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2079. judithathome - 9/17/2014 6:52:43 PM Arky, your argument about keeping good Senators is the same one people use for keeping bad ones.
Unfortunately, not everyone agrees which one is "good" and which is "bad"...the Koch brothers have their faves and they probably aren't the same faves as you and I have. However, if people knew going in that they only had a certain amount of time to make a name for themselves, they might be spurred on to accomplish more or at the very least, accomplish SOMETHING. 2080. arkymalarky - 9/17/2014 10:59:59 PM That's beside the point. People vote in bad and good ones, whether repeatedly or not. Good ones who build experience and relationships, and even some bad ones, benefit their constituents. I don't care if McCain is reelected until he dies, but I'd greatly miss Bernie Sanders. 2081. arkymalarky - 9/17/2014 11:04:15 PM The younger Koch-backed congressmen are the worst, and their lack of experience and understanding of the system makes them even worse. The revolving door and increasing corporate control of the process is what's killing congress. Not fossils like McCain. 2082. wabbit - 9/20/2014 5:48:25 PM I have mixed feelings about term limits, but not about getting the big money out of the electoral process.
Corporations are NOT people. Money is NOT free speech.
Love Bernie Sanders. 2083. arkymalarky - 9/20/2014 6:36:57 PM Amen amen amen 2084. arkymalarky - 9/20/2014 6:45:23 PM Term limits weaken rural states like Arkansas, because the way that I can build influence, especially in the Senate, it's through seniority.
Another thing that makes me wary of term limits is seeing what it's done in Arkansas at the state level. It's very difficult to get legislators to be serious about needs of their districts, because they're going on to the next thing and trying to make connections once their term-limited out. Koch money flows like wine to these folks. It's also difficult for those serious legislators like my brother in law to build up support and long-term planning to get significant things done. They mostly play defense. 2085. Ms. No - 9/24/2014 3:41:22 PM I'm feeling the sharn and am filled with impotent rage.
That is all. 2086. iiibbb - 9/24/2014 4:45:56 PM Then empower yourself and spread the word at least fill out the form. 2087. judithathome - 9/24/2014 5:26:12 PM I have...and have bookmarked that site.
Speaking of Oliver, he did a fabulous send-up of the Miss America SCHOLARSHIP Competition... 2088. judithathome - 9/24/2014 5:43:15 PM Why worry about ISIL coming over here...we're doing a pretty good job of strangling freedom already.
Religious nuts (in charge of what books are purchased for school libraries) are banning books in schools this week; it's National Banned Book Week! This week they released a list of recently banned books and one of them is Siddhartha ...when one of the supporters of this move was asked why they chose this particular book, he cited "religious reasons".
That's right...along with Toni Morrisons book, The Bluest Eye and several other works of fiction, they have banned these books from school libraries all across the nation.
I'm sure they don't mind their kids coming home to play World of Warcraft for hours on end but God forbid (literally) they read about a man of peace who gave up everything to teach people to love one another. 2089. arkymalarky - 9/25/2014 2:45:52 AM Oh No! Better now? 2090. bhelpuri - 10/27/2014 3:26:04 PM enjoyable (if wrong) online investigation that seeks to prove the ApeofHades is actually CalGal - see here/. 2091. judithathome - 10/27/2014 9:15:43 PM Yes, I think we read all that back in 2012...I just wondered how Brietbart got away with posting Cal's private info so blatantly...but then I guess that "publication" never felt the need to play by the rules since its inception.
I find it hysterical, though, that someone called "The Watchful Avenger" has the nerve to be upset someone called AceOfSpades is using a pseudonym. 2092. arkymalarky - 10/28/2014 1:23:13 AM I dunno. dittoheads all sound alike to me. that was an anti-brietbart site. it's hard to be private and seek public attention for your online persona, whatever pseudonym you choose. I don't think his issue was with the pseudonym but with the double...an interesting irony if true. if anyone cared anymore. 2094. Ms. No - 10/28/2014 6:55:02 AM Face it. We're web-geezers. 2095. arkymalarky - 10/28/2014 6:37:28 PM yep. it's funny, but this place is totally apart from my online life (such as it is) when it was the center of it when I first really got into the internet. for a long time it was Ed advocacy and now it's pretty much room escape games. but as long as it's here, this is always where I like to kick my shoes off and chill for a few minutes. 2097. alIstaIrcOnnOr - 10/31/2014 11:15:27 AM That's a scream. Definitely a LOL. Nearly a ROFLMAO.
I bet Cal gets a share of Ace's revenues though...
There is a major blogging scandal in New Zealand which broke before the recent elections and nearly (should have) brought the government down... (I won't bore you with the details and my own connections with the story, suffice to say we lost comprehensively)
I mention this because, come to think of it, the Whaleoil blogger reminds me of Ace, same calibre, but on a NZ scale that makes him a major player. 2098. arkymalarky - 11/3/2014 3:37:03 AM Can't find it online, but this issue of Wired has an interesting little post by Clive Thompson on negativity bias and how people tend to think people who act more acerbic are smarter. Money quote: "those who were trying to seem brainy went significantly more negative than those trying to be endearing." My favorite, "knowing about negativity has made me more skeptical of highbrow punditry that defaults to dour views."
Fit with the recent convo here IMO. 2100. arkymalarky - 11/3/2014 3:39:42 AM and what I've sometimes observed here over the years. 2101. bhelpuri - 11/3/2014 8:24:27 AM Thinking back to when many of us first started online interactions via Yahoo chatrooms + The Fray boards, I think what happened to online personae via blogs and comment sections is pretty astonishing. The fact that several monikers we knew then would go on to a kind of Internet celebrity, where their online life became the main focus of daily existence - let alone their livelihood - was, I think, pretty improbable at the time. I guess IrvingSnodgrass was kind of a frontrunner of this possibility, turning his online ubiquity (from Indonesia, no less) into his livelihood and identity.
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