nat geo, bold proclaimor or mealy mouth

I thought that song was from Dire Straits, but then, being the scholar in this motley crew I went to the wiki and discovered this:

"Stuck in the Middle" was released on Stealers Wheel's 1972 self-titled debut album.^[6] Gerry Rafferty provided the lead vocals, with Joe Egan singing harmony. The song was conceived initially by the band members as a parody of Bob Dylan's distinctive lyrical style and paranoia.

So you are part way right anyway.

I think the National Geographic Society came first and the magazine later. I think they were English and began in the colonial period when it was all dusky natives and the white man’s burden. I’m not really criticizing them for that, because that’s the way all white men thought back then. It seems like it still had a bit of that taint back in the fifties when its main allure was the breasts of dusky natives, but anymore it seems pretty neutral.

I subscribed for awhile, and I look through it when I am in the bookstore, though now there is only one bookstore downtown. One problem with subscribing is that it’s really nice so that you never want to throw out an issue and they accumulate. It is known for beautiful photographs. Sometimes we see new students in the watercolor class bring in the photographs and we always warn them to find something else, like a blurry photo in a newspaper, because they will only fall short trying to do a National Geographic photograph.

I don’t think it gets very deeply into a controversial issue because that’s not what most of its readers want. So if there’s an issue you don’t know anything about their take is probably useful, whereas if it’s an issue you are familiar with it’s probably just saying stuff you already know.

I still think the idea that you pissed off both sides on an issue merely means you took the easy path between the sides and it is nothing to pat yourself on the back over. Anymore, with comment a click away, you probably get hate mail no matter what you say. A lot of people, for instance Guliani when he said that Obama doesn’t love America, though it could be a lefty also, play the martyr by citing all the email death threats they get. Big fucking deal, you make a comment about how great or not great a ballplayer Minnie Minoso was and you will get death threat emails.

So your definition of socialism is whenever the government takes money from the citizens. Then monarchs (oh that’s right you are a monarchist) are socialists. I think most people use a more specific definition for socialism. Well the only people who know what socialism means are the socialists, and nobody listens to them because there aren’t many of them and they are awfully boring.