or, you know, maybe a big truck.

I didn't feel it.

Hey, Consuela, do you think you might join us on Saturday?

Earthquake. I think.

USGS says 3.2 [link]

Carter was a good president.

Or at least looks good compared to what follows. Carter is one of the great ex-presidents, and those who came after were far worse -but I could make an arguement that he was the waymaker for a lot of went after. He was the first Democratic President who accepted the "government bad, private good" trope. Even though he made lots of exceptions he helped make the meme respectable for all the really horrible people who used if after him. Also on alternative energy - he was the guy who pushed many times the funds for synfuels as for renewables.

One thing wasn't his fault but helped create what came after. He was elected as a centrist Democrat; he was a centrist Democrat. But as soon as he was elected he was portrayed as an ultra-liberal. And some of the right spectrum " in the Democratic party loved and accepted this, defining Carter as an ultra-liberal made them moderates. And eventually Reagan was able to become president, because if Carter was an ultra-liberal, then Reagan mere conservative - not a right wing nut case. In fact a whole spectrum of opinions that had been considered loony became define as merely conservative; and that process of defining the center rightward has continued to this day - which is part of how we got into this mess.

And that would be why you didn't feel it, Perkins -- it's way out in the East Bay.

As for Saturday, I may have to go for a maybe. I'm still feeling ick. I may see if I can do a lunch on Friday...

Maybe it is, Consuela. I hope you feel better, and not just because I'd like to see you.

I'm sitting here in Berkeley and I didn't feel it. But that may be because I live on a busy street and write a lot of stuff off as trucks or rude people or rude people in trucks.

In the U.S., the '70s were a national nervous breakdown.

I'd argue that dishonesty in government in the early '70s (disclosures about Vietnam, Watergate) contributed a lot to the anti-government mindset that really took hold.

By the end of the decade, the economy seemed stuck in permanent doldrums. Two gas crises in '73-'74 and '79 more than tripled prices at the pump over a six-year period. And remember that the boom of the '90s brought incomes back to their previous peak -- in '73.

It was the time of adjustment to the consequences of many of the changes of earlier years. I'm not going to criticize those changes. But, just to name an example, the rise of no-fault divorce is going to require changes in people's mental maps. And that adjustment took place during the '70s.

Also during the '70s (and this may have started in the late '60s with the Tet Offensive), America went from seeing itself as The Colossus (or one of two colossi) in the world -- Fighting For Freedom Everywhere -- to a helpless giant that couldn't prevent a hostage crisis in Iran. The view of America as The World's Good Guys also took a hit as undercover ops of the past received publicity.

The '70s *were* cool!

I was gonna say.

Carter is one of the great ex-presidents

I think Carter might have been too good of a person to make an effective president. I think, as much as I'd like that it were otherwise, someone who makes an effective president has to be a bit of a ruthless bastard.

Oddly, I think Bush senior is turning out to be a decent ex-president. Certainly he's a better ex-president than he was a president (duh). I always got the feeling that he didn't really put his heart into his re-election campaign because he knew just how much he'd sold out his long-standing personal beliefs (i.e. old school republican vs. neo-con) to win the first one, and how much he subsequently had to kowtow once he did. I'd also love to hear what he really thinks of jr. if Babs didn't have him on the short leash. But I probably give him too much credit. His duo act with Clinton has been fascinating to watch, though.

Also, I'd rant about my train ride in this morning, but I suspect Nora will take care of that here or in Bitches.

Mainly, just slutting for 8s.