We haven’t had one of these for a while so we  might as well open it on up.  I also need a place to put up a few admin notes. 

For the past month, Anti  been operating with one hand tied behind our backs.  There was an upgrade and we could not look at more than one comment at a time behind the scenes.  If you commented and your polite comment never appeared, and if you are a newcomer or a regular posting under a  new name or email address,  try again.  We are sorry, we had software glitches.  

I went through some of the unpublished comments tonight.  You might find them buried in the middle of other comments, at the time they were posted.  Also, the blog is now set to cut  off comments on any thread, after 2 weeks.  That helps us stay on top of things better.

A newer, better wordpress upgrade is out and we can now perform tasks that we have been unable to do for the past month.   Thanks Alanna for sticking with it and coming to our rescue.

This might be a good time to revisit some of the blog rules.  First off, the H and N words having to do with Germany are still verboten.  It was getting out of hand.  Maybe some day….  I, M-H, confess to being the one who finally lost it over those 2 words. 

Ad hominem attacks on contributors or on the admins are discouraged.  That kind of discourse is counter-productive and hampers discussion.  95% of our contributors are courteous and polite, even those who strongly disagree with some or all of us.

So enough business.  Happy weekend.  I am just sitting here listening to some Bob Dylan, celebrating the blog being healed and enjoying Windows 7.  It really was the computer fix I needed.  I am not disappointed.  🙄

75 Thoughts to “Open Weekend Thread”

  1. JustinT

    I have a completely opposite image of Emma now. You’re from Pride and Prejudice, not just prejudice.

    Joke! Joke!

  2. Justin, Emma is sooo going to get you!!!

    🙄

  3. kelly3406

    @Opinion

    I appreciate your work on policy at the White House, but I am less inclined to show naive deference to the government’s judgement of constitutionality. Despite my respect for George Bush, he did sign McCain-Feingold even though he had “reservations about the constitutionality.” So Bush was no great defender of the Constitution either.

    Please do not misunderstand my position. Of course the government has the right to regulate insurance companies and drug companies in healthcare reform. But the legislation crosses the constitutional line when it requires people to purchase health insurance and offers a public option. Here are some references that discuss the issues (from my point of view):

    http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/grassley_healthcare_obama/2009/10/14/272192.html

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082103033.html

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203917304574412793406386548.html

  4. kelly3406

    Moon-howler :
    Kelly, how do we justify school desegregation? It wasn’t mentioned in the Constitution? It is all a matter of interpretation isnt it?

    As you know, school segregation was ended by Brown vs Topeka Board of Education based on the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. However, the Supreme Court had ruled nearly 60 years earlier that ‘separate but equal’ did not violate the 14th Amendment.

    This shows that rights based on Supreme Court interpretations can be tenuous at best. For example, Roe vs. Wade could be overturned or severely restricted, since there is no constitutional amendment that grants such a right.

  5. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    I’ve narrowed it down to 18 things that could be wrong with my gravatar thing, but I actually got the website right…it’s linked to wordpress.

  6. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Somebody has to allow my actual email address or I’ll spend my life in moderation (which might be an incentive not to allow me)

  7. I think you should be ok now Slow. If I had better eye sight, would we have to ban your avatar?

  8. Kelly, I don’t disagree with you as far as tenuus goes. Things do seem to ‘evolve’ I suppose to fit the times.

    On the other hand, I see all supreme court justices as being activist. They are looking at the Constitution and other rulings and making a decision or giving their opinion on that they thought someone else meant.

    What I find amazing is how much has been squeezed out of the 14th amendment.

  9. Cindy, will you keep Oscar forever or will you keep him until he is adopted out?

  10. Kelly, the reason you got hung up in moderation is because of the three links. However, not to worry, we rescued you.

  11. Emma

    Moon, too nice a day to get into it with Justin. Just goes to prove that for every Mr. Darcy like Opinion, there is a Mr. Collins like Justin 😉

  12. It is a nice day out there. My kind of weather! Mr. Darcy rules!

  13. Oscar is a keeper! He’s my buddy when I pick up trash in the neighborhood. Two bags this morning.

    I saw the WaPo endorsed Rishell, Nichols and Torian in their editorial today.

  14. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Moon, I don’t think you’d have to ban my avatar…..it’s just me “stacking out” in my younger days!

  15. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Oops, forgot to change back!

  16. Let’s go with the cartoon character, Slow. The real Slowpoke wouldn’t do that.

  17. WaPo’s endorsements:

    District 50: The incumbent, Republican Jackson H. Miller, is a Prince William County police officer who won election two years ago mainly by insisting he’d be tough on illegal immigrants. Once in Richmond, he mostly dropped the subject and, showing a moderate streak, focused on other issues. His opponent, Democrat Jeanette M. Rishell, is a smart civic activist who is more likely to be effective in the upcoming funding battles for education and transportation.

    District 51: Paul F. Nichols, a Democrat, is a freshman incumbent. A plain-spoken lawyer and small-business owner, he has pressed for extending Metro to Prince William. He’s a better bet than his Republican opponent, Richard L. Anderson, a recently retired Air Force officer.

    District 52: The Democratic candidate for this open seat, Luke Torian, is the minister of a church whose membership and civic engagement has blossomed under his leadership. That has given Mr. Torian broad experience with immigrants, pregnant teens and low-income families and would give him a valuable perspective as a state lawmaker. The Republican candidate, Rafael Lopez, is a decent former member of the Dumfries Town Council, but he hardly offers fresh thinking.

  18. WaPo for the 13th:

    District 13: In what is possibly the state’s fastest-growing and most-populous district, Del. Robert G. Marshall has distinguished himself by standing still; he remains the author of off-the-wall legislative antics that even members of his own Republican Party regard as clownish. In addition to making hay with wedge social issues (like trying to outlaw in vitro fertilization), he has also done his best to impede transportation funding proposals that would benefit his own district.

    An infinitely better choice is John Bell, a sober, sane Democrat who has extensive budgetary expertise from years spent as a finance officer for the Air Force. He would bring practical and managerial expertise to a job that Mr. Marshall has treated as a pulpit for his pet peeves.

  19. @Emma
    Duh. I knew that. I’ve been sick and in a haze all week.

    Anyway, nice pic.

  20. Emma

    Read Emma. So much fun, and it will make you feel better.

  21. kelly3406

    Thank you for getting my comment out of moderation, M-H.

    Regarding WaPo’s endorsements, the newspaper could have saved a lot of time and space by simply stating “we endorse all democrats in every election unless, perhaps, the democrat is guilty of a felony, the felony can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, AND the republican is not a conservative.”

  22. You are more than welcome, Kelly. 3 is the magic number. If you need to do links, just do them one at a time. That should avoid blog jail. Now we can see behind the scene again (blog software fixed), it shouldn’t matter. There will always be someone here to spring you if you holler!

    Regarding the Post endorsements, it does look like they went Democratic, at least in our area. As for the rest of the state, I didn’t pay attention.

    I was pleased with a couple of them, especially the 13th and 51st. The 13th is a standing feeling now, the past and the future. As for the 51st, I believe Mr. Nichols was harmed by his opponent. I had not one thing against Mr. Anderson until Nichol’s arrest record was released.

    Dare County, North Carolina is VERY careless about sealed and expunged records. Their carelessness kept a close family member from a job they wanted. The person was 16 at the time of the arrest and was not convicted, found guilty or any other words one wants to use. Supposedly the arrest record was expunged. HA! Not really. It hung around long enough to bite the individual in the ass. In fact, it is probably still biting, even though the person is now twice that age.

    Mr. Anderson was dead WRONG to take advantage of the carelessness of Dare County’s crappy record keeping. He should have never sent out that flyer, he should have never revealed a social security number. Dirty dirty politics.

  23. To switch avatars using gravatar.com, I had to empty my cache on my computer to make it happen when I wanted it to happen.

    From IE:

    tools/internet options/General tab/browsing history. delete button

    I don’t know if that is how to do it best, but it is what I had to do to get rid of the pink wolf.

  24. Leila

    Hum, the Post has endorsed Republicans, pretty major ones in fact. It endorsed Robert Ehrlich for Maryland gov. over Martin O’Malley, a liberal (and, heh, non-felonious) Democrat. The Post has endorsed NoVa Republicans like Frank Wolf, Tom Davis, and others. I didn’t remember all this off the top of my head, except for Wolf, who may never leave Congress! But I checked it out. And of course I was already aware that the Post inhouse editorials consistently supported the war in Iraq and other positions many liberals would have problems with.

  25. Rick Bentley

    Here’s another story (reinforcing the links kelly has already posted) that puts a “fact check” to the Obama/Pelosi line that insurance companies are the ones bleeding us. Note that medical suppliers and drug makers have more significant profit margins.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/26/fact-check-health-insurers-profits-fat/

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