Where Is the Middle

Newt's trip to the top of the polls is not just a momentary blip. Can that charlatan really get away with it?

_ _ _

"The electability thing is a question of how you think elections work. I think in the Reagan tradition and in the tradition of 1994 and the "Contract," if you get a real contrast in a country which is more than two-to-one conservative, the liberal loses. But you have to have the courage to fight your way through the New York Times and through CBS News and through MSNBC and be steady in drawing the contrast. So, I think the person who is able to debate Obama and draw a sharp and defined contrast has an enormous advantage. I don't think you go to the middle. You bring the middle to you."

-- Newt Gingrich

_ _ _

I could understand the two-to-one conservative edge if we were talking about a more mainstream conservatism, but what is befuddling is that a majority of Americans can buy into this Republican business, whose real clients are the Wall Street bankers and major corporations, the true plutocrats. Can so many Americans be willing to let their environment and economic standing fall to ruins? It's frustrating. And maybe it's hopeless.

Where Is the Middle

Newt's trip to the top of the polls is not just a momentary blip. Can that charlatan really get away with it?

_ _ _

"The electability thing is a question of how you think elections work. I think in the Reagan tradition and in the tradition of 1994 and the "Contract," if you get a real contrast in a country which is more than two-to-one conservative, the liberal loses. But you have to have the courage to fight your way through the New York Times and through CBS News and through MSNBC and be steady in drawing the contrast. So, I think the person who is able to debate Obama and draw a sharp and defined contrast has an enormous advantage. I don't think you go to the middle. You bring the middle to you."

-- Newt Gingrich

_ _ _

I could understand the two-to-one conservative edge if we were talking about a more mainstream conservatism, but what is befuddling is that a majority of Americans can buy into this Republican business, whose real clients are the Wall Street bankers and major corporations, the true plutocrats. Can so many Americans be willing to let their environment and economic standing fall to ruins? It's frustrating. And maybe it's hopeless.

1984 (2,3) Muck House

In the first stages of romance and courtship, Julia and Winston are learning about each other, or at least he is learning about her - a real blue-ribbon type of girl. We have to give Orwell big points for having her work in pornography, albeit not as a model or an actress.
_ _ _

She had no memories of anything before the early sixties and the only person she had ever known who talked frequently of the days before the Revolution was a grandfather who had disappeared when she was eight. At school she had been captain of the hockey team and had won the gymnastics trophy two years running. She had been a troop-leader in the Spies and a branch secretary in the Youth League before joining the Junior Anti-Sex League. She had always borne an excellent character. She had even (an infallibIe mark of good reputation) been picked out to work in Pornosec, the sub-section of the Fiction Department which turned out cheap pornography for distribution among the proles. It was nicknamed Muck House by the people who worked in it, she remarked. There she had remained for a year, helping to produce booklets in sealed packets with titles like Spanking Stories or One Night in a Girls' School, to be bought furtively by proletarian youths who were under the impression that they were buying something illegal.

-- 1984

_ _ _

It is only reasonable to suppose that working in pornography may have helped to gin up her libido. Winston is a lucky dog. I wonder if Orwell intended this dormant, underlying joke, or is it just my jaded imagination?

1984 (2,3) Muck House

In the first stages of romance and courtship, Julia and Winston are learning about each other, or at least he is learning about her - a real blue-ribbon type of girl. We have to give Orwell big points for having her work in pornography, albeit not as a model or an actress.
_ _ _

She had no memories of anything before the early sixties and the only person she had ever known who talked frequently of the days before the Revolution was a grandfather who had disappeared when she was eight. At school she had been captain of the hockey team and had won the gymnastics trophy two years running. She had been a troop-leader in the Spies and a branch secretary in the Youth League before joining the Junior Anti-Sex League. She had always borne an excellent character. She had even (an infallibIe mark of good reputation) been picked out to work in Pornosec, the sub-section of the Fiction Department which turned out cheap pornography for distribution among the proles. It was nicknamed Muck House by the people who worked in it, she remarked. There she had remained for a year, helping to produce booklets in sealed packets with titles like Spanking Stories or One Night in a Girls' School, to be bought furtively by proletarian youths who were under the impression that they were buying something illegal.

-- 1984

_ _ _

It is only reasonable to suppose that working in pornography may have helped to gin up her libido. Winston is a lucky dog. I wonder if Orwell intended this dormant, underlying joke, or is it just my jaded imagination?