Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Come on, man.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

The revolution will be supervised.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / We (I) Get Letters–Open Thread

We (I) Get Letters–Open Thread

by | 136 Comments

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Yes, we get letters.  I don’t know about the other Front Pagers, but I’ll bet their public email accounts are full of various people complaining that we don’t cover whatever cause is important to them at that moment.

We have too much coverage of the fiscal slope/curb/cliff or not enough coverage of it, or our coverage is MISSING THE POINT, ZOMG!  Or we aren’t talking enough about Bradley Manning or we aren’t advocating for his release/killing hard enough.  We aren’t telling the commenters about the new science that shows that silver is the cure for EVERYTHING from aphasia to gout to uremia to yellow fever.

It’s all very much like this

Well, this shit is exactly what open threads were invented for.  Instead of trying to convince me to make your case for you, which act is a LOT like trying to teach a mule to tapdance–you won’t get anywhere and you’ll only piss both of us off–use this open thread to make your case about your pet issue to the commenters.  Good luck and remember, it’s all about having fun!

 

Reader Interactions

136Comments

  1. 1.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    As one of my gun-totin’ glibertarian friends says:

    “Good free help is hard to find.”

    I’m still waiting for my Cat Bleg submission to be posted.

  4. 4.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Why aren’t you talking about the gout cure? Do you hate the gouty? Bastard.*

    *FWIW I do not have gout; I just don’t hate the people who do. Except for that one guy, but it has nothing to do with his gout. Now where was I….?

  5. 5.

    eric

    Your purported desire for more commentary is just passive aggressive criticism seeking to suppress our free expression just as the Nazi’s suppressed the free speech rights of its citizens.

    Sincerly,

    Poe Godwin III

  9. 9.

    PurpleGirl

    Thanks for the West Wing clip. Loved it when CJ pulled rank on any of the others. {grin} ETA: Josh could be such a jerk.

    How is the weather out there by you? It’s rainy in NYC and windy. Very raw. I went out for one errand and when I go back out, I’ll have to dress warmer.

  11. 11.

    jacy

    anti-readership capture

    and where is the other front-pager, the stupid one who always does that thing I might or might not hate but feel that I must comment on instead of scrolling past?

    I demand satisfaction.

  13. 13.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @Cassidy:

    We haven’t talked enough about how today is Obama’s fault.

    I thought that was a given. Oh wait, I thought I drunkenly stumbled into FDL. I’m sure I can find a way to blame the Kenyan, Moooslim Usurper for that as well.

  15. 15.

    BethanyAnne

    I don’t know if it’s been mentioned here or not, and the new is a few days old, but evidently Dana Loesch is suing Breitbart .com, lol. Story here.

  17. 17.

    jl

    @Jewish Steel:

    What? No. The Stones versus the Dave Clark Five (or was it four, or xix?) whatever, is a way bigger issue.

    My issue: I am deeply concerned about the decline of peppermint ice cream. I have a hard time finding it, and it is Christmas, dammit, where is it?

    I didn’t know that Balloon Juice was the inspiration for Lemon Lyman.

    Edit: And I have written Soonergrunt dozens of times about the peppermint ice cream crisis, and… nothing. But he pumps out screeds on the ‘Oklahoma is OK’ issue (surely less important than ice cream) all the time. What kind of blog is this, anyway?

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    Since this seems to be the spot for the airing of grievances, here’s an odd anomaly I’ve noticed with the mobile site. If you hit publish and stay on the page, you get an error message but your comment does actually post.

    If, however, you hit “publish” and then immediately open a new window, the comment publishes with no error message and a lovely green check mark.

    This is on my iPhone 4S running OS5, FWIW.

  22. 22.

    Yutsano

    @Cassidy: Special Timmeh has that covered one thread down methinks. Of course it’s much easier when you’re permanently DISAPPOINTED!!

    @Soonergrunt: “Technically I outrank you…”

    “SO FAR UP YOUR ASS!!”

    Why do I get the feeling you’ve participated in that conversation before? :)

  23. 23.

    Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)

    Well, there is some good news in the world. A nascent beginning……

    “Since the dark days of 1999 and 2000, when the Taliban forbade girls’ schooling, there has been very substantial progress. Over 3.2 million girls are now in school, and via UNICEF programs the Afghanistan government expects a 20% increase in primary school enrollment in 2013. Since 2001, female literacy has tripled. But it still stands at only 13%, among the lowest in the world.

    Despite the hatred for UN agencies among the US right wing, especially the Neoconservatives, UNICEF is among the main drivers of increased female education and literacy in Afghanistan, and deserves our support”    .http://www.juancole.com/

  25. 25.

    jefft452

    “like trying to teach a mule to tapdance–you won’t get anywhere and you’ll only piss both of us off”

    maybe so, but you gotta admit that a tapdancing mule would be way cooler than Lady Ann’s dancing horse

  26. 26.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @eric: I didn’t know there was a Pope Godwin III. Was he one of those German popes? In any case, BJ doesn’t discuss popes nearly enough.

  30. 30.

    askew

    @jl:

    I didn’t know that Balloon Juice was the inspiration for Lemon Lyman.

    Television Without Pity was the inspiration for Lemon Lyman and they did not take Sorkin mocking them well. He captured the site perfectly though.

  32. 32.

    muddy

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Why aren’t you talking about the gout cure?

    Yeah, why? Don’t leave gout aloooone!

    In case anyone does have gout, I recommend cherry juice. I guess black cherry works as well, but it tastes like cough medicine to me. I used to get gout every few months (kidneys don’t work well), and my pharmacist turned me on to this. I drink a small glass of cherry juice (R.W. Knudsen Just Tart Cherry, approx. $6) every day and have not had any episodes in several years.

  33. 33.

    Jewish Steel

    @jl: You and my mother need to start a peppermint ice cream super pac. It’s her favorite too and I couldn’t find any this season.

  34. 34.

    Violet

    I just finished cleaning the kitchen. Time to sit down before I have to go out and buy some Christmas gifts for the kids whose family wasn’t able to join us for our Christmas celebration and I’ve now go to mail them their gifts. I had held off buying them, figuring I could maybe get a better deal after Christmas. I’ve got to brave the stores today so I can get the box in the mail tomorrow.

  35. 35.

    Comrade Mary

    Hah! I remember the kerfuffle over that West Wing episode at Television Without Pity. Josh was a stand-in for Aaron Sorkin, who was fascinated and horrified by the detailed attention paid to him and his show at TWoP. He had posted there as “Benjamin” (but clearly stating that he was Sorkin) for three seasons before he wrote that episode. A brief history of Benjamin.

    And I knew a TWoP recapper / board admin who often covered The West Wing. You know, the “dictatorial leader who wore a muu-muu and chain-Parliaments” aka “Nurse Ratched” socially. She was actually a very nice person who was fascinated and horrified by the attention Sorkin paid to recaps and the board.

    What Aaron Sorkin really needed was his own blog and his own install of WordPress. Troubleshooting that code monstrosity would have kept him too busy to get into trouble.

  37. 37.

    kindness

    Can I complain about NPR then?

    Yea, it’s so 1999 but they still suck. Why do I still listen to them? Why? I can’t figure that out. Well, the one classic rock station in my area farms out morning drive time to Bob & Tom who I can’t stand and the other Pop station is Pop. It isn’t till I’m half way to work I can pick up Bay Area stations and by then I’m on my ipod and have forgotten about anything but the tunes I am listening to.

    Oh NPR, why aren’t you the good librul station you once were?

  41. 41.

    El Caganer

    @muddy: Cherries are good – I drink a cup of celery-seed tea every day, and haven’t had an attack since I started.

    Pet issue: approval voting. It’s not very high on everybody’s list, given our other problems, but it’s non-partisan and improves democracy.
    http://www.electology.org/approval-voting

    And we might need another thread on the health benefits of 100 anal constrictions per day.

  42. 42.

    jibeaux

    @jl: I want a petition to force Trader Joe’s to carry sufficient Candy Cane Jo-Jo’s to last the holiday season without selling out.

  46. 46.

    Comrade Mary

    Anyway, the mobile version of the site has been a horror show on my iPhone for ages. The first post never showed properly unless the dropdown menu was in place: otherwise, the title and the first bit of text were eaten by the banner. When I tried turning off the mobile theme to get the desktop version, then cleared the cache and cookies to get mobile again, I got an unpredictable mixture of the two versions for days.

    But at some time over Christmas, I noticed that mobile was back consistently with no display errors. It’s a Christmas miracle! Thanks, Santa Claus!

  48. 48.

    askew

    @Comrade Mary:

    And I knew a TWoP recapper / board admin who often covered The West Wing. You know, the “dictatorial leader who wore a muu-muu and chain-Parliaments” aka “Nurse Ratched” socially. She was actually a very nice person who was fascinated and horrified by the attention Sorkin paid to recaps and the board.

    She may be a nice person in real life, but Sorkin nailed her online personality perfectly. Miss Ali (only 1 L damnit) policed her forums and ripped people apart for the slightest grammatical error or for disagreeing with her viewpoint. She’s pretty infamous online for her over-the-top moderating.

  54. 54.

    Rosalita

    @jibeaux:

    @jl: I want a petition to force Trader Joe’s to carry sufficient Candy Cane Jo-Jo’s to last the holiday season without selling out.

    ditto the dark chocolate covered pretzels. I know they are a year-round delicacy, buy the shelf was bare last week, bare I tell you!

  56. 56.

    Roger Moore

    @jl:

    I am deeply concerned about the decline of peppermint ice cream.

    Make your own damn ice cream, you loser. I’m sure TaMara will be happy to provide some recipes if you bring it up. That or you can find a good artisanal ice cream maker in your neighborhood and get them to make your favorite flavor.

  60. 60.

    Comrade Mary

    @askew:

    1) Not Miss Alli, who is Linda Holmes, a different real person who now works for NPR and is active, in a much more low-key way, on at least one other large board. She’s a good contributor to have around.

    2) The TWoP style of moderating was what it was. I’ve been on lightly moderated and heavily moderated boards, and the most highly trafficked boards have also been the most heavily moderated out of sheer self-defense. I have also seen a lot of bad moderator decisions on these boards, but I expect this as part of the experience of a larger board that is being managed by fallible humans.

  61. 61.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin):

    Despite the hatred for UN agencies among the US right wing, especially the Neoconservatives, UNICEF is among the main drivers of increased female education and literacy in Afghanistan, and deserves our support

    There you go. Agenda 21 is about stomping out the “barefoot on a tether between kitchen and the bedroom” meme, which is why it so enrages the wingtards.

  62. 62.

    Haydnseek

    @El Caganer:
    I once practiced anal constriction
    I carried it off without friction
    And it came to pass, when
    Talking out of my ass
    It had certainly improved my diction!

  64. 64.

    El Caganer

    @Raven: Not sure what your beef is, at least from today’s posts over there. I know he’s kind of squirrely about gun issues, but I think his Middle Eastern stuff is informative. Not arguing with you, just puzzled.

  66. 66.

    JasonF

    Wacky conspiracy theory: John Boehner is not going to have enough votes in his caucus to retain the Speakership. The Republicans in the House will be unable or unwilling to unite behind a single candidate. Rep. Boehner will be forced cut some sort of deal with Rep. Pelosi and the Democrats — they support his speakership in exchange for some significant minority rights.

  67. 67.

    askew

    @Comrade Mary:

    It wasn’t Miss Alli Sorkin was commenting on? Well, that makes me like that episode less then. He had Miss Alli down perfectly. She was one of the people who really helped wreck TwoP. There’s a difference between good moderating and what she was doing.

  69. 69.

    ? Martin

    @jibeaux: This is what basements and attics were invented for. Stock up. Ms Martin reliably hoards enough to last us through to Halloween. The key is keeping them from the children, who are incapable of sufficiently appreciating the finer things in life – like gin.

  70. 70.

    ? Martin

    @jibeaux: This is what basements and attics were invented for. Stock up. Ms Martin reliably hoards enough to last us through to Halloween. The key is keeping them from the children, who are incapable of sufficiently appreciating the finer things in life – like gin.

  71. 71.

    Arm The Homeless

    So, Android users. I picked up a Nexus 7 this week, and while I have found many of the “essential apps” like Evernote and WeatherBug, along with a a decent comic reader, I feel as though I am missing out on some seriously life-altering software. Most importantly, I am looking for suggestions on making my own DIY cookbook, any suggestions other than learning how to make Evernote sing?

    Also too, found out that I am pre-hypertension, which means that the New Years resolution will mean no more smoking and much less time reading wingnut blogs. Boo!

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @BGK:

    I’m sorry, but my Maine Coon mix beats your Scottish Fold.

    Or, more likely, pins him down and gives him a bath before curling up next to him for a cozy nap. Keaton’s a lover, not a fighter.

  78. 78.

    redshirt

    @Roger Moore: Fuck Latvia man. The MSM won’t report it of course, but you should know the entire country of “Latvia” is a fiction, and it’s really the personal fiefdom of one Viktor Von Doom. You’re not Pro-Doom, are you?

  79. 79.

    Another Halocene Human

    Pet issue? Okay, raise the national minimum wage and include a requirement for sick days. Not FMLA–immediate use, paid, no questions asked.

    This is really important in the service industries which are under or non unionized.

    Oh, and find a way to encourage state boards of health to be more aggressive about inspection and shut down, like Massachusetts or New York City, but without introducing perverse incentives. Maybe reward states for expanding their programs? (Even Mass needs more inspectors, especially for the seafood wholesale side.) Provide something ‘baggers really want, like road maintenance money, but only to the extent they increase their funding of retail and commercial food inspection with outcome-based metrics. Meh, somebody would fuck that up.

    Okay, just stick with upgrading the FLSA. Oh, and make it apply to commercial drivers, also, too.

    And reverse that bushit about making professional non-supervisors “supervisors” and letting scumbags 1099 off their full-time employees!

    AND REQUIRE PIECEWORK PAY TO MEET OR EXCEED MIN WAGE STANDARDS!

  85. 85.

    BGK

    @Rosalita:

    well, does yours do the Buddha as good as mine does the Buddha?

    Only when he’s grooming, and he refuses to be photgraphed in that position.

  87. 87.

    Ash Can

    Does anal constriction allow the practitioner to fart in three-part harmony? How come no front-pager has ever tackled that important issue, huh??

  93. 93.

    FormerSwingVoter

    @4tehlulz: CNN is reporting that the White House will be offering a proposal later today, but hasn’t yet. So it seems more like “Scott Brown really jumped the gun” as opposed to “Scott Brown is a complete moron”.

    Supposedly the new deal is:
    Bush tax cuts expire for $250k+, made permanent for less – Yay!
    Current estate taxes extended or made permanent – BOO!
    Extended unemployment benefits for 2013 – Yay!

  98. 98.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @Roger Moore:

    find a good artisanal ice cream maker in your neighborhood and get them to make your favorite flavor.

    I tried that but every time I ask for a double swirl of wingnut tears and firebagger impotent rage they look at me real funny and then start whispering amongst themselves. I must be doing it wrong.

  99. 99.

    Another Halocene Human

    @BethanyAnne: I posted that story here, as did others. It is lulzy as fuck. I think the CT shooting overwhelmed it. Every detail of this story is chock full of primo lulz, IMO.

  101. 101.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Since this seems to be the spot for the airing of grievances, here’s an odd anomaly I’ve noticed with the mobile site. If you hit publish and stay on the page, you get an error message but your comment does actually post.

    Yes, I noticed this as well. Don’t care. I can’t open a new window with my particular build of android/dolphin.

    Also, I like the page summaries on home page of the mobile site, but clicking on links is fucked up and sometimes the top of the page gets eaten (page elements on top of each other). Not sure what the issue is except that the CSS masters didn’t test it on my phone, lol.

  102. 102.

    MCA1

    Not a complaint, but I have a query for y’all, one that requires skill in conversational wingnut (in this case, spoken by one who tries to hide it in their best Broderish accent):

    In a discussion about the fiscal cliff with a relative on Christmas Eve, I was very much enjoying how they were squirming around while I described how much the President has Boehner by the nuts and doesn’t have much incentive to let go. We moved on to the actual proposals that have been tabled, and of course my conversation partner put out there some false equivalency line re: the extremism of both party’s positions. When I stated that the President’s offered about $1.5 Trillion in budget cuts to go along with an approximately equal amount of revenue raising, I was given this paraphrased line: “Yeah, well, it’s easy to say ‘We’ll cut expenditures by 10% after you’ve already said they’re going up 100%.'”

    I’ve heard variants of this before, including from one person who should know better telling me that the new “baseline” federal budget included all the 2009 stimulus spending in perpetuity, or somesuch.

    As we all know here, the primary driving factors of the federal budget deficit over the last several years have been (i) Iraq; (ii) Afghanistan; (iii) the Bush tax cuts; and (iv) the economic downturn. So far as I recall, the deficit has actually shrunk every year during the Obama Presidency.

    So, my questions are, first, where did this “raising spending by 100% and then decreasing it by 10% isn’t reducing spending” meme come from; and, second, how do I push back on it properly? Other than, of course, “That’s ridiculous – show me where the President or Democrats have doubled the federal budget and/or the annual deficit in the last four years.”

  104. 104.

    Yutsano

    @FormerSwingVoter: Boehner hasn’t even recalled the House yet. Obama knows this, so he’s just stabbing the knife a touch bit deeper. I just don’t see how Johnnie Boy keeps his Speakership after all this.

  106. 106.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @BGK:

    Well, only one is a Maine Coon, but I also have a pair.

    There’s also Annie, our midget Maine Coon. She barely weighs 8 pounds soaking wet, but she has the classic look.

  107. 107.

    Seanly

    @kindness:

    Bob & Tom is pretty dreadful. About as funny as a trainwreck. It’s also chock full of ads. I have a 10 to 15 minute drive and I usually hear at least a solid 5 minutes of commercials.

    Radio stinks. I think I will begin writing to the front pagers asking that they please improve FM in my backwater burg.

  108. 108.

    debbie

    @jl:

    The only kind of peppermint ice cream I see anymore is the kind with candy bits in it. Yuck!

    What I want to come back is the stuff Baskin-Robbins sold when I was a kid: peppermint fudge ribbon. Thick swirls of dark chocolate running throught peppermint (no chewy bits) ice cream.

  111. 111.

    kindness

    @Seanly: That’s the spirit!

    So, who is doing what for New Year’s Eve? I’m going to Furthur at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.

  112. 112.

    James E Powell

    @MCA1:

    Maybe your relations are more reasonable than mine, but I have never had any success with pushing back against the fact-free true believers. Lately I just ask, “the sources you rely on have been wrong about everything else, why do you think they are right about this?”

  113. 113.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Arm The Homeless: Get Tasker, it’s got a steep learning curve; but well worth the effort. It’s an automation program, every android should have it.

    I rooted my phone last night, not sure now why I waited to do that.

  114. 114.

    Arm The Homeless

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Funny you mention that. Someone on another board I comment on recommended Paprika as well. My only issue with it, compared with something like Evernote, is that I have a couple hundred recipes which are in books, most of which I haven’t found online. Do you know whether Paprika has a was to import something from a cookbook without having to manually type all that info into the app?

  115. 115.

    Schlemizel

    I know one thing colloidal silver will cure – anonymity! I did volunteer work as a kid in what was then known as the “poor farm” it was nursing home care for the indigent.

    One on the nice ladies I helped regularly had been taking CS for a period of time in the belief it would fix something (I forget what). It didn’t cure anything but it did turn her a lovely shade of blue – permanently! I could not take the dear any place without attracting attention.

    Behind her back staff called her Smurffette

  116. 116.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Comrade Mary: Overmoderation can kill a board, though. Depends on the purpose.

    JMS was actually pretty canny in how he used Usenet. There were two B5 discussion groups, one unmoderated and one moderated. The moderation was to remove anything that might be considered a story idea (or even plot suggestion) to avoid running afoul of WG rules. JMS only read the moderated board. So you could say whatever the f*ck you wanted, but if you wanted JMS to see it you had to conform to moderated board rules.

    There’s a topic I’m very interested in where there are three major boards. One considers itself the Grey Lady. It has a history of being moderated TO DEATH. While it is one of the few boards where industry insiders post, in general, it lacks vitality. The ironic thing is that while the mods go over the top overreacting over certain topics they’ve banned (for usually overreacty reasons… like when they unbanned a certain topic and….. nothing happened) and changing thread names and moving and merging threads as if they have OCD, they also let REAL, ACTUAL TROLLS utterly destroy comment threads, like the guy who insisted that mentally ill people just need to harden up. (Not only did the other posters find this offensive, it was completely off topic.) They also let fanboys badger industry people. The board turns into a few regulars (mostly all retired, they have all the time on their hands) creating giant threads of speculation. There are a few worthwhile threads that the mods keep on an even keel, but otherwise, the forums are either deserts or trollified.

    The other forum I spend a lot of time on is much more freewheeling and loose about thread rules. While sometimes stuff happens that would result in locks and ban warnings on the other forum, people tend to sort it out. I haven’t seen any massive trolling and I would assume the site mods are weeding that out. Importantly, I haven’t see posters starting personal shit with other posters, or using a thread to do so indirectly. Newbies are not smashed to bits, discussion is more lively. There are topics that I’m interested in that never get discussed at all in the other forum that get raised a lot in the more relaxed one.

    The first forum has its regulars. But as they move on and leave, what will that site have? It’s hostile to newbies and there are more welcoming alternatives.

  117. 117.

    Roger Moore

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ:

    I tried that but every time I ask for a double swirl of wingnut tears and firebagger impotent rage they look at me real funny and then start whispering amongst themselves. I must be doing it wrong.

    I think you’re probably going to have to provide any really off-the-wall ingredients yourself, since the ice cream maker may not know how to get them. If you give them a nice vial of wingnut tears and a bottle of firebagger impotent rage, I’m sure they’ll be glad to include them in your custom order.

  120. 120.

    LanceThruster

    My guess is that the untold story of 2012 is that the Mayans were right. The end of the world prediction was probably actually the beginning of the end, and when it gets more dire, we’ll be able to trace it back to that point.

    There are plenty of disasters looming based on humanity’s hubris, but for some strange reason, the one I expect to come back and bite us in the ass is the former Soviet Union dumping vast quantities of 55 gal drums of nuclear waste into the North Sea. IIRC, they also ditched a nuclear sub or two there. The North Sea is one of the most fertile ocean zones, and if it is killed off from leaking radioactive toxins, will turn most of the world’s oceans into a stagnant toilet bowl.

    So long, and thanks for all the fish.

    Game over.

  121. 121.

    Another Halocene Human

    @FormerSwingVoter: estate tax? ugh. kick the can down the road, eh?

    kills me how these goons have convinced poor people that the estate tax will affect them. rrrrrrgh.

  122. 122.

    Arm The Homeless

    @Another Halocene Human: Someone compared it to Waking Life and found it lacking? That’s pretty harsh considering WL was able to shoe-horn Alex Jones into it.

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Thanks for the heads up. I will look into this app and see if it fills any of my needs. I had initially thought rooting as a no-brainer, but now that I have the N7 in my hands, I am trying to figure out what it doesn’t do that rooting would solve. I keep hearing that a root’d N7 gets better battery life, but atm I am getting about 8 hours of stand-by/use, should I really expect to get much better than that?

  124. 124.

    Brachiator

    @LanceThruster:

    My guess is that the untold story of 2012 is that the Mayans were right. The end of the world prediction was probably actually the beginning of the end, and when it gets more dire, we’ll be able to trace it back to that point.

    Yes, the Maya were right. Whenever anyone interviews actual Maya, they say that their calendar never predicted the end of the world.

    Awkward.

    @MCA1:

    So, my questions are, first, where did this “raising spending by 100% and then decreasing it by 10% isn’t reducing spending” meme come from; and, second, how do I push back on it properly?

    Try Ezra Klein’s blog site. There is a great section there called 2012: The Year in Graphs.

    One set of charts shows how much the wars in Iraq and Aghanistan, starting in the Bush years, contributed to the deficit.

    A lot of good information here, clearly displayed visually. Not too many words, which tends to confuse wingnuts.

  125. 125.

    Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)

    AGYRIA

    My error. It is silver accumulation, but it generally happens when it is used as a food, rather than medicine.

  127. 127.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin): ?

    There’s a lady online, used to have a website all about how she turned a cadaverous gray after using silver nasal spray as a teenager. It was prescribed by a doctor, one who hadn’t really kept up. She said in retrospect it was probably her parents’ smoking that caused her respiratory problems. Anyway, Ag is a disinfectant. And can get taken up and deposited in your skin. Some people get microdermabrasion to reduce the appearance with mixed results.

    Plenty of the people selling colloidial silver online have turned blue, including a US Congressman.

  128. 128.

    LanceThruster

    @Brachiator:

    Yes, the Maya were right. Whenever anyone interviews actual Maya, they say that their calendar never predicted the end of the world.

    Well sure, if you want to get technical.

    I told you it was an untold story.

  129. 129.

    Another Halocene Human

    @MCA1: Psychologists tell us ridicule is the only way to persuade a convinced person. Facts only serve to harden their position.

    So laughing about how they think a little bit of stimulus makes a dent in the face of two unpaidfor wars and the biggest Depression since the Great One might be more effective than whining about what Obama really did. Because lalala they’re not listening.

    Or just ridicule their favorite news sources. “Oh, I’m sure the big banks and the energy extraction industry don’t want taxes on them to go up–they’re too happy having US send our tax money to THEM every year. I know I don’t believe everything I hear on the Big Business Propaganda Channels.”

  130. 130.

    Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)

    How much saccharine did they feed rats to enable cancer?

    I’m not good at math, but by my calculations it would take 8 and 1/2 years to reach the minimum amount of retained silver to turn blue if the CS was 20 PPM and you drank a quart a day…..every single day. Take a few days off and you pretty much start over?

    Worst case Data: 94% elimination of silver from “silver compounds” every 48 hours.
    3 grams minimum total retention. [per 100 pounds of body weight?]
    Minimums vary between 3 and 8 grams from study to study.
    ..and no indication of incidence of those who vastly exceeded the minimum that also turned blue. [No known maximum..the majority who didn’t go Smurf at any dose rates weren’t counted]

    http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg90895.html

  131. 131.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Arm The Homeless: It might, depends on whether you change the rom as well as root. Root with stock rom probably won’t make much of a difference. With my phone I was able to put a different rom on it with cool stuff and get rid of the Verizon/Sammy bloat apps.

  134. 134.

    Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    You do realize that you’re trying to argue that something that has actually happened in real life is impossible and couldn’t happen, right?

    `I know what you’re thinking about,’ said Tweedledum: `but it isn’t so, nohow.’

    `Contrariwise,’ continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.’

  135. 135.

    onlymike

    Hi guys

    I think I’m posting in a dying thread but I wanted to let everyone know that I have called the VA. I spoke to the gentleman who answered for a while – actually told him more about my problems than I have anyone – even my past therapist. It may have been easier because he was just a voice on the phone – I’m not sure. He put in a consult for me and I’m awaiting a call back. So, kind of in limbo for the moment but relieved to have made the call.

    It’s funny. I’ve been putting it off and putting it off and was still putting it off – I was going to do it later this afternoon – and then I just did it! Almost like it was on impulse. I don’t understand it but again, I’m glad that step has been taken.

    Also, re the actual topic of the thread – I’d like to see a front pager (or two or three) talk about the lawsuit that Michael Mann has filed against the National Review. That would seem like something you guys could really sink your teeth into. Especially the scientifically gifted among you (which definitely doesn’t iclude me which is why I want your take on it.) If this has been covered and I’ve missed it can someone direct me to it (I read Balloon Juice daily but I do miss some stuff and I’ve been pretty preoccupied lately.)

    Thanks again to everyone in the Balloon Juice community. I appreciate you more than you can know.

  136. 136.

    Soonergrunt

    @onlymike: I’m glad you’re taking care of business, Brother. Remember that we (the VA, AND your Brother and Sister Vets) are ALWAYS there for you.

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