"I would go barefoot longer; I'd learn how to throw a Frisbee, I'd go braless if I were a woman and I would wear no underwear if I were a man. I'd play cards..."

...and, in pre-American-fatigues Afghanistan, you'd be arrested and killed by the Taliban.

that's what we call a 'steaming pile of BS'.

I've got an idea for a reality show--take a half-dozen Marines and put them in a remote 3rd-world village for a month. Take a half-dozen of what this guy calls "the beauty of American youth" and put them in another remote 3rd-world village for a month. See which village's natives think more highly of America after the time is up...

Woah man, like right on and all that. Groovy.

This nation has enough frightened, dissatisfied yuppies living in gated communities, driving S.U.V.'s and wondering where their youth went.

We need you to mow their lawns, clean their pools, change their oil, and bag their groceries. Though you may have to put on some underwear and a clean pair of pants first.

More boomer nostalgia. I would be surprised if kids who had to sit through that tripe, didn't get nauseated.

Sounds like there might be a market for "60s Boomer Nostalgic Commencment Speech" Bingo game to go with the Tim Russert editiion.

Didn't Steve Jobs give a commencement speech recently telling the grads that they had just wasted 100K and five years of their lives and that they should go out now and invent something and get to work?

Shelton: You might be thinking of this urban legend... http://www.snopes.com/quotes/ellison.htm

Mr. McBride, he sure has been busy. First this commencement speech and then beating Mike Tyson over the weekend.

Apologies to Shelton: You're apparently correct; they had an article about that commencement address in Yahoo! (Assuming they weren't also being fooled...)

"We need you to mow their lawns, clean their pools, change their oil, and bag their groceries. Though you may have to put on some underwear and a clean pair of pants first."

No can do; some very nice people without legal documentation are doing all that instead. Right OJ?

JJ:

If you're kid came home from college and told you he was working in a slaughterhouse you'd disown him.

Charles Reich lives! Somebody get me my beads.

-- This nation has enough frightened, dissatisfied yuppies living in gated communities, driving S.U.V.'s and wondering where their youth went.--

Well, everyone else got here before me, boomers.

Waahhhh! I'm the establishment!

Mr. Schwartz: When I was in school we laughed at these sort of speeches.
Loaf! Wander Aimlessly! Don't pay back those student loans!

Yeah, whatever.

"Learn how to throw a frisbee"? Is that some special skill unkown to us rat-racers?

OK. Here's frisbee throwing rule number one: avoid wearing ultra-stiff jeans and no underwear.

This is actually good advice, but only for a certain narrow segment of the student body - the compulsive, nose-to-book 10% or so. (Depending on where one went to school - at mine, they might have made up 01% of the student body).
Having been grinds through high school and college, they could use a little down time, especially if they're not mad genius inventors, and are merely going to become administrators somewhere.

I've lived the kind of life that Mr. McBride espouses, and there are definite benefits to doing so...

Also some pretty large negatives.
For instance, you'll be quite poor, unless your parents want to support you.
Also, it's easy to fall into the habit of not having responsibilities, and to be a bit slow to get back to the real world.