The Message Forum is an ongoing dialogue among classmates. The goal is to encourage friendly interaction, including interaction among classmates who really didn't know each other. Experience on the site has revealed that certain topics tend to cause friction and hard feelings, especially politics and religion. 

Although politics and religion are not completely off-limits, classmates are asked to be positive in their posts and not to be too repetitive or allow a dialog to degenerate into an argument. 

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Jerry May

Seems like its been awhile........

David Cordell

Here's a message from a Democrat Michigan state legislator, the "honorable" Cynthia Johnson. She was subsequently removed from committee assignments by the Republican Speaker of the House.

Bob Davidson

David,

I remember hearing most, if not all, of the people you mentioned speak in that auditorium in the Student Union at U.T.  Seeing people I'd only heard of in real life was fascinating.

I also remember Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller speaking there.  Alan Ginsberg spoke outside on the West Mall.  Jorge Luis Borges and Carlos Fuentes spoke in Spanish at Batts Hall for the Spanish Department.  Jane Fonda, Norman Mailer, and Abbie Hoffman were in Gregory Gym.  Gerald Ford spoke on the steps of the tower.  I enjoyed seeing all of those people.

I managed to actually piss off Nader -- in the question and answer, I asked if maybe making cars seem safe to drivers was actually dangerous to pedestrians and bicyclists since drivers feel like nothing can hurt them. The question infuriated him. I went there thinking I would like him -- but found that he was a sanctimonious jerk.

I loved Larry McMurtry's books -- especially the Houston/Rice series, the ones about Flap, Emma, Patsy, and company, but after watching the question and answer thought he was kind of a mean fellow in person.  My sister went to his bookstore out west of Fort Worth and afterwards he bought her and her friend cups of coffee at Dairy Queen and sat and talked to them for a time -- they found him delightful.

Mailer did one of the funniest and most outrageous things I've ever seen.  He'd just written that book making fun of feminism, so the NOW types were out in force and booed and hissed at him when he came out.  He looked around and said something close to, "I see there are some people here who don't like me. Would all the feminists present please hiss."  Of course, the place echoed with passionate hissing for the next few minutes.  He walked back up to the front of the stage and waited for it to die down, then shrugged and said, "Obedient little bitches, aren't they." 

Fonda had Tom Hayden with her -- she gave a nice commie speech, then took questions.  He stood behind her and fed her the answers.  At that time, she was one of the prettiest women I've ever seen and he was one of the ugliest men. 

I thought it was fascinating seeing those people in person.  When I was in law school, we had an annual speaker come for a day.  Gerald Ford was one.  I went to his talk, enjoyed the lengthy queston and answer, and  was included at the luncheon with about a hundred others.  Griffin Bell and Bill Hobby were there other years.  We got to interact with all of them.  Ford was surprisingly bright -- a couple of the most liberal professors (who were fiercely intelligent) argued politics with him and he stood his ground easily. He discussed how he picked the Supreme Court nominees -- by reading their previous opinions and choosing judges he thought did the best job.  Hobby was down to earth in a way I didn't expect.

Lowell Tuttle

Did any of you UT guys get to take courses taught by Walt Rostow? (sic?0

A couple of (then) upper division guys took course from him. 

I went to a rock concert in San Antonio with one of them.  He agreed to take Rostow's 14-17year old high school son along in the back seat. 

That was a very very strange story....Not for public consumption

Bob Davidson

Lowell,

What is the connection between being pro LGBT and anti-Trump?

Lowell Tuttle

Bob, that is a good question.   I guess you have to ask an LGBT person.  

I sort of just feel there is a somewhat naturally justified antipathy of them towards Trump.   What do you think?

On a side...I watch a lot of Amazon and Netflix.   Last night I watched an old Jay Mohr comedy spot titled Jay Mohr "Funny for a Girl."

It had a routine he invented about what if his son or newborn son was gay and what or how he would respond.  It's a histerical 1 hour comedy routine wiht basically nothing political in it.   It was a fun watch, for me, at least.

It's from 2012, so before the Trump time.  It is pretty funny to listen to a Californian comedy guy do an hour with no Trump jokes.  Sort of refreshing.

David Cordell

Bob,

I forgot about Vonnegut and Heller.

I didn't see Fonda. Not my favorite person.

SNL made lots of fun of Ford. Somehow, however, he was able to muddle his way through Yale Law.

You really took advantage of the opportunities at UT!

Lowell, 

I was in a seminar in which Rostow spoke. Also his wife Elspeth. I recall one person saying that Espeth was smarter than Walt. Don't know if that was true. He had a PhD from Yale and was a Rhodes Scholar. 

Steve Keene

Bob D.,

When I first got to U.T., my Dad sent me downtown to see his friend, Larry Temple Esq., who worked closely with Ben Barnes, Speaker of the Texas House, to get a part time job.  I decided not to take it as I had been raised by my maternal grandfather to be a staunch Republican and all the business people I knew in the oil and gas business in Amarillo were Republicans.  I had little respect for LBJ and the whole lot of them.  I have always regretted that decision as I could have probably learned a good deal.  I might have become one of those Manchurian candidates had I got my foot in the door with that bunch.

Steve Keene

David,

At this Christmas season with everyone staying home, the relatives have been sending gifts by mail.  Everybody has been on facebook and thinks they are a comedian.

David Cordell

Steve, there's an easy alternative if you're hankerin' for a brownie -- Ghiradelli Brownie Mix. Or an even easier solution -- drop a hint to your church ladies.

Steve Keene

David,

I have run into a dilemma when ordering brownies at public places.  You never know if you are making a racial faux pas when asking for brownies from a liberal whitey or a brown person with a "black lives matter" shirt. 

David Cordell

Plano's current mayor on Fox Business this morning.

David Cordell

Steve,

I think the answer to "How long" is 46 years, since the 1974 release. Here is Ace, with Paul Carrack singing lead. Interesting how differently he sings it now. He looks a bit different now, too, unlike all of our RHS classmates.

Marty Fulton

Has anyone out there ever been involved in the TV/Commercial/Video advertising industry?

I keep observing a continually increasing number of minority actors/actresses dominating the airwaves.

(I'm old-fashioned - preferring 'actors' be males and 'actresses' be female)....  Will state actor forward.... 

Not sure why the media (a.k.a. - Hollywood) is doing this.  Any ideas?

Lately the numbers are increasing:

1) 90% of all commercials have minorities.

2) 50% will begin with a minority actor.

3) 62% total minority actors per 'all commercials combined'.

4) Nearly 70% of these minority #'s are Blacks.

Personally, any TV ad has less than 1% chance of influencing my future purchases.

Is there some underlying agenda here - given that minorities, combined, make up slightly less than 40% of the

USA population? 

Steve Keene

Marty

I have noticed and am appalled by what I see.  Hollywood is trying to direct what is socially acceptable in this country, what I see as an attempt to subvert Judeo Christian morality.

The one you missed is when a young couple is shown.  Over 50% of the time it is a mixed race couple.

David,

Lance posted Carrack, not me.

David Cordell

Marty,

I, too, have noticed the overrepresentation of minorities on commercials. My favorite is the Buick commercial. A black couple is driving along in a nice new Buick, and one is saying it's a Buick and the other saying it's an Alexa. At the end of the commercial you see a couple of outdoor diners, both black. The two waiters at the restaurant are white. 

I think advertisers are loathe to represent minorities as service workers or in any way that suggests that they are not in at least middle class.

They're not pandering so much as they are protecting themselves from cancel culture criticism. Remember the Bush 41 ad against Dukakis that showed black felon Willie Horton? Bush caught all sorts of crap for that. Moral of the story? 

By the way, I watch sappy movies on the Hallmark Channel (don't laugh) and I think they must hire every black person in Canada (all six of them) for their casts.

Speaking of Hallmark, there is a movie called If I Only Had Christmas that is appearing this week. It's a cute movie (yes, I said cute) with a lot of references to The Wizard of Oz along with similar characters. If you watch it, keep track of all them. It's clever.

Back to the overrepresentation of minorities, I must say that I think it is useful to see them in higher lever occupations. Growing up, I only knew black people in low-paying menial jobs. That became the expectation. It seemed odd to see a black person in a more responsible position, and that probably isn't fair to the black person who really deserves the job. So maybe working to remove the stereotype is not such a bad thing.

David Cordell

Steve and Lance,

Sorry for mistakenly saying Steve when I should have said Lance. Funny that I was able to insult both of you with one error.

Steve Keene

David,

You need to take insulting lessons from Lance.  He managed to insult me while I was in the midst of entertaining his son Christopher while the rest of you played golf.   On the photo comparison, I say why settle for a six pack when you can carry a whole keg.

Steve Keene

Lance,

Sadly, today we learned that Trump's appointees to the Supreme Court, Gorsuch , Kavanaugh and Barrett are all cowards and have no intention to honor the oath to uphold the Constitution as they swore on a Bible to do.

David Cordell

Steve, let's see how the rest of the legal wrangling plays out, but it doesn't look good. 

Some thoughts.

As Rahm Emanuel expressed, "Don't let a crisis go to waste." The Democrats exploited the COVID-19 situation by establishing maill-in voting standards that made it easy to cheat and difficult to un-do. Faced with allowing illegal votes or disallowing legal votes, I think most judges would be inclined to allow the illegal votes. It's a baby-and-bathwater thing.

I am now convinced that there was a substantial amount of cheating on the Democrat side, and even if there was some cheating on the Republican side, and I doubt it, they are amateurs compared to Democrats.

One way or the other, one of the two sides is going to be upset. I would rather the other side be upset, but I don't get to choose. I think our side is going to be upset.

So, I think we should follow the Democrats' lead. Attack! Attack! Attack! Make Biden as miserable as the Democrats made Trump. Admittedly, the mainstream media and social media moguls won't cooperate, but an angry Republican controlled Senate and a special counsel could make things really uncomfortable for Biden.

Maybe you can post daily harangues on Tommy's website against Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Swalwell, and the whole band of political brigands. 

By the way, it looks like Biden is trying to set himself up as the conquerer of COVID by saying in the first hundred days of his presidency, umpty-ump vaccinations will be given. "Uh, yeah, Joe, and you will have had nothing to do with it."

Regading Lance's keg, sucking in one's gut is way too obvious. The trick is to flex your core. It might not shrink the waistline as much, but it is more realistic. And at least your belly button doesn't point downward. 

Steve Keene

David,

More importantly, I would not be caught dead wearing a man purse on my lap.

There is no doubt after the Hunter Biden fiasco that slow Joe could be impeached on the first day, it would stick and he would be removed from office.  However, that does the socialists' bidding and places Kamala on the throne.

You may assume too much in the Senate being controlled by the Republicans.  That is the second sad thing about the Supreme Court failing to hear the case.  If the Democrats can get away with the fraud we all saw on video by stopping the vote, finding thousands of ballots with only Biden voted for and none of the other races down the ballot marked, allowing dead people to vote, allowing people that have moved out of the state to vote, removing observors from the other party by telling them they were quitting for the night and then resuming counting after they were gone, putting up construction paper to prevent observors from watching the count, having voters allowed to vote multiple times and using machines made in Venezuela by the dictator  for the purpose of falsifying elections, allowing more ballots to be counted than there were voters in the counties and ignoring thousands of affidavits from members of both parties witnessing fraud and corruption, then they have been given a carte blanche to cheat on the January 5 Senate runoff elections, as well, with little fear of any consequences.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Just stopped by our local Chick-fil-A to buy some tasty chicken and salads, when, as I drove through their drive-up window, I saw a medium-sized Christmas display of the word "PEACE" with a small nativity scene of Joseph, a kneeling Mary next to a manger-with-baby, nestled inside the manger.  These little depicted figures, under the roof of a stable-like form, were gathered in the "C" of the word peace.  Above the word was a shining star that had a beam of light from the star pointed down to the manger.  It was a typical scene that is sometimes placed in front yards across the US, at Christmas time.  I smiled as I saw it, and reflected a few moments on it, remembering how endearing the familiar little symbols are to all of us at this very special time of year, and the feeling of love and peacefulness I enjoy for the moments, while passing by.  I nearly always remember the little plastic figures we kids had in our house as we were growing up, of the nativity story, that we would play with and arrange on a tabletop at our house, year after year.  Again, it gives me a nice, happy bit of nostalgia and remembrance of childhood days experienced years ago; kind of a warm, fuzzy, happy tingle inside, and a familiar sense of excitement coming my way as the clock ticks down, knowing the arrival of specialness is about to happen to our world again, symbolically.... reminding us of the ancient story's meaning to our lives, one more time.

I can't understand why depictions such as this, can outrage folks here, causing them to protest with indignation, and even 'picket' around such displays, shouting angry epithets.  Seems to me all should just have displays of their own on their properties, if they wish, depicting their symbols of choice, and live in harmony with all who pass by.  There's no need for hurtful feelings of being slighted.  Peace and love is the message.  That's so simple, isn't it?....... And the knowledge that Christianity is prominent in the United States, should not be startling to anybody who comes from abroad, to see symbolized here, especially during this season.

As I left the window, there were the words "Merry Christmas!" at the exit.

Thank you, Chick-fil-A, for your courage and determination to stand and be proud of your beliefs!  In this country, no one group should have to apologize for their beliefs.  Other religions are acceptable here in the US, but not at the expense of Christianity having to bow and cower.

Steve Keene

Lance,

I don't suppose these are the falls you are talking about on the "Road to Hana."   That is D1 and me on a leisurely drive to our final destination, Charles Lindbergh's grave.  Ate some great mahi mahi fish tacos on the way.  I cannot wait to get back to Maui.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Steve,

Charles and I went on the 'Road to Hana' too, but we were in a van provided by our cruise staff.  Our driver took us to all of the usual stops, which were all beautiful, and he took us to a lady's house where we got banana bread, fresh out of her oven (still warm) and then another couple's home, with adjoining nursery, that had beautiful plants and gorgeous flowers galore, as well as natural floral scents in little, tiny bottles, for us to purchase, as, of course, I did.  They smelled fabulous, but were a little pricey!  Did that stop me?  Heck no!  I was on vacation and was spending like a bandit!

The trip took all day, and at the end, the driver gave us a CD of his favorite Hawaiian melodies, free!  Course I suspect that that CD expense was part of the package deal, since, like my Daddy told me when I was a little bunny rabbit, "Nothing is free, Kiddo!"

David Cordell

Shut up, all a yuz! I ain't never been to Hawaii!