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Thursday Open Thread

I have a brief due and other work-related stuff. Here's an open thread for you today.

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    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#1)
    by desertswine on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 11:09:10 AM EST
    School has started. Here's something to mull over while we wonder how the hell did we get so old.
    BELOIT COLLEGE'S MINDSET LIST® FOR THE CLASS OF 2010 Members of the class of 2010, entering college this fall, were mostly born in 1988. For them: Billy Carter, Lucille Ball, Gilda Radner, Billy Martin, Andy Gibb, and Secretariat have always been dead. 1. The Soviet Union has never existed and therefore is about as scary as the student union.


    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#2)
    by Sailor on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 11:39:54 AM EST
    IAEA protests "erroneous" U.S. report on Iran
    VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. inspectors have protested to the U.S. government and a Congressional committee about a report on Iran's nuclear work, calling parts of it "outrageous and dishonest," according to a letter obtained by Reuters.
    The letter recalled clashes between the IAEA and the Bush administration before the 2003 Iraq war over findings cited by Washington about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that proved false, and underlined continued tensions over Iran's dossier.


    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#3)
    by Patrick on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 12:52:12 PM EST
    I heard your hero, Dog the Bounty Hunter is back on his way to Mexico. I hope he has a nice stay.

    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#4)
    by kdog on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 12:52:12 PM EST
    Damn d'wine, that does make me feel old. I'll always remember 1988 as the year Orel Herschiser ruined my life, beating my beloved Mets in the NLCS.

    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#5)
    by Kitt on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 05:00:04 PM EST
    I heard your hero, Dog the Bounty Hunter is back on his way to Mexico. I hope he has a nice stay
    . That was nasty, Patrick. What a guy you are. Jeralyn - My intent in this open thread was to ask you about my comments being held. Am I doing something wrong? I mean, my name & address are saved. Do you know what it is? As for Dog - our entire family, even extend, watches this dude. Even as different as they are from us, they're still more real than most ever can think to be. That's why we enjoy them.

    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#6)
    by Madison Guy on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 05:00:04 PM EST
    I've been reading Ellis Sharp's brilliant "Dead Iraqis" -- fifteen years after it was written: A reminder that, unlike "Saturday Night Live," real satire isn't bland. At its most outrageous, it can take you by the hand, spin you around till you're completely nauseous and disoriented, kick you in the gut, and then leave you gasping on the ground in the wreckage of your beliefs and assumptions.

    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 08:27:14 PM EST
    Comment by DutchFox: Here's a woman who didn't take crap from anyone. Former Governor Ann Richards of Texas died last night of esophogeal cancer at her home in Austin. I worked on her 1991 gubernatorial campaign when I lived in Houston. Amy Goodman spoke with the wonderful Sissy Farenthold about her today on Democracy Now! and highlighted Gov. Richards keynote address back in 2004 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Texas Observer in which she talked about airport security: I wasn't going to tell you this story, but because of Ronnie's speech, I think I will. All of us by our very nature want to resist from time to time. And now that Ronnie has laid down the real challenge, I think my resistance is really going to take place at the airport. For many of you who travel a great deal -- I know that Hightower and Molly do, because I see them in the airports -- the bastion of freedom now that is most in jeopardy is the freedom to be able to get on a plane without being hassled. And as we're stripping our clothes off and taking our shoes off and disrobing, so that we can keep the country safe for democracy in the hands of those people at TSA, I want to tell you of my experience in the last election. I was traveling all over the country for various candidates and for John Kerry. And as a consequence, I was going from one town to another, sort of town-hopping. And for those of you who travel a lot, you know that if you buy a one-way ticket, you are going to have a bunch of s's put across the bottom of your boarding pass, which means that you are a security risk and are required to have a body check. So I had bought a ticket that was going to get me from South Bend, Indiana to Detroit, Michigan, and then to Madison, Wisconsin. So I was doubly suspicious. And it is a given that the smaller the town, the higher the security in America. Half of the town works for the inspectors at the airport. And the reason for that, of course, is that when the pork was doled out in Homeland Security, all the little towns got all the money. So, as I say, I was leaving South Bend, Indiana on my first leg to get to Detroit, Michigan. And I had s's all over my boarding pass. And as I walked up, they said they would have to inspect my bag in front of me, which they did, and then I went through the security with my shoes and jacket and everything off. And they went through my -- they were going through my purse. They were going through my briefcase. And I had my feet very firmly planted on the little imprint of the feet that they have there on the rug. And I was ready to go with the woman with the wand giving me the inspection. And I wear a garment that is called a bodysuit. And for -- and I wear these all the time because they're easy to wear and you can wash them out and they're dry the next morning. And for you men who do not wear these garments, I need to give you the explanation that it comes over your head, through your arms and it comes down around the front and then down around the back and it has three snaps in the crotch. And so as the woman is taking the wand outlining my body, my crotch set off her wand. She was totally disturbed. She said, "I've got to get my supervisor." And I said, "Look, don't -- you know, you don't have to do that. I'll take my pants off, because I've got on a bodysuit that's got these three little metal snaps, and that's what's caused your wand to go off." She says, "No, I've got to get my supervisor," because, obviously, this is not in the manual. She brought a big officious-looking woman over who was the woman in charge. And I said, "I'm wearing a bodysuit. I've got three metal snaps in the crotch, and I've set off your assistant's wand." And she said, "I don't know how we're going to resolve this." She said, "I don't suppose you would object if we had to pat you down." I said, "You can't imagine how thrilled I am." And so, I'm with Ronnie on this. It is time for us to resist. It is time to say, "Hell, no, I won't go! I'm not going to do it anymore." May she rest in peace.

    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 08:42:50 PM EST
    Fear means not blinking an eye as you remove your belt and your shoes as you allow your carry-on to be dumped out and rifled through and your toddler to be groped and her teddy bear strip searched by some snickering security personnel. Fear means barely wincing... Fear means no longer saying hey, just what the hell is wrong with you people? Fear is a tactic. It is a calculated force, a strategic maneuver, a carefully constructed PR methodology. It is a poison in the air, a cancer in the national bloodstream, a media pastime and a cultural narcotic. And here's the biggest secret of all: Fear is a learned trait, a practiced habit. It is something you cling to and allow to fester. They are counting on it. This is all you have to do to defeat fear: You don't. That is to say, you actually do the opposite, which is to promote the positive, educate yourself, drop your tired notions of how it's all supposed to work and pump out what the ancients knew to be a radiant kind of raw ego-free love. What, too fluffy? Tough. Because only by making your world, your body, your perspective truly "in love" does anything actually change. It ain't pink hearts and fluffy bunnies and Hallmark swill. It's the most difficult and often most painful and life-altering thing you can do. It means forgoing the safe, questioning your deepest belief, peeling back the self in ways you can't even imagine until you get there and you say, oh my freaking God this is a pain in the karmic ass.
    ---edger

    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#9)
    by Sailor on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 08:57:41 PM EST
    Thanks Ann, thanks Ronnie, see you in heaven. thanks Dutch Fox, thanks TL. Next time someone in comments asks what rights have we lost? Let's all link to this one.

    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 09:03:16 PM EST
    When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.

    --J. Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known, pp.51-52
    More... ---edger (goodnight all...)

    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 02:48:30 AM EST
    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 06:04:11 AM EST
    I always feel soiled after visiting the "FreeRepublic" but I'm curious about what the other side is up to. I've known for ages they are deluded but this page confirms how far off base they are: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1701877/posts Warning: You'll need a strong stomach.

    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 08:44:40 AM EST
    How's your memory asks the shrub.

    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 11:08:58 AM EST
    It's quite long, ninety minutes, but a ninety minute catalogue of lies, deciept, cover up and blunders. 9/11: Press For Truth. Based in part on Paul Thompson's "The Terror Timeline" it is a stunner of a documentry. It is not a bombs in buildings consiracy movie. Among a multitude of questions, I ask but one. Why are these people still in office?

    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 11:43:55 AM EST
    Iraq to dig trenches around Baghdad The security plan, known as Operation Together Forward, That's a great jingle if ever there was one. I think it's a euphemism for "Who's turn is it today"
    It comes as more than 130 people were slain in two days -- either killed in attacks or tortured and dumped in rivers or on the city's streets. "Trenches will be dug around Baghdad in the coming weeks when the third part of the Baghdad security plan is implemented," Khalaf said.


    Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 06:16:00 PM EST
    BillD After you in the shower. I don't do right wing blogs, my teeth can't take them. (much gnashing of) Irony doesn't seem to be one of their strong points.
    Statement by the founder of Free Republic: In our continuing fight for freedom, for America and our constitution and against totalitarianism, socialism, tyranny, terrorism, etc., Free Republic stands firmly on the side of right, i.e., the conservative side.