YES!!! Janeane Garofalo and Company are bad-mouthing the 1950s.

[NightTrain]

As much as I love a lot of the music from that era, I do get sick and tired of hearing conservative whites rhapsodizing about how wonderful the '50s were. And it sure is great to hear the good folks at Air America deconstructing that obnoxious myth!

[Gloria]

1. Looks like Atrios is going to be on next week....I'm thinking he

might be a regular feature....?

[stepnw1f]

2. When I thiink of the '50's

especially the one described by the right wing, I think of Pleasantville or the Children of the Corn. How freaky!?

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. It was an era when child abuse was under-reported

and parents drank heavily. The only mystique about the 50s was held because no one talked.

But it had its charm, as well.

[arcane1]

4. repubes crack me up about the 50's...

they regard the pre-1950's as some kind of golden age of American morality, and announce silly 'faith-based' ways to return us to that moral high ground. But in the pre-1950's:


-there was no "under God" in the oath of loyalty, I mean pledge of allegiance

-there was no "in God we trust" on our money

-there were no "10" commandments monoliths in our courthouses


in pre-1950 we were LESS CHRISTIAN :silly:

[havocmom]

5. the 50s: when men were men and women were stoned on Valium

We won't go back. We will not clean house in crinolines and pearls.

The best thing you can say about the 50s is that they are over.

[NightTrain]

7. Something else about the '50s.

There were two main avenues of rebellion: rock 'n' roll music and the Beat Generation. And the mainstream came down on both like a sledgehammer!

Coincidence? You decide!

[havocmom]

13. Tell me about it. Daddy blew sax and Momma beat skins.

We did not have a typical household in white suburbia!

[Dogmudgeon]

31. No, not on Valium

Valium was intoruced in 1966, IIRC.

You're thinking about barbiturates ... and maybe amphetamines, too.

Barbiturates, like Miltown, were less effective than the modern "benzodiazepines" (like Valium and Xanax), but were highly addictive. In addition, cold-turkey withdrawl would regularly induce psychosis and often kill from deep-brain seizures.

There was also a lot of cigarette smoking being done, but barbiturates were more frightening than the weed. But what woman in search of a perfect domestic lifestyle could pass them up?

How do you think some women managed to clean house in crinolines and pearls, anyway?

--bkl

[VOX]

35. Exactly. Miltown was the weapon of choice for 50s nerves...

Valium is utterly 60s.

:toast:

[GOPisEvil]

6. Well, since most people who want to return us to the '50s are

white, suburban and well-off, it makes sense. They were the ones who truly were able to enjoy the 1950's. Everyone else was held down in one way or another. Ask an African-American if he wants to go back to the 1950s.

[talkingrain]

8. Janeane

is a goof! And it shows. Perhaps she should be sidekick to Sam?
Guests' have been good. What happens after the newness?
Everything is still good! Better to have than have not!

[GOPisEvil]

9. She and Al will get better at the radio thing.

She knows her stuff, though.

[talkingrain]

10. True...

I think it was smart to add co-host's to Franken and Janeane. They are able to help keep things flowing. I am sure they both will catch their groove. Randi has already found hers, just from experience.

[GOPisEvil]

11. Very true.

Al's co-host is fantastic. Sam is OK, but he stumbled some, too.

[PartyPooper]

12. I grew up in the 1950's and it wasn't all bad.

Folks were less self-absorbed and materialistic. There weren't as many people competing for precious resources. The environment was in better shape than it is today. You could actually visit a beach or a National Park without a lot of hassle-or crowds.

There wasn't a hell of a lot on TV...so, people actually socialized...they read and did other things to entertain themselves.

You didn't have to be a Phd to operate your Hi Fi or TV-or, assemble a bicycle for Junior on Christmas Eve. Overall, it was a less complicated age. And, yes, I do miss that....even though I hated those gawd-awful Swanson TV dinners!

*Sigh*

But, I'm glad it's over!

:D

[mykpart]

14. Remember DDT?

X-ray machines in children's shoe stores.
Polio immunization was a series of three shots which made you sick.
Smallpox vaccination that itched and looked nasty and left a scar.
Black and white TV.
Joseph McCarthy.
Only careers open to women were nursing, teaching, social work, and secretary. Or Avon Lady.

[Demonaut]

15. and Howdy Doody, dont forget the terror of small children

[everythingsxen]

16. IT'S HOWDY DOODY TIME!!!!

Again! :D

[AlienGirl]

17. No it isn't!!!

It will NEVER be Howdy Doody time again!

[everythingsxen]

18. Oh come on...

You know it will happen again!

Howdy Doody will return!! Stronger! More Powerful!

[AlienGirl]

20. He will not!!

Howdy Doody has retired from TV, to spend his time pursuing his true passion...Everquest!

[everythingsxen]

21. Lies!

He is only biding his time at Everquest!!

He shall return to TV once again!!

[AlienGirl]

22. Never!!

EverCRACK has him now!!

[everythingsxen]

23. But you know that...

Buffalo Bob is trying to get him to stop playing it....

and once he is free of Evercrack he will pursue his true calling...

[AlienGirl]

24. Noooo!

Even if he stops playing the crack, he will still never return to TV. Cause he now hates appearing in front of an audience, even when bribed!

[everythingsxen]

25. He will come around...

the circle will be complete...

:D

[AlienGirl]

26. The circle is unbroken

But he will come around it in a mystical Zen-like way, in which he will retreat to the shade of a bo tree and contemplate the lint!

[everythingsxen]

28. No!

He shall cut down the bo tree and carve it into mighty wooden swords!

[AlienGirl]

29. Nay!!

He shall think upon LINT, and he shall come up with the LINTLESS WASHING MACHINE! And thus he shall redeem his reputation.

[regnaD kciN]

33. True!

I witnessed the absolute last "Howdy Doody Time" as a child, seated in front of the family's new color TV.

I think I was somewhat traumatized at the notion that such a familiar fixture of my life was suddenly going to go away forever. One might even say it was my first encounter with death.

:-(

[Archae]

19. I'm old...

But I don't remember the 1950's.

(I was born in December 1959.) :-)

But of the 50's stuff that is still popular, TV was the worst.

"Father Knows Best"
"The Honeymooners"
"Leave It To Beaver"

Well, there was a really good bright spot on TV back then.
Edward R. Murrow at CBS.

Oh, and Rod Serling.

[Demonaut]

32. that aint old, I was born 1962 and that would make me old too

and I'm not old, age is a mental thing as much as a physical thing, keep it fresh and so shall ye be.

[SoCalDem]

27. The 50's were the Best of Times for the "white middle/upper class male"

Look at who still "rules" the world...

They had it MADE in the SHADE..

They had obedient children
They had obedient wives
They had no competition in the workplace (minorities/women)
They had the "lower classes" ..."where they belonged"..(other side of the tracks)
They had colleges mostly to themselves
Booze was A-OK...Tobacco was A-OK...

For the most part, women did not complain much.. (That would come later).. Most women who came of age during the 50's had two choices.. Spinster teacher/nurse/secretary-receptionist or marry and have kids like their mothers had done..

Lots of women back then actually liked being "taken care of".. Suburbs gave them a parallel universe, and they had friends, social events, and their kids to occupy their time. Lots rarely even saw that much of the "husband"..(and I think a lot of them liked it that way.)

Segregated schools/churches/neighborhoods pretty much guaranteed that people did not stray far from their socio-economic group, so life was pretty "nice" for them..

They lived in a hermetically-sealed bubble..and they LOVED it..

No wonder they got all huffy when the 60's activists stirred the pot.. They now had to share..or at least acknowledge that "other people" existed...

Even after the tumult of the 60's, you could still see, for a long time, the efforts made to put that scrambled egg back into the shell.. TV still "idolized" the "family-unit" as it always had..even though those families had some pretty toxic characters living there.. Lots of alcoholism, adultery,child abuse.. you name it..

People do not easily relinquish what they consider to be their RIGHT..It will take another generation to even start to erase the damage that the false image of what life "should be"....

It was phony then, but they still long for it..

[Lars Vargas]

30. The 50's weren't any different

Who REALLY thought that their parents slept in different beds in the 50's?

The whole decade is defined by Leave it to $%^%$^$ Beaver!

[leftofthedial]

34. the best thing that happened in the 50's

was my parents having sex.

[VOX]

36. There you go. Can't trash the *whole* decade!

I'm right there with you, lotd.

:toast: