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Mr Smith

Published Letters: 218
Editor's Choice: 8

Wednesday, November 12, 2008 09:37 AM

It's hard for me to have sympathy for GM

When I was younger I was one hell of a gearhead. My first car was a '65 Mustang, and my second was a '69 GTO. I'm a '70 model myself, BTW (technically '70 1/2). I've always loved American cars, but the Big Three's utter stupidity over the last ten years has been epic. Why concentrate on SUV's and big trucks when it was inevitable that oil prices would one day surge and people would abandon these behemoths? Stupid stupid stupid.

The company deserves to die for this, but I don't want tens of thousands of people to lose their jobs. Whatever money the govt gives them has to come with a billion strings attached.

By the way, I think labor has some culpability in this as well. Who better to influence the direction of the company than the unions? They should have seen this coming too.

Saturday, November 15, 2008 02:35 PM

We need an "Over-Analysis" section for Salon.

I'm curious. Does one of the editors here at Salon periodically sent out an email requesting someone find a shallow subject and over-analyze the living daylights out of it? That high school reunion article from a few weeks back was just like this: a light piece made extremely heavy by putting way way too much thought into it.

By the way, I read those lolwhatever sites all the time and I love them, but my computer got a virus from one of the "icanhascheezburger" sites a couple weeks back. It was "virtumonde" which, although I didn't have any problems this time, I've had tons of problems with in the past. Be careful.

Thursday, November 20, 2008 08:48 AM

You are such a thug, Mr. Leonard.

I frequently feel victimized by your insightful writing. Shame on you!

Friday, November 21, 2008 03:07 PM
Original article: Take that, HHS!

My wife had a good solution to this mess.

If she were in a healthcare-providing position, she would say that because it is against her principles, she will refuse service to any Republicans who are in need.

Friday, November 21, 2008 04:01 PM

No ADHD kids need apply!

Read that "Meeting for Worship" link and see how tortuous that must be for hyper kids! I, myself, would have probably started pounding my head on the floor after five minutes.

Saturday, November 22, 2008 09:54 AM

Necessary but not sufficient?

I was going to comment on the fact that it seems every prostitute has to be portrayed as emotionally scarred somehow. Can't a well-adjusted (whatever that is) person become a prostitute too?

But now I think of it in a different way. Maybe the rule that our personal traumas determine our career choices is universal. Therefore I'd like to see in-depth reporting on how people's emotional development causes them to become garbage men and data-entry specialists. Why should prostitutes get all the press?

Sunday, November 23, 2008 06:26 PM

One big flawed premise.

I think there's a bogus assumption in this article: that any candidate for a position will be turned down if he or she does not have a squeaky clean past. I mean no offense to the author of this piece, but that's the kind of polarized thinking that's screwed up this country for the past ten years. Either you're completely clean or you're unacceptably dirty. Bah.

Clearly Obama wants to know the background details to avoid any controversy, but if he chooses to bypass people with a few embarrassing blog responses then he isn't the realist that I voted for. He's being careful, and I'm glad he's careful about his decisions.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 01:58 PM
Original article: The GOP's Southern problem

No confidence intervals for correlations?

For shame! Or perhaps they were a little too wide to support your thesis?

Tuesday, December 9, 2008 09:37 AM

Such Potty Mouths

They don't kiss their children with those mouths, do they? Do they have any @#$%ing children?

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 02:13 PM

Why can't Aretha swear Obama in?

She is, by all evidence, closer to God than Warren.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 02:16 PM

Gonna miss that 4 am to 5 am booze rush!

How will the bars survive?!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 02:30 PM

Does the "Conscience" rule...

allow us to deny medical treatment intended to prolong the lives of asshole Republicans? 'Cause then I'd support it.

Monday, December 22, 2008 05:44 PM
Original article: Quote of the day

I didn't realize we liberals were so utterly COOL.

But I don't understand one thing. Does the blogging come before the child sacrifice, between the child sacrifice and the orgy, or after the orgy?

Saturday, December 27, 2008 07:42 PM
Original article: Obama talks about Hamas

Am I missing something?

Hamas launches homemade rockets into Israel, and once in a while an Israeli gets killed. However, after every rocket launch, Israel rains fiery death onto Gaza and kills dozens if not hundreds of Palestinians.

So why am I supposed consider Hamas the bad guys here? Israel's response is always amazingly over-the-top disproportionate to whatever Hamas did to them, I have no sympathy for them anymore. How many Hamas attacks do you have to aggregate to equal the 200 Palestinians killed by Israel today?

I don't expect Obama to share my views, but I do expect him to put an end to the "Israel can do whatever it wants" policy that has arisen from US's cowardice in confronting Israel.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 10:08 AM

Wait a minute

Cynthia McKinney is anti-semitic because her FATHER said those things against the Jews? Is this a typo, or has the "If you say anything bad about Israel you're anti-semitic" witchhunt really gone this far to blame the daughter for the sins of the father?

Sunday, January 4, 2009 11:10 AM

Damn!

I know a lot of NM state employees who will be very disappointed by this. They were really looking forward to Richardson leaving the state.

Sunday, January 4, 2009 02:14 PM

Go Go Greenwald!

I don't agree with everything you write, but I'm damn glad you are writing about these issues. Each of your posts is more thorough than the previous one.

My opinion: I've given up hope that any sane resolution to this situation will ever be found. I've come to accept the Israeli-Palestinian conflict like a force of nature. In the same way that violent weather and diseases will always claim lives, people will always kill each other in the Middle East. It's been happening since before I was born, and it will happen long after I die, perhaps going on forever.

Palestinians win by surviving, and Israel loses by killing innocents. If Israel sees violence as the only solution, then they should be prepared to take it to the logical conclusion and kill everyone in the Gaza strip. As long as one person survives, there will be resistance which Israel will interpret as terrorism.

Monday, January 5, 2009 11:57 AM
Original article: Richardson speaks

Verrrrry Suspicious...

The way he's acting like an innocent man just proves that he's guilty!

By the way, I don't know if Richardson has a lawyer, but he has a personal trainer. I kid you not!

Monday, January 5, 2009 05:15 PM

Maybe he's been going to therapy to kick the 9/11 habit.

Or maybe he's changed his middle name to "9/11" so he doesn't need to repeat himself anymore.

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