Seriously, just get it out of your systems. I have no intention of reading any of the comments on this post, so say the most vile hateful things you can think of about me and each other.
If there aren't 200 comments on this post, I will be very disappointed. In fact, I'm sorely tempted to leave it up until there are...
UPDATE: Only 66 posts? Plus, I heard that you guys were actually discussing things!!! See, even when I give you permission to be mean, you folks just don't take direction. ;-)
I think that in the future, when things start getting really ugly, I'll just throw one of these up and let everyone get it out of their systems... (I didn't read any of the posts, was there any really juicy stuff?)
A place for Polite, Passionate discussion about Politics in America. Sharing opinions, elightening our fellows and saving the Republic - one post at a time!
Rules of Engagement:
Unsigned posts will be deleted! You don't have to sign up for anything, but you do need to sign your posts. If you are going to write something, have the courage to stand by your words. (I'm not talking names, here. Just some consistent screen name.) I don't care how wonderful you think I am, I will still delete your unsigned posts. Cowards are NO LONGER WELCOME!
We don't need JFK, we need FDR!!!
"Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales.
Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."
From Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech accepting his party's nomination for President - Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia, PA, June 27, 1936.
Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."
From Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech accepting his party's nomination for President - Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia, PA, June 27, 1936.
About Me
- J.M. Ferretti
- A bleeding heart liberal, who knows deep down inside that Right and Left are closer than we think. I believe that Progressives are under-represented in the Democratic Party and that it's not too late for true Republicans to reclaim the GOP. Power to We The People!!!
Some of my favorite things
- www.thomhartmann.com
- "Meet John Doe" starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck
- "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" starring Jimmy Stewart & Jean Arthur
- "Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater"
- "Screwed: the undeclared war against the middle class - and what we can do about it" by Thom Hartmann
61 comments:
ok, here goes. I really hate it when people get all self righteous and pretend like they are superior in intellect. You know what that proves? That proves you are insecure about your own intelligence.
I also dislike it when people are rude and provoke me into retaliating - I don't like to be rude, but I will if I have to.
Also, I just read Gone with the Wind because it was my sister's favorite book from the time she was a teenager and I mostly hated it. I disliked Scarlet, I disliked Rhett, I hated the condescending language about slavery and the absolute negation of slavery as immoral. Anyone reading that book who didn't know better would find it good justification for thinking that slavery was just to protect lesser beings from themselves.
I see why people wanted to make it into a movie because all of the characters were utterly one-dimensional and overall not very likable. I also think that Margaret Mitchell must have been really influenced by The Age of Innocence (which is a GREAT novel) because her description of Ashley Wilkes is a flat portrait of Newland Archer, who is a wonderful and rounded character - and Melanie Wilkes is May Welland, sweet and long suffering.
I'm terribly disappointed in my sister's taste, but I have to say that her idolization of that book says a lot about some of the more selfish and rude things she did when she was younger.
I just visited my eyebrow lady and she told me that someone on the BART elbowed her out of the way and told her to move her "fat ass." I was incensed for her! It really hurt her feelings. It baffles me that people are so incredibly rude to complete strangers and I think it's mostly because they are confident that they person they are bullying won't freak out and slap the shit out of them.
Yogi - I don't understand why you don't like xoot or twinfan or so many others, but I wish it were different. But you know what they say - wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which gets full first.
I'm just posting this stream of consciousness BS because I suspect that FH may not be kidding about the 200 posting limit and I want to do my part.
"Flames" at "Brushfires?" Inconceivable!
WV: shtse
When Yogi's fooling around, indulging in the word games he likes, or genuinely posting about something (and not someone), I enjoy reading what he writes.
When hartal keeps things concise and cites his sources clearly, he's always worth reading. The guy can cover a lot of ground.
Suza, any woman happy to drive away from the church in a red 55 Merc, tan tuck n roll, tin cans clanking after, wins my admiration.
After reading your post, I have to reconsider some of my less galant habits. I live near a street in Oakland full of popular restaurants and one excellent movie theater. Consequently, a lot of pedestrians clog the cross walks. They seem to have no regard whatsoever for the traffic jams they create. (Just let one car get through the 3-way stop, ok? Then walk quickly, if you can. Ok?) I've developed some asides to utter from my lowered window at such inconsiderate souls. The one I hereby vow to expunge from my repertoire:
"Maybe if you moved a little faster your butt wouldn't be so big."
Gone! As of now, because it's just plain mean.
HI yogi, so nice of you to stop back by. Why don't you just give up the obsession and focus on constructive things? You'd be better off. And god knows everyone on this blog would be better off. Just drop it. Like a, you know, an adult.
Ms. F. I still have not taken the young kid to see Slum Dog. He has lost some of his enthusiasm. Now we are working on the Academy of Science in GGate Park. Maybe two weekends from now. So I will rent the movie and decide whether to watch it with the boy. (His mother does not seem to care one way or the other.)
I have been reading some of the recent threads. Many of you have no basic decency.
xootsuit, you are too old and too seasoned to taunt the way you do. You personally instigate half of what gets out of hand here. Cut it out. I realize that you put your time in, politically. Fine. Let it go.
yogi, you need to find a way to engage with the real world politically, on a day to day basis. DO SOMETHING, man. Do not waste your time insulting blog commenters you do not even know.
hartal, I have read many of your voluminous comments, and I find no basis by which I can determine your politics. No basis at all. xootsuit? he's pretty far left, revolutionary socialist maybe, gave his best when he was young, and now grinds it out in the middle class. yogi? leftish liberal, like all such naifs slightly confused, but instinctively willing to fight the powers that be. He's the kind of person you want on your side.
But you, hartal? I am interested. What are your poltics?
Are you a socialist? A capitalist? Something in between? Something beyond those bookends?
I'm not speaking to you, but there is far more to GWTW than your shallow interpretations.
It's about the emotional growth of a woman and the path that she takes to get there. Plain and simple. If all you can see are the externals, you haven't taken a deeper look at the full meaning of the work. The story requires an in-depth analysis and some life perspective in order to fully see it's meaning.
Don't think we can save the planet as long as there is continued growth even if we reduce consumption and population and modernize with environmental technology (IPAT equation). But capitalism (private ownership of means of production, competitive production for monetary profit, wage laborers) probably can't but produce growth. So over the next ten years we'll probably have to unwind growth-oriented capitalism, though markets will still have their place. That's my guess. The American people are warming to socialism in part because the Republicans keep on attacking socialism and because socialism now means Western Europe to them, not Romania. Only a slim majority of Americans now prefer capitalism over socialism! See the latest Rasmussen poll
*
But I am not a socialist in part because I can no clear meaning to the term--social democracy? nationalization? decommodification of education and health care?
Well, I am really just a small "d" democrat.
First since our lives are incomparable each of us has the same value; and politics should recognize that by basing itself on equality for all.
Second, I would insist that we also think actively or creatively about equality. Passive equality is about distributing something (rights, opportunities, capabilities, etc.) equally to someone. This distribution is done by the state. As suggested, I think that's good as far as it goes and it follows from our commitment to equal opportunity.
But we need to think about equality actively--that is why I am interested in the civil liberties needed to organize dissent. Equality is about the subject participating in equalizing him/herself with all others. Active equality is doing-equality rather than having-equality, and it is in this process that we become political actors.
Creating equality makes us active subjects, and it works on the presupposition that everyone is the equal of everyone else. Democratic politics occurs when people who are not reckoned with as equals decide to demonstrate their equality with everyone else--for example illegal immigrants, workers classified as part time stiffs to deny them the rights of common law employees, ex-felons who can't get a job, ethnic groups whose political silence is expected. They are part of the situation yet they are not properly counted.
So this also means that everyone is equally intelligent, in the sense of equally capable of participating in the "government" of society.
*
Well, Lefty, I suppose, you're a Marxist, and I guess that since the interruption of the circulation of commodities now appears to have resulted from a shortage of circulating media and that we are sacrificing hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out the money creating institutions in the service of this illusion, one may want to consult Marx to figure out whether there are reasons, rooted in the real economy, why the banks won't make loans and thus expand the money supply even if they have the capital base to do so as investors are lending to them again after Geithner has cleaned up their balance sheets.
The mediation of circulation by money creates the possibility of a general crisis-each intending only to sell for money such that no one call sell as no one intends to buy--but the shortage of money is not the cause but the effect of crisis, argued Marx, right?
I think that technical pont is worth taking seriously.
Banks will not create money because borrowers are indebted and insolvent and because there are no projects with a reasonably high chance of profitability.
Oops I did not keep it concise, but I wasn't intending to break in half xootsuit's olive branch. I only wanted to answer lefty's question
If you truly believe in equality for all and that each person has equal value,no one, then you can't possibly believe in abortion rights...abortion is the ultimate denial of fundamental civil liberties and is also assigning (and creating) a special class of citizens the power to determine the intrinsic value of human life...that in itself creates instant societal inequality.
Equality among all human persons. A first trimester fetus is certainly a human life form but not yet a person. At any rate, my skin cells are dying every day, and those cells are human, not bovine; and they are alive rather than dead. So 'human life' dies but no human person has died. But yes you say that the collection of cells that is the human fetus has the potential to become an inviolable human person. Well yes but it is not yet one, capable of consciousness and experience for example in the first trimester. And it won't even grow on its own, like an acorn will into an oak tree. Rather the fetus is grown by the mother. She is actually a potential mother more than the fetus is itself a potential human person. My wife aborted between our first and second child. The ultrasound showed that cells were not dividing well in the first eight weeks out the blastula stage, and she was bleeding a lot. So she aborted; she got pregnant six months later, and we have two beautiful children. Now don't lose your cool, Gina, and hijack another identity.
slight correction to post above: Don't think we can save the planet as long as there is continued growth even if we reduce OUR RATES OF INCREASE IN consumption and population and modernize with environmental technology (IPAT equation).
I also really appreciate the simple flip-flop. Not so much the $1.99 shower thongs, but most others.
Not yet a person? By your definition, of course. Let's leave it up to anyone's definition of what person hood should be. Then we're right back at the Nazi mentality of who gets to decide who's valuable.According to the founding father's we are guaranteed the right to life as intended by our creator. If we allow one particular set of people to decide the value of one's life before it has a chance to determine it for itself, we automatically confer more power to some than others. You do see that, correct?
You do ALSO realize that at the moment of conception every person is genetically complete and completely individualistic, right?
And one more note about GWTW. It is not about the ante-bellum south at all. Almost immediately into the story, we're plunged into the Civil War. I would suggest reading it before you make yourself sound any stupider than you already have.
Xootsuit: you say hartal/no one covers a lot of ground. Too bad the ground is littered with factual errors. The guy's grasp of economics is as feeble as his ability to write coherent paragraphs. "The banks won't make loans and thus expand the money supply" he says...
http://tinyurl.com/d7zr6z
woohoo, first, I said the Marxist position was worth taking seriously, not that it was right. Second, you didn't even read your own piece (good faith arguments, ok? stop sniping at me, I made a good faith effort to understand a Marxist point of view--there is some evidence for it in your own article, and Keynesians such as James Kenneth Galbraith actually make the same point):
"Because it did not get as risky in its investments or as loose in its lending standards, loan losses at Wells Fargo are lower than at many of its peers.
Most analysts are still predicting quarterly losses for banks like Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley, which also release their results later this month. They will likely be weighed down by the souring debt and exotic credit products on their books that have gotten into trouble.
"Banks are not all going to show the same type of robust earnings that Wells did," Bove said. "Loan losses are going to go up. That's a definite for the industry."
The Nazis clearly killed persons whose lives they deemed not worth living. The fetus is not clearly a person, though it is clearly a human life.
Interesting article, WH. I hate to give him the benefit of the doubt, but maybe "No One" was making a different point, about other banks? Wasn't someone on this blog talking about getting a mortgage recently (I wish I could remember who it was)?
WV: eteddow : illegitimate cyber-lovechild of Ted and Rachel Maddow.
Oops, hadn't seen the new posts. Never mind...
This is what James Galbraith says in his April report for the Levy Institute--it's the same point a Marxist would make, but lefty can correct me:
"This idea holds that credit is “blocked”; it must be made to “flow.” The metaphor is fallacious. Credit cannot flow when there are no creditworthy borrowers, no profitable projects. Banks have failed, and the failure to recognize this is a recipe for wild speculation and control fraud, compound-
ing taxpayer losses."
No One, I know it's not your job to explain Galbraith, but are there really no 'creditworthy borrowers' or 'profitable projects' in reality? Or is that just the bank's opinion? Galbraith is correct in assessing the current situation, but I'm always interested in the whys.
WV: syballs
All of this exotic economic discussion is interesting, but it has been many years since that side of Marxism meant much to me. (I never really clicked with the study group.) I am more interested in the day to day effects of the class war on poor people -- in this country and elsewhere. Capitalism stunts and maims and poisons and kills poor people. (I know, I am not a very subtle guy.)
As I think I mentioned, the union I belong to is not politically active, outside of the usual AFL-CIO sort of support for Democratic candidates and issues. I still find some time to be active elsewhere. You do what you can.
When I was young, I got invited to a large Thanksgiving bash hosted by a brother in law in his big overbuilt Republican house. He tried to embarrass me by asking if I wanted to say grace. I accepted the offer and then reverently recited a passage from the Communist Manifesto.
I have outgrown such shenanigans, of course. I leave it to the young.
hartal, I do not understand how one can fight for equality without directly fighting the oppressors who thrive on inequality. Commitment to such a fight is my idea of a political position. But, as I say, I am not a subtle guy. I appreciate your genuine response.
don't know, and have to go. It's possible that Wells Fargo has been in a position to pick off the few credit worthy borrowers and back the few profitable projects. But this serves as a criticism of me, because I was following most financial reporters thinking that the economy was tanking only because the banks weren't in a position to lend. It's now clear to me that the problems may be much deeper in a way that radical Keynesians and Marxists sometimes say. But gotta get back to work.
I also hate it when people don't actually read posts and then respond to what they THINK you said because they want to make their idiotic point, which has nothing to do with what you originally said.
And I hate it when people are so narcisstic that they can't keep their community straight. Like, I am not Ferrethead. Even though we are both women, we are not interchangable. We have both shared enough personal information to make it obvious we are two different people - despite the fact that some people seem to be constantly confused about who is who and who said what.
it's pointless to read other people's stupidity.
ps - here's a mean thing, just for the sake of flaming. When puppy was doing her unrestrained humping and peeing and pooping on the floor, I briefly toyed with the idea of naming her after one of the regular posters/trolls on this board. It seems poetic somehow, but I suspect I'll have my little doggie a lot longer than this poster will be expressing her desires to hump anything that moves.
'He tried to embarrass me by asking if I wanted to say grace. I accepted the offer and then reverently recited a passage from the Communist Manifesto.'
Righteous. :)
TooSense said...
'He tried to embarrass me by asking if I wanted to say grace. I accepted the offer and then reverently recited a passage from the Communist Manifesto.'
Righteous. :)
>
No self-righteous. If Lefty isn't xootsuit, he might as well be. Fits in perfectly on this blog though. I assume Lefty reads Mick La Salle's blog as well as BoF. what screen name does he use there?
I doubt that Lefty and Xoot are the same person, their personal histories as related here have been too detailed and different for them to be the same person; it's possible, but it would take a lot of work, and for what? To fool a handful of people?
And I would say that if the host intended to embarrass Lefty by asking him to say grace, Lefty's response was not unjustified.
The only sfgate blog I read is the Splash. I look at it from time to time. I rarely post there anymore.
Michael/Twinfan is in some trouble, apparently. Maybe we should all wish him well?
(It was not a long passage that I recited. And, as I said, I was young.)
What sort of trouble is TF in?
I saw a discussion on the Splash. Perhaps it was yesterday. Twinfan is getting some sort of very rough, intensive therapy at UC Davis, one commenter said. I know that Twinfan has written publicly about his illness more than once. Still, I do not know him at all and I do not feel right about trying to summarize what I recall. Maybe Ms. F can shed some more light?
Whatever it is, best vibes go out to twinfan.
I just noted that Ms. F says she intends to read none of the posts here. My inquiry may not prompt a response.
hehehe - that was fun to write but too mean to post. Essentially it said:
"You hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother's eye."
and sorry about the mistake in reading gone with the wind - I can't really read all of no one's posts - they're just too long I feel like I've read everything he has to say.
gina, I have to say that at least you are entertaning in fart joke sort of way.
I'm not sure why you are so obsessed with my weight, but it's funny. you keep on telling yourself that I'm a lard ass if it makes you feel better (and I suspect it is the only thing that does).
I'm interested in what the women on this blog think of flamers who favor "douche" and "cunt" when they want to launch HORRIBLE insults. I always think it makes a man sound full of juvenile misogynistic fear. It's as if the man is regressing in age right before your eyes.
Hey, that's a good idea for piece of fiction. I think I'll call it "The Curious Case of Benjamin Butthead."
Anyway, how do you women feel about it?
While you're at it ladies, how about Quappy's use of the term butt fuck buddies. Doesn't that suggest that she's a homophobe?
Quappy, I used those words because I felt they were appropriate for the subject matter
I give it five minutes.
Mindful Life said...
Yogi - I don't understand why you don't like xoot or twinfan or so many others, but I wish it were different. But you know what they say - wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which gets full first.
>
Suzagoob I love twinfan as if he were my own brother. I loathe Xootsuit because I truly believe he is an agent of the devil who is going to try steal TF's soul. You do understand why I dislike X so intensely, reread the first paragraph of your post.
Damn. I was off by two minutes. But it was a lock. Anyone who challenges yogi's puerile side has to be xootsuit. We're all xootsuit.
"I would love to have a fistfight with you"
The Curious Case of Benjamin Butthead. Yogi's biography.
Why don't you tell us who you really are Quappy. I didn't think you are xootsuit, I thought you were Gina, not that there's any difference between the two.
Quappy/xootsuit/Gina's biography is the Vagina Monologues.
And the most amazing thing occurred. As he spoke, his cheeks expanded, until his face was nothing but cheeks, two fat cheeks. And his voice, his voice started to strain, to quack, to squeal flatulently.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Butthead (the unauthorized biography of Yogi what's his name), Chap. 5.
And the most amazing thing occurred. As she spoke, her cheeks grew pubic hair, until her face looked like a vagina, with the labia covering her rotting teeth, and her voice, Good Grief, it sounded like a quief.
That was weak. Ugly, But weak. bye, butthead.
(unless you want to fight. let me know. hahahahahaha!)
Say hello to the goats for us vaGina
(ha ha ha ha)
(Ha ha ha ha!) vaGina, you're just trying to sound clever so that xootsuit will copulate with you.
Go home Satan! Jesus Christ is soon to return.
First: thanks for the kind E-Mails, I'll respond to those personally.
Yogi: you do like your brother, do you not? ;-)
Lefty: BigFlavor exaggerated the therapy. In itself, it's not terribly "rough". They've injected a molecule that targets the tumor behind my eye, additionally I've started radiation for it. Radiation therapy has improved a lot in recent years. They can now image the tumor and radiate it at the same time. The deal is, this thrown tumor ( I have Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma)*cannot* get bigger.It's already cost me the eyesight in my right eye, several seizures and TIAs... this round of treatment is very very targeted but not painful. Look, it's my last go around with Western Medicine. I wasn't going to do it but I brought a Witch Doctor in ( truly) and the first night she goes out to her van and is cooking meth. I'm, like, non-plussed; shall we say...but my Mom, brother, sister, and daughter were here, this witch person from Burkina Faso starts going CRAZY... she's in the clink now...
Anyway, I'm already a couple of years beyond the original prognosis, I'm still walking ( with a cane and bicycle helmet I do pretty well), my eye patch is very sexy, I'm told, and best of all: I sleep with a cat on my chest and a dog at my feet, bedtime is all good...
I'm sorry to hear that you're ill, Twinnie. I would have never known. I wish you well, and will say a prayer for your recovery.
See now, ferret, you should be honored. I think LaSalle, in his fevered state of vertigo, is mistaking your blog for a movie script. And I quote:
"The script, by Aselton and Adam Nagata, is vulgar in a boy sort of way, with lots of sex talk but no sophistication, and one out-of-nowhere tasteless scene in which a peripheral character is shown getting an "erotic massage" (along with a half dozen other men). Another mark of amateur work: The constant cursing. Each character talks the same and sounds like something in a college playwriting class."
I think Buttercream Butt Suza is a great big, fat fake.
wv:actible.
Twinnie, I hope the treatments are over soon. If anyone needs a definition of Nobility...wait a minute: this is the Flame thread. nvm.
Twinnie - I'm so sorry to hear about your illness. Sounds like you are fighting it really well. They stuff they come up with for treating cancer is just amazing. I'm glad to hear it's not chemo because that is *ROUGH.* I will pray for TF. Even on the flame thread.
Yogi - I didn't realize that wasn't really you posting with the yogi bear cartoon. Obviously.
And shockingly, Gavone came up with an original insult. buttercream butt. I love buttercream but I haven't had any in a looooooooong time. the wedding cake will be fondant and Mr. S operates one of those cellulite vanishing machines (which actually do work - and hey who am I to sneer at free cosmetic not-quite-surgical treatments?), so it's not particularly apt, but I give a points for originality and allusion. It loses points for being adolescent and one-note - sigh, yes gina, we all know that you are practically skeletal and that means that everyone else must be fat. I sincerely hope you just act up on here and don't make such remarks in front of your impressionable children.
Overall, I give "buttercream butt" 5 out of 10. It's better than something my 8 year old niece would come up with, but I think an adult should be able to be a little more subtle.
I'm trying to re-read GWTW but the first two hundred pages are just deadly dull. However, having read it once, I have to read it the second time (if I can get through it) to see if it takes on any further nuances (I doubt it will).
Unfortunately, the first twoo hundred pages are as BORING as the last two hundred of Oil!
Scarlett is such a dumb bimbo and even though she eventually makes a success of it, her lack of ability to empathize with other people makes her - well, I guess a borderline personality at best and a pretty sociopath at worst. Rhett is stupid enough to fall in love with her *knowing* that she is bereft of the capacity to love.
If you ask me Ellen Olenska (in Age of Innocence) was a much more admirable character.
ML ( you're Suza, right? All the swapping has me confused and excited ;-)
I've had a long time to deal with it. A friend of mine recently died, and wow, he had a stomach ache, saw the doctor, got a cancer diagnosis, and was dead three weeks later...
I used to joke about what I called "Bette Davis Disease". Where everything is fine, except you're dying. You know what I mean... you look real good, you lay down, everybody gathers around, and then the music plays...
Anyway, I'm pretty lucky, I've been well enough to look at it and take care of things. I arranged my burial site at Fort Snelling where my brother is, I've been able to make financial arrangements, that kind of thing. The freakiest part of it all is that while there's an inevitability, it will come with a bang, most likely a massive stroke, and what I really hope for is that it's done then.
"Sounds like you are fighting it really well"... I'd hate to be the first, where the obit says " after a half-hearted battle..."
Suzagoob's criticism of GWTW is right on. It's a godawful book, the writing, the one dimensional characters, and most especially the pro-slavery/anti-union theme. The movie on the otherhand is very good. The cinematography, the score, and an incredible cast was able to overcome most of the flaws in the novel. I have a list of movies that are better than the book; anything by John Grisham qualifies as do all the James Bond movies, even the ones with Roger Moore, but alone at the top, far above the others, is GWTW.
I wish that there was more that we could do for you, Twinnie--other than pray--just know you're in my thoughts, and I'm sure in everyone else's as well. Take care of yourself...we're rooting for you.
Regarding GWTW.It's a chick book, for sure. My interpretation and why I like Scarlett and Rhett so well is that they're both such flawed characters. Scarlett starts out as spoiled and as selfish as anyone could imagine, Rhett,too. That's why he loves her--they're alike and he states that. Compare these two to Melanie and Ashley-it's like night and day. Melanie and Ashley are very one-dimensional, flat and weak-willed. Rhett and Scarlett on the other hand, although flawed, are emotionally honest and true to themselves. Because they are that way, it makes them strong as characters.
As far as the charges of racism, Scarlett throughout the book, has a love for her black Mammy far deeper and lasting than her own mother--whom she can never relate to and puts on a saintly pedestal.
I drew parallels with the maturing Scarlett and the ante-bellum South. From it's morally self-centered erroneous youth to it's eventual war with two conflicting "personalities" and the reconstruction to straighten out the injustice of slavery. Scarlett, in a sense, is a slave to her own ignorance, and only frees herself to the truth when she finally sees it.
Interestingly enough, it takes Melanie dying for Scarlett to realize what's important in life, and what relationships she values the most--those that were closest to her emotionally. It was Mammy and Rhettt and Melanie who she valued the most in the end.
One more thought, I also saw Melanie representing Scarlett's naivete--you could say that she had to lose 'her'in order to become a woman. It was at that point that Scarlett realizes the truth about Ashley--that morally he was a coward-- and that all those years she wanted an illusion. And wasted so much of her life because her selfishness blinded her to the truth. She also realized at that point what a disservice she had done to Melanie--her one real friend. I bawled like a baby when Melanie died.
Scarlett is so lovable because she's so human.
Well, give me a good animal story, any day. Beowulf, Moby Dick, that sort of thing.
If you have to spend time in Davis, Michael, this is the right season. Glad to hear the treatment's bearable.
Actually, I guess you'd be in Sacramento. Same principle applies.
TF, I'm keeping you in my thoughts (as Michael).
Frankly, Gina, I don't give a damn.
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