(no subject)

My extremely nebulous, likely to change in a nanosecond, essentially meaningless LJ Friends Survey

(survey and title "appropriated" from sanssouci. Some survey questions removed, and one added.)

disclaimer: Don't take it personally if I miss you -- some LJers just pop into my head when you say things like "Most Creative". If you're not mentioned, I love you due to your natural ability to defy classification ;-P

Among your LJ friends, who is the...

Funniest: wrapper
Silliest: turtlehead
Sanest: toddney gringo_in_tj
Cutest (male): I won't even put in a "platonic" disclaimer (unless you could that as one) pjammer gravity
Cutest (female): Whew. My top-5 in no particular order: meow lianna topazgrrl gardengnome amberangel … I could go on and on and on, though.
Giver of the warmest fuzziest feelings: topazgrrl amberangel
Provoker of the most comments from you: sanssouci for having such interesting topics. Do stolen surveys count?
Owner of the best LJ icon: onezen
Owner of the most distinctive writing style: whisperingwinds meow
First person ever added to your friends list: gardengnome
LJ Friend who you've actually known the longest: Online? Probably a tie between gardengnome and wrapper from The Rumor Mill
Most recent person added to your friends list: sherahi through reciprocity, and turtlehead because he's on a lot of friends' pages and it was about time he started cluttering up mine.
Youngest: randomish I think.
Geographically closest: washell and, temporarily, sammystudio. Both in Atlanta. When are we going to get together, buds?
Geographically furthest: Probably the Wazza: warwick in the land of Oz
LJ friend who you entrust your deepest secrets to: Who I do? Everyone seeing a friends-only post. Who I would IRL? meow and topazgrrl
Weirdest: bettyx, but I think that's a Good Thing (TM).
Who I want most to meet off my list: wrapper gravity topazgrrl rhondak plural amberangel
Who I've met in real life: meow
Most like me: As much as you can figure this out from just reading entries, I'd have to go with pjammer and/or plural
Dreamiest entries: lianna rhondak
Most creative: bettyx sammystudio diversify rhondak
Most likely to talk to in 20 years: gravity wrapper

My addition to the list:

Person not on your friends list for some reason, but from time to time you read their journals anyway: debgirl001 in2oblivion

Buh-bye

For every political party in the US, there is its idealism. For its idealism, there is a fringe spokesperson who inexplicably comes to some measure of power, to the great embarrassment of the moderate elements, primarily because the opposing party gets a lot of cheap ammunition.

For the Democrats, that person may currently be Ted Kennedy. For the Libertarians, that person is Lyndon LaRouche. For the Republicans, that person is Jesse Helms, who will announce tomorrow that he won't seek re-election.

Helms was the ideal fringe character for conservatism, the one opposing fringe characters would point at and shout, "That buffoon there is the embodiment of the opposition." He endorsed ideals generally supported by the rank-and-file, yet blew them all out of proportion with the worst grasp of PR since Clinton listened to David Kendall. An example: Should the federal government spend taxpayer dollars to support art not ever seen by the majority of the people? For his argument against, Helms picks out Mapplethorpe (IMHO, an artist talented enough to break through without government assistance or political controversy). Helms forever destroyed an honest political issue with many pros and cons on either side by turning it into a morality debate.

In an ironic turnabout common in politics, he was roundly, vocally hated by fringe and mainstream liberals, though their argument to ignore or block Helms was that the man so roundly, vocally hated. And yet, of the people who actually met him, many would like him. Bono Vox, of U2, is a personal friend.

Buh-Bye, Jesse. You always tried to do the right thing, even if the reasons were wrong. Or, perhaps, even if the right thing was only a figment of an ideal in your own mind.