it's the end of the world as we know it

Some of my current back problems are probably a result of slam-dancing (as we called it back then) to R.E.M.'s song by that name at the old S.R.O. club in Amarillo, which is now a strip joint. Memories.

This weekend the Significant Other and I were at the mall trying to spend Christmas gift certificates, and I noticed a truckload of Members Only jackets on the shelves of one of the department stores. Well, I commented to the S.O., at least we know this: if they're down to Members Only jackets, they're really scraping the bottom of the barrel. The 80s revival is almost over.

Would that it were so. Unfortunately, something happened in the 80s that was even more insipid, even more ill-thought-out, and even more deadly than the windbreakers with epaulets. It was the Reagan administration's war in El Salvador which involved among other things, support for death squads.

And now, another Republican administration, apparently caught up in 80s nostalgia, is considering the "Salvador Option". Slam dancing too much as a kid leads to back pain in your 30s; the favorite haunts of your youth turn into topless bars; and stupid Republican plots come back, decade after decade after decade.

Bad idea, guys. If you must relive the 80s, we've got some Family Ties reruns on Betamax we'd gladly send you.

SPACEDARK