Vast Right Wing, cont'd Together with the intermittent evangelical (I traveled in the South) whose desire for humanity’s condemnation was nearly orgiastic, both they, the Conversionists, and Rush, the non-tumescent one, made for pretty ragged psychological edges, come hotel destination time after 400 miles of AM radio. (It is not really possible to drive and listen to FM radio. Really now, how many times in one day can you actually listen to REO Speedwagon’s “Take it on the Run”? (Heard it from a friend who/Heard it from a friend who/Heard it from another you been messin' around.) I mean, seriously? Besides, it’s true that time passes faster behind the wheel if you’re listening to somebody, almost anybody, talk rather than listening to music, Boz Scaggs, whom you’re not gonna hear anyway, notwithstanding. Just talk; chatter, raised in the mind of the chatterer to an art form. It has a metronomic effect (save the commercials) that a white stripe could never possess. If David Foster Wallace writes about something, I tend either to believe him or want to believe him. His essay “Host” in his deliriously brilliant collection of writings, Consider the Lobster, talks about how difficult it is to talk — with cadence, pitch, fluidity — over the course of a three-hour show. It can’t be easy (if Wallace hadn’t told me that, I’d think it might be.) And even with call-ins, there is still, says Wallace, a true talent for handling the response and the (sometimes) resulting conversation; all this between the abounding commercials. AM stations, with either a talk or sports format, must be incredibly profitable, because they are one long commercial drone.I do not know this for a fact. But counting the news — at the top and bottom of the hour — and the commercials, you might be lucky (or unlucky) if you get, say 20 minutes of actual talk in an hour. This was all years ago (see above), and now lots of us have satellite radio. There’s no lack of talk show abundance there, either. I know that Sirius/ XM tries (I assume) to balance the liberals with the conservatives, but it still seems like the conservatives predominate — probably because the liberals are too self-righteous, and sound, in their own way, like the Southern Baptist preacher one click up on the dial. Only a few months ago I was experiencing significant “windshield time,” as long driving is called, and flipped through my XM channels only to hear that the horse-faced Laura Ingraham has her own talk show. And then there’s the ubiquitous Glenn Beck, who gives political imbecility a bad name (see below). Our friend Sean Hannity’s around, wouldn’t you know it. Lesser lights also abound (although who could be a lesser light than Ingraham I don’t really know). Well, there’s Neal Boortz, completely moronic, who has found his space among the crowded conservative nattering (sorry, it’s simply too easy to pass up) nabobs. Let’s not forget Michael Savage (“The Savage Nation”) who recently ordered the playing of music from the Dead Kennedys upon hearing about Sen. Ted Kennedy’s brain tumor. Nice, huh? Savage not only occupies a niche of imbecility and incivility in this murky world, but also of viciousness. He’s the little boy in 3rd grade homeroom who was shy and demure and always, subtly and unceasingly, kissing the teachers ass — only to grow up and one day open fire in a Wendy’s restaurant, killing 10 people and yet not having the guts after that to put a bullet through his own head.►