I had a Datsun truck once (drove the Alaska Highway in it), and a most wonderous Mazda B2000 pickup, one of the best cars I've ever owned.

Man, those huge trucks are WAY overrated. Unless you're a teenager and want to spin doughnies in the school parking lot after the first snow the the season, after basketball practice. Then trucks are cool, cuz they're so light in the butt-end, they spin and spin and spin.

Love this thread, tho.

We shouldn't overlook the fact that Rick Perry's ad is not merely a bigoted homophobic attack on homosexuals. It's also an attack on science and reason.

Maddow has previously pointed out that the only group in our country that polls with lower "approval" ratings than gay people, are atheists. Perry's attempt to exploit a religious persecution complex isn't innocent. It's an attack on another group: people who think science and reason, rather than superstition and ancient texts, should guide our policy choices.

Watch this interview with Penn Jillette on the 2012 presidential race for a brilliant analysis on the race.

There is no "War on Religion" but we should ponder how to effectively counter this ginned-up escalation of the ginned-up War on Christmas. Jillette's idea that these politicians are members of different sects which don't like each other should be obvious to us, with Mitt Romney being so deeply despised by about 3/4 of the Republican base that they seek refuge in Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, and other obviously crazy candidates.

I propose that political candidates that wear their Christianity on their lapel as a political cudgel should be "outted". Whenever the candidate is mentioned, mention their sect.

Rick Perry (Republican Governor of Texas, United Methodist Church
Mitt Romney (Republican, former governor of Massachusetts)
Newt Gingrich (Republican without portfolio, Roman Catholic Church)
Michele Bachman (Republican Congressperson, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod)

Now, they all pretty much hate gay people, but did you know that Bachmann's sect preaches that the Roman Catholic Pope is the antichrist? Seriously.

There is no "war on religion". There is a "war among religions". Perhaps we need to remind them that they're all in a big tent with people they fear and loath, with people who have different opinions about how many angels dance on the head of that pin.

You don't need to make this @!$%# up. They write this material themselves. Y'all just need to bring it to the foreground of the discussion.

Gary have you seen the new attack ad against Elizabeth Warren? I recognize that's a slight change of subject, your post just reminded me of it. In the ad (ran by Karl Rove) it literally says that MA residents should not be voting for Warren because she is an intellectual w/ ideas.

Whatever would happen if intellectuals with ideas actually ran the country? Oh, wait! Such people *founded* the country, and *that* turned out, OK! Thanks, Mouzer, I'll go look at it.

LOL! Well, that's one way to get into The Atlantic Monthly! At least they didn't use my name.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2011/12/rachel-maddow-has-thing-ford-trucks/46015/

Rachel Maddow's Love Affair with Ford Trucks

Rachel Maddow's chic eyewear and urbane demeanor may not evoke the image of a lifelong truck owner but the doyenne of cable news still has a few surprises up her sleeve.

"I'm a Ford partisan," she tells The Atlantic Wire. "I've had a couple of Rangers, but now as the dog has grown to the size of a small pony, his seating demands in the truck have also grown and we've got an F150."

[...]

Another commenter on the Maddow Blog was just happy she had something in common with the liberal host. "I had a Datsun truck once ... and a most wondrous Mazda B2000 pickup, one of the best cars I've ever owned."

Just to clarify, I was not gushing in solidarity for truck ownership, I was pining away for the neat little trucks that used to be out there, that I used to own back in the day, but they have now grown into monsters nearly the size of the old full-size trucks, while the current full-size trucks all seem to be waiting for some big-ass wheels go head out to a monster truck rally.

Ironically, I've also been working as a consultant for Ford for the past several years.

And the only real use I ever had for full-size pickups was in high school, where I was the one spinning those doughnies on the fresh snow in the school parking lot after basketball practice, or on the local lakes.

But the biggest irony to strike me is that this is my first (albeit indirect) appearance in the Atlantic Monthly, despite having collected decades of literary rejection slips for poems, stories, and essays.

Oh well, I guess it had to happen sometime.

lol next, my rent boy can beat up your rent boy says Rick-the coat-Perry