I'm not called CrankyPants for nothing....

So there I was, just like 60.2% of those planted in front of the TV yesterday, watching the Superbowl and trying to figure out all the lame commercials, and who could possibly have found them funny. Slapping, hitting and zapping done not nearly as artistically as by the Three Stooges. http://www.threestooges.com/ But, one assumes, that's because they've been "created" by a roomful of testosterone. Well, imagine my surprise when I read that the car ad with the shirtless men was developed by a young woman. So, lets see here..... two gals in a car want a bunch of shirtless men to rush over to their "car" and start rubbing it? Now maybe if this was dreamed up by guys I might see why they would think this up. But by a woman? To me this just screams that the Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan/ Jessica Simpson generation has lost their sense of propriety http://www.thefreedictionary.com/propriety at the very least, if not their minds! But you have only to go to Myspace and Youtube to see further examples of our young women embracing the "thug culture" and the idea that they can behave as badly as they want and no one will call them on it. This stinks, and I can't imagine what these women will grow up to embrace as their futures. Not children I hope. I repeat, they don't call me CrankyPants for nothin'!

Elder Statesman

Don't know much about.... http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/wonderfo.htm

Well, as anyone who grew up in the early 60's, this explains it all. We were young, and we, as women had three choices, to become a mother, a nurse or a teacher. You only became a teacher or a nurse if you had no "prospects" by the time you reached college, yet many did find "prospects" in college, so they then became moms too. We knew in our hearts that we wanted to be moms, but put on great faces. We also really didn't know what we wanted, but we demanded the right to be sure that no one presumed to tell us what we should do. We wanted the power to change things, but we weren't really sure what we wanted to change, other than the facts that the "adults" made all the rules, and we were gosh-darned going to throw it in their face the fact that we didn't intend to follow there rules and values. By the middle and late sixties, we were being told that we were nuts for wanting to be just moms, and often the ones telling us that were ourselves! Pretty strange, but I guess that pretty much explains what happened in the late '60's to the early '90's. We were not our parents and did not intend to ever be them. And our children were the recipients of all this confusion. Did we want to get married or not? Did we want to have children or not? We ourselves were so bombarded by the new idea that WE were the most important, and that our primary responsibility was to make OURSELVES happy that we went completely 180 degrees against our parents ideas of the responsibilities of marriage and parenthood. "If it feels good, do it!" was the watchword of the times, and again it fell on the children to be the vessels that we poured all this selfishness into. My, my, my...aren't we somethin'! We, myself and the other Crankypants of my generation, have now reached an age where we still are referred to as "Babyboomers" but in most of history have been referred to as the "Older" generation. But moi old? How can this be??? As the world knows, we were born to change the world, never trust anyone over 30 (until we ourselves began turning 30) and be the ones to make the rules. Some of us had early come to understand the dangers of this attitude, and others are still operating under these same self-delusions. And now we come to the subject that this blog will attempt to address-what is it in those of this generation, such as Hilary Clinton and John Kerry for example, that prevent them from stepping aside and becoming statesmen instead of remaining the agitators they were in their youth? Rants and rhetoric are expected of the young, which is why we need statesmen to participate in measured and reasoned discussions. Could it be the word elder that generally preceeds statesman that prevents this transition? Seems a trivial idea but it could hold the kernal of what drives them. 'Boomers are not programmed to be irrelevant; we are programed to be the chosen generation! How else can you explain Mick Jagger? I was dancing at the Sigma Chi house in Berkeley in 1966 to his songs for heavens sake! http://www.frayed.org/1966.html So, from this beginning I want to post what I think we need to consider in regards to our world today. I read several newspapers, Drudge, and several blogs every day, and am constantly wishing I had somewhere to rant about what I read. The way I look at it, my contribution as an Elder Statesman is one that I feel I've earned!