Thursday Open Thread
I took the day off from the show and the site today, but here’s an open thread for you guys to gnaw on for a while. Tell me what I missed today… Enjoy!
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I took the day off from the show and the site today, but here’s an open thread for you guys to gnaw on for a while. Tell me what I missed today… Enjoy!
Found this tonight: http://kaboomwarjournal.blogspot.com/
It’s pretty well written and quite funny at times. Gives you a soldier’s eye view….
Listened to Todd [above] last night on the replay and was surprised that he isn’t the kind of moronic dittohead i had envisioned!!!
Why thanks, I think. What was I not being a dittohead about? Pete’s lack of manly handiness?
Here’s another site I discovered tonight: http://www.teacherunionsexposed.com/
This would be a good topic I think. It isn’t about attacking teachers, but unions protecting bad ones.
Definitely run by people on the right.
Oh yeah, here’s the stop smoking website I called about today: http://www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com/ Hopkins, Branson & DeGeneres all endorse.
So do I. Smoke Free for two years as of 02:30 04/05/08. No nicotine. No stained teeth. No more inevitable pinhole burns, all down the front of my favorite satin shirt. No more nicotine stains on my fingers…
John Rolfe is rolling over in his grave. There wouldn’t be a US if it wasn’t for this man’s contribution to the new world’s trade in tobacco. He risked his life by purchasing seeds and brought them to Jamestown, Virginia. Back then, Spain had the monopoly on tobacco, there was a death penalty for any non Spaniard buying or selling Spain’s particular strain of seeds. He brought them here and planted them here. He was the first successful American business man.
I say let people smoke, have then sue the tobacco companies, grant them millions of dollars. They both get what they deserve- one for selling a product that is harmful to the body and the other for being stupid and use those products. My only regret is, as Pete mentioned, the rest of us pay for a lot of the medical expenses. Again, it’s the innocent paying the way for the idiots of the world. I guess when it’s put that way, who is the idiot?
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/04/news/economy/jobs_march/index.htm?cnn=yes
This is CNN.com’s article on unemployment. It is up to 5.1%. They have spun this article so left that it made my head spin this morning. Unemployment highest in 3 years!?!??! OMG! Oh wait, it is still around what is widely considered full employment.
Martin,
Do you think our national laws ought to reflect the very widespread and non-partisan notion that ‘we’ shouldn’t have to pay for treatment of ‘your’ bad choices? (enquoted terms are meant in a general sense, not specific)
I believe one’s right to destroy/damage/endanger oneself ends where it would do so to another.
Life, Liberty, Property. All politics should be based upon principles deduced from these 3 basic inalienable rights.
I made bad choices last year, I lost about $150,000 in very bad business choices. Is congress coming to my rescue? Are your tax collars helping me pay my debts? I have several creditors I owe money to, not to mention friends who took my advise and invested. I liquidated money to invest in what I thought would be a good business deal, I was wrong because I misjudged the economy and the market. I am not asking for any assistance, nor do I expect it either, yet it was a bad choice nevertheless. Smoking is a choice people make every time they reach for a cigarette, bad business choice if you ask me. The studies have been out for many decades, yet people still begin to smoke by the thousands every year. Now, if they invest in tobacco companies, that’s another thing, they could be making money every time they smoke.
I am a very happy bitter man with odd ways of looking at the world.
Media Bias?
You decide.
Martin, please tell me that it wasn’t a bridge in New York City!?
On a serious note, I am sorry to hear about that. I was always told to never invest with my heart because it often leads to bad decisions.
Also, was that two separate discussions? Or did you invest in tobacco?
No, not a bridge in NYC; yes, two seperate discussions, tobacco was not my investment- and it was actually in a span of about 1.5 years, not just one, but once events are set in motion, it doesn’t take long to lose a lot in a short amount of time. Like fireworks, light the fuse and if it gets too close to the gun powder, it’s too late.
Looking back, I should have invested in tobacco, even though I have no clue as to how its stocks are doing, I would be better off no matter what.
i made a bad choice in the Nineties by falling for George the First’s thousand-points-of -light spiel and went back to school…took Video Technology at IAR, a program that had a 100% placement rate until George I started a war with Iraq. The school was subsequently guilty of 150 violations but i’m still expected to pay the student loan—hopefully all those motherfuckers died in 9/11—i think their office was in 1 WTC.
Should’ve went into the crack business, but i have this niggling sickness—morals:(
Banks preying on ignorant sheeple is the same as if i had become a crack dealer—it’s just as immoral, probably more so since it’s sanctioned by the government. All this Adam Smith theology of greed is finally backfiring, and Amerikkka’s scared of them chickens that will be coming home to roost!!!
On the smoking topic; I have a question for anyone who can answer: I stopped smoking a year ago, now I only smoked for about 3 years so I did not build up the addiction like smoking for years would’ve done. When I was smoking I could run 3 miles in under 18 mins (WHILE SMOKING). When I stopped I could barely run 1 mile in under 10 mins. So how is it that while smoking a person seems to be “healthier” than when they stop smoking?
Listen to the replay and notice Ox said he never referred to you as his “white friend” yet you’re *my Black friend*ing it ever chance you get!
There’s a lot of white folk i’d take a bullet for even though the white man’s the devil…but i know a lot of Nigroes even more devilish than them, motherfuckers who’d give Hitler a run for the money.
And “nigger” ain’t as hurtful as being called a HOUSENIGGER…we been called colored, Nigro [they never could get the nigger out of NEGRO], Afro-American, Black, and now Afrikaan American…having seen these integration mad nigroes TRY to wake up white for most of my life and Sambo-shuffling in ignorance to all thangs African, i’ll never call them nigroes AFRICAN anything.
And limeys are the most racist bastards out there
Many factors came into play on the 6 minute mile topic:
1- how many years had you been running before you started smoking?
2- how many years had you gone without running when you ran a 10 minute mile?
3- did you run in the same city/town?
4- if not, was there a difference in elevation?
The longer you smoke, the more the lungs deteriorate, since they are not like the liver and regenerate, you have for ever caused damage to them, meaning even though you stopped smoking, the damage is there and therefore you cannot perform as you were once able to- the body is not healthier, maybe you didn’t count the minutes when you ran it in 6 minutes or skipped a mile or 2. The average athelete runs a mile in about 6.5. True runners will run under that time, but they must train to get to 6 minutes and under. If you were doing that, you should have continued your training and become an olympic athelete and gotten to a 4 minute mile without much effort.
Fred Flinstone smokes Winston’s. They have the most flavor. He and Barney smoke because it is cool. You want to be cool, don’t you?
Totally off subject:
I mentioned in a prior blog that maybe there should be some limitations on how much CEOs can make based on the average income of the employees of the company in question. Just wanted to state for the record that, after doing a little research, I realized what a useless idea that was. If Walmart’s top 5 executives were to sign over their annual salaries to be evenly distributed amongst all of their employees it would result in a 2 cent per hour raise for every Walmart employee. Kinda kills the notion that highly paid CEOs are hoarding away all the money causing the rest of us to be poor.
Pete I think you need to start asking some of these people who claim to be military types for some credentials. The guy today that said he was a marine sounded a lot like the guy I talked to before when he called in with another right wing talking point. That time he was in the Army. Both times he was wrong in what he was saying. I called him out when he said the democrats reduced the military, it was in fact Dick Cheney, then the sec’y of defense that proposed reducing the sioze of the military as a peace dividend. Then there was the supposed LTC who knew there were WMD but didn’t know that Germany declared war on us. Can you say Army War College? No one of that rank would be that ignorant of that fact or about tactics of war. No leader in his right mind, knowing he was about to go to war with a superior force would send his only weapons that could stop his enemy out of the country. If you don’t use them now, just when the hell would you use them. Of course we have countermeasures, and the outcome would ultimately be the same, but he would have definitly have used them.
I suggest you ask these guys something like: what is your rank and pay grade
what is your MOS (military occupational specialty)
Where are you stationed and what is your unit
These questions may not mean anything to you but if they don’t answer correctly I guarantee that people who do know will bust them if they lie. It is one thing to have an opinion but quite another to misrepresent yourself this way. They do it because they think that saying they are in the military gives their opinion extra weight. Keep up the good work and don’t apologize for getting in peoples face when they say something outrageous. You had every right to call that guy out when he said you want us top lose. That’s typical right wing talking point; “Dem’s hate the military”, or if you disagree with the Pres. you are not patriotic. Bullshit.
Keep it lit.
McCain Is Vocal on War, but Silent on Son’s Service
Wow, okay… this blog/forum is dead this weekend. Do I have to insult an entire class of listeners just to get some of you all to post?
Todd, do you think the media is bias in any shape way or form? Be honest, but do you feel an individual will NOT place his/her opinion on paper as he/she sees the story, no matter the subject? A writer is an artist, and paper is his/her canvas where they paint the picture in words rather than colors. All of us are bias in one form or another, no matter what. I feel it is almost impossible to remain neutral no matter what the sircumstances. of course, I’m sure some of you will have your way of spinning this into your own bias view.
That was for Todd in Titletown on a comment about media bias on April 4.
Martin,
I agree with you. Everyone has a slant. I know I do. That is why I engage those with whom I disagree!
I have a problem with media bias as it applies to members of the popular press who insist on their own objectivity. A most unfortunate side effect of believing in your own objectivity is a blind spot which allows egregious ethical lapses in the name of defeating a political enemy, for example, the blog link above. I grant this is an open charge, but CBS is the outfit which used forged documents on the air right before the 2004 election to support an allegation Bush was given a sorry rating (or some such). Dan Rather’s defense? “Fake, but accurate”.
I’m fine with partisan hacks highlighting news which helps their cause. I don’t care if news groups have known partisans gathering/presenting news. I think partisans can be fair and honest news reporters/presenters. Unless they think they are objective. Then that blind spot kicks in.
Can we all agree this kind of politician is a big part of the problem?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcSYOo7HXy0
Brian where are you??? I so want to talk about today’s show!!!
Sorry John, I didn’t hear most of that show. I’m super busy right now doing a job I couldn’t pass up, so it’s probably going to be a while till I can get back to the blog or the show consistently.