Daily Open Comment Thread
by David Benzion · 09/30/2005 12:01 amWell, by and large folks seem to have comported themselves reasonably well under the new "comments directly under the post" system, so I feel comfortable moving forward with the next stage in LST-bloggy freedom– a daily, open comments thread.
Feel free to hang out here all day long, sharing your thoughts with other LST readers. Be advised that we reserve the right to capriciously and brutally censor anything that appears here, for any reason.
In fact, I may occasionally go in and delete a comment for no reason whatsoever just to keep folks off balance, and thus wary of revolt.
A couple of ground rules and guidelines:
- Do not feed the trolls.
- Comments that appear on LST should be assumed to represent only the opinions of the person leaving the comment. "Moderation" of comments on LST occurs "after the fact" and on an ad hoc basis– in other words when and if we get around to it.
- We will try to delete anything obscene, offensive, defamatory or libelous as quickly as possible, but don’t assume that just because a comment appears on the site it has been reviewed by an LST staffer.
- Please feel free to alert us at lsteditors@gmail.com if you think a comment is inappropriate, or a user needs to be asked to leave against their will.
- Open comment threads are the "intellectual bathhouses" of the Internet– don’t go wandering around inside if you aren’t willing to at least risk seeing something nasty.
- Long-time LST reader and participant "Squawkbox" has been empowered to delete inappropriate comments and banish uncooperative users as he sees fit. I suggest everyone start being very nice to him.
- Now that you have space to "play" in, please keep the comments made on other posts focused directly on the subject of that post.
- If LST were a movie, it would be rated "PG-16". Not exactly for kids, but not Sundance Film Festival material either. Blatant obscenity won’t be tolerated at all; if you feel you must add a little "salt", have the freakin decency to tweak it a bit, or your arse is grarse.
- Zero-tolerance for racism, or even anything that I suspect is motivated by ethnic animus. If you have to wonder if an opinion you want to express crosses the line, assume that it does.
- Dissenting opinions are welcome; disagreeable people are not.
POSTING A COMMENT IN ALL CAPS IS A SURE-FIRE WAY TO GET BANNED FROM THE SITE.- Don’t link to anything that wouldn’t be appropriate for actual posting on LST.
- For that matter, keep the links in comments real, real rare. If you have so many things that you just have to share with the world by linking to them, perhaps that is a sign that you need to go out and start your own blog.
- People pushing an agenda too frequently, whether political or personal, will be uninvited. You know who you are.
- Like Ronald Reagan, I’m paying for this microphone– so feel free to disagree with us and express your opinion passionately, but don’t expect me to allow you to bash, harass, or attempt to embarrass or harm either myself, other LST contributors, Dan, Edd, KSEV, or our advertisers.
And finally, always keep the LGF Prayer foremost in your mind:
Oh lord, grant me the serenity to ignore the trolls, the courage to debate with honest opponents, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Amen.
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Is this the Daily Open Comment Thread?
As seen on Drudge…
“HUD chief foresees a ‘whiter’ Big Easy”
“Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development… said New Orleans would not reach its pre-Katrina population of “500,000 people for a long time,” and “it’s not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again.” ”
“…the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, charged that relocating evacuees across the country was “racist” and designed to move black people, who overwhelmingly vote Democratic, out of Louisiana.”
Shouldn’t the Dems be glad that the red state of Texas was just inundated by blue people?
Squawky,
I fear that I am guilty of feeding a troll. Ref. my exchanges with Feagan. I take full responsibility for my actions. However, in the course of those exchanges, I did make a promise to post a link to my response, as it would have been too lengthy for posting in blog format. I realize that posting links too frequently is a no-no, but would it be OK if I posted my response link on one of the upcoming daily threads? I promise to not abuse the priveledge. I accept your decision either way.
I’m game David.
Tallyho…
In a previous post concerning the Chronicle ad for METRO.
+++++++++
Catch the bus: Don’t drive yourself broke and crazy fighting traffic and coughing up all that dough for gas — save time and energy, catch a ride
———-
If the above statement were TRUE, we’d see politicians like Mayor Bill White, as well as all the other limousine Liberals and Houston’s wealthy Plutocracy riding the METRO bus and/or tram often.
Time is money, and most of the greedy downtown crowd would squeeze a nickle until the buffalo bellowed; therefore, since they do not, then the METRO/Houston Chronicle claim that the bus or tram will save you time and money is FALSE!
Further, in reply to the “Smart Growth” N.U.T.S. (New Urban Transit Supporters) who want to squander our tax money to build extensions to the Wham-Bam-Ram Tram:
“Busses run rings around urban rail!”
I like the new format but I did miss the crazyiness, the ebb and flow, of the old system. I think this ought to be fun.
WIll there be a permanent link, to the Daily Open Comment Thread, on the main page?
A permanent link to the Daily Open Comment Thread on the main page would be a good thing.
I will not feed trolls.
I will not feed trolls.
I will not feed trolls.
I will not feed trolls.
I will not feed trolls.
OK - I think I am ready now…
Never mind my question (#2) above. I’ve answered it for myself. I’m a bit slow for a smart guy sometimes.
Kudos on the progression to the open thread format.
We in the North Texas area, specifically Dallas went thru and are still going thru the growing pain of mass transit known as DART. The rail is good but is specifically targeted to get you downtown and as far south as the VA hospital. It is not designed to get you quickly to the airport or easily from point A to B if you live in the northern suburbs. It does not go up 35 toward the burbs.
I live in Plano, I work in Irving, 28 miles each way. If I absolutely had to ride the bus it would take me 3.5 hours each way with 4 transfers and cost about the same amount as does the fuel I use in a pickup.
The HOV lane is an empty joke, with more HOV cops than people using it. I have always maintained it should be for Heavy Oversized Vehicles. Get the 18 wheelers out of the traffic mix and that would ease the load. Now, I see this as do others so why doesn’t TXDOT?
Benzion,
In general, I agree wholeheartedly with your comment rules….except for the one about keeping links “real, real rare”.
One of the biggest problems with the debates that occurr in comments is that people tend to spout off about this “fact” or that “fact” and never show their work! Some people assume that everyone else is just supposed to believe their “facts” because they believe them.
Linking to source material to buttress your argument is always a good thing, as long as not done excessively.
Mike Martin and jimb,
Feeding trolls will not be tolerated. You will be forced to do penance.
I should be whipped, flogged, beaten… oh wait… that’s that other site I visit, nevermind.
Speaking of trolls, and buses. Disband METRO and give it to the tollroad authority. Their managment has typically been pretty good.
I can see it now - my penance will be the “404 not found” curse…
In response to #9 David Johnson:
Good point; links to document and back-up a crafted opinion being expressed by an LST reader are fine; I just want to discourage “sub-leasing” a comments thread into what amounts to one individual’s mini-blog.
Has anyone seen info on the E.U.’s call to have shared control of the internet? Apparently, there was a call in a U.N. meeting to this effect, which was promptly rejected by the United States. The E.U. seems to think that available internet resources should be shared equally by the entire world, despite the United States being the primary developer of the internet. Sounds sort of like a digital Robin Hood type deal. Google “EU control of internet” if you’re interested.
Give the E.U. Al Gore’s contact info.
Yeah, Algore would probably give them the nod on this one, provided they paid him royalties. The scary thing is the thought of a more liberal mindset in our government cowing down to this sort of nonsense. Can’t you just imagine the censorship? It would start out slowly, in the interest of blocking out racism, etc. Then one day you would find yourself stifled in your expression of sentiments that differed from the “governing body” of the U.N. or anything else these twits didn’t want to hear.
Why did diesel go up $1 a gallon? Did Rita hit the diesel rigs?
This is why the gas milage thing wont work with the automakers. They have done a good job with diesel engines and they are getting popular because of the increased milage over gas engines. So as a reward for these people to spend the extra money Big Oil raises the price on diesel to more than gas. Great going guys.
Gregg, I don’t know what the deal is with diesel. It seems like diesel prices are all over the board, much more so than gas prices.
Some places, diesel is more than gas, some places it’s less. Today I saw about a 40-cent variance in diesel prices just on my side of town.
EU Internet article:
http://www.itworld.com/Man/3827/050930euirksus/
Of course, to some folks this is akin to black helicopters on the horizon. I wonder how many sites they’ve visit that are hosted in the EU. More than one I’ll bet.
And given our current “war on terror,” whose to say WE won’t be the ones attempting to impose censorship on the net at some point.
America Firsters need to get over themselves.
We’re all owned by Asian investors anyway.
Who is to say we won’t be the ones censoring the internet? I agree that is indeed a possibility. But as of now, not true. I trust us more than them on this.
Am I an America Firster? Probably so, but if I need to get over myself, then I suspect many others do as well. Not that I’m an extensive world traveler or anything, but the time I have spent outside America has convinced me that there are very few other places in the world I would choose to live.
Sites I’ve visited hosted in the EU? Certainly some, but nowhere near the number hosted right here at home.
Asian investors? Again, some, but having worked for a US representative of Mitsubishi in the early ’90s, I can tell you the Japanese have seen their financial glory days here come and go.
What happened to the Wal-Mart commercials talking about the American companies they used for goods and how they saved them and the employees? Hmm, me thinks Wallyworld is saving business’s and employees in China.
Is Asia’s hold over US bonds waning? Hardly. China is still the second-biggest holder of Treasuries with more than US$243 billion (HK$1.9 trillion) at the end of June, up from US$165 billion a year earlier. Japan is the largest with US$680 billion. Add in Asia’s other central banks and the region’s Treasury holdings are about US$1.2 trillion.
Any broad move by Asia to trim those holdings would certainly hurt the US economy by driving up borrowing costs. The United States, it’s often said, has built a huge and productive economy, but Asia holds the mortgage.
Link to full article:
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Opinion/GH23Df01.html
Good article doc. It does make me quite a bit less sure of what I stated above, but another section of the article I found interesting was this:
Last week, a group of investors, led by Royal Bank of Scotland and Merrill Lynch, agreed to pay US$3.1 billion for 10 percent of Bank of China, the second-largest lender in the world’s most-populous nation. Investors hope China’s financial system isn’t as rickety as many fear.
While this is in no way says the US is financially in the clear, it does make me realize that the mortgage works in both directions here, albeit much more weighted towards the Chinese in terms of dollar amounts.
Slightly OT, but I remember reading a hypothesis a few years back that the nations to the east (China, Japan, India, etc.) would be the world powers of the future due to their sheer numbers (population). I wish I could remember a source for this. What are your thoughts on that?
My “big picture” view on this is it is a very good illustation of the interdependence of global capital markets and of nations generally. That’s why I take such umbrage at America Firsters; they are wearing blinkers about how connected we are, and how dependent on those connections we have become. That’s why its vital that we project a sense of respect for other nations on the world stage. Over the last five years we have done the opposite. And that started before 911. We seem to have lost sight of the fact that chickens have an indefatigable habit of coming home to roost.
On the population issue; as India and China grow, their economic might will grow too. We either get with the program and cooperate, or we stand apart. If we stand apart, eventually, we will truly be standing alone. And we might well be broke too.