themselves up as “just good ol’ boys standing up against the elite”.  Hell, Palin is out-good ol’ boying anyone with an actual penis.  It has nothing to do with the facts; it has everything to do with stroking the ego of the paranoid lumpen base.

Cuz rich white people (you know, elites?) are overwhelmingly conservative Republicans.

Yep, that’s the sad thing.  The very richest tend to be Republicans, because they made their money by deceiving people, and they got elected by deceiving people.  Your “average” upper-middle-class college-educated professionals tend to skew toward Democrats, but the really rich ones become Republicans so they can protect their money from taxes, and they get elected by stirring up resentment among Fambly Values voters who are too angry at the idea of people having sex unpunished to notice that their own party is taking advantage of them.  Whoever tied together the ideas of tax cuts for the rich and banning abortion was a genius.  I grew up with the actual elites, and I can guarantee you that the rich Republicans don’t give a fuck about abortion or gay marriage.

Yeah, because the U.S. Naval Academy isn’t an elite school (complete with academically mediocre legacy students with disciplinary problems who are given a pass by the administration).

While mediocre legacy students do exist at the academies, the types comparable to their Ivy counterparts is tiny.  However, there are different forms of set-asides for former enlisted serving soldiers and children of MOH winner military veterans which do allow them to gain admission with lowered/waivered requirements. 

One high school classmate who flunked out of 2 universities(Fellow bottom 10%er of our class) and served 8 years as a “Pogue” ended up at West Point.  However, once you’re in, the combination of strong academics and rigorous military training/scrutiny was such that many can still flunk out for disciplinary and/or academic reasons.  He ended up being kicked out after one semester due to academic deficiency and yet, somehow managed to gain admission and graduating from Columbia University.  Know of several other former military academy academic flunkouts who ended up doing respectably or even excelling at Ivy/Ivy-level schools like Georgetown. 

Also, the degree of eliteness conferred to the military academies depends greatly on the region, high school, and the socio-economic class of the students/parents.  For instance, it was considered on par with the Ivies according to friends and college classmates more likely to come from southern or midwest rural areas, attending mainstream public/private schools(i.e. Southern Segregation academies, mainstream NYC high schools), and where most of the student body and their parents are at most middle-middle class. 

In the West Coast and Northeast wealthy suburban enclaves, exclusive boarding schools, and public magnet schools like the one I attended, the degree of respectability ranges from “just below the Ivies” to no different than “mediocre State U” (Common attitudes exclusively from snobby wealthy kids(Mostly GOPers/libertarians with a few radical left wannabe Hippies/Marxists thrown in) attending exclusive NE prep schools like the ones W attended). 

To sum up my own attitudes on this: I have far greater respect and esteem for John McCain or other academy students graduating near the bottom of their classes than W or Ivy students like him graduating with C level grades.

I stayed in a Holiday Inn in Georgetown. For the Inauguration.

I went to a cocktail party the other night, given by a lez Canuckistanian.

Plus I went to William & Mary. And Yale.

Bonus points - I’m a big lezbo. And married. With a new 3-1/2 month old baby.

I can haz elite-gasm?

Gay bonbon-eating abortion orgy money pile parties? Damn, I was pretty happy with the mostly-secular “holiday” parties full of good food I’ve been attending, but now I feel like “doesn’t promote Christianity overtly” is too low a bar when I could be having gay bonbon abortion money parties. Think my boss would accept a little friendly constructive criticism for next year’s festivities? She’s a liberal, so ya know she loves her some elitist Harvardbonbongaybortion-tinis (shaken, not stirred.)

Bagelsan, you’ll have to use the secret handshake.

Yep, that’s the sad thing.  The very richest tend to be Republicans, because they made their money by deceiving people, and they got elected by deceiving people.  Your “average” upper-middle-class college-educated professionals tend to skew toward Democrats, but the really rich ones become Republicans so they can protect their money from taxes, and they get elected by stirring up resentment among Fambly Values voters who are too angry at the idea of people having sex unpunished to notice that their own party is taking advantage of them.  Whoever tied together the ideas of tax cuts for the rich and banning abortion was a genius.  I grew up with the actual elites, and I can guarantee you that the rich Republicans don’t give a fuck about abortion or gay marriage.

I don’t think that rich people become Republicans to protect their money from taxes.  They don’t need the extra money-it’s completely meaningless.  They do it not because they want more money, but because they see the government taking their money to give to anyone else as an affront to their status as the Elect.  They wouldn’t really notice a couple extra millions,  but the very idea of helping a society of what they view as unworthy parasites is abhorrent to them.

Republicans don’t go after taxes because they want more money, they do it because they want non-rich people to have less.

I seriously can’t wait for the “Harvey Milk was Republican” signs in 2048, once state-sponsored homophobia gets seen through the same lens as Jim Crow laws of the 50s.

That’s pretty awesome. Very high quality snark, Zinfab.

For the record, I went to Cornell.

I’m just not a real American, despite my father having been a car mechanic and all those jobs I had where I fixed bridges and cleaned stables and cooked fast food.

Bagelsan, you’ll have to use the secret handshake.

Ha ha, nice try, but you can’t fool me! I know perfectly well that “hands” have nothing to do with it.

I don’t think that rich people become Republicans to protect their money from taxes.  They don’t need the extra money-it’s completely meaningless.

Sure they do. No matter how much you have, somebody has more than you. So even if you’re a success viewed in one context, you think you don’t have enough viewed in your context, that is, other rich people.

I don’t know what percentile my parents are at. But they’re very comfortable, it would seem. But I’ve seen acquaintances of theirs who have their own sailboats and Porsches and condos at Aspen and stuff. So if all you cared about was money, even if you had more than 95% of all Americans you’re perfectly capable of not feeling rich at all.

Can I just say that every time I think John McCain has scraped bottom - he manages to reach down and dig a little deeper.

The mind truly boggles.

“So, you’ve got this bitter, angry, old jagoff—he’s the son of a Navy admiral, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (barely, thanks dad!), he’s been a U.S. Senator for decades, he was up to his ears in corruption but was able to trade on his POW stauts to escape charges in the Keating Five affair, he’s husband to a pill-popping multi-millionaire beer heiress who “influenced” her way out of a DEA indictment for stealing drugs from a charity to support her habit, and he’s father to a no-talent, spoiled-brat heiress daughter getting by soley on her family name and celebrity connections. “

I have nothing to add to that.  I just wanted to repeat it.

Hey, I just use the stacks of hundreds to support my back when I’m reclined for the “cowgirl” position.  Or is that too much information?

Somehow, I doubt the gold-star families (the people who have lost loved ones in the service) are delighted that at least they lost their family in a fag-free army. In fact, I’m sure not a single one of them wonders: If the gay guy who had wanted to serve but was turned away had actually been in their loved one’s unit (or translating intelligence reports), maybe events would have happened differently and they wouldn’t have a gold star.

Nice of McCain to speak on their behalf, though. I’m sure having a senator climbing on your loved one’s grave in order to soapbox is totally worth the price.

Christ what an asshole.

Josh, myfavoriteboxer:

Ah, I see.  That’s still a pretty dumb thing to say, but not quite as inexplicable as what I was thinking.

Oops, I failed at subject/snark agreement. :(

it was considered on par with the Ivies according to friends and college classmates more likely to come from southern or midwest rural areas, attending mainstream public/private schools(i.e. Southern Segregation academies, mainstream NYC high schools), and where most of the student body and their parents are at most middle-middle class.

In other words, the same sort of people he’s targeting with his pseudo-populist message about elite universities.

The academies can be considered academically elite in terms of their selectivity, and (judging by McCain’s career at Annapolis) can also be considered socially elite in terms of legacy admissions and free passes given to such students. If McCain is slamming elite institutions, he’s slamming his own alma mater.

I have far greater respect and esteem for John McCain or other academy students graduating near the bottom of their classes than W or Ivy students like him graduating with C level grades.

The point is that McCain wasn’t kicked out for his poor academic performance and disciplinary infractions (both of which carry greater weight at the academies than they do at non-military schools) because he was taking advantage of the same sort of legacy connections Prince Bush used to get into Yale and (admittedly an easier proposition than it would be at at a military academy) graduate.

If McCain hadn’t been the son and grandson of high-ranking Naval officers, he would have ended up like your acquaintances—booted. Save your academic respect and esteem for those cadets who graduated at the bottom of their classes without having their bacon saved by their influential fathers.

@47: At this point I think McCain must have hit magma.

So, you’ve got this bitter, angry, old jagoff

“Old” being the operative word. Like Ben D, I also know more than a few people who’ve served, although they’re officers who, for the most part, are graduates of “elite” schools. Of the ones I’ve asked, not a single one of them gives a damn whether a soldier is gay or not, but it’s not due to education or rank as it is about the fact that they’re all younger than 45. The only people I see obsessing about this nonsense are Boomers or older.

Can I just say that every time I think John McCain has scraped bottom - he manages to reach down and dig a little deeper.
The mind truly boggles.

He’s digging for adamantine, the most valuable metal known to dwarf.  The whispers of the dark things beneath the earth are tearing at his mind, and soon his reckless digging shall tear open a hole into the depths.

I think the Repubs keep beating this elitism drum is a sort of “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” sort of move.  They desperately want to deflect attention away from their wealth and entrenched, multi-generational power structure by continually insisting that it’s really their opponents who are the elite.  Oh, wait, this is also straight out of the right wing douchebag playbook, isn’t it?  If we keep repeating the lie enough, eventually enough people will start to believe it and it will become a sacred cow that nobody will dare call out as the bullshit it really is.

Which is really my long winded way of saying that, of course McCain is one of the most entrenched and entitled elites in the Republican party today.  But heaven forbid the man try some intellectual honesty on for a change, because he wouldn’t know intellectual honesty if it hit him over the head with a bonbon at the next D.C. cocktail party he and Cindy attend in honor of the baby Jesus.

If McCain hadn’t been the son and grandson of high-ranking Naval officers, he would have ended up like your acquaintances—booted. Save your academic respect and esteem for those cadets who graduated at the bottom of their classes without having their bacon saved by their influential fathers.

Gracchus,

I was using words like “esteem” mainly as a way to emphasize the gulf of difference between being able to graduate at the bottom of a military academy in general with its military training/academics combo and its engineering focus(even humanities/social science majors have to take a few engineering courses to graduate) and graduating with C grades from many Ivies. 

From what I’ve heard from several people who attended/graduated from the military academies…..including a cousin who voluntarily transferred out to Caltech….that combo combined with more harsh grading means that the military academy academic experience is closer to that of a cutthroat engineering school than it is to most elite universities.

teac -

congrats on the new kitten!  Now go on and have a whole litter of well-adjusted, loved children so you can really piss of the repubs!

I never went to Harvard and I didn’t even know George had his own town.

“Gold Star”—do people really still display those?  WHERE?

That’s a WW2 thing.

Geez, teac, post #39 was just a big ol’ mess of redundancy. Liberal = lesbian = Canadian = elite = yadda yadda. And so forth. That was like a Thesaurus page for “feminist” right there. ;p

But congrats on the mini-teac! (Way to bury the lede! I was too busy reading your list of liberal perversions to catch the baby bit. )

Thanks, Bagelsan!

I went to the Harvard of the Midwest on an academic scholarship , that and my father being a community college science professor(an occupation usually found in movies and comic books) makes me an elitist, I guess.

I see gold stars around where I am.

I went to the Harvard of the Midwest on an academic scholarship , that and my father being a community college science professor(an occupation usually found in movies and comic books) makes me an elitist, I guess.

Considering we’ve all been “tarred” with the “elitist” label…...it’s really sad that I’ve never been to Washington D.C. period, much less attend a salon at the much vaunted Georgy Town.  Sounds expensive and far too much of a hassle for haircare and a mere chat over some 1 page novellas about opaque posteriors. 

Also, managed to get invited/invited myself to(a.k.a. Crash) many Ivy parties.  Have yet to see the caviar, canapes, and haute desserts John McCain, and “real Americans” keep ranting about.  Isn’t Cindy McCain loaded enough to throw hundreds of such parties for herself and Johnny??

My dad was a career officer in the Army.  He has no problem with gay/lesbian servicemembers.  Neither do any of the guys he served with.  Even back into Vietnam there were men in his unit who weren’t necessarily open about their sexuality, but everyone “knew,” and nobody had a problem with it.  Know why?  Cause when the shit hits the fan, it doesn’t matter who you’re boinking.  It matters whether your get your shit together and do what you’re supposed to do, and sexuality has no bearing on panicking.

For the record, my dad is one of those Boomers, but I think the difference is we aren’t an “elite” family.  We all went to state schools.

John McCain can just sit and spin.  What a douchecanoe.  In fact, I would go further and state he’s a douchepontoon.  Only not the kind you want to party on.

I don’t think that rich people become Republicans to protect their money from taxes.  They don’t need the extra money-it’s completely meaningless.

When money is a phallic symbol, it certainly is meaningful.  I grew up around plenty of extremely rich people, including my own father.  No matter how much money he had, he always wanted more.  He worked very hard to keep every cent he had.  He was like that dragon in the Hobbit who accumulated treasure and could just never have a big enough pile.  These rich people wouldn’t be satisfied even if they owned the whole world.  If it were true that they didn’t care about “extra” money, then they would just retire/quit when they had enough to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.  The simple fact that Donald Trump continues working is proof that extra money is not meaningless to him.

When money is a phallic symbol, it certainly is meaningful.  I grew up around plenty of extremely rich people, including my own father.  No matter how much money he had, he always wanted more.  He worked very hard to keep every cent he had.  He was like that dragon in the Hobbit who accumulated treasure and could just never have a big enough pile.  These rich people wouldn’t be satisfied even if they owned the whole world.  If it were true that they didn’t care about “extra” money, then they would just retire/quit when they had enough to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.  The simple fact that Donald Trump continues working is proof that extra money is not meaningless to him.

In short, money is used as a way to keep score vs other elites who measure their “greatness” by the amount of money they have.  In fact, I remembered Trump or other similarly wealthy people mentioning how making more money is a “scorecard” to measure their intelligence, capabilities, and work ethic in comparison to others even after earning far more than they…or their children and grand children could spend in their lifetimes. 

People who fit this personality type seem to feel a sense of disgust at the idea of “just retiring/quitting when they had enough to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.”  Such people not only live to work to accumulate more riches….but also feel that those who don’t do as they do are “slacking losers”.  Saw plenty of this type among certain family members and classmates who ended up in medicine, law, engineering, and finance/ibanking.

exholt:

The paradox here is that I would bet you money that on some level, a lot of such people are actually genuinely nice people. It’s a banality of evil thing—they adopt such a solipsistic view of the world that they’re incapable of realizing that a) they didn’t make all that money solely on their own initiative and b) that they’re screwing people over. They don’t care because they’re unable to realize it.

Of course, a lot of them are sociopathic douchebags and aren’t nice people at all. Both are dangerous, but the first group might be salvageable under the right circumstances.

BrianX:

It depends a lot on what you mean by “genuinely nice”. Good conversationalists, honest and friendly in their dealings with their equals and even some of their inferiors, sure. Willing to throw ten thousand people out of work to get an extra percentage point on a deal? Also sure. They tend to have a very strong sense of what they consider theirs, and to be adamant in defending it.

Meanwhile, it’s interesting to watch the reasons some of them have for piling up money—some of them want to score bigger than their peers, others have no idea of what they would do if they weren’t doing that, yet others genuinely enjoy their work and their competence, and like “having an impact”. The third class are both most attractive and most frightening to me.

Forgive me if I failed to notice this turning up earlier in the comments, but my favorite part has to be the bit about “the elite schools that bar military recruiters from campus.”

The elite schools that bar military recruiters from campus because DADT violates non-discrimination policies. Those schools McCain finds so upsetting will cease to upset him now that they’ve passed this legislation that upsets him so.

Eric @61 - NE MA, NH, ME, upstate NY, parts of CT, ID, WA.  Everywhere I’ve been in the last couple of years where I have gone into established neighborhoods - so not really in apartment blocks where neighbors are tanscient or anonymous to one another or neighborhoods that resemble them.  Basically all over.  Where the hell are you?  Maybe they are where you are and you just don’t notice them?