Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

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Reader Interactions

117Comments

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    I think he’s right about how devices can help us deflect the sadness that we need to occasionally experience. But so can lots of other things that have been around a lot longer — books, television, booze, drugs, etc.

    Still, he’s got a point that there’s something more all-pervasive about a pocket-sized portal to a virtual universe that is always on. I have a 15-year-old who has been wired since birth. I didn’t get her a smartphone until a few years ago, but she can’t conceive of unconnected life.

    Of course, earlier generations were told that television was going to rot their brains, and then their kids were invited to imagine existence with only three TV channels and no VCR/DVD.

    Did the cultural changes wrought by the pre-Internet mass media explosion affect people and societies in profound ways? I’d say yes. This is just another step along that continuum.

  7. 7.

    Betty Cracker

    @PsiFighter37: I’m finally downloading it now. I made the aforementioned teen serve as guinea pig, and since it didn’t blow up her phone, I took the plunge. About an hour ago, it told me it would take 10 minutes. Lying liars.

  9. 9.

    Jewish Steel

    Yesterday in politics: The stripper who ran against Schwarzenegger for governor was appearing at the joint that is the only real industry, apart from farming, in my wife’s hometown. Also, a couple with whom I do business told me a heartwarming story about Barry Goldwater. Ick.

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    @MikeJ:
    Crap. We lost our most important player against Swansea on Monday — Coutinho. The side does worse without him than without Suarez.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    @PsiFighter37: Finally got it up and running. I mostly like it! The calendar (which I use extensively) seems more intuitive and easier to read at a glance.

    The one thing I’ve found so far that I really don’t like is the new text messaging color scheme. Wasn’t it definitely established ages ago that white text on a dark background results in poor readability? Or maybe that axiom was overturned and I didn’t get the memo?

  15. 15.

    Michael Bersin

    President Obama spoke on the economy, jobs, and jabbed republicans in Congress yesterday in his speech at the Ford stamping plant in Liberty/Claycomo (Kansas City metro area):

    “…And this is important: Raising the debt ceiling is not the same as approving more spending, any more than making your monthly payment adds to the total cost of your truck. You don’t say, well, I’m not going to pay my bill, my note for my truck because I’m going to save money. No, you’re not saving money. You already bought the truck, right? (Laughter.) You have to pay the bills. You’re not saving money. You might have decided at the front end not to buy the truck, but once you’ve bought the truck you can’t say you’re saving money just by not paying the bills. Does that make sense? (Applause.)

    So raising the debt ceiling, it doesn’t cost a dime. It does not add a penny to our deficits. All it says is you’ve got to pay for what Congress already said we’re spending money on. If you don’t do it, we could have another financial crisis.

    And the fact is — I know a lot of people are concerned about deficits — our deficits are now coming down so quickly that by the end of this year we will have cut them in more than half since I took office. (Applause.) Cut deficits in half.

    So I just want to break this down one more time. I go into a Ford dealership. I drive off with a new F-150. Unless I paid cash, I’ve still got to pay for it each month. I can’t just say, you know, I’m not going to make my car payment this month. That’s what Congress is threatening to do — just saying, I’m not going to pay the bills.

    There are consequences to that. The bill collector starts calling you, right? Your credit goes south, and you’ve got all kinds of problems. Same is true for a country.

    So if we don’t raise the debt ceiling, we’re dead beats. “If we fail to increase the debt limit, we would send our economy into a tailspin” — that’s a quote, by the way, what I just said. You know who said it? The Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner…”

    Photos: President Obama in Kansas City – September 20, 2013 – photos – part 2

  22. 22.

    WereBear

    I don’t know who brought up nail fungus, but fer the lova mercy, would someone stop?!?!?

    That pic gives me the dry heaves. I preferred the Pamela Anderson one with three arms.

    Good times, good times.

  24. 24.

    WereBear

    @Betty Cracker: Did the cultural changes wrought by the pre-Internet mass media explosion affect people and societies in profound ways? I’d say yes.

    I’d say “hell yes.” I consider it the Second Coming of Guttenberg: Electric Boogaloo.

  25. 25.

    Not Adding Much To The Community

    @WereBear: Are you talking about advertisements or something? Adblock is your friend, homie. It tells me it’s blocked 10 of ’em on this page but I am blissfully unaware.

  30. 30.

    Captain Comrade

    My dog has whiskers, and ears. The whiskers are for feeling, and the ears are for hearing. Therefore, my dog is smarter than Sean Hannity. But Sean Hannity is smarter than the people who are duly screened to call into his show and make it on the radio. This is an increasingly small pool of people.

  31. 31.

    pamelabrown53

    It’s funny to live in a country where many have to be connected at every moment. As an introvert, I relish the time when I’m disconnected. Which may explain the only time I REALLY experience annoyance is when I’m walking on the beach, reveling in the moment and spy another walker glued to his/her cell phone. I think to myself: “Why are you even here”?

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    I really liked Louis CK’s comments.

    We need solitude and sadness to be better humans, I really think so, and it doesn’t serve us that well to be able to constantly divert our attention to an electronic device.

    Homer Hickam (October Sky; Rocket Boys) made some great points about how unstructured time is necessary for creative thinking and inventing.

    I worry about giving kids (and others) too much of an attention suck.

    TV has not given us better politics. You could make a case that it’s dumbed us down a lot, the visual superseding what’s more complicated and needs more thought and focus.

  33. 33.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Yes indeed.

    And while I’ll agree that texting while driving is suicidally idiotic, I think the smartphone backlash is also Gen X finding its way to be fogeys about something, now that we’re old enough (of course the Boomers complain about smartphones too, but it isn’t the first round of technology-dissing for that generation, coughcough analog warmth coughcough)

    I don’t remember a time when everyone walking along the street looked one another in the eye and cheerfully greeted them. Didn’t happen.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @pamelabrown53:

    I like to be connected to information at every moment — it’s really cool that I can hold a tiny computer in my hand and find out the name of that guy who was in that thing a few years ago.

    I don’t necessarily have to be connected to people at all times, though. I love texting because I can compose my thought and not have to try to listen at the same time. (It doesn’t help that my hearing is not great, especially on a cell phone.)

  35. 35.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Elizabelle:

    I’m guessing that you were not one of the kids who had a book in their pocket or bag at all times so you could read during any downtime. One of the amazing things about my smartphone is that I have a bunch of books literally at my fingertips and don’t have to figure out how to carry them with me.

  37. 37.

    Elizabelle

    @Xecky Gilchrist:

    Yeah, but:

    Was visiting a fantastic hostel in Cambria, CA (near San Simeon). Owner was surveying the guests in her living room and telling me “I know they need it, but sometimes I really feel like taking the wifi out. They used to talk to each other.”

    It was true. Everyone else was glued to a phone or laptop screen.

    Travel’s about talking with others and exchanging, face to face. What happens if that skill deteriorates slightly, from disuse, and people get more self-conscious about interacting with others?

    (Interesting article from The Guardian about a guy who took a bus across the Andes, and how some of his fellow travelers were glued to their screens. Of course, he likely did all his planning and writing on electronics too.)

    Just saying “don’t miss the moment.”

  38. 38.

    geg6

    @Xecky Gilchrist:

    There is nothing you’ve written here with which I disagree.

    I spend all day at work interacting with students and parents. As an introvert, it can be exhausting. I looooooooooove being alone and being quiet. Reading (however I’m doing it) is my lifesaver.

  40. 40.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @Elizabelle: What happens if that skill deteriorates slightly, from disuse, and people get more self-conscious about interacting with others?

    That slope is mighty slippery, for sure.

    ETA: that came out ruder than I meant. Just saying I don’t think this bubbledness is anything new, just the devices we use for it.

  43. 43.

    RobertDSC-PowerMac G5 Dual

    I finished installing Leopard 10.5.8 on this Mac. I’ve decided to try it once in a while but I had to start fresh and customize it to my own preferences, so I used a spare drive from a dead iMac. I hate the RAM usage and the pink/gray UI overtones, but it’s nice using *some* updated features.

    Still love my Tiger 10.4.11 though. That’s home.

    In order to use an iPhone 5s/5c, I’ll have to do one of two things: either get VirtualPC to run Windows XP or buy an Intel Mac. I honestly don’t want any more machines, but since the 5s/5c will be my next phone I’m grudgingly preparing the way. Bleh.

    PS: I hate the flat colors of iOS 7.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Elizabelle:

    See, there’s a B&B that we stay at in Santa Barbara that I love except for the fact that you’re forced to interact with the other guests at breakfast. I HATE talking to strangers and always feel incredibly awkward.

    So, again, my suspicion is that you’re an extrovert who likes interacting with people and genuinely doesn’t get that many of us find it to be awkward and exhausting to try and make conversation with people we don’t know.

    And I used to carry books with me so I could read them and not be forced to talk to bored people in line with me. Now I can read books on my smartphone for the same reason.

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    @khead:

    Yeah, I get antsy if I don’t have some type of reading material along. Because then it’s a choice of whether to interact or observe or to read.

    But I get what Louis is saying about having to face the sadness or tinge of anxiety and examine or experience it, rather than diving into something else. Although learning new things is great, too.

    A friend has a teenage son who seems incapable of entertaining himself, and that seems like a red flag to me.

  47. 47.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Wanted to give you an update on the rosacea antibiotic therapy. It was hell for the first week, as I posted here. The second week was better, then I went off it. I worried my mood might be affected by going off it, but the only symptom seemed to be some crankiness. None of the scary depression stuff.

    As for my skin, it definitely has improved. The underlying redness is gone. It’s a little hard to tell exactly how much because right when I went off the medication I started a period of time where I was outside a lot and despite wearing a hat and sunscreen I got more sun than usual, so it’s not really a fair comparison to how it was before. However, after a month or so of being off the medication, despite the sun exposure, family and friends are telling me it’s still much better than it was before I took the antibiotics.

    The smaller pimples around my nose never completely went away and after I came off the medication they flared up noticeably. Over the last month they have calmed down quite a bit. Makes me think the gut relationship to the redness and the pimples is not the same thing.

    Overall, despite the tough emotional response I had, I’d definitely recommend taking it to others who have rosacea. It’s worth a try. According to the insert, only 7% of people have depression as a side effect, so it’s not very common. Another person might not have that response at all–depends on your gut flora I think.

  48. 48.

    pamelabrown53

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Oh. I’m not saying you’re WRONG, I’m saying that FOR ME , I can’t grok that some people can’t watch the sunrise or sunset on the beach, stand on a mountaintop, happen upon a hummingbird in a filed of wildflowers…alone, undistracted and in the moment.

    P.S. I’m a film buff and am enjoying your discussion on precode movies.

  51. 51.

    Elizabelle

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    Those are excellent points. And I apologize if I came off as judgmental, because it’s never one size fits all.

    Am kind of an extroverted loner, if that’s not a contradiction in terms, and do get a lot of alone time each day.

    I totally get what geg (?) was saying about being around others all day and needing to get away.

    But I worry about seeing so many people who aren’t seeing each other.

    (PS: I also have a whacking case of ADD, if you had not noticed or were too kind to mention.)

  52. 52.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): you’re forced to interact with the other guests at breakfast. I HATE talking to strangers and always feel incredibly awkward.

    Dear god, especially at breakfast.

    I’m constantly amazed at how many people think reading (in public) is something you only do because you have no one to talk to. Granted, I’ve been interrupted by some charming and quirky people, but a lot more by bores and jackasses. I think it was Mitch Hedberg who had the routine about the waffle house waitress, “Watcha readin’ for?” that really rings true.

  53. 53.

    cathyx

    @WereBear: Every question on that test is a leading question. I already know how I would have to answer to know if I want to be labeled a sensitive or not. And the subjectiveness of each question is also ridiculous. Hardly scientific.

  55. 55.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I just clicked on article at Salon inspired by Taylor Swift, about bands/musicians we all hate, of course, but who are talented and deserve to be taken seriously. Along with the Monkees, Flock of Seagulls and Toby Keith, apparently “we all” hate Mellencamp and.. Bonnie Raitt. Apparently the hip younglings thjink “I Can’t Make You Love Me” is the only song she ever recorded.

    There’s also a glancing reference to Fleetwood Mac, so I’m guessing this is someone who thinks FM is Stevie Nicks’ back up band.

  56. 56.

    WereBear

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m constantly amazed at how many people think reading (in public) is something you only do because you have no one to talk to.

    It is a last ditch activity for them. They need the ability to understand the world is not composed of their own clones.

  57. 57.

    WereBear

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Makes sense; we all have varying abilities to both handle input AND concentrate. It also depends on the environment and the task.

    Between my chaotic adolescence and a youthful bout as a coder, I learned how to shrink my world to the space between my head and my screen. This gives me a tolerance for household… disarray… that drives Mr WereBear round the bed sometimes.

  58. 58.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @cathyx:

    If I can smell that our custodian at work is using a new cleaning product but no one else notices the difference, am I only pretending that I smell something different than they do? After all, smell is extremely subjective.

  59. 59.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @WereBear: They need the ability to understand the world is not composed of their own clones.

    Yes, this. It’s a thing everyone does to some extent, but the not-understanding-introverts is one that’s unusually socially acceptable to comment on.

    Not sure how to put it to make it clearer for them – maybe “introverts aren’t just extroverts who haven’t met the right girl?”

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Violet:

    Interesting! I’m actually going the opposite way and playing with probiotics because my IBS was acting up while it was super hot here. Just a little bit of yogurt with live and active cultures every day has already helped.

  63. 63.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I’m highly sensitive to smells. And don’t get me started on fluorescent light flickering. Been bothering me since I was in high school. Yes, I can tell if a light is fluorescent. I can see the flickering and it’s very bothersome to my eyes, and probably my brain as well.

    Another thing that’s terrible for people who are sensitive to their environment is working in a cubicle. I can’t wear headphones and be very productive because music is distracting to me–always has been. I struggle to concentrate and tend to hear only the music. I always studied in the library in college to get away from the music. Even white noise is tough for me. Cubicle working is a nightmare. I can’t concentrate.

  64. 64.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @raven:

    My dad was like that — he could talk to anyone for 20 minutes and get their whole life story. I really can’t — I just stand there feeling awkward and wondering how I can walk away without looking too rude.

  67. 67.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I know you mentioned that you’re lactose intolerant in the thread last night. From what I’ve read, lactose intolerance is a strong sign of leaky gut, although there are some folks who have a genetic issue with lactose (Ashkenazi Jews, for instance). Since you have IBS, you may actually have a leaky gut–a lot of people seem to have “cured” their IBS by curing their leaky gut.

    As for probiotics, I took them daily for a long time and then upped my intake of fermented foods (kefir, sauerkraut, etc.), and while initially I could tell my gut had to adjust (rumbly tummy, but no pain), it didn’t cure my rosacea. The rifaximin did cure the underlying redness and now I’m rebuilding my gut flora with probiotics and fermented foods. That takes awhile, so I’m increasing it slowing.

    Glad you are having success with them. I think we used to have many more forms off bacteria in our gut that we do now and anything you can do to improve that can have other health benefits. Have you looked into prebiotics–that’s going to be the next thing. They are the precursor to probiotics and are what your gut uses to create and increase the bacteria.

  68. 68.

    raven

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): They key is to find some commonality and expand on it. I met a couple briefly last night at the joint across the street. This morning they were at my coffee joint I and learned that she was a PhD student with an emphasis on salmon! Whoo hooo!

  70. 70.

    raven

    @khead: One of the things I uncovered when I went into therapy when I quit drinking was that I drank to slow down so I could be with people.

  72. 72.

    WereBear

    From my mother, I inherited the “tell me your deepest darkest secrets” face.

    It’s a bit disconcerting, but great for a writer.

    And I get the benefit of Mom’s info-dumps… people tell her the most astonishing things on very short acquaintance.

  73. 73.

    Violet

    There’s nothing wrong with being an introvert. Our society seems to think there’s something wrong with being an introvert, though. That makes being an introvert challenging.

  75. 75.

    Jockey Full of Malbec

    iOS 7 is terrible. If I’d wanted an Android or a WinMo phone, I’d have bought one. (Then again, I’m old enough to remember when skeumorphism was kind of the whole point of having a GUI).

    I was thinking of getting an HTC One when my contract is up next month, anyway.

    The new iTunes radio is pretty slick, however. Whatever ‘learning engine’ Apple uses under the hood to pick tracks for you seems superior to that in Pandora.

  76. 76.

    raven

    @Baud: I guess it could be learned if someone wanted to. I just figure it is what it is. Kinda like the redefining of ADD away from a deficit and disorder to “hunters in a farmers world”.

  77. 77.

    JPL

    @raven: haha.. Years ago I was on the Staten Island Ferry and as we went past the Statue of Liberty, a person from France started communicating with me. I certainly didn’t know what he was saying but maybe he understood me. My ex,..said wtf.. you will communicate with anyone.

    Why aren’t you in the stands cheering on your team?…

  78. 78.

    raven

    @JPL: I gave my tickets to a good buddy and his middle school daughter. My bride is on a multi-event tour, women’s party in the mountains last night, wedding this afternoon and a “white party” tonight (she bought frickin white go-go boots) so my usual rides were not available. I made enough dough on my Florida tix to have free season tickets so I don’t feel I have to go to these dog dawg games. That being said, we’re sucking it up.

  79. 79.

    Bob In Portland

    Just got a CD of Robert Parker. Maybe you remember “Barefootin'” by him. There’s a great version of “Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley”. Great New Orleans R&B.

  80. 80.

    Smiling Mortician

    So the contractor who hired the Navy Yard shooter and kept him doing classified work even though there were lots of red flags in his records has asked the Navy to hire him to improve their security so this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.

    Seriously

    My apologies if y’all have already discussed it. I haven’t been on the interwebs much the past couple of days.

  87. 87.

    Just One More Canuck

    How much do the FIU’s and FAMUs of the world get paid to send their kids out to be cannon fodder against the Louisvilles and Ohio States? What an embarrasment

  88. 88.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Xecky Gilchrist:

    I think the smartphone backlash is also Gen X finding its way to be fogeys about something… I don’t remember a time when everyone walking along the street looked one another in the eye and cheerfully greeted them. Didn’t happen.

    Bingo. I don’t know what generation Louis is from, but he was being an old fogey in that clip. Goes way back, Aristotle and Plato thought that writing itself was our downfall because true knowledge was only that that could be memorized, blah blah blah blah blah. Manuscripts were the first external storage devices and expanded our ability to think massively, and texting is a new step in how we communicate.

    The constant in all of it is what the person speaking experienced as a young person, whether 70s rock or 90s fashion or 50s television– that’s the way it should have stayed, in the minds of people on this particular rant track.

  90. 90.

    chopper

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    Yeah, it’s pretty hard for me to believe that either Louis or Conan understand what it’s like to find interacting with people to be physically and mentally exhausting. It just doesn’t cross their radar.

    you should watch more of Louis’s standup then. or his show.

  92. 92.

    Just One More Canuck

    @raven: wow – doesn’t seem nearly enough to go through that. Does the money go to the football program or does the rest of the school share in it?

  95. 95.

    Just One More Canuck

    @raven: I guess it makes sense if you’re a small school looking to build a program. What does an Ohio State gain from it other than padding their stats?

  97. 97.

    raven

    @Just One More Canuck: Oh that’s a different question. First and foremost this is about money. With the expansion to 12 games teams cannot play high quality opponents every week. I heard a coach on the radio explain that these dog games are for the players. We have had a stinky home schedule at Georgia for the last 5 years. This year is pretty good with South Carolina, LSU, Mizzou and Kentucky but we stil have NT and App State. They get so much money, both the schools and the local businesses, that the home games are crucial. To get a chance to buy season tickets at Georgia if you are just a civilian you have to give $10,000 and THEN pay for them.

  99. 99.

    Angela

    @Betty Cracker: I. Don’t like that texts are no longer time stamped. I need to know what time people text me and now that info is no longer there. Is there a way to get that back. And I am with you on the changes on the calendar

  101. 101.

    scav

    Wheel of technology hip rolls onward — time to relive the heady days of the early answering machine when all the cool kids didn’t pick up but screened their calls.

  102. 102.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Yatsuno: @raven: The university I went to up here in Canuckistan didn’t have a football program – I was never immersed in the culture. I love football as much as anyone but games like these are absurd

  110. 110.

    raven

    @Just One More Canuck: Hell, at Virginia Tech last year a game with Eastern Carolina in Charlotte was called a “home game” on the season ticket package. I think some day this bullshit will catch up with them but I don’t know when.

  111. 111.

    Suzanne

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I am just the same: totally introverted, and I hate stupid small talk with strangers. But I’m not shy or reticent at all. I love having a smartphone because I never have to stop reading. Having said that, I have to get my kid a cellphone in the next few months, and I am leaning away from getting a smartphone for her. No Facebook douchiness.

  112. 112.

    Just One More Canuck

    We sure as hell don’t have that problem up here with university football. The game on TV right now (Guelph, aka Moo U against McMaster – like anyone cares) is in a 13000 seat stadium, which is pretty large by Canadian university standards

  113. 113.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    The “cheap” car I bought in Seattle and drove back to the midwest had a bum wheel bearing, ball joint, and CV joint. $600. Drats.

  115. 115.

    rikyrah

    THIS IS CRAZY
    …………………….

    Librarian Fired for Actually Getting Kid to Read

    Eric Levenson 5,032 Views Sep 19, 2013

    A library aide has been fired for successfully doing her most basic job — getting a kid to read more. And so, too, has the library’s director, who started the reading controversy in the first place.

    Lita Casey was dismissed on Monday after working for 28 years at the Hudson Falls Free Library in upstate New York. Her offense? Defending a nine-year-old child whose voracious reading appetite and abundant (and free!) library books makes him read too much. So much, in fact, that Weaver dominates the library’s annual reading competition, having won his 5th straight reading title by absorbing 63 books in the 40 day competition.

    That should be good news, right?

    Not in the eyes of library director Marie Gandron, who said the soon-to-be fifth grader Tyler Weaver “hogs” the contest with his no-good-dirty-rotten-book-stealing reading habits. Gandron had hoped to change the structure of prizes awarded in the contest to encourage other kids to get involved in the reading contest, as “Other kids quit because they can’t keep up,” Gandron said. Instead, Gandron wanted to award prizes for the reading “contest” by picking names out of a hat. Why that would actually encourage reading, we can’t say. It’s not as if those prizes were the main reason Weaver — the self-described “the king of the reading club” — was picking up those books in the first place. All little Weaver has won in his five year reign is an atlas, a T-shirt, a water bottle and certificates of achievement. That’s nothing special.

    Casey stood up for this injustice back in late August, calling the idea of changing the prizes “ridiculous.” Well, she has since paid the price for standing up for her beliefs. “I could not believe it, and I still cannot believe it,” she said after she heard she had been let go in a phone conversation. Gandron, too, has paid the same price herself, as she was also fired from her job last week after 41 years at the library.

    http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/09/librarian-fired-actually-getting-kid-read-contest-lita-casey/69606/

  116. 116.

    BubbaDave

    @pamelabrown53:

    Maybe the only reason the walker is able to go spend a week enjoying the sandy beach is because he/she has the cell phone to handle that one 3-minute emergency that pops up Tuesday evening. For me a cell phone is incredibly liberating– it allows me to get away from the workplace or the family, specifically because I know I’m reachable if there’s a problem.

    (Also, too, what others said about books and Internet reading material.)

  117. 117.

    Laertes

    @Not Adding Much To The Community:

    Adblock is your friend, homie.

    Be aware, though, that when you run Adblock, it means the websites you visit (and presumably like) aren’t getting paid. When a website puts up an ad, what they’re saying is “Hey, I’d like to make a little money from my traffic. I got bills to pay, bandwidth isn’t cheap, and I put a lot of time and effort into this thing which my readers enjoy, so there’s nothing wrong with getting paid. But I don’t want to put up a paywall or anything.” So up go the ads, readers still get to visit for free, and the website operator gets the occasional coin in his cup.

    I used to run AdBlock. Then I learned more about how internet advertising works, and I thought about the websites that I visit and how I’d like for them to make more money, so I uninstalled the thing. The ads don’t bug me. I think of them as money flowing into the pockets of people that I like.

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