I will try to outdo Deane in the nostalgia department here! I was watching the "Saturday Night Live in the 90s" special on Sunday night, and I was swept with a wave of nostalgia for those happy days.

The show mentioned that in the 1990s, they had tweaked the skits to make them appeal to a younger audience (presumably Gen-X), alienating the show's Baby Boomer fan base in the process. That tweaking was quite successful! When I was in high school in the early 1990s, a lot of the students watched SNL, and it was common to hear students trying to imitate the SuperFans, Cajun Man, the Motivational Speaker (Chris Farley), the Coffee Talk people, etc. Does any television show have that kind of recoginzability amongst today's under 20 crowd?

How I miss the 90s! Let me count the ways:

1) In the 1990s, reality shows had not become the cancer that they are to network television today. Back then, one could find a mix of drama, comedy, made for TV movies, specials, etc. on over-the-air television.

2) Towards the late 1990s (when I entered the work force), there was a mass euphoria about increasing stock prices, the buildup of technological infrastructure, and a hot job market. I knew that this would have to end someday, but I generally didn't hear other people talking about this (either because they were on an emotional high or because it was taboo to ruin the good vibe with negativity).

3) A lot of the new and up-and-coming Internet technologies were cool for their own sake, and the negative flip-sides were not yet a concern. Example: Jennicam was cool simply because Jennifer Rigley could send live pictures from her home to millions of viewers, and make a living just by letting people watch her being herself. People weren't yet thinking of the privacy implications of small cameras combined with Internet connections. Likewise, sexual solicitation of minors online was not as big a problem as it is today.

4) In the late 1990s, I felt that pop music and entertainment was being made for people like me.

5) Swing music made a brief comeback in the late 1990s.

6) In the 1990s, terrorism was something that only happened in far away lands. OK, there was the 1992 bombing of the World Trade Center basement, but people conveniently forgot about this, at their own peril.

7) The open source software movement took off in the 1990s, with the introduction of Linux. When I first saw this, I was blown away by the fact that you could run a multi-user operating system on a personal computer, and the software that did this was free!

8) In the late 1990s, it was cool (as a Gen-X person), to say that you considered yourself a conservative. That label implied different things back then than what it might imply today.

I'm a Gen-Xer and have never considered myself a conservative. In fact, I was a republican until 1989 (believe it or not). I miss way the country was run in the 1990s under Clinton. He was a liar, but a good president. I wonder if Herb will let this go unsaid? NAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

[Respectful silence].

The Kinder & Gentler Francophile Herb

LMAO!

Heck, I have to bite MY tongue on some of those too.

Funny.

I miss the things I got to do ( you know, I was younger ) and my relative ignorance on some topics that are important to me now.

So much to learn from the 1990s.

1) Do not marry Courtney Love.
2) Do not invite Kip to your birthday party.
3) Do not let that curvilicious woman put your POTUS between her lips.
4) Do not lie about it if she does, just grin and say you deserved it.
5) Do not elect Rudy Giuliani.

I myself miss the 80's. SNL with Belushi, Curtain, Murray, Chase, and Father Guido Sarduichy! Arena band concerts at their prime. My 1969 Mustang Fastback probably most of all though!!

"My 1969 Mustang Fastback probably most of all though!!"

Damn, I am truly jealous. My first car was a 1962 1/2 Sport Futura, with buckets, four on the floor, and a thrifty 6 banger. You dusted me.

SNL in the late 1970s and early 1980s was the best. Some stuff has been very funny since, but a good gag gets beaten to death, like the Church Lady, and Subliminal Man. As the 1990s go, there is no doubt in my mind, Farley was as good as anyone in any era of that show.

Oh man that thing was a sweet ride. Custom metallic deep Maroon with Silver "1970" Boss 302 paint scheme, American Racing chrome and BF Goodrich 50 series TA's on the back, Shelby style "Override" traction bars, a very well built "302" fueled with a Carter Carb through the Edelbrock and then out the Edelbrock Headers and Turbo muff's, Borg-Warner T-10 4-spd, 3.90 gears, wood grain dash, fold down rear seat, and a killer stereo system!
Oh god I miss that car. I will probably be able to afford a new hunt for my youth in a couple of years but I will own another and it will be for sure a 1969 Mustang Mach 1 with a 351 Clevland power plant!
I think "Dusted Me" pretty much describes it! BTW..worked for and paid for it on my own! Think I appreciated it a whole lot more than simply haven it given to me! Also did all of the mechanical with Dad and Brother in our garage!

Gears...I mean Cheers

'69/'70 was a really good couple model years! I remember seeing the Mary Tyler Moore show and lusting after her rather demure model. Drool city. You must have put a lot of blood, sweat and hours into her!

I scraped and saved for my beast, but even though she was a pretty rare animal, it wasn't very expensive. It probably would be now. Most of the Sport Futuras and Sprints were cannibalized for the seats, console and tranny, because they fit the Mustang.

Inexplicably, like a lot of the Falcon based cars, she was haunted. Seriously, chat with almost any former Falcon owner and they will say the same thing. She never did behave quite right, still she was a beauty at the curb. The other "performance" option I did not mention was the five original red, white and blue striped hubcaps. :o)

Whoosh, there goes that 'Stang!

On the 90s tip, I am glad that the price of flannel has fallen, but those early 60s Fenders are still overpriced. :o)

I hear "Fudd" hats iz makin a fashion comeback! You should be all set! Ha

1st car, 64 corvair, 2nd car 1966 chevell SS 396.
Oh I wish I had that car back!

I gave it to by brother, when i went to Vietnam the second time, he later gave it to a younger brother, and he traded it in on a "Smokey and the Bandit" car.

Well, I had a 64 1/2 Mustang. Installed a 302 and loads of race parts. I've a movie clip of me doing a burnout in it in 1973.

But this it the 90's thread. I miss the 90's.

I don't miss the 70's (nixon)
I don't miss the 80's (reagan)
And I most certainly will not miss the 00's (Bush)

The 90's is where its at! Besides, my daughter was born in 1995.

Wikipedia has an interesting article on 1990s history. They cite that the end of the cold war helped to set off worldwide economic growth. Early on in that decade, Germany reunified, and the Soviet government collapsed, leading to the Soviet Union breaking up into several different countries. During the Cold War, many third world countries had had serious internal tensions between factions that supported the U.S. (and wanted our foreign aid Dollars) squaring off against factions that supported the U.S.S.R. (and wanted their foreign aid Rubles). To say the least, this type of tension was counter-productive.

I expected more flak over the "conservative" comment in my original post. When I was in college, circa 1997, a roommate told me that one of his professors had said that an increasing number of young people were self-identifying as conservatives. To me, at the time, the term embodied:
* Letting businesses grow and flourish through a laissez-faire philosophy
* A focus on private sector solutions and the potential for innovation therein
* Putting accountability on individuals
* The idea that the best career paths are in the white collar world
* A youthful aggressiveness to want to set goals and make the most out of the college degree that I had just earned

Note that "Jesus is my favorite political philosopher," "Atheists are not patriots," "evolution is a secular conspiracy," etc are not anywhere in the above list.

Alfredo, I believe you are right about traditional Republican values enjoying a ground swell of support among young people in the late 1990s. This is why the trend was exploited by Karl Rove and others who had, and still have, no connection to true conservative values. The traditionally secular "free enterprise" party was circumvented by a new reactionary and religious minority.

The current administration will not admit that when one of the largest totalitarian empires in world history collapsed, they moved to embrace much of their philosophy of control. They knew, and still know, that perspective on the Soviet empire would dim in time and parallels would be harder and harder to draw. Much as Stalin learned and benefited from the rise and defeat of the Nazis, our government has also profited and gained power in the wake of the collapse of the U.S.S.R.

Alfredo - you nailed on the head with that Wikipedia quote EXACTLY why I was proud to be a Republican in the 1990s. The role of Government should not to be the end-all be-all for the people, but the Government should help the people HELP THEMSELVES. I am sure that "traditional" conservatives such as what Herb declares himself to be agree with this lock-in-step too.

What's sad is, our administration has overseen blue- and white-collar job losses because it has become TOO laissez-faire on free trade and large U.S. corporations moving their manufacturing overseas. taking away those white-collar career possibilities for those young Sparkys. The size and scope of the federal government has grown faster during the George W. Bush administration than it has at any time in US history, with invasive laws such as the Patriot Act that go against the basic American tenet of "innocent until proven guilty" and the end of habeus corpus. The Republicans were the ones to grant the free speech and government hands-off personal lives, were they not?

If what we have now to show for the GOP is the true meaning of being a Republican, count me out.

"If what we have now to show for the GOP is the true meaning of being a Republican, count me out."

Brian, I am really glad you said it. Thank you.

From a purely economic standpoint, virtually every member of the GOP that I know feels used and betrayed by this administration. The few who do not, are in complete denial, or are too angry at the present situation to fully understand the root of the problem.

In the 1990s, outsourcing was a dirty word. This had nothing to do with partisan issues, but the unifying desire of all Americans to see all Americans working. We demanded a level playing field. It was obvious then, as it should be now, that without steady income, there are no consumers.

We need social welfare programs in direct proportion to our true economic success. Not the fuddy-duddy cooked numbers of the well paid and optimistic, but the reality of everyday working folks. The difference between "successful family" and "homeless family" is one paycheck. Make hard work irrelevant, encourage profits through downsizing, send that check overseas, and the balance is tipped.

I've said it before, both parties have made a mockery of our system and sold us downriver. My distrust of GOP leadership goes back further than this past decade, or this particular idiot, but one consistent thing does stick out: The GOP leadership loves China. It seems that China can do no wrong. Thanks in large part to GOP leaders, we have given almost everything to China, and now we owe them trillions.

The 1980s ended with the brutal quelling of the Democratic uprising in Tiananmen Square. I was very angry with our administration for turning their back on Democracy in China. I will never forgive The Shrub for condoning the massacres, imprisonments and disappearances. He showed no leadership at all, no solidarity with the oppressed, and no respect for the wishes of the Chinese people. He embraced the Communists with equal zest, both before and after the killings.

He must have felt the Communists deserved a reward for a job well done. China kept the "Most Favored Nation" status because he vetoed every move by Congress to hold them accountable. We may have taken heavy losses trying to liberate the Chinese, but it was a clear cut fight for Democracy that many Americans would have supported. Instead we gave them our jobs, our money, and thanks to this family war -- a tradition with roots in 1991 -- they will own us someday.

Democracy? Manufacturing base? Living wages? The end of the Federal deficit? Communists? That is soooo 1990s.

Wah, Dawktempwer, ahwr you pwicking on my hat? It's gweat foh hwunting wabbits fwom my Gwumman. :0)

China is a prime example ... though in the 80s and early 90s, the Democrats were just as to blame because they DID keep passing the MFN status for China when they were very much in control of Congress pre-1994. Truth be told, it HAS worked to help open the Chinese economy to Western private sector businesses, namely retail and restaurant, yes, but Chinese people would seemingly rather eat at McDonald's than Chairman Mao's. And the reasoning for that Bush administration's ignoring of Tiananmen Square at a time when the Cold War was ending in Europe and our stance against Communism was still very strong, is the same as the reasoning why this Bush administration is enabling and perpetrating an illegal, unjust conflict that has turned into civil war and the beginnings of genocide in Iraq yet completely ignores the genocide in Darfur - MONEY. We had next to zero financial interest in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and no chance really of accomplishing as such, so we could get away with our tough-guy status and not look the other way. We had huge inroads in the Chinese economy even back then, with us getting cheap electronics and apparel (yep, we were outsourcing even back then, kids!) that American consumers ate up.

This whole free trade, again with bipartisan support, has done a LOT to put us in this hole. I'm not sure that it is a black hole that we can escape from, because the American public, while lamenting the job loss in the blue- and white-collar markets, embraces cheap stuff, no matter where it is from. That playing field is so grossly tipped, it's upside-down ... isn't it ironic that a big chunk of Vietnam's GDP is because of American companies outsourcing there, when we were in a brutal war against the current Vietnamese government only 35 years ago?

Empowering people...

This really should be a campaign issue in the coming election.

I bought into the idea of that in the 90's myself. That's why I registered Republican way back when.

Clearly that's over. The current GOP would have us as cattle. We consume junk and poop cash. No thanks.

I miss the computing in the early to mid 90's. Internet was new, workstations were powerful and interesting and diverse. Music was great too, and we just got mp3 capability. Ahhh Napster!

It's the reason I got my DSL.

Brian, I respectfully disagree that the Democrats who controlled Congress gave The Shrub a free pass on China. He vetoed HR 5318 and other measures.

http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d102:HR05318:@@@L&summ2=m&

However, as I stated, I do not reserve my criticism for just the GOP. Clinton paid the usual lip service, then also made Human Rights a non-issue in our dealings with China.

We are both on the same page as far as watching our nation lose virtually everything to the sweatshops and slave camps of the Chinese. Child Labor and Human Rights were a non-issue then and remain a non-issue to most Americans. So long as we get cheap crap, we can still stroke our bellies and feel like kings.

Ah, those wacky 1990s.