  We introduce an ad-hoc electrodynamics with advanced and retarded
Lienard-Wiechert interactions plus the dissipative Lorentz-Dirac
self-interaction force. We study the covariant dynamical system of the
electromagnetic two-body problem, i.e., the hydrogen atom. We perform the
linear stability analysis of circular orbits for oscillations perpendicular to
the orbital plane. In particular we study the normal modes of the linearized
dynamics that have an arbitrarily large imaginary eigenvalue. These large
eigenvalues are fast frequencies that introduce a fast (stiff) timescale into
the dynamics. As an application, we study the phenomenon of resonant
dissipation, i.e., a motion where both particles recoil together in a drifting
circular orbit (a bound state), while the atom dissipates center-of-mass energy
only. This balancing of the stiff dynamics is established by the existence of a
quartic resonant constant that locks the dynamics to the neighborhood of the
recoiling circular orbit. The resonance condition quantizes the angular momenta
in reasonable agreement with the Bohr atom. The principal result is that the
emission lines of quantum electrodynamics (QED) agree with the prediction of
our resonance condition within one percent average deviation.
